How times have changed

Bob Jones University is an extremely fundamentalist Christian institution that not only denounces homosexuality but also even prohibited inter-racial dating and marriage. When that policy was challenged by the IRS that denied its tax-exempt status because of its discriminatory policies, the university took its case against the IRS all the way to the US Supreme Court, where they lost.
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Family secrets

All families have secrets. Sometimes these secrets are known widely within the family but not shared with outsiders. In other cases, these secrets are kept from close members of the family even, or particularly, those directly affected by them. But eventually the truth usually emerges and the process can be painful for those involved.
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The layers of the mask keep peeling away

Capitalism has been incredibly successful in producing advances in technology and quality of life for many people, especially in the developed world. But the system is also inherently exploitative, and nowhere is this more in evidence than in the US where it has spawned an incredible level of economic inequality and greater insecurity for the vast majority of the population even as a tiny segment of the population get obscenely richer.
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How the US almost became a major cricketing nation

In writing about cricket on this blog, I was aware that the game is mystifying to those readers who live in countries that do not play this game. Americans in general tend to be quite clueless about it. Hence it may come as a surprise that America was once one of the leading nations playing the game, with Philadelphia as its center, and had (arguably to the extent that one can rank these things) the best bowler in the history of the game. In fact, the first international cricket match took place in 1844 in the US between it and Canada.
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Government-supported religious nutters indoctrinating children

In America we are used to having religion-based educational institutions that teach an anti-science, anti-gay, anti-sex, and anti-women curriculum. It is appalling that these schools, because they shelter under the mantle of religion, benefit from tax-exempt status which means that all of us are essentially subsidizing the propagation of odious viewpoints. But apparently there are also schools in Great Britain that have tax-exempt status that promote the most appalling views.
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