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The First Lady will be featuring an empty chair as one of her guests for the State of the Union speech tonight. (It’s really rather crass to be stealing ideas from Clint Eastwood, isn’t it, Madam?) The empty chair will be joined by Syrian refugee Refaai Hamo, Paris train attack hero Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, Ryan Reyes (whose boyfriend died at San Bernardino) and Satya Nadella.But it’s not just Obama cheerleaders in the crowd. As the Hill reports, one guest will be from a decidedly different camp. The Kentucky clerk briefly jailed last year for refusing to hand out...

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on Wednesday said state probate judges remain under a court order to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples even though a US. Supreme Court decision effectively legalized same-sex marriage more than six months ago. The outspoken chief justice, who previously tried to block gay marriage from coming to the Deep South state, issued an administrative order saying the Alabama Supreme Court never lifted a March directive to probate judges to refuse licenses to gay couples. "Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders ... that Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty...

Defying history, the law, and common sense, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has issued an order prohibiting Alabama probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Those judges now face a choice between disobeying the law of the land and disobeying their boss. Moore issued his law not as chief justice, but in his administrative role as head of the Alabama court system. This is not Justice Moore's first Hail Mary in the lost cause against gay marriage -- and he's not alone. All over the country, activists and law professors are wasting paper on fatuous proclamations that Obergefell...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Wednesday blasted Ted Cruz after a POLITICO report quoted the Texas senator telling a donor that fighting gay marriage wouldn't be a "top-three priority" for his administration. "Conservatives are being asked to 'coalesce' around yet another corporately-funded candidate that says something very different at a big donor fundraiser in Manhattan than at a church in Marshalltown," Huckabee said in a statement released by his campaign Wednesday afternoon. "Shouldn't a candidate be expected to have authenticity and consistency, instead of having to look at a map to decide what to believe and what to say?"...

“Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.” – Nathaniel HawthorneI am profoundly disheartened by Mike Huckabee’s behavior. I was a supporter of his in 2008 because he was clearly the more conservative alternative to John McCain, but a short eight years later, he’s let me down–not because he’s polling at a paltry 1.8%, but because he was willfully dishonest when asked about a recent attack on a fellow candidate.A Super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee recently ran an ad that quotes Ted Cruz at a Manhattan fundraiser. The precisely edited clip makes it appear as though Cruz isn’t...

Back in 2008 on the day of the Iowa caucus, when I was reporting on my first election for Townhall.com, I happened to be grabbing lunch in the same hole-in-the-wall restaurant as then-Huckabee National Campaign Advisor Ed Rollins. He sat in the cafe loudly trash talking the Romney campaign to any reporter he could call on his cell phone. Expletives and insults flew. Anyone sitting in the eatery could hear him. I, stunned any known operative would be so foolish to speak in such a way in a public place, wrote it up as an item. These are the same...

Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin gave Kim Davis and all the other county clerks in the state a "wonderful Christmas gift" by protecting their religious rights and freedom. Bevin issued an executive order two weeks after taking office that removes the names of all county clerks from marriage licenses issued in Kentucky. Staver said that will enable Davis and all other county clerks to do their jobs — issue marriage licenses to everyone, including same-sex couples — without compromising their religious principles. Davis vaulted from her little county clerk's office in...

I’ve never quite understood either the appeal of Mike Huckabee as a national candidate or why Mike Huckabee thinks of himself as a national candidate but, for the second time Governor Huckabee has made a bid to become the GOP’s nominee for president. In 2008, he made a creditable run in the early states but dropped out in March when it became apparent that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 48% would win Texas and the nomination. Huckabee had hoped to reprise his 2008 campaign this year but has been frustrated by one man: Ted Cruz. Cruz won the endorsement of Iowa...

This morning the Politico came out swinging at Ted Cruz with the headline “What Ted Cruz said behind closed doors” as if to suggest it would be different from what he says publicly: In June, Ted Cruz promised on NPR that opposition to gay marriage would be "front and center" in his 2016 campaign.In July, he said the Supreme Court's decision allowing same-sex marriage was the "very definition of tyranny" and urged states to ignore the ruling.But in December, behind closed doors at a big-dollar Manhattan fundraiser, the quickly ascending presidential candidate assured a Republican gay-rights supporter that a Cruz...

After that audio of Cruz questioning Trump’s judgment at a private fundraiser leaked a few weeks ago, Mike Allen of Politico promised more was coming. Promise kept. Here’s how he answered when someone stood up at a fundraiser in Manhattan on December 9th and told him he agreed with him on nearly everything — except gay marriage. What sort of priority would the fight against SSM be for President Cruz, he asked? The exchange: Cruz: “My view on gay marriage is that I’m a constitutionalist and marriage is a question for the states. And so I think if someone wants...

After that audio of Cruz questioning Trump’s judgment at a private fundraiser leaked a few weeks ago, Mike Allen of Politico promised more was coming. Promise kept.Here’s how he answered when someone stood up at a fundraiser in Manhattan on December 9th and told him he agreed with him on nearly everything — except gay marriage. What sort of priority would the fight against SSM be for President Cruz, he asked? The exchange: Cruz: "My view on gay marriage is that I’m a constitutionalist and marriage is a question for the states. And so I think if someone wants...

Senator Ted Cruz, ascending in state and national polls on the strength of social conservative support, won two more endorsements on Wednesday, including the backing of the National Organization for Marriage. The group, central in legal fights against same-sex marriage, called Mr. Cruz “a proven champion for marriage and religious freedom and someone we can absolutely count on to fight to restore marriage to our nation’s laws.” Mr. Cruz, the Texas senator, also received the support of Richard A. Viguerie, a longtime conservative activist who, in 2012, supported former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the Iowa caucus winner....

A Milton Catholic girls’ school and a gay Dorchester man are in a legal fight in Norfolk Superior Court over religious freedom vs. sex discrimination after a job offer was rescinded when he revealed he is married to a man.

Gay "Marriage": Alabama Fights Against Judicial Activism from the U.S. Supreme Court By Julio Severo The U.S. Supreme Court created homosexual "marriage" for Americans, virtually imposing this fake marriage and real gay tyranny on America last June. And, as Franklin Graham said about Obama's reaction to this creation, "Right after the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage, he had the gall to disgrace the White House by lighting it up with the gay pride rainbow colors to celebrate. This is arrogantly flaunting sinful behavior in the face of Almighty God.' Graham is the president of the Billy Graham...

Agence France-Presse in Kano Wednesday 18 November 2015 15.37 EST Last modified on Thursday 19 November 2015 04.02 EST Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Shares 4,576 Save for later At least 15 people have been killed after two female suicide bombers, one said to be aged as young as 11, blew themselves up at a busy mobile phone market in north-east Nigeria, a day after more than 30 were killed in a bomb blast. Two explosions ripped through the Farm Centre market in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano, shortly after 4pm on Wednesday. One of the...

How to Discuss Same-Sex “Marriage” With Dissenting Family Members Msgr. Charles Pope • November 15, 2015 • I was out on the preaching circuit this past week and spoke at five parishes (including my own) on the biblical vision of Holy Matrimony (marriage) as set forth by God and the Church. The talks were sponsored by the pro-life group Defend Life.While I cannot succinctly reproduce the talk in today's blog, I spoke from notes that are available here and here. A video of one of the talks will be posted soon.I heard a consistent concern voiced by those in attendance...

Kim Davis and other county officials in Kentucky should not have to worry about violating their religious conscience by performing official duties much longer. Less than a week after the title "governor-elect" was added to his name, Kentucky Republican Matt Bevin announced he would make sure that Davis and other county officials who don't want to sign gay marriage licenses would no longer have to put their names on the documents. Davis couldn't be happier. "I am ecstatic. He is such a genuine and caring person. I will be forever thankful that he came to visit me while I was...

Former President George H.W. Bush has moderated his views on same-sex marriage since seeking the White House, according to a new biography. Bush said in his audio diary before his 1988 presidential campaign that Americans "didn't want same-sex marriage codified," according to The New York Times. But after he served as an official witness at a 2013 same-sex wedding, he sent his biographer, Jon Meacham, a note to clarify that his views had changed....

LOUISVILLE (Reuters) - Kentucky Governor-elect Matt Bevin said on Friday that when he takes office in December he will order changes to the state marriage license form to appease clerks who have objected to issuing licenses to same-sex couples. "One thing I will take care of right away is we will remove the names of the county clerks from the marriage form," Bevin told reporters in the Capitol rotunda. Bevin, only the second Republican elected governor in Kentucky since 1971, said he would make the change by executive order. It is unclear what impact his order would have on the...

Making history on Monday a majority of Northern Ireland's Assembly members voted in favor of same-sex marriage for the first time. But the motion was immediately blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who submitted a "petition of concern" requiring that the proposal achieve a cross-community majority to pass, effectively vetoing it. Forty one nationalists backed the proposal, but it was approved by only four unionists, ensuring it fell. It was the fifth time same-sex marriage was voted on by the assembly, with the four previous votes falling on a simple majority basis. ...