No Soup: The House yesterday passed a bill that would cut $40 billion from food stamps over the next 10 years. The law would also require adults 18-50 with underage children to get a job or job training while limiting benefits to 3 months. President Obama says he would veto that law if it ever passed the Senate, but it sets up another financial fight. The House is expected to vote for the 42^nd time today to defund Obamacare.

Obamascare: An anti-Obamacare group has released YouTube videos intended to scare young people out of using Obamacare. One features a woman lying on the gynecologist’s table as creepy Uncle Sam holding a speculum in his hand. The organization, Generation Opportunity, claims young people use less healthcare and their premiums will subsidize people who use more. Which is basically the way all insurance works. The campaign provides equal-opportunity fright. Another ad features a young man on the table and Uncle Sam snapping a rubber glove onto his hand.

Papa Loquitur: Pope Francis continued his surprising candor this week telling an Italian magazine interviewer that, “The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules.” The Pope said the message of God sometimes gets lost in preaching about abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. He said, “The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.”

World: Mexico says 97 people are dead after two major storms ravaged both coasts. A village near the Pacific was nearly obliterated by a mudslide. More than 10,000 tourists have been airlifted out of Acapulco.

Shooting: Thirteen people were wounded last night, including a three—year-old boy now in critical condition, in a shooting on a Chicago public basketball court. Witnesses described a gray sedan with two men firing out of it.

No Life: After a year on the Red Planet, the Mars Rover has sent back enough information for scientists to conclude that Martians, or any life on Mars, is the stuff of science fiction. The journal Science reports that the Rover has found “no evidence of burps and farts.” The Rover is equipped to sniff for methane, a byproduct of living organisms.

DeLay Justice: A Texas appeals court overturned the money-laundering and conspiracy convictions that would have sent former Rep. Tom DeLay to jail for three years. The court said the state did not prove its case. DeLay was accused of illegally funneling corporate donations to the Republican National Committee and ultimately to senatorial campaigns. DeLay, who resigned from Congress under indictment, said he considers this decision a vindication.

Bookban: Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man has been banned from school libraries in Randolph County, North Carolina. One school board member said, “I didn’t find any literary value.”  The book is considered a groundbreaking work about racial discrimination. Randolph County is 85.5% white.

Guns Don’t Kill People: Two Michigan men who each had a concealed-carry gun permit shot each other to death in an incident of road rage. After getting angry with each other on the road, the two men, 43 and 56, pulled into the parking lot of the Wonder Wand Car Wash and had a gunfight in which both died. In a way, they were both justified.

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