Wall Street banks are raking in record profits, but that's not stopping Senate Republicans—with the help of nine of their Democratic colleagues—from attempting to ram through an "insane" piece of legislation that would scrap a number of key post-financial crisis regulations, "line the pockets of bank executives," and leave consumers more vulnerable to predatory corporations.....

TONY HOVATER could be a case study for "The Banality of Evil: 2017 Hipster Edition."
At least, that's how reporter Richard Fausset seemed bound and determined to portray him in a recent New York Times profile of the neo-Nazi.
After it was published, Fausset's piece caused a huge outcry. It's pretty easy to see why.
Fausset spends much of the profile "humanizing" Hovater and his wife, presenting them as a perfectly normal couple...except, oh yeah, for the fact that Hovater's a Hitler-loving neo-Nazi who in 2015 co-founded the Traditionalist Worker Party.

It would be absurd to argue that all citizens should devote their years to studying cults and other complex — or even simple! — features of religion. But the AAR is setting up mechanisms and establishing links with, in this case, the FBI, to head off the worst and understand the best in a world where, in regard to religion, some misuse their freedom and are hazards instead of healers.

When Shinta Ratri prays, like many devout Indonesian women she dons a mukena, a long flowing gown often embroidered with colourful and intricate designs. But she finds it hard to do so in most public mosques in this small city on the Indonesian island of Java. The reason, she says, is that she began life as a man.

Scott McLemee reviews a book that chronicles the founding and development of the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, in an article published at Inside Higher Ed......

I have not visited it yet but expect to do so soon, and in the meantime, I have been reading Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden's Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby (Princeton University Press), a book about the museum that is unlikely to be featured in its gift shop.

Abraham Lincoln said, “If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Sure enough, now that Republicans are in power with majorities in both chambers of Congress, the cabinet and the presidency, the true character of the GOP and its leaders is increasingly clear...........

Republican politicians have chosen greed, racism and hypocrisy rather than “family values” and “pro-life” principles we’ve been hearing about for years.

136 women leaders who are current and former elected officials, non-profit board members, community leaders and members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party have released a statement of support for Sen. Al Franken (D-MN).

If you’re secular or a progressive religious person, you might be thinking “yes”—especially in view of a high-profile case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday (Dec. 5). Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission pits the anti-gay-marriage beliefs of a cake baker against the rights of a same-sex couple to live and marry free of discrimination.....

Is this the point we’ve reached? Is it time for Americans to elect politicians and shape a judiciary with a much more limited conception of religious freedom?

No