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I thought I could never care for anyone again, until I met you.

Lily, looking at the church: What is this?

Sebastian: This is the church where someone named God lives.

Lily: Who's God?

Sebastian: It's a bit confusing. God is a shepherd.

Mopple: So he could be our shepherd.

Sebastian: No, because he's also a lamb.

Lily: What?

Sebastian: And he's also invisible. And he's made of bread. And he damns things.

Lily: Dams things? Like a beaver?

Sebastian: Yes.

Lily: So God is a big, invisible lamb-beaver made of bread?

Sebastian: Yes. And they eat him on Sundays.

Friendly Atheist:

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wants everyone to know her state is finally #1 in something. Not crime. They’re 48th in that. Not health care. They’re #47. Infrastructure? Nope. They’re #41. It sure as hell isn’t education, where they’re #36. But they’re #1 when it comes to “Religious Liberty”… at least according to a right-wing Christian group looking for attention.

[Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders today announced Arkansas ranks #1 in the nation for religious liberty according to the First Liberty Institute’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy’s (CRCD) Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) index. Arkansas earned a score of 89.2%, becoming one of only two states to receive the index’s first-ever “excellent” rating. “Religious liberty is America’s First Freedom, and Arkansas is leading the nation in protecting it,” said Governor Sanders. “Our rights come from God, not government, and every American should be free to live according to their faith and conscience. We’ll continue defending that freedom and ensuring the Natural State remains the best place in the country to live, work, and worship.”]

It is downright comical that, even with the #1 ranking, Arkansas could still only pull off a B+. Also funny? New York was ranked last by the right-wing group, which Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ought to wear as a badge of honor, given where the ranking is coming from. The conservative group says the rankings were calculated by evaluating “50 legal protections across 20 safeguards… to support religious freedom in daily life from education and healthcare to family law, economic activity, and religious practice.” To put that another way, if your religion is allowed to override civil rights protections for groups of people you hate, you’re rewarded for it. Same rule applies if your religion is allowed to ignore all the things that generally benefit society For example, First Liberty explains, Christian judges in Arkansas are allowed cite their faith in defense of discriminating against same-sex couples.

That bill, the ACLU noted, also allows taxpayer-funded faith-based adoption and foster agencies to discriminate against gay people and “undermine[s] nondiscrimination standards in education, licensing, and accreditation.” They added that the bill played on the unfounded fear that religious groups would be forced to violate their beliefs, “something that has never happened in the decade since marriage equality became law.” HB 1615 also lets private business owners—bakers, florists, photographers, etc.— discriminate against LGBTQ customers. They can refuse to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple even if they would sell the same cake to a straight one. First Liberty says these “protections” save businesses from “being forced to participate in wedding ceremonies” against their will… as if the caterer at a wedding holds the same importance as the maid of honor. These are the things Arkansas is being rewarded for. Among the other things First Liberty considered in their rankings?

Are clergy members allowed to keep pedophiles’ secrets a secret if they learn about them through the act of Confession? (Requiring them to be mandated reporters in those cases, which would help the victims, is considered a bad thing among conservatives.)

Are houses of worship are allowed to spread a disease during a pandemic? (Conservatives threw a hissy fit when churches were prohibited from opening their doors for large services during the pre-vaccine COVID days. This was done to prevent the spread of an airborne disease because churches, unlike, say, grocery stores, are spaces where people talk and sing and spread germs in close proximity.)

Do public schools let unvaccinated students enroll? (Herd immunity only works if enough people are vaccinated, which is why no one should be exempt from vaccines unless there’s a medical reason for it, but anti-science conservatives think vaccines should be optional.)

Can employees avoid joining a union if they have a religious objection to it? (Conservatives want to decrease the power of those unions, thereby allowing businesses to take advantage of their employees, so any excuse to avoid paying union dues is considered a win.)

[...] As I’ve written before, Sanders, much like her father, isn’t interested in merely blurring the line between church and state. She doesn’t believe such a line exists at all. She thinks her beliefs are state-sanctioned truths while everyone else’s beliefs are merely fiction. That violates the law she swore to uphold. By the way, Arkansas remains one of a handful of states where, at least on paper, the state constitution literally prohibits atheists from holding office: Article 19, Section 1 says “No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court.” It’s unenforceable thanks to the U.S. Constitution, but it’s still on the books in what we’re told is the greatest state for religious liberty. The legislature could begin the process to take that law off the books if they wanted to… but Republicans aren’t interested in doing anything to actually protect religious freedom for non-Christians. The bottom line is that this ranking is a joke. It doesn’t measure “religious liberty” in any meaningful sense of the phrase. It measures how thoroughly a state has embraced the policy wishlist of the Christian Right. If lawmakers let conservative Christians discriminate against LGBTQ people, weaken public health protections, funnel taxpayer money to religious institutions, and inject Christianity into public schools, they rack up points.

If a state actually treats all religions—and those of us with no religion—equally under the law, it gets punished. Muslims don’t get invited into this vision of religious liberty. Neither do atheists, Jews, Hindus, Catholics, or even Christians who reject her brand of conservative evangelical politics.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE CLEAR: NO MORE U.S. AID TO ISRAEL

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on an amendment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie to cut the $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel. I strongly support this amendment.

Israel, like any other country, had the right to defend itself against the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people. But it did not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian population. It did not have the right to kill more than 73,000 Palestinians and wound over 173,000 more — the vast majority of them women, children and the elderly. It did not have the right to destroy virtually the entire infrastructure of Gaza — the schools, the health facilities, the water systems, wastewater plants, the electric grid that a civilian population depends on to survive. It did not have the right to destroy or damage 92% of all housing units in Gaza. In other words, Israel did not have the right to commit genocide. And it did not have the right to escalate its violence and annexation of the West Bank while the world’s attention was focused elsewhere.

Tragically, almost five months ago, Israel, with strong support from the Trump administration, launched a reckless and illegal war against Iran — a war that has killed thousands of people and left an already unstable region of the world even more unstable. That war expanded into Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have now killed more than 4,000 people and displaced some 20% of the entire Lebanese population. That is not “defending Israel”. These are regional wars of expansion and terror, waged without a clear strategy, and without an end in sight.

The American people are catching on. Polls show that nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters now oppose sending military aid to Israel, as do more than one-third of Republican voters. Just 16% of all Americans support giving Israel unconditional aid.

And I am proud that this past April, 40 out of 47 Senate Democrats — a record number — supported my bill to block arms sales to the far-right, extremist Netanyahu government.

We have enormous unmet needs in our own country. Today, while 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, tens of millions of Americans cannot afford housing, healthcare, childcare and other basic needs. Congress must focus on the needs of their constituents, not an Israeli government that is undermining American values. I urge my colleagues in the House to vote yes on the Massie amendment.

Image: AP Photo

Oliver Willis at Daily Kos:

Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s so-called border czar, blamed Democrats for recent incidents in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killed civilians. He called on the party to stop criticizing the administration’s racist immigration policies. “This all comes back to the Dems, who are telling people, ‘Don’t comply with ICE,’” Homan said in an appearance Wednesday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.” Naturally, this is a lie. Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been informing immigrant communities of their rights under the Constitution, which limits the ability of law enforcement to enter private property. Homan also complained about Ocasio-Cortez doing this last February and brought up the congresswoman’s actions in his new Fox appearance. Continuing his rant, Homan said, “I’m scared to death that one of these days, our ICE officers aren’t going to be quick enough. The bad guys are going to be quicker. And I’m going to hand another folded flag to a spouse or a child.”

“It all goes back to the Dems, who want to continue to attack ICE and tell people to evade them, tell people ‘Don’t comply,’ tell people to resist and tell people ICE isn’t real law enforcement agency. You and I talked about this a year and a half ago, Laura. I said if the hateful rhetoric didn’t stop, there would be bloodshed. And I’m saying it right now: There’s still going to be more bloodshed unless they shut their mouth and let ICE enforce the laws that they enacted,” Homan concluded.

Thomas Homan whines about Democrats rightly criticizing ICE’s terroristic activities.

From the 07.17.2026 edition of FNC's The Ingraham Angle: