Random Politics & Religion #00

What factors are you guys considering when determining how the economy is doing?

A multitude, maybe we should inquire with a sorcerer.

A multitude, maybe we should inquire with an economist.

The key problem there being that not all economists agree with each other because they may prefer different metrics.

The key problem there being that not all economists agree with each other because they may prefer different metrics.

Oh look, Jassik's thinks he knows economics better than any actual economist who disagrees with him. Round of applause, everyone.

So basically the economy is doing great, except for the people in it.

The key problem there being that not all economists agree with each other because they may prefer different metrics.

GRAYSON, Ky. — After five days behind bars, county clerk Kim Davis was ordered released from jail Tuesday by the judge who locked her up for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning lifted the contempt order against Davis, saying he was satisfied that her deputies are fulfilling their obligation to grant licenses to same-sex couples in her absence. But he warned Davis not to interfere with them.

The move came down just before Davis was to receive jailhouse visits from presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. Dozens of her had supporters gathered on the jailhouse lawn for what they called a rally for religious freedom.

Davis was thrown in jail on Thursday, becoming a hero among religious conservatives for the boldest act of resistance by a public official yet to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that effectively legalized gay marriage across the nation.


9, 2015 photo taken by Utah state firefighter Eli Peterson shows a firefighting plane making dropping retardant over a fire in Owyhee County, Idaho. Some of the most stunning images of wildfires laying waste to the Western landscape are being captured and posted online by the men and women sent to tame them. But fire officials, who say they’ve seen an uptick in such social media posts, warn that the act of focusing on a handheld screen can be deadly when crews are surrounded by danger. (Eli Peterson via AP)
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GRAYSON, Ky. — After five days behind bars, county clerk Kim Davis was ordered released from jail Tuesday by the judge who locked her up for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning lifted the contempt order against Davis, saying he was satisfied that her deputies are fulfilling their obligation to grant licenses to same-sex couples in her absence. But he warned Davis not to interfere with them.

The move came down just before Davis was to receive jailhouse visits from presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. Dozens of her had supporters gathered on the jailhouse lawn for what they called a rally for religious freedom.

Davis was thrown in jail on Thursday, becoming a hero among religious conservatives for the boldest act of resistance by a public official yet to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that effectively legalized gay marriage across the nation.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, talks with David Moore following her office's refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. Although her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, Davis still refuses to issue marriage licenses. Timothy D. Easley/AP© Timothy D. Easley/AP Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, talks with David Moore following her office's refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky., Tuesday, Sept. 1… Outside the jail where Davis was held, word spread slowly through a crowd of supporters in the afternoon, and some said they couldn't believe the news.

In lifting the contempt order, Bunning asked for updates on the five deputy clerks' compliance every two weeks.

Davis, an apostolic Christian, says that gay marriage is a sin and that it would be against her conscience to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

Davis' jailing has offered some of the many GOP presidential candidates an opportunity to appeal to the party's evangelical Christian wing, which opposes same-sex marriage and casts Davis' imprisonment as an issue of religious freedom.

On Monday, Davis's lawyers took their case to a federal appeals court, asking that Davis be allowed to remove her name and title from marriage certificates issued in Rowan County so that she would not have to act against her conscience.

Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in June the day after the Supreme Court ruled that gay couples have the right under the U.S. Constitution to marry.

Two gay couples and two heterosexual couples sued her. Bunning ordered Davis to issue the licenses, and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling. But she still refused, and was held in contempt of court and sent to jail.

Her deputy clerks — except for her son, Nathan Davis — then began issuing licenses to gay couples with Davis behind bars.

There really needs to be written into law somewhere that if you're unwilling to perform vital functions of your office because of conflicting personal beliefs you can be removed from office.

Its called impeachment. They can't do it right now. The state legislature is out of session.

Blame the workers for accepting minimum wage then?

If nobody is willing to work at Walmart for 7.25 an hour, Walmart will have no choice but to offer 8.00 an hour. If nobody is willing to work at Walmart for 8.00 an hour, the price keeps increasing.

"Denmark AND Germany are lowering the amount of money people seeking asylum get per day but NOT Sweden. Of course they want to come to Sweden. Can't someone stand on the Öresund bridge with a machine gun?"

Proof of a world outside the US

Five men have been arrested as they attempted to cross the Bulgarian-Macedonian border with decapitation videos and Islamic State propaganda on their phones. The terrorist suspects had been posing as refugees.

Bulgarian authorities near the Gyueshevo border checkpoint detained the five men, aged between 20 and 24, late on Wednesday, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA TV reported.

The men were stopped by a border guard, who they attempted to bribe with a “wad of dollars.” However, they were searched and Islamic State propaganda, specific Jihadists prayers and decapitation videos were found on their phones.

In a move that suggests how seriously authorities are taking the case, the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security (DANS) has now taken control of the investigation under the supervision of the regional prosecutor’s office in Kyustendil.

The men chose to cross in a wooded area, local media have reported, and took a car from an accomplice who had crossed legally from Macedonia with the vehicle.

Bulgaria has recently completed a 15-foot high razor wire clad fence along 50 miles of its south-eastern border with Turkey to control the mass movement of migrants from the Middle East and Asia into Europe via the so-called Balkans route.

However, the Gyueshevo border checkpoint where the men crossed sits on Bulgaria’s western border with Macedonia. It is likely the men chose to enter there to avoid the new strict border controls on the other side of the country.

Following the recently foiled terror attack on an Amsterdam–Paris train, where the heavily armed terrorist was able to travel freely, European governments have been considering amending the Schengen border code, which eliminated systematic border controls across most of Europe.

In February, the Turkish intelligence service warned police in an internal memo that up to 3,000 trained jihadists are seeking to cross into Turkey from Syria and Iraq, who could then travel through Bulgaria and Hungry into western Europe. And in May, a Libyan government adviser warned Islamic State operatives were being “smuggled to Europe in migrant boats.”

At the time of the comments, UKIP leader Nigel Farage warned: “When ISIS say they want to flood our continent with half a million Islamic extremists they mean it, and there is nothing in this document [Common European Asylum Policy] that will stop them.

“I fear we face a direct threat to our civilisation if we allow large numbers of people from that war torn region into Europe.”

“You’re wanting people to understand and accept you — this is like, really confusing to people. And you still have a judgement about gay people and marriage,” -DeGeneres