During his time as a major leaguer former Astro and Rice Owl Lance Berkman was affectionately known as “Big Puma” to the Houston faithful, a comical ode developed by Berkman himself to get people to stop calling him “Fat Elvis.” However, after Berkman’s recent statement in defiance of the latest transgender insanity forced upon society, Berkman is likely to be known around Houston City Hall by a four-letter title other than “Puma.”

MSNBC's Chris Matthews revealed his loathing for a part of his Catholic upbringing on Wednesday's Hardball, and ended up mangling the theology behind a beautiful and ancient Church ritual for new mothers. Matthews turned to Catholic dissident Sister Simone Campbell for her take on Pope Francis's visit. Sister Campbell touted her liberal "Nuns on the Bus" campaign as a supposed way to "take the Gospel to where it wouldn't be otherwise, and all the other people that we meet along the road – so many of them are not churched...but that we can be in touch with them."

Variations on the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome” are common on both the right and the left (a Google search for “Clinton Derangement Syndrome” yielded roughly 180,000 results). Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to see Indiana University law prof Steve Sanders modify Charles Krauthammer’s famous coinage in order to trash religious conservatives.

“The Christian right is deep in the grip of gay marriage derangement syndrome,” wrote Sanders in a Thursday article for The Washington Monthly. “Conservative Christians grew accustomed to hegemony in a world where judges and lawmakers frequently deferred to their preferences…But as Americans become markedly less religious, things are changing, and the law’s treatment of homosexuality is a cutting edge of that change. So far the Christian right is reacting exactly like an indulged child throwing a particularly stormy tantrum.”

Liberal Esquire political columnist Charles Pierce, formerly with the Boston Globe, joined MSNBC’s All In on Thursday during live coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to New York City and used the occasion of the Pope’s speech hours earlier before Congress to lash out at Ted Cruz and conservatives for not endorsing climate change or other liberal social issues as does the Pontiff. 

To quote the Church Lady: isn't that conv-e-e-e-e-nient?

On Chris Hayes' MSNBC show tonight, Dem congressman Luis Gutierrez claimed that while he was "challenged" by the Catholic church's teachings on abortion and gay rights and found them "difficult" [but not difficult enough to change his standard liberal positions], no one can really argue the Pope's positions on illegal immigration and income inequality.