Free Republic

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front Party, vowed that if she is elected the country’s president she would ban all public displays of religious symbols and clothing, including kippot. Le Pen made the statement during an interview on Sunday with France’s BFM-TV. She is expected to seek the country’s presidency in 2017. She heads the third-largest party in France. Le Pen is seeking to broaden an existing law, called the headscarf ban, that does not allow conspicuous displays of religious symbols in public schools to include all public areas. She called the ban a struggle against...

The Québec government moved forward Thursday with a proposed law that would ban public employees from wearing overt religious symbols, setting the stage for a showdown over the place of religion in the province. Québec Premier Pauline Marois said the law aims to preserve the province’s fundamental values, including the equality of men and women and the separation of church and state. Her separatist Parti Québécois on Thursday introduced its Charter of Values in the province’s legislature. … The law would forbid government employees from wearing Muslim headscarves, Jewish kippas, Sikh turbans and larger-than-average crucifixes. It would also prohibit citizens...

I was driving by an elementary school the other day and I was shocked to find it covered in Aztec symbols. I actually made the effort to get out and snap some photos because when I was a boy, everything was red, white and blue, and we had pictures of George Washington. We even perfeormed the play "1776" while dressed in period patriot clothing. Oh dear.

Interesting results in Iowa. Capturing Saddam seems to have taken the wind out of Dean's sails, even among anti-war Democrats, who voted far more for Kerrey than for Dean in the caucuses. Even if Dean does well in New Hampshire, it means little -- New Hampshire is next door to Dean's own Vermont. But I don't expect him to do all that well there, either. Kerrey and Edwards seem to have divided the people who have been disgusted by Dean's obvious cynical manipulation of his "message." It may well be that Iowa has saved the Democratic Party -- and America...

The Virtue of Tolerance by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, Acton President The holiday season is a time for love of children, compassion for the poor, and good will toward all—and a good deal of religious acrimony. Every year we hear stories of lawsuits and bitter fights over which religious symbols can be displayed in public. This year the big issue concerns cases in New York City, and Palm Beach, Florida, where symbols of the Islamic and Jewish faiths are freely displayed but Christian ones are not permitted. The Thomas More Law Center is assisting plaintiffs who claim that this...

Deus ex Sol: Solar Logos and Helioseismology Depicted in Crop Circle Formations By Kris Sherwood 'Let There be Light' Nearly every year since Crop Circles began appearing in the English landscape what can be seen as Solar symbols, conceptual representations of 'The Sun as God', and aspects of Solar physics have been found referenced in the designs of many formations that have been considered to be created by the source of the genuine Crop Circle phenomenon. 'Solar Logos' has been a recurring theme that my research partner, and husband, Ed Sherwood first observed in 1990 and later made me aware...