Yes, There Is a War Between Science and Religion

Jerry Coyne The Conversation
In the end, it’s irrational to decide what’s true in your daily life using empirical evidence, but then rely on wishful-thinking and ancient superstitions to judge the “truths” undergirding your faith.

Friday Nite Videos | December 21, 2018

Portside
A Very Special Counsel Christmas. Jon Batiste Performs 'Saint James Infirmary Blues'. Walking to America with the Migrant Caravan. Capernaum |Movie. Trump’s New Chief of Staff & Stephen Miller’s New Hairline

You Don’t Hate Mondays, You Hate Not Being Yourself

Drake Caeneus Medium.com
Perhaps we don’t really hate Mondays. What we really hate, maybe, is the nagging sensation that we are not fully present in our own lives. Mondays nudge us to ask: In how much of this life am I truly free?

Dialectics of Christmas

Fred Halliday Verso
A vintage holiday treat from the UK's Black Dwarf, Christmas 1969*, where the author analyzes the dialectic of Christmas in which the desire for happiness is marshaled into a tool of subjection (and alcoholic oblivion).

What’s Good for the Country? New Owners for GM

Toni Gilpin Labor Notes
GM recently declared that it will close three major assembly and two smaller transmission facilities in North America. This despite GM’s recent robust profit reports - while labor costs make up less than 10 percent of the average vehicle.

Gilets Jaunes: A Pioneering Study of the ‘Low Earners’ Revolt

Le Monde Diplomatique
The scale of the movement and the speed with which it was formed are striking, outside trade-union organizations and political parties. Who are the gilets jaunes? What do they want? Are we witnessing a renewal of the forms of protest and politics?