These past several days, in conjunction with writing my responses to Julian Karswell, I've been reviewing and updating my knowledge of economics. To that end, I've managed to find some online textbooks and other online resources.

I may again have occasion to refer to them when debating with LaVeyans and others, so I've put together a list.

( List of online economics resources )

One of my heroes is Brad Hicks, who was one of the earliest activists against the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare back in the 1980's. (He discusses this briefly in the following posts of his here on LiveJournal: Wicca Lies (part 3): Hierarchy and Wow, I Haven't Been Threatened for My Writing in More than a Decade.) He was president of the Alliance ( Read more... )

Something I missed when it happened, but I just came across it recently: As of January 2008, it seems that the Vatican has revived the hullabaloo about Harry Potter. However, I find two very different accounts of this:

• Potter "Driving Kids to Satanism" by Cameron Millar, Daily Star (U.K.), 16th January 2008
• The Vatican Revives the Harry ( Read more... )

On the blog A Heathen's Day, I just now learned about a news story in the Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), SC lawmakers have religion on minds, in bills by Jim Davenport, Associated Press, Tue, May. 13, 2008, in which Democratic Senator Yancey McGill (of South Carolina) says that Wicca is not a religion, and he's not sure about ( Read more... )

According to the news story What washed up on the Keansburg beach? by Alyssa Passeggio, Bayshore Courier (New Jersey, U.S.A.), May 9, 2008:
Keansburg Police Deputy Chief James Pigott said Patrolman Michael Deaney responded to a finding of four garbage bags and two shopping bags containing headless chickens and the innards on April 17. There are no ( Read more... )

Thanks to in-person conversations with some people who question or disagree with my antiwar position, I realize I need to bone up on the history of events that led up to the Iraq war, especially the issues of alleged "weapons of mass destructions" and Iraq's compliance or noncompliance with U.N. weapons inspections.

Personally, I knew, on the first ( Read more... )

Given my interest in building an activist organization against religion-based bigotry (see the blog of New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry), I should attend the following event, here in New York City: Self-Criticism in the American Muslim and Jewish Communities with Reza Aslan, Moushumi Khan, Rabbi Stern, and others ( Read more... )

A while back I noticed a trend, among conservative and traditionalist Catholics, to blame the clergy pedophilia scandals on an alleged conspiracy by Satanists to infiltrate the Catholic hierarchy. For more about this, see my article The "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare -- it's BAACK! The alleged conspiracy of "Satanic pedophiles" in the Catholic ( Read more... )

In Florida, there's a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would allow state funding of all manner of religious stuff. Here's an opinion piece against it: Your Tax Money For Madrassas? by Buzz Kelly, The Tampa Tribune, April 10, 2008.

( Read more )

I just now came across the following: Are the Quakers Going Pagan? by Matthew Streib, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, 4/28/2008. Among other things, this article says:
( Read more )