- Know your audience. Rocky Mount United Methodist Church in Jemison, Alabama has done an excellent job in that respect and of all the things the rural gathering of believers could have done to draw in outsiders, it picked one of the best. The church has opened a gun range behind its sanctuary as an alleged extension of its fellowship in the same way other churches might build a gym or open a food pantry. The red-clay dirt range went from an overgrown gully once filled with snakes and vermin to a place where right-wing, gun-toting Tea Partiers can pump burning slugs into targets under the watchful eyes of pastor Phillip Guin and his flock. Guin said the idea of a gun range came up because “we had quite a number of church members, some elderly ladies, for example, and some not-so-elderly women that had purchased guns, but didn’t know how to use them.” Let that visual sink in for a moment; elderly ladies who probably weigh less than their shiny new instruments of death and whose vision is often dubious at best trying to successfully load, aim and accurately fire something that is designed to send its targets shuffling off this mortal coil. The range was originally used to teach firearm safety, but was converted into the Rocky Mount Hunt and Gun Club because many in the congregation hunt or are gun enthusiasts. “This is an opportunity for us to reach out in the name of Jesus Christ in a setting that is completely unique. Even odd by some people’s standards. But who’s to say that church can’t happen right here?” Guin added. Right now, the club is comprised solely of church members, but the Jemison Police Department also uses the range to offer safety courses to the public. It’s a heartwarming tale of instruments of death uniting a community in a place where the Second Amendment is clung to more tightly than grandma’s family grits recipe……….

- Ever notice that the only people who compare something in their life to being “like jail” are people who have never actually been to jail? That’s because anyone who has spent more than a night in the drunk tank understands how terrible a place jail is, meaning they don’t liken anything in the free world to it. Let that be a lesson to you, Miami Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna is a professional athlete making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to play baseball and he’s also a man who made the regrettable choice to compete his recent minor league stint to being "in the jail."  Ozuna was recalled Saturday by the Marlins after spending nearly six weeks at Triple-A New Orleans and while he was clearly happy to be back in the majors, trying to compare his time in the minors to incarceration was a reach by any account. "I was in the jail over there. It's like a jail," Ozuna whined. "But it's OK. I'm back, and I'm going to help the team, help Miami." My man, the Marlins and their fans were the ones who felt like they were in jail before your demotion on July 5, as you slogged through a 1-for-36 slump that made one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball even more unwatchable. He believes his struggles at the plate were not the only reason for his demotion, but after posting 23 home runs and 85 RBIs last season and hitting terribly this season, what else could it be? Oh, maybe that he was on pace to qualify for Super Two early arbitration for 2016 and would have been eligible for free agency in 2019. Now, thanks to his extended stay in the minors, Ozuna likely will not have enough service time in the majors to qualify for arbitration until 2017. "I knew that's coming," Ozuna said. "I don't go [to New Orleans] for work, because [the Marlins] know me.” His agent, Scott Boras, criticized Miami's decision last month and suggested that Marlins players are “very upset about this issue.” Not as upset as they would be if it happened to them………

- You’re not helping Greece, you’re hurting it, and you shouldn’t be hobo-ing it up in a park in downtown Athens, displaced immigrants who don’t speak the language and are nothing but a drain on an already economically troubled country. Greece has been sliding down the slope toward the fiery pit of financial ruin for months now, defaulting on debt payments to creditors and rioting in response to austerity measures imposed at the demand of lending nations, so it’s logical that Greek authorities have started resettling migrants living in tents in their capital city. Fire brigade buses have begun moving migrants, most of them from Afghanistan, to a settlement of 90 containers in the Athens district of Votanikos, where these border crashers will dwell inside prefabricated units capable of housing six to eight people and featuring air conditioning, running water and a toilet. Authorities were quick to insist that the container ghetto is not a detention center and that everyone is free to come and go, but a bunch of people who just trekked a quarter of a way around the globe to a place where they don’t speak the language or have any way to support themselves or the families they need to stop having because they’re a bunch of nomads with no way  to support themselves or the families they need to stop having are having a tough time believing The Man, so many of the migrants packed their belongings and left the park before they could be evicted. More than 130,000 migrants have reached Greece so far in 2015, further straining the country's already limited resources and making one wonder if those pushing so hard to get to the country have any idea how bad the situation in their dream destination is. Yes, some likely picture themselves forging on past Greece and to places in Europe where the economy is better and where they will still bring nothing of worth to society, but it’s not looking good for them at this point……….

- If you pay more than $100 for a single ticket to the show of a wildly overpriced pop musician masquerading as a rapper, you should have a right to expect a little bit more from said musician, right? Credit to Nicki Minaj for trying to calm the tide of rage as a show in California over the weekend after it deteriorated (or improved?) from an event centering on her “music” to one highlighted by a series of brawls that compelled security guards to use pepper spray on the crowd. It was another interesting night on the Print Pink Tour, which has also drawn attention for becoming a platform for Meek Mill in his one-sided feud with Drake. Minaj may have been forced to pull the plug on the show, stopping halfway through a song due to the fighting, but videos posted on social media appear to show her extremely concerned about the violence and assisting a girl who was affected by the pepper spray from the stage. Footage posted online depicted Minaj asking the fan involved to come to the stage and asking security to give her some water. But at least all of this started for a good reason, just like every riot or fight at a concert, right? Umm, no. The source of the tension here was reportedly people pushing to get closer to the stage. Yeah, because you want to try to trample another person you don’t know just to be four feet closer to some of the worst music imaginable even though said music is so loud it could be heard clearly from the back row of the parking lot. One fan was reportedly arrested for assaulting a security guard during the melee, making it a pretty common night at a Nicki Minaj show………..