Charles C. Haynes: Religious name-calling has no place in political arena

  For anyone familiar with U.S. history, it’s hard to miss the irony of a Baptist leader calling the Mormon Church a “cult” — which is what Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress told the press earlier this month, moments after introducing Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

  After all, Baptists were themselves widely viewed as members of a dangerous, heretical “sect” (another not-so-nice label) in 18th century America. So much so that Baptist preachers were persecuted and jailed in Virginia for various illegal acts such as “unlawful preaching.”

  Jeffress professed surprise that anyone was surprised by his statements that Mitt Romney belongs to a cult and “is not a Christian.” As Jeffress explained to The New York Times, “this idea that Mormonism is a theological cult is not news either. That has been the historical position of Christianity for a long time.”

Marshall Fitz , Angela Maria Kelley: The Nasty ripple effects of Alabama’s Immigration Law

  The “Birmingham campaign” to end segregation and other forms of discrimination garnered international attention in 1963 when the city’s infamous Commissioner of Public Safety “Bull” Connor unleashed police dogs and fire hoses on black children engaging in peaceful protest. Those images, captured on television, created a horrifying portrait of the American South and triggered national outrage over the plight of African Americans under Jim Crow segregation.

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s peaceful protests eventually broke the back of segregation in Alabama. But now a new breed of state-sanctioned discrimination has surfaced with the implementation of Alabama’s harsh anti-immigration law, H.B. 56, the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act.

Ian M. MacIsaac: The Situation in Syria: A persistent populous faces President Assad's house of horrors

  The death of Libya's Col. Muammar Qaddafi has made ripples throughout the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Syria. Syria is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, between Israel and Iraq; its people have virtually no rights, and one family, the Assads, have ruled the country for 40 years.

  In no other Arab Spring nation have protesters and activists worked so hard for such a profound, uninterrupted length of time, under the most violent and dangerous circumstances seen in any of the nations involved--besides perhaps Libya itself, where in the end the government declared war on the people.

Charles C. Haynes: Anti-gay bullying: Does silence = death?

  Culture wars are returning to school this fall as conflicts over what to say — or not to say — about homosexuality escalate across the country.

  After a spate of high-profile news stories about gay teen suicides (nationwide, six in September alone), school officials are caught in the crossfire in the fight over how to address the anti-gay bullying that has been implicated in some of the deaths.

  Gay-rights advocates insist that anti-bullying policies must include positive treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Christian conservatives support anti-bullying efforts in general, but demand that public schools keep silent about sexual orientation.

Inside the Statehouse: Revisiting Jim Crow?

  There was never a more ruthless, cutthroat, no holds barred man to sit in the Oval Office than Lyndon Johnson. His biographer, Robert Caro, describes Johnson as the quintessential backroom brawler.

  Johnson came up in the tough frontier world of rural Texas politics. He carried those Texas spurs to the halls of congress and later to the White House. He was the most effective majority leader that Washington has ever seen because he was the meanest gunslinger on the Hill. He meant to get things accomplished even if it meant using intimidation. He was successful because he was shrewd and feared. He carried this win-at-all-costs attitude with him to the White House.

Gary Palmer: Occupy Movement too radical even for liberal Democrats

  Liberals thought they had their own version of the Tea Party Movement with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Then, they realized that the "Occupiers" were too radical even for them.

  In case you have missed the protests that have been going on across America, the Occupy Wall Street Movement has launched efforts to occupy Wall Street and business districts of other U.S. cities in a demonstration of anger against financial institutions they blame for high unemployment and the economic crisis. The idea for the movement appears to have originated from Adbusters Media Foundation, a liberal group based in Canada.

Ian M. MacIsaac: What Qaddafi’s end means for Libya, and for the United States

  A lot of us in the United States woke up to the news. I didn't believe it at first, maybe just because the situation seems so unbelievable in the first place, like an event from a history book. It’s a profound change to see playing out before our eyes. But it all seems pretty clear now: Moammar Qaddafi was wounded and hiding when he was discovered and shot, execution-style by rebel forces.

  He had been attempting to flee his hometown of Sirte in an unarmed convoy of SUVs when a joint action by a US predator drone and a French warplane attacked his convoy. The vehicles scattered into the city streets, and Qaddafi’s car quickly drove to a ditch area where he attempted to hide in a small ground-level pipe. His guards stood around his hiding place with AK-47s and attempted to defend him but were overtaken.

Joseph O. Patton: An Open Letter to Herman Cain

Mr. Cain:

  I’ve been following your campaign to become the Republican Party’s nominee for president. With all due respect, I’d like to point out a few things that I believe are valid concerns:

  Muslims are people too, and your patriotism, trustworthiness and loyalty to this country are no greater than theirs. Stories about a boogey man hiding in the closet are for children. (Ignorant children who apparently need someone to hate.) There was a shameful time in our country’s history when your patriotism would have likely been questioned simply due to the color of your skin. It’s not acceptable now either.

Eric Alterman: The Continuing curse of ‘on the one-handism’

  In Time magazine’s recent profile of Herman Cain, author Michael Crowley writes of Cain’s now famous “9-9-9” plan, “Conservative economists applaud the idea, but many others say it dramatically favors the rich and would actually raise taxes on the poor and require huge spending cuts.”

  Sentences like these in magazines like this one tell us a great deal about what’s wrong with political coverage in the United States. In the first place, the sentence treats America as if it is made up of only two groups of people: “the rich” and “the poor.” It does not even allow for the existence of the vast majority of Americans who exist somewhere in-between (generally referred to—and exalted as—“the middle class”). Most egregious of all, however, is the implied equivalence between the alleged approval by “conservative economists” on the one hand and what “others” say on the other.

Wendy McElroy: The American nightmare that is civil asset forfeiture

  Being innocent does not matter. Not being arrested or convicted of a crime is no protection. With amazing ease, the government can take everything you own. And to recover it, you must prove your innocence through an expensive and difficult court proceeding in which a severely lowered standard of evidence favors the government. This is civil asset forfeiture.

  Russell and Patricia Caswell of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, know the process well. For the last two years they have battled to keep the motel that Russell’s father built in 1955 and at which Russell has worked since childhood. The couple assumed ownership of Motel Caswell in the 1980s, and viewed the asset, worth approximately $1 million, as their retirement plan.

  In the past 20 years, the Caswells have rented out approximately 125,000 rooms. Of the renters, about .05 percent have been arrested for crimes. As “good” citizens, the Caswells have meticulously reported any suspicious activity on the part of renters to the police, including possible drug use.