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His punditry is creating problems for his son's likely White House run

In recent months, retired congressman and Libertarian darling Ron Paul has made pronouncements on Ebola, secessionist movements and terrorism in Canada that appear designed to stoke controversy, even as his son Rand tries to stake out less fraught territory in preparation for a likely presidential campaign.

Ron Paul piped up Sunday following a series of attacks on members of the military in Canada that investigators believe are likely tied to jihadist ideology.

“Though horrific, it should not be a complete surprise that Canada found itself hit by blowback last week,” Paul wrote in a column. “That is the danger of intervention in other people’s wars thousands of miles away. Those at the other end of foreign bombs – and their surviving family members or anyone who sympathizes with them – have great incentive to seek revenge. This feeling should not be that difficult to understand.”

Paul’s recent spate of controversial public pronouncements—as a professional provocateur he rarely makes any other kind—are fast becoming a political liability for his son Rand, who is widely expected to mount a campaign for the White House in 2016.

As his soapbox of late, Paul is chiefly using Voices of Liberty, a Ron Paul-centric subscription news and commentary service launched in July, the newest of several overlapping organizations built around Ron Paul’s personal brand—The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, Ron Paul Curriculum and The Foundation for Rational Economics and Education. Voices of Liberty “amplifies the messages of freedom through insightful news coverage, engaging shows and your involvement!,” according to the group’s website. The flurry of activity around the new site has revived an old challenge for the Paul family.

Ron Paul Inc.’s most widely noted declaration of late was the suggestion that the insecticide DDT be used as an Ebola treatment (at present the only known Ebola treatments experimental and DDT is not among them). In fact, Ron Paul never said such a thing—it appears to have been a mistake inserted into a Voices of Liberty press release by a PR rep. In any event, it wouldn’t be the first time statements attributed to Ron Paul, possibly falsely, have become problematic for his son. Rand has already spent more time than he would like distancing himself from his dad’s notoriously shrill and racist newsletters from the 1990s, which the elder has contended were written not by him personally but by a staffer.

In a column Sunday, Paul made the dubious-at-best claim that “the people of Liberia and other countries would be better off if the U.S. government left them alone.” The sentiment is vintage Ron Paul, his austere libertarianism taken to its logical extreme, but hard to reconcile with a society and economy that have come to a screeching halt as Ebola drives people out of public spaces.

It’s not just Paul’s outlandish statements that could be problematic for Rand Paul.

On Ebola the senior Paul has been at odds with Rand, who has devoted considerable airtime to stoking fears over the disease, suggesting it is more contagious and the threat to American society more serious than the government has let on. In contrast, Ron Paul has suggested the exact opposite: that the government is exaggerating Ebola fears, perhaps for nefarious purposes.

In recent weeks the elder Paul has cheered the near-success of the Scottish secessionist movement—and in so doing apparently advocated for secession of states within the U.S.—and lambasted the Obama administration over the new Status of Forces agreement that will keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan well beyond the originally envisioned 2014 pullout date and possibly into 2024.

And it’s clear that in coming months, he’ll keep sounding off on other subjects.

Read next: Obama Rebukes State Ebola Quarantine Rules

Unconfirmed reports suggest multiple students were injured in the shooting

The assailant told authorities that Satan made him do it

Secret Service have arrested a man who allegedly slammed his car Thursday night into a controversial Ten Commandments monument near the state capital building in Oklahoma City. The statue is now smashed to pieces.

Officials said the suspect, whose name has not been released, ran his car into the monument at about 9:00 p.m. Thursday night, reportedly saying that Satan made him do it. Oklahoma City’s KOCO news station reported that the suspect also threatened to kill President Barack Obama and said he urinated on the monument before knocking it over.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued to have the monument removed, condemned the desecration of the statue. No evidence suggests there is a connection between this incident and a Satanic group wishing to install a monument to Satan alongside the Ten Commandments.

The vehicle involved in the incident was left at the scene and has been impounded.

[KOCO]

According to a December 2000 report thought sealed from public view

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was mistreated in 1998 by authorities who were looking into her alleged affair with former President Bill Clinton, according to a newly released government report from two years after the incident.

The report, thought to be sealed from the public but recently obtained by the Washington Post via a Freedom of Information Act request, details a 12-hour meeting in January 1998 between Lewinsky, FBI agents and prosecutors.

Lewinsky had been scheduled to meet with Linda Tripp, a White House secretary, at the food court of a Washington, D.C.-area mall. Instead, she was ambushed by federal agents and prosecutors. According to Lewinsky’s version of events — detailed in a rare public appearance earlier this week — when she asked to see an attorney, she was told her cooperation would be worth less if she spoke to counsel and told she could receive some 27 years in prison for allegedly lying about her affair with the President in an affidavit, among other crimes.

The findings vindicate her side of how things played out that day and, the report found, call into question ethical decisions made during the aggressive questioning of Lewinsky and her mother by lawyers working for Ken Starr’s Office of Independent Counsel.

[The Washington Post]

The Toddlers and Tiaras spinoff got the axe after allegations emerged that Mama June is dating a child molester

The TV network TLC has canceled the reality series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo over allegations that co-star “Mama June” Shannon resumed a romantic relationship with a convicted child molester.

“TLC has canceled the series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and ended all activities around the series, effective immediately,” TLC said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Supporting the health and welfare of these remarkable children is our only priority. TLC is faithfully committed to the children’s ongoing comfort and well-being.”

Reports emerged earlier this week that Mama June Shannon had reignited a relationship with Mark McDaniel, recently released from prison after serving time for aggravated child molestation of an 8-year-old. Shannon’s family denied the report.

The two-year old Toddlers & Tiaras spinoff reached more than three million viewers at its height.

[EW]

Friends and colleagues have high praise for Dr. Craig Spencer as he begins a fight for his life

The New York City-based doctor who tested positive for Ebola Thursday after working with virus patients in the West African country of Guinea is a high achiever and a “dedicated humanitarian,” the hospital where he works said in a statement.

Dr. Craig Spencer “is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first,” said a statement from New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, where Spencer serves as an emergency room doctor. Before being diagnosed with Ebola, Spencer had been working with humanitarian aid group Doctor’s Without Borders fighting the virus’ outbreak in West Africa.

Spencer, 33, left Guinea, one of the countries hardest hit by the recent Ebola outbreak, on Oct. 14. Spencer returned to the U.S. via New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 17. He began showing symptoms on Thursday, Oct. 23, when his temperature was recorded at a slightly elevated 100.3 degrees fahrenheit, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday morning, clarifying widespread reports Thursday that Duncan’s temperature was above 103 degrees. Ebola can incubate undetected in the body for up to 21 days before an infected person shows symptoms. Ebola patients are not contagious until they show symptoms, and they become increasingly contagious as they get more sick.

Spencer graduated from Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, studied Chinese language and literature at Henan University in China, earned a medical degree from Detroit’s Wayne State University School of Medicine and, in 2008, started his residency in New York, becoming a fellow at the Columbia University Medical Center’s International Medicine Program, according to information drawn from his LinkedIn profile by The Wall Street Journal. Spencer’s LinkedIn page has since been taken down.

“He was an outstanding student, humanitarian, excellent physician,” one of Spencer’s professors told the Journal. “He’s done a lot of good international work. He had been to parts of the world—marginalized, disenfranchised—working to improve the human condition.”

According to a friend who met Spencer through the website Couchsurfing, which connects travelers with free places to stay, he’s a runner who plays the banjo and speaks French, Chinese and Spanish.

The event could lead to more auroras and disrupt spacecraft and power systems on Earth

The sun’s largest sunspot region in more than 20 years is facing Earth, sending solar flares our way and threatening a coronal mass ejection (CME), which can cause auroras and significant disruptions to our power grids.

Sunspots are relatively cooler regions of the sun visible on the surface, with complex magnetic field activity. The sunspot region AR12192 is the “largest sunspot group since November of 1990,” according to Doug Biesecker, a researcher at the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center. AR12192 is roughly the size of the planet Jupiter, but the largest sunspot on record, seen in 1947, was three times that size.

AR2192 has been sending out high-energy solar flares but thus far no CME, which, Biesecker says, tend to be more closely associated with the magnetic complexity of a sunspot region than with a region’s size. A smaller solar storm around Halloween back in 2003, for example, created auroras visible as far south as Florida. With the high level of flare activity at present, scientists expect that if AR12192 releases CMEs directly toward Earth it will do so in the next three to four days, The Washington Post reports.

Read next: Watch Highlights From This Week’s Solar Eclipse

Get ready for the coffee chain's newest seasonal beverage

Ladies and gentleman, take heart, the Pumpkin Spice Latte’s reign of terror is coming to an end.

Your knight in shining armor is the Starbucks’ new-nationwide Chestnut Praline Latte, slated for release at Starbucks locations across the country this fall.

The impending national release of the Chestnut Praline Latte (from here on out referred to as ‘CPL’) is consequential because, as an overly sweet, holiday-themed liquid dessert disguised as a coffee drink, the CPL is poised to displace the Pumpkin Spice Latte in the hearts of bros, basics and whoever else drinks those things everywhere.

The Chestnut Praline Latte has the advantage of being named for two actual ingredients — criteria the Pumpkin “Spice” Latte cannot claim to meet.

Lest the import of this news not resonate with you, consider the hysteria that has gripped America as we have grappled with life in the age of Peak Pumpkin. Just days ago in Washington, D.C., I spotted a sign for pumpkin mussels. Granted, the chef had the courtesy not to advertise “pumpkin spice” mussels, but my PSL-weary brain filled in the phrase nonetheless.

Rest easy, America. Hope is on the horizon. The CPL drops nationwide Nov. 12, reports The Huffington Post.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of what the CPL is likely to resemble, presumably taken last year when the CPL was released in selected test markets.