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Northern Ireland’s Rainbow Project this morning announced on Facebook that their clients’ same-sex marriage ban challenge will be heard on December 3rd. According to a poll released in July, 68% of the Northern Irish public now supports same-sex marriage, an even greater number than the 62% that voted “yes” in Ireland’s national referendum. The highest support comes from Catholics, 75% …

Mediaite recaps: Maddow suggested that since none of the remaining candidates may be able to get 218 votes and the chances of conservatives compromising is low, she suggested either Nancy Reagan or Ted Cruz or the Duck Dynasty guy or even returning champion Newt Gingrich because apparently that’s a thing now. But then she warned about the “ominous” option: what …

Move over Brian Brown, Donald Trump says that HE is the reason for for Kevin McCarthy’s unexpected withdrawal from the House Speaker race. Because of course. Business Insider reports: Trump, the Republican front-runner, said McCarthy made the right decision because he wasn’t tough enough. “Great, Kevin McCarthy drops out of SPEAKER race. We need a really smart and really tough …

At a hastily organized press conference, Rep. Kevin McCarthy today conceded that he has dropped out of the House Speaker race partially due to his accidentally telling the truth about the Benghazi investigation. In so many words, that is. Rachel Maddow will be tickled that McCarthy had one of his famous mouth-fumbling moments right off the bat. Watch below.

Murdoch’s tweet is not going over well. CNN reports: Murdoch’s use of the word “real” flabbergasted many online onlookers, some of whom concluded that the media mogul was questioning Obama’s race and identity. Obama, the first black president of the United States, has also been dogged by false accusations that he isn’t a U.S. citizen. What did Murdoch mean? “We …

Rep. Alan Grayson has filed a House ethics complaint against Republicans Kevin McCarthy and Trey Gowdy over the never-ending Benghazi investigation. Via The Hill: “The Benghazi Committee has been a political dog-and-pony show for its entire 17-month history,” Grayson said in a statement. “It has been clear even to casual observers that the purpose of the committee was never to …

The Daily Mail sets up the clip which has gotten nearly 2 million views overnight: A drunk University of Connecticut student was arrested after he repeatedly refused to leave a cafeteria until he got some mac and cheese. But not just any mac and cheese – bacon jalapeno mac and cheese. Luke Gatti, 19, from Bayville, New York, was filmed …

In Italian priest has been suspended from his parish after telling a live TV audience that he can understand pedophilia because it’s caused by “affection seeking” children. Homosexuality, he went on to say, is just a sinful disease. The Independent reports: Don Gino Flaim, 75, of the diocese of Trento in Northern Italy, has been removed from his position and …

Tomorrow House Republicans will meet behind closed doors to select their nominee to succeed Speaker John Boehner. The full House will vote on October 29th, but observers note that none of the declared candidates, at the moment, likely have the 218 votes needed to win. If no candidate reaches that threshold, Boehner would remain Speaker despite his plan to resign. …

So this happened in Boston: It’s nothing personal, says Ben Ewen-Campen, he just doesn’t think French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir is much of a painter. Monday, the Harvard postdoc joined some like-minded aesthetes for a playful protest outside the Museum of Fine Arts. The rally, which mostly bewildered passersby, was organized by Max Geller, creator of the Instagram account Renoir Sucks …

Mediaite recaps last night’s show: “Perhaps the clearest sign of how little we want to talk about mental health is that one of the only times it’s brought up is, as we’ve seen yet again this week, in the aftermath of a mass shooting, as a means of steering the conversation away from gun control,” Oliver said. After playing clips …

One of the first things Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) did after being elected was to introduce a House bill that would have overturned same-sex marriage in Washington DC. Now he wants John Boehner’s job. The Hill reports: The Utah Republican’s late entry into the race to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has changed the dynamic of the contest. Before Chaffetz …

As the Liberty Counsel’s web of lies spectacularly implodes this morning, props are being given to Esquire writer Charles Pierce, who yesterday speculated that enemies of Pope Francis conspired to insert Kim Davis into a receiving line of others scheduled to meet him. Scott Kaufman writes at Salon: Pierce wrote that we must “stipulate that there are more than a …

“We hardly know any of the details about this horrific tragedy – What kind of gun was used? How did the shooter obtain it? What is the motive? Does the shooter have a history of mental illness? Was this an act of terror? With few facts, Obama is quick to admittedly politicize this tragedy to advance his liberal, anti-gun agenda. …

It now looks like the East Coast will dodge a direct hit. Via AccuWeather: Flooding from Hurricane Joaquin will impact areas from South Carolina to Massachusetts even though the hurricane is unlikely to make landfall in the United States. People should not let their guard down due to a shifting track of the hurricane as the risk to lives and …

Authorities have identified the Oregon shooter as 26 year-old Chris Harper Mercer, who was not a student at the college. In an online dating profile Mercer reportedly described himself as a mixed-race “conservative Republican” who was “not religious, but spiritual.” Shortly after the August on-camera murder of two Virginia journalists, Mercer wrote a blog post in which he expressed admiration for …

Oregon Live reports: The shooter at Umpqua Community College on Thursday asked people to state their religion and then started firing, one student said. Kortney Moore, an 18-year-old, told the News Review she was sitting in her writing class when a bullet blasted through the window. She saw her teacher shot in the head then noticed that the shooter was …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu punctuated his denouncement of the “utter silence” over the Iran deal today by glaring wordlessly at members of the United Nation General Assembly for nearly a full minute. Reaction to the ploy has ranged from “chilling” to “creepy” to “intimidating.” Watch below.

Via CNN: Preliminary information indicates 10 people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College on Thursday, said Oregon State Police spokesman Bill Fugate. Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice told CNN that the shooter is in custody. It was not immediately clear whether the shooter was injured. ATF agents were on the …

The Washington Post calls this a “terrifying concept.” They write: You can already rate restaurants, hotels, movies, college classes, government agencies and bowel movements online. So the most surprising thing about Peeple — basically Yelp, but for humans — may be the fact that no one has yet had the gall to launch something like it. When the app does …