Lrbever

Following the lead of Republicans in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, Tennessee State Rep. Jerry Sexton (below) filed a bill earlier this year to make the Holy Bible the official state book:

HB 615 will be voted on today in the House, but yesterday, the state’s Attorney General Herbert Slatery said passing the bill would lead to a constitutional violation:

“The Bible is undeniably a sacred text of the Christian faith,” Slatery wrote in the opinion obtained by The Associated Press. “Legislative designation of The Holy Bible as the official book … must presumptively be understood as an endorsement of religion.”

Not that the legislators seem to care:

Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown and a lead sponsor of the measure, said he plans to move forward despite the legal opinion: “That’s his opinion. I’ve got a different one.”

Take take, Attorney General! I mean, what could that guy possibly know about the law…?

(Southerland, by the way, was a mortgage broker before he was in elected office. So he totally knows what he’s talking about.)

Slatery’s opinion isn’t just a recommendation, though. If a lawsuit is filed against the bill down the road — and you bet your ass that’ll happen — the Attorney General’s office will not be required to defend it.

Looks like others are backing away from the bill as well:

The governor also has strong reservations about the bill, spokesman David Smith said.

“The governor doesn’t think it’s very respectful of what the Bible is,” Smith said.

Senate Republican leader Mark Norris of Collierville said he hopes the attorney general’s opinion will persuade colleagues to vote against the measure.

“They were dumbing down the Bible, trying to make it look like a history book to keep it secular, rather than sacred,” Norris said. “It’s a dumb bill and it needs to die.”

It needs to, but it won’t. It’ll keep getting votes until someone with a sense of responsibility and understanding of the law has the guts to put a stop to the nonsense.

(Thanks to Chris for the link. Portions of this article were posted earlier)

More dogs.

I love bacon. There’s no replacement that quite equals the taste of the real thing (trust me, I grew up in a turkey bacon household). And I’d give anything to eat it again. But 10 years ago, my kidneys failed, and to stay alive and healthy, I started a very low-sodium diet. Which, in turn, meant saying goodbye to bacon.

Luckily, though, that’s not where the story ends. After months of experimentation (including a dehydrator full of pork belly), my sister-in-law came up with a recipe for salt-free bacon that actually tastes, looks, and feels like the real thing. A monumental win for low-sodium eaters. And, it turns out, a great trick for anyone who wants to experiment with making easy, quick bacon from scratch!

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I totally should have seen this coming! Looks like our curly haired balloon pony has gotten the ultimate tribute by being made entirely out of balloons himself. Excellent job to the artist as I have no idea how to even make basic balloon art.

Artist Gallery

We never actually got an official name for Starlight Glimmer's glorious little cult city. Many have defaulted to calling it Equaltown, but lets have a bit more fun with it shall we?


As king of the fandom, it is by M.A. Larson's royal decree that we give this village a name. Some non-Equaltown versions so far include:

Ponestown
Larsontown
Stalliongrad

And many others.  It's time for you to decide though fandom! The top 10 most upvoted comments with a name in them will be added to a poll for the side bar. Of course, you can call it whatever you want, but it might be fun to make things equal.

Now go! Hit the comments up! Vote on your favorite suggestions and drop your own!

snapgif:

Chill Cat Relaxes Like a Human in Basket. 

[video]

Four years into the fandom, and I'm still completely amazed at our progress on the creative side. The plushies of 2011 were nothing like what we have now days, and the rise of the gigantic lifesize pony plushies is a wonderful one. Dashie here sits at 42 inches tall, with an equally large element of loyalty necklace to go with her.

Unfortunately, she's not for sale. I can only imagine what she'd go for though.

Check out the full gallery over here!

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