Anyone who has read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, knows that it is full of wild stories – tales of sex, murder and betrayal that would make a dime-store novelist blush. But genocide? Incest? Yep, they're in there too. And according to a group of deep – and free – thinkers, those crimes against humanity are being celebrated in larger-than-life fashion just an hour south of the Buckeye state.  And in part at taxpayers' expense, no less.

The Ark Encounter opens its doors on July 7th, and the word around the well is that Noah himself would have been impressed. At 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, the timber-frame building (allegedly the world's largest) is built to the dimensions mentioned in the book of Genesis. Situated about midway between Cincinnati and Lexington on I-75 in Williamstown, Kentucky, the Ark Encounter will relive the saga of the thunderstorm to end all thunderstorms. Complete with animal couples (yes, even dinosaurs) the Ark Encounter serves as the companion piece to the Creation Museum, 45 minutes to the north.

I knew the day was coming, but that doesn't mean I was looking forward to it.

That day was June 3, 2016, the day Muhammad Ali died.
 

It was gratifying to see the mainstream media give him his due. His passing was well covered and many people paid tribute to him. Most of them shared a personal story about the man known as “The Greatest.”
 

I have my own story to share.
 

In 1979 I was the television sports anchor for the American Forces Network Europe, stationed in Frankfurt, Germany.

One day as I was preparing my broadcast for that evening's show, the phone rang and I answered.
On the other end of the line was a man with a thick German accent but who spoke very good English.
 

“Mr. Alwood,” he began politely. “I was wondering if you would like to interview Mr. Muhammad Ali?”
 

On August 2nd, in a Special Election with just one issue on the ballot – Issue 1, Columbus will vote on whether to adopt a more contemporary form of city council, where three members will be elected at-large in city-wide elections and ten members will be elected from smaller council districts that are clusters of neighborhoods. This format would replace the antiquated seven member all at-large elections (elected citywide) we have had since 1914.

Bernie Sanders need only ask the obvious question to find his way out of the corporate capitalist neocon wasteland where he now lingers – What Would Debs Do?

Sanders is quite familiar with the life of his “hero” Eugene Victor Debs. Sanders produced a documentary on Debs’ life in 1979 before being elected to political office. In the 1970s, Sanders ran in five statewide races on the ticket of the left-wing Liberty Union Party. Debs ran five times for president of U.S. on the Socialist Party ticket.

Now Sanders and his mass of young followers find themselves squabbling over how to influence a meaningless Clinton Democratic Party platform. Students in my Intro to American Government class are familiar with the phrase “A political promise in the UK is a pledge but in the U.S. it’s a hedge.”

Brexit — the stunning British vote to leave the European Union — is a clear and dramatic rebuke of the country’s political and economic elites. A majority voted to leave even though the heads of the United Kingdom’s two major parties, more than a thousand corporate and bank CEOs, legions of economists, the leaders of Europe and the United States, and the heads of the international financial organizations all warned of dire consequences if they did not vote to remain.

For Americans, one question is whether this result has implications for the 2016 presidential campaign. Political sea changes tend to cross national boundaries. Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 tracked the rise of Margaret Thatcher to power in Great Britain. Bill Clinton’s New Democrats were mirrored by Tony Blair’s New Labour Party. So does Brexit presage the rise of Donald Trump in the United States?