Pagan Festivals and much merriment
Pantheacon 2010 was a hot spot for Pagan activities last weekend. We both were amazed at all Pagan wares for sale. It seemed like there was a lot more really beautiful occult supplies and jewels this year.  The costumes and fine clothing were stunning as usual. Always surprising how creative the Pagan culture is. Read full story from examiner.com

Christian Right’s attack on rights
Recently, WallBuilders, Inc., whose founder David Barton has been a guest on Fox’s “Huckabee,” among other venues, filed an amicus brief in a case in the Ninth Circuit. The brief argues that the religion protections of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be limited to Christians or, at most, monotheists because, in the founding era, the word “religion” meant only Christianity or, at most, monotheism. Barton’s history is all wrong. Read full story from washingtonpost.com

The devil’s in the details
“I was appalled by the Satanic image of the devil in the canoe with the shadow over the reddened moon,” writes Dennis from Phoenix, Ariz. “What was that all about? … Is your newspaper getting any blowback on this? Are Canadians talking about it?” Read full story from vancouversun.com

Extreme nationalist brought to court for fiery swastika
The 45-year-old resident of the city Tashtagol did his landscape fire show on May 9 last year – the date of Russia’s national holyday marking the victory over Nazi Germany – which naturally led investigators to suspecting neo-Nazis responsible for the act. Read full story from rt.com

Walsh Library Acquires Collection of Afro-Latin Religious Books and Artifacts
Maureen A. Tilley, Ph.D., professor of theology, has donated various Afro-Latin religious books and artifacts to the Latin American and Latino Institute and William D. Walsh Family Library. Read full story from fordham.edu

Bob Barr’s new Atlanta Journal-Constitution article on Paganism causes a stir
I did not like Bob Barr while he was in office as a Republican. I thought of him as a smug elitist bunghole, a slightly smarter verion of VP Joe Biden. Then he cut ties with his party. Later he joined the ranks of the Libertarian party, the one to which I belong. I found this encouraging. “Pehaps a zebra can change his stripes”, I thought. There were signs in interviews that he had relaxed, become more embracing of individual liberty and the Constitution. After giving the man a chance and voting for him in the Presidential election, one he had no shot at winning, I purposely lost track of him. I had other things on which to focus. Read full story from independentpoliticalreport.com

Discrimination defies any logic
Even on this campus, people are being taken for granted and stereotyped because of their religious beliefs. How is it possible to exclude any set of people without taking away that principle of religious freedom which we ourselves so warmly contend over? If you walk around, dressed in all black from head to toe, people would consider you a Goth (or emo) kid. But do clothes really define you as a person? Do your beliefs really determine your friends? We, as human beings, are so quick to judge one another. We put our brothers and sisters down, we encourage violence, and we choose to not live by the rules. I see so many people who are turned down from jobs, are not able to join organizations, or don’t even get the chance to walk by a group of people because they are judged. Read full story from studentprintz.com