Barack Obama better get out a map of the United States and study it closely between now and November. And he’d better drum up some better excuses for why he’s so wildly unpopular in Kentucky. This week, Ryan Alessi of the Lexington Herald-Leader asked the Illinois senator why he is trailing Hillary Clinton so badly in the polls in the Bluegrass State and here’s Obama’s geographically-challenged reply:

“What it says is that I’m not very well known in that part of the country,” Obama said. “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.”

 The nearby state of Arkansas? Better get out a road map. “That part of the country” — Kentucky – borders Illinois!  Arkansas, by the way, does not border Kentucky.

 And Kentucky’s population centers are far closer to the Land of Lincoln than to the Land of Clinton. Louisville to Chicago? It’s only a 298-mile trip. Louisville to Little Rock? It’s 521 miles. Likewise, Lexington and the Cincinnati suburbs in Northern Kentucky are all a lot closer to Obama’s front door than to the Arkansas governor’s mansion that Hillary called home…

To read Alessi’s story, click here.

Apparently, the folks at the NRA thought it was a riot…

Click here for more.

By LISA LEFF
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation’s biggest state to tie the knot.
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Bell Shoals Baptist Church Pastor Forrest Pollock and his teenage son Preston were flying from North Carolina to Texas, with a stop planned in Arkansas.
Click here for complete details from Baptist Press.

Jennifer Hewlett of the Lexington Herald-Leader has written the best tribute yet to gospel music legend Dottie Rambo. Rambo, 74, died early Sunday morning when her tour bus crashed near Mount Vernon, Missouri.
Click here to read Hewlett’s article.

The San Antonio evangelist apologized last month for saying that Hurricane Katrina had been divine punishment. Now he’s apologizing to Catholics for calling the holy, Catholic and apostolic church “the Whore of Babylon.” Who will he apologize to next? These apologies aren’t occuring in a vacuum, by the way. John Hagee is a prominent John McCain supporter and the McCain campaign has been scrambling to distance itself from Hagee’s controversial comments about Roman Catholics and hurricane victims…

Click here to read more.

Albert Einstein thought religion was nothing more than superstition and he dismissed claims that Jews were God’s chosen people. The scientific genius’s views on religion are contained in a letter which will be auctioned soon…

Click here to read more about the letter.

A sad, sad day for gospel music fans. Dottie Rambo, a Kentucky native, died when her tour bus crashed in southwest Missouri early this morning, May 11. She was traveling overnight from Illinois to northern Texas — about 700 miles — so that she could perform at a Mother’s Day concert at a Dallas-area church. Rambo, a huge musical talent, struggled in anonymity for years. Then she caught the attention of Jimmie Davis — a two-term Louisiana governor and the author of “You Are My Sunshine.” Davis and Rambo collaborated on music together for a time, before she stepped out on her own. She wrote thousands of songs over the years, including “He Looked Beyond My Fault (And Saw My Need)”, “I Go to the Rock”, recorded by Whitney Houston, and “If That Isn’t Love”, sung by Elvis Presley. Her song “We Shall Behold Him” in about 1980 was chosen as top gospel song of the year. Besides writing songs, Rambo also sang them, winning a Grammy in the 1960s. Growing up, her songs were played frequently in my church. “I Call Him Lord” was frequently sung during the Christmas season. “Holy Spirit, Thou Art Welcome” has been sung by millions. Rambo had a wide and surprisingly diverse circle of friends. She was close to Lilly Tomlin and Dolly Parton and Elvis and a bunch of other stars in Nashville and beyond. I thought Rambo was the greatest female gospel songwriter since Fanny Crosby and it was always an incredible delight to be able to interview her. Her life is over. Her songs will outlast us all.

“> Click here to listen to her song “Tears Will Never Stain the Streets of That City.”

“At every turn, (the Romneys) had to explain their faith - to defend the good
and venerable teachings of the Mormon Church,” former U.S. diplomat Ann Corkery told a New York crowd, which watched as Mitt Romney was awarded a medal for “courage in the defense of religious liberty.”
[You can read all about the award by clicking below.]
The claim that Romney explained and defended “the good and venerable teachings of the Mormon Church” is revisionist history. In his “Faith in America” speech at the George Bush Presidential library on Dec. 6, Romney unambiguously stated that he would not explain or describe — let alone defend — his church’s unique doctrines.
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San Francisco radio personality, father of four, faces lengthy prison sentence.

People have been remembering journalists in their prayers for years. Sometimes, the prayers are imprecatory a la Psalm 109: ‘Let their days be few…’

Fortunately, there’s now a website encouraging people to pray nice prayers for the newspaper industry. It’s called PrayingForPapers.com
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The presumptive Republican nominee for President issued a statement today, claiming that “all Americans” are really, really enthused about Israel’s 60th birthday.

“I join all Americans in offering my heartiest congratulations to the Israeli people on the 60th anniversary of their state’s founding.” John McCain

That’ll come as a surprise, of course, to Palestinian Americans and others…
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Evangelical leaders say their faith is too politicized
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
Prominent evangelicals urged Christian conservatives Wednesday to support “an expansion of our concerns beyond single-issue politics,” angering some leaders on the religious right who have been closely allied with the Republican Party.
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By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press Writer

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ As Oral Roberts University prepares to hand out diplomas to its Class of 2008, Anna Siebring, a junior, will be mailing out applications to transfer to another school.

Siebring, a government major, is among many students having second thoughts about staying at Oral Roberts after six months of scandal at the evangelical Christian university.
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The Wenatchee World published an unusual correction in yesterday’s paper.
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