Down in Louisiana, they’re getting serious about defending marriage:

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

But don’t go calling Bardwell racist. “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house,” he says. “My main concern is for the children.”

And who can disagree? After all, one of them might grow up to be President.

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La. [AP/TPM]

Our fixation with balloons yesterday has taken a bizarre and potentially tragic twist:

A 6-year-old boy climbed into a homemade balloon aircraft in Colorado and floated away Thursday, forcing officials to scramble to figure out how to rescue the boy as the balloon hurtled through the air.

The bizarre scene played out live on television and prompted fears that the flying saucer-shaped balloon would crash with the young child inside. The balloon rotated slowly in the wind, tipping precariously at times.

We’ve been glued to CNN all afternoon: After a two-hour, 50-mile flight, the balloon landed softly — but nobody was found inside. The current working assumption is that the 50-pound boy climbed into a box attached to the balloon, which could only handle a hundred pounds or so of lift. The box would have detached early, but at what height is uncertain.

Extra bonus bizarre points: “His family is known as storm chasers and were featured last October on the show ‘Wife Swap.'”

6-year-old boy floats away in balloon [AP/Photo, KMGH-TV]

Update, 6:09pm: He’s alive! Found at home in the garage…

“All I am trying to be is a young, cool Republican woman for other Republican women,” Psychogeezer spawn Meghan McCain told Politico in April. Perhaps too cool:

Republican firebrand Meghan McCain’s skimpy pajamas have her conservative followers all atwitter, forcing the daughter of failed 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain to apologize for posting a racy photo of her décolletage.

After linking the photo to her Twitter account Wednesday night, some of Meghan’s 60,000 followers didn’t care for the whacking material. She threatened to pull a Miley and quit tweeting, but ultimately decided to “apologize to anyone that was offended by my twitpic.”

Offended? Well, yes, anything that reminds us of Daddy’s pestorking prowess can do that.

Meghan McCain twitter photo backlash leads to apology [Daily News]

Left: WorldNetDaily discovers this abomination of the Stars & Stripes on eBay, regrets that horse-whipping is no longer permitted:

Indiana Code 35.45.1.4 states the following:

Flag desecration

Sec. 4. (a) A person who knowingly or intentionally mutilates, defaces, burns, or tramples any United States flag, standard, or ensign commits flag desecration, a Class A misdemeanor.

Right: WND offers this lovely “Tea Stained” flag at its online store.

Is Obama’s face on U.S. flag illegal? [WND]

Taking the pole position for Quote of the Day, American Family Association’s Randy Sharp condemns a convenience-store chain for stocking the Marge Simpson Playboy issue:

“It’s irresponsible of 7-Eleven to display porn in front of boys who pop into 7-11s for a hot dog or a Slurpee.”

That was enough for us to do a spit-take with our Big Gulp, but then we learned the name of Playboy’s new CEO: Scott Flanders.

7-Eleven targeted for selling ‘Simpsons porn’ [Raw Story]

“Olympia Snowe has sold out the country,” fumed RedState’s Erick Erickson after she cast her “historic” vote for the heathcare bill that she promised to historically take back if needed. And to demonstrate the awesome fury of the base, he told everyone to buy a bag of rock salt from Amazon and ship it to her office. “It’s time to melt Snowe,” he said, after what must have been an exhausting pitch meeting.

Poor Erick. We think it’s time to show RedState some love, and our Amazon Kickback Link makes it convenient and fun. Here are a few gift suggestions we know they could use at the office.

Gift		Purpose
	Crying Towel	Prevent your bitter tears from nourishing the souls of your opponents
	Anger Management For Dummies	Don’t everybody reach for it at once. Sharing is caring!
	Operation	Who needs socialized medicine? Learn how to do it yourself!

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Great, now we have to find another balloon graphic:

Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources.

Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and the point man in the Limbaugh group attempting to buy the Rams, realizes he must remove the controversial conservative radio host from his potential role as a minority member in the group in order to get approval from other NFL owners, the sources said.

But not before Rush nailed himself to the cross today:

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