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Upside Down Judaism: Why Are Progressives Studying Talmud?

…sh Community Center, twenty people gather around a table to study Jewish texts. The texts are out of the classical canon: the Bible, of course, but also the third-century Mishnah and its sixth-century commentary, the Babylonian Talmud, and the medieval jurist Maimonides. As people introduce themselves, it becomes clear pretty soon that most of the people in this room have not had positive Jewish educational experiences. Though some of the members…

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How Intelligent Design Advocates Helped Shape the Christian Right’s Texas Curriculum Standards

…om in one generation will become the philosophy of the government in the next.” But what I found most fascinating about the piece is the explanation behind the religious right’s recent interest in the Declaration of Independence. Christian activists like David Barton (who served as a curriculum advisor to the TBOE) have been campaigning to shift the focus from the Constitution in civics class to the Declaration of Independence. (In another arena,…

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Leper Messiah: A Jesus Freak’s Search for the Meaning of Bowie—A Critical Novella

…natural and beautiful beside themselves. — Saint Teresa of Ávila, “Chapter XXVIII: Visions of the Sacred Humanity, and of the Glorified Bodies,” from The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel ● Ziggy Stardust, for anyone who wasn’t a teenager in the seventies, is the protagonist of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Bowie’s 1972 concept album about a Martian prophet of “soul love” who touches d…

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Israeli Right Demonizes Israeli Left, With American Money

…ght-wing groups and individuals, including John Hagee, the controversial Texas minister who once wrote that ‘Hitler was fulfilling God’s will.’” Hagee did not write the exact phrase that “Hitler was fulfilling God’s will,” but rather gave a sermon asserting that as fact. RD regrets the error.  **The story originally indicated that the money was granted through Hagee’s CUFI organization. As J-Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami put it in a JTA op-ed afte…

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Creationism and Global Warming Denial: Anti-Science’s Kissing Cousins?

…topics,” as they encourage “thinking critically” about the “relationships between explanations and evidence.” More recently, in Kentucky, a bill was introduced in the Legislature that would encourage teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,” including “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.” The inclusion of other topics is part of a legal strategy to show that evolution is not bein…

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Record Number of Stealth Creationism Bills Introduced in 2011

…wmakers from whining that science is mean to them. As NCSE points out, an example of this supposed persecution was exemplified in Ben Stein’s cynical piece of schlock Expelled. (My review of the movie is here.)   In addition to Texas, another anti-evolution bill was also introduced this month in Florida. HB 1854 would require “a critical analysis” of the teaching of evolution in public schools. The bill is little different from legislation current…

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Supreme Court OKs State Funding Scheme for Religious Schools and Bars Challenges

…xpayer of my persuasion (we’ll call her Petra from Yuma) finds using the tax code to benefit such schools offensive to the First Amendment. In the past, Petra from Yuma could go into court to challenge the tax credit as a form of state-subsidized religion. But Petra (or a Thomas Jefferson redivivus, for that matter) is now out of luck. The core issue is whether providing the tax credit has the exact same practical impact as simply giving tax reven…

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What the Lost Finale is Really About

…e’ll be wanting more: “But, but, wait a minute, what about…?” “And how did X end up…?” “Why did X die?” “What the f…?” One of the ultimate, though pedestrian, questions stems from the very beginning: you’re stranded on a gorgeous island full of luscious fruits and secure shelter, with two dozen beautiful people, and you’re supposed to want to leave? The ending will never provide an adequate explanation for how an entire island can shift in time an…

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Gun Owners of America Celebrates Defeat of Gun Control Amendments

…e, the most important thing an individual can do. Let me just give you an example—this goes on year after year—Dr. Paul has been a consistent promoter of Second Amendment legislation. He’s already mentioned the United Nations, well, he’s got a bill to get us out of the United Nations, he doesn’t just talk about it. And the reason the Second Amendment folks are so interested in that is because the UN right now, under Hillary Clinton, the State Depa…

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The End of Michele Bachmann?

…s in the United States is a fabrication. For her proof, Bachmann cites an exhibit from the US government’s prosecution in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case. Here’s what I wrote about that exhibit, and that case, over a year ago: This claim that the Muslim Brotherhood’s aim is a worldwide theocracy, and that all American Muslim organizations fall into lock-step with it, stems solely from a single 20-year-old document written by a singl…

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