I know it's not considered polite to speak ill of the dead, but I'm going to bend that rule today to comment on Robert H. Bork, the former federal appeals court judge and failed Supreme Court candidate who died yesterday.

Those of you who have been following church-state issues for a long time might recall that President Ronald W. Reagan nominated Bork to replace Justice Lewis Powell in the summer of 1987. Bork held extremely conservative - some might say reactionary - views, and the possibility of his elevation to the highest court in the land alarmed many groups.

Last Friday, in the small Connecticut town of Newtown, a disturbed young man who should never had access to an assault rifle murdered his mother, six educators, twenty children and then himself.  In a frighteningly brief period a nation was plunged into grief.

What is now needed is greater restrictions on assault weapons, perhaps with a buyback of those weapons that are still accessible to other would-be deranged gunmen. Of course this will trigger outcries of those who claim their Second Amendment Rights are being trampled upon. There is one force that can effectively answer this false charge if they choose to do so: Cardinal Dolan and the Catholic bishops. Will they use that power? So far, they have not.

The broken record that is Mat Staver, founder of the Religious Right group Liberty Counsel, is at it again: Christmas is under attack. Christmas is under attack. Christmas is under attack.

You could have fooled me. I stopped in a local mall last weekend, and it sure looked to me like Christmas was in full swing. On my way there, I passed more than one church with a Nativity scene on its lawn. Based on the decorations on my block alone, which include both the secular and the sacred, you'd have a hard time not knowing it's Christmastime.

As soon as I heard about Friday's horrific school shootings in Newtown, Conn., I knew it would only be a matter of time before some Religious Right extremist blamed it on the lack of mandatory prayer in public schools.

It didn't take long. First out of the crazy box was former Arkansas governor and erstwhile presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Adam Lanza carried out an act of apocalyptic violence in Connecticut, killing 28 people and wounding another victim. Most of those dead were children…most were just six years old.

We may never know Adam’s motivations. The troubled man's aunt told a reporter that Adam's mother Nancy was “something of a survivalist” and “she worried about economic collapse and had been stockpiling." Nancy Lanza had a collection of guns, including a Bushmaster rifle and at least two automatic pistols. We cannot ask his mother why her son became a murderer because apparently Nancy Lanza was Adams first victim.

Fears of an upcoming economic collapse or other doomsday scenarios are widespread given media attention to the absurd claim that an ancient Mayan calendar predicts the end of time at the end of December. Other speculative theories place the blame for the end of time on a variety of causes.

There are threads connecting survivalism, apocalyptic aggression, and violence, but they need sorting out. First of all, be aware that most people who practice survivalism and most people who have apocalyptic beliefs do not act out in violence.

Mitt Romney is a survivalist as are all devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Mormons are mandated by their religion to keep a cache of food, water, and other survival supplies. Given a history of violence against Mormons being pushed out of their homes by angry vigilantes, this is not merely a strange quirk.

Given the widespread media speculation about Adam Lanza’s psychological health, it needs to be said that most people who suffer from some form of mental illness do not act out in violence. Most of the media babble about Lanza’s mental illness is not supported by psychological research much less a real diagnosis.

If you're like me, your email inbox often contains items of a questionable nature. Despite spam filters, I still get the occasional message from a Nigerian government official offering me millions or notice that I've won a European lottery that I never entered.

But as far as I'm concerned, chain emails of a political nature are the worst: Here's proof President Barack Obama's birth certificate is a fake! Join this plan to bombard the ACLU with Christmas cards! Mitt Romney can still be president if one-third of the states refuse to cast ballots in the Electoral College!

The well-connected conservative culture warrior, Robert W. Finn, still leads the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri more than three months after being convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse.  This has led to a growing unease inside and outside of the Church that the problems that led to shocking child sex abuse scandals and high level coverups, are far from over.

When our friend Osagyefo Sekou became the editor of the Boston version of the monthly newspaper Spare Change News, he asked me to write something.  I wrote on the results of the marriage equality referenda in four states, and how some things have changed in the political and religious communities. (See below)

Spare Change News is one of a number of similar newspapers across the country intended to provide a dignified way for homeless people to earn income without panhandling, and keep issues of homelessness before the reading public. Vendors keep a share of the cover price.  The papers cover other subjects as well, making them a good read on the bus or the subway.

Many things drive me crazy about creationists but a major one is how they pretend to be great advocates of scientific inquiry and learning when in reality, those are the farthest things from their minds.

Consider Sen. Dennis Kruse of the Indiana legislature, who last year proposed a bill that would have mandated the teaching of "creation science" alongside evolution in public schools. Kruse's bill passed the state Senate but faltered in the House of Representatives after some lawmakers, in a rare bout with lucidity, pointed out that it was blatantly unconstitutional and would get the state sued back into the Stone Age. (That probably didn't bother creationists, since they don't believe there was a Stone Age.)

Now that the frenzy of the election and its wake has subsided, I want to resurface a post from November 3 that probably got lost in the deluge. The significance of the much reviled Todd Akin is not only that he believed and stated extraordinary things about rape -- and voiced them while running for the U.S. Senate. -- FC

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has become notorious for his comments about rape, but there are many other good reasons to consider him one of the most recklessly dangerous pols in the nation. Fresh revelations about his criminal record and his approval of proponents of anti-abortion violence  are now coming out almost daily. Josh Glassteter at People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch has come up with video that demonstrates how this is so.  The National Journal is now reporting that Akin was arrested at least 8 times in connection with anti-abortion protests in he 80s -- including an instance in which he was blocking access to a clinic, refused to leave and had to be  "carried out by police."

A few days after the 1993 assassination of Florida abortion provider, Dr. David Gunn, Akin's longtime anti-abortion/militia pal, Tim Dreste, stood in front of the clinic of abortion provider Dr. Yogrenda Shah with a sign stating:  "Dr. Shah, are you feeling under the Gunn?"

Here is the video:

A few months later, Akin contributed $200 to Dreste's dark horse race for state representative.

Travel back in time with me for a moment. It's 1956, and we're in the Deep South. An interracial couple approaches the county clerk to apply for a marriage license. The clerk says, "Oh, no! Don't you know that the Bible mandates separation of the races? I refuse to give you a license because it violates my religious beliefs."

Now let's move ahead in time. It's 2013, and marriage equality is the law of the land in Maryland. A same-sex couple approaches the county clerk to apply for a marriage license. The clerk says, "No way! Don't you know that the Bible condemns same-sex marriage? I refuse to give you a license because it violates my religious beliefs."

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin warns that journalists are once again prematurely reporting that the death penalty has been removed from Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Burroway posted a list of over a dozen examples since December 2009 of similar false reports, including from PBS, AP, and the BBC. The speaker of the parliament has promised that the bill will become law this year as a "Christmas present" to the Ugandan people,  but it is unclear if the bill has come out of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee. Also, the Washington Blade quotes a source from the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, warning that the committee "is incapable of removing the infamous death penalty provision from the legislation." The article quotes another source saying that State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland may have "misspoke" on Monday about the bill coming out of committee.