Best of the Infidel, 2014

The "comfort" offered by religion is a shabby and dangerous lie.

Separation of church and state must be upheld without compromise.

The pro-death position is a morally-bankrupt abomination.

The concept of "basic income" could help us manage the coming technological transformation of the economy.

Happy Tunisia -- not as Islamic, or even as Arabic-speaking, as you think.

The blip:  Did we just hear a brief and accidental sign that there's another civilization out there?

I respond to Ross Douthat's plea for mercy.

Movie review:  Death of a woman, and of a world.

The left needs a better understanding of nationalism in Europe.

The enemy is religion, not (most) religious people.

Brandeis University disgraced itself here.

Hinduism is like apartheid made into a religion.

Iraq is not a nation.  Kurdistan is. The US will not be able to deal with the Middle East until it understands that.

Sometimes the most potent form of nationalism is cultural, not political.

The Middle East and American narcissism: It's not about us.

I take a look at the first superpower and its founder.

Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani is a genuinely radical reformer.

The MH17 disaster exemplifies Putin's dangerous incompetence.

Book review:  The Camp of the Saints is the Atlas Shrugged of racism.

ISIS is Islamic; the Iraq war will be won by Iran; we should do the right thing and help the Kurds get a state.  More on the Kurds here.

Men's clothes are awful.  We should learn from the ancients.

The arguments against legal marijuana are dishonest and wrong.

Don't let the fight for social progress be weakened by trite, shallow arguments.

A lot of people weren't fooled by Ebola fear-mongering.

Frozen carries a message of acceptance for differences broadly, not only for gays (more here).

A strong sense of identity can be a tool for liberation, but it's not the only one.

Christianity is defining itself as a religion whose highest value is the right to exclude others.

America's torture program is an ineradicable stain on our national character.  Reactions to it illustrate the moral superiority of the atheist.