Let me begin by saying that I am agnostic about the relatively minor matter of brief prayers at public events. For me, it is less the prayer and more what event organizers think they are doing when they stage a presidential inauguration ceremony and other public events.

I want to make two points about this.

In 2009 when President Barack Obama was first inaugurated, many of us were puzzled as to why he invited the right-wing evangelical pastor Rick Warren to offer the invocation.

As I told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann at the time, Warren is "Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt." I expressed dismay that a prominent Religious Right figure was being included in the ceremony and said that after eight years of George W. Bush, we had surely heard enough from that crowd.

The Newtown, Connecticut school shooting may be part of a sinister Israeli intelligence operation according to retired professor James Fetzer. The Duluth News Tribune reported this week that Fetzer claimed "Israeli Mossad death squads and the U.S. government might have been behind the school shootings." Fetzer wrote in an online blog entry that the "Sandy Hook massacre appears to have been a psy op intended to strike fear in the hearts of Americans by the sheer brutality of the massacre, where the killing of children is a signature of terror ops conducted by agents of Israel."

Antisemitism is regularly woven into contemporary conspiracy theories and replicates centuries-old false claims about secret Jewish plots with the best-known being the hoax forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. These claims cross political boundaries from right to left. A centerpiece of these lurid lies is that Jews specifically target children for ritualistic reasons.

The New Movie, named The Last Ounce of Courage, tells the story about a patriot who  once risked his life for his nation, and now is seeking to stand again to fight.

I have posted an initial account of the first oral hearing in the case of Sexual Minorities of Uganda v. Lively at Eyes Right, the new blog of Political Research Associates.  It begins like this:

Yesterday, I and about 40 others crammed into the Springfield, MA, office of Arise for Social Justice, fresh from the first oral hearing of the lawsuit brought by Ugandan gay rights activists against Scott Lively--the notorious holocaust revisionist who, as PRA broke in 2009, traveled to Uganda to promote the virulent homophobia that lead to the "kill the gays" bill. A delegation from Uganda, attorneys and staff from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and local supporters celebrated that whatever the suit's outcome, Lively was being held to account.  (More...)

After the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Conn., last month, we heard the usual din from the intolerant voices of the Religious Right asserting that the violence happened because God is not allowed in public schools.

It's an inaccurate, simplistic and offensive argument. For starters, prayer and other religious activities are not banned from public schools; only school-sponsored or mandated prayer has been declared unconstitutional. There's a world of difference between the two.

[image, above: Manga Messiah illustration suggests a Jewish rabbinic alliance with Beelzebub]

[image, right: Rabbis, as depicted in Manga Messiah]

[UPDATE, 5:50 PM: the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, in a new press release, states that "these "Manga Messiah" comic books have been distributed liberally across all the service branches and on military bases and naval vessels all over the world including the combat zones of Afghanistan, Iraq, and at many other U.S. armed forces bases in the Area of Responsibility (AOR)."]

The publisher claims that millions of copies of Manga Messiah have been distributed in countries around the globe, from Uganda to Guatemala to Great Britain. And, according to U.S. Army Sergeant Justin Griffith, who also serves as the Military Director for American Atheists, Manga Messiah has been distributed by United States military chaplains.

Over the next few days, we will be hearing a lot about anti-gay activist Rev. Scott Lively of Springfield, MA. He has previously been the focus of activist outrage, and his organization Abiding Truth Ministries has been designated as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But on Monday, January 7th, he will appear in federal court in Springfield in an effort to dismiss a charge of "persecution" under international law.  

Last Spring, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a civil suit in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign victims of crimes under international law access to American courts.  The first oral arguments in the case of Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) vs. Lively will allow both sides to present their arguments in person for the first time. At issue will be Lively's Motion to Dismiss. (Lively is represented by the Christian Right legal group, Liberty Counsel.)  

The case is likely to attract major media attention, in part because the Alien Tort Statute has never before been used in human rights cases involving sexual minorities, and because anti-gay persecution in Uganda has become a lighting rod issue due to the notorious "kill the gays" bill.  ARISE for Social Justice is organizing a demonstration and if past is prologue, Lively's supporters will likely be out in force as well.

For a man who has so much to say about media, movies, television, sexuality, and homosexuality, why does Ted Baehr remain silent about America's obsession with guns and gun violence?

Baehr is a conservative Christian movie critic and media pundit who will never be mistaken for Roger Ebert, the Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, or The New York Times' A.O. Scott. Nevertheless, he has found his niche by cranking out movie reviews and media/cultural commentary for the faithful -- conservative evangelical Christians.

Baehr has lots to say about violence in the movies, violent video games, and the secularization of our culture, but he is virtually silent on America's obsession with guns and gun control.

Dr. Jean Hardisty is the founder president emerita of Political Research Associates (PRA) and remains involved in the organization. She gave an interview on the occasion of the launch of the new organizational web site and blog, Eyes Right (where I will also be contributing).  

Here are a few excerpts from the interview, offering the perspective of a progressive student of the Right; a scholar who chooses her words carefully, wisely, and well.  

Yes, it's that time of the year, folks. It's time for the presentation of the annual Coughlin Award.  The competition was stiff, but one Catholic Right mover and shaker stood out out from the crowd, head and shoulders above the rest.

Fox News talk show host Mike Huckabee distinguished himself recently by asserting that the reason for the Newtown massacre was that America has removed God from the public schools.   Unsurprisingly, other other Religious Right leaders have made similar assertions, although they vary in the reasons from a generalized national apostasy to marriage equality. All this has generated several rounds of unsurprising outrage.  

And now Huckabee has struck again.