Yale University plans to move a controversial stone carving from a pillar by the entrance to a renovated library to a museum setting for study. The carving shows an Indian with a bow facing a musket-carrying Puritan. (Below, two views of the carving: on top is the original, with musket; below, today’s version, musket covered. In … Continue reading Yale, the Indian, the Puritan, & the Politics of Display & Discussion
Souperist practices, reported at the time, included serving meat soups on Fridays – which Catholics were forbidden by their faith from consuming, and by the fact that they could not afford meat in the first place.
Soupers were frequently ostracised by their own community, and were strongly denounced from the pulpit by the Catholic priesthood. On occasion, soupers had to be protected by British soldiers from other Catholics.
[Scroll down for updates.] On August 2, federal judge Petrese B. Tucker issued a decision on a motion to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed in July 2018 by two former teachers at Philadelphia’s Friends Central School (FCS). The teachers, Ariel Eure and Layla Helwa, were suspended in February 2017, and fired in May, after they … Continue reading UPDATED: Friends Central School Discrimination Lawsuit: Fired Teachers Win the First Round
There have been a lot of distractions during Pride Month 2025: a coup, a war, shocking Supreme Court rulings, a flop of a tank march, the soaring success of its No Kings rival — I won’t even try to list all the major ones. In June’s waning days, this blog will play some catchup: a … Continue reading “Quaking Over Gay Rights” — Kicked in The Head in Wichita
And what will the exodus of the Nones turn into? Passive resistance like what filled the speakeasies under Prohibition, undermining it with every jug of moonshine and bathtub gin? More open, organized pushback?
Who knows: but I have an actual example of what could happen in mind: For 300-plus years, the Catholic Church was the dominant institution in Quebec Canada, with immense political as well as social power. Then around 1960, for reasons historians still debate, Québécois just had enough, and quit showing up. It wasn’t “organized,” but it was unstoppable. The mass departure sparked what is now called “The Quiet Revolution,” and included the collapse of clerical hegemony.