Just when you thought that politics could not get more trivial in the US, we reach new lows. The decision by president Obama to officially have the traditional name Denali become the official name of the mountain in Alaska that had been called Mt. McKinley should have been a minor news item, relegated to one paragraph in most newspapers except perhaps in Alaska.
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In cricket, there are eleven ways in which a batter’s innings can end of which five are common (bowled, caught, stumped, run out, and leg before wicket). Five others (hit wicket, hit the ball twice, handled the ball, timed out, obstructing the field) are much rarer and I have never seen such an out in all the matches that I have watched live. The eleventh is where the batter leaves the field voluntarily or due to injury or some other reason without getting out by one of the other ten ways and this is referred to as ‘retired’.
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You would think that the fanatical anti-gay group known as the Westboro Baptist Church would be the strongest supporters of Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, now in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses because of her opposition to same-sex marriages.
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Here’s a question for knowledgeable baseball fans. Cricket and baseball are similar in many features but there is one difference that puzzles me. In cricket, as in baseball, a batter gets out if he hits the ball and a fielder catches it before it hits the ground. In cricket, a common way this happens is if the batter is ‘caught behind’, i.e., touches the ball with the bat or glove and the fielder directly behind him (known as the wicket keeper) catches it.
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What does it say when the people who attend the elite West Point military academy from which the nation’s future military leaders will emerge do not have the sense to not indulge in what can only be described as pointless and dangerous acts of incredible foolishness?
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The Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Center for Inquiry holds its biennial Humanism Banquet on Friday, October 2, 2015 from 7:00-10:00 pm at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Cleveland suburb of Independence. The guest speaker will be Vyckie Garrison who was once part of the Quiverfull Movement, a Christian fundamentalist group that shuns contraception and believes that it is god who opens and shuts a woman’s womb, which must keep him/her/it pretty busy. The movement encourages families to have vast numbers of children in order to create an army for god and they believe that god would not let families have more children than they can handle.
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The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll is reputedly one of the most respected ones and is referred to as the gold standard for that state and its latest one is a nightmare for Republicans and encouraging for Bernie Sanders, with Sanders closing the gap with Hillary Clinton 37%-30%.
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It turns out that carbon dating methods used on fragments of an old copy of the Koran puts its date as possibly before the time of prophet Mohammed.
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And so it came to pass that same-sex couples received marriage licenses this morning from the Rowan County clerk’s office.
A gay couple emerged from the office of a defiant county clerk with a marriage license in hand Friday morning, embracing and crying after a lengthy standoff that landed the clerk in jail for her refusal to issue the licenses because she opposed same-sex marriage.
William Smith Jr. and James Yates, a couple for nearly a decade, were the first to receive a marriage license Friday morning in Rowan County. Deputy clerk Brian Mason issued the license, congratulating the couple and shaking their hands as he smiled. After the couple paid the license fee of $35.50, James Yates rushed across the steps of the courthouse to hug his mom as both cried.
A crowd of supporters cheered outside as the couple left, with a street preacher raining down words of condemnation. Yates and Smith said they are trying to choose between two wedding dates and plan a small ceremony.
Five of the six deputy clerks in the Rowan County clerk’s office decided that issuing marriage licenses to all who are legally entitled to them is perhaps not such a bad idea since David Bunning, the federal judge overseeing the case, told them that their only other option is to join Kim Davis is federal custody for contempt. Interestingly, and I am not sure why this was not more widely known before today, the sixth deputy who is still holding out happens to be her own son Nathan Davis. While a touching sign if filial loyalty, this also smacks of nepotism.
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