Maine

I just got back from a week-long vacation with my wife and son. We were in Acadia National Park in Maine.

On our second day in the park, I noticed something unusual outside of the Hulls Cove Visitor Center: Three Jehovah’s Witnesses were standing outside the center on a patch of grass offering people religious literature. Among them was a magazine explaining the Witnesses’ creationist view of how the world came into being.

Maine’s controversial Gov. Paul LePage (R) may have appointed a creationist to serve as the state’s acting education commissioner. Dr. William Beardsley is the former president of Bangor-based Husson University and is considered a close associate of LePage. The governor’s administration announced the appointment yesterday.

Beardsley’s academic credentials aren’t in doubt. His understanding of basic science is less certain: He expressed unequivocal support for teaching creationism during his unsuccessful 2010 bid to become the Republican nominee for governor.

As many of you know, the U.S. Supreme Court decided last week that it will hear an appeal of an Americans United case challenging Christian prayers before meetings of the Greece, N.Y., Town Board.

Travel back in time with me for a moment. It’s 1956, and we’re in the Deep South. An interracial couple approaches the county clerk to apply for a marriage license. The clerk says, “Oh, no! Don’t you know that the Bible mandates separation of the races? I refuse to give you a license because it violates my religious beliefs.”

It appears Cyprus is to the Middle East what Las Vegas is to the United States.

Well, sort of. Just as Sin City has become the destination for many American nuptials, Cyprus apparently has a booming wedding industry as well – but for a completely different reason.