The formation of the Christian biblical canon remains one of the most debated subjects in religious studies. Popular narratives—such as the idea that Emperor Constantine assembled bishops at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE to vote on which books would become Scripture—reflect modern concerns about institutional authority more than historical fact. Yet these narratives speak to something real: the long, political process by which certain spiritual voices were elevated while others—especially texts emphasizing intuition, embodiment, inner sovereignty, or the divine feminine—were marginalized or lost.

A Historical Examination of Colonial Power, Reproductive Violence, and the Legacy of Coercive Public Health When the United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898, it ignited a new colonial era marked by political domination, economic restructuring, and social engineering. Among the most devastating outcomes of this colonial relationship was the systematic sterilization of Puerto Rican women. By 1970, approximately one-third of all Puerto Rican women of reproductive age…

How economic interests, legal conflicts, and institutional development shaped Texas’s path to independence The Texas Revolution (1835–1836) is often framed as a struggle for freedom from an overbearing central government. While this narrative has enduring symbolic power, historical scholarship demonstrates that the conflict was also deeply entangled with economic interests, demographic change, and the politics of slavery. The following analysis examines these dynamics from a nonpartisan political-science perspective, focusing on institutional incentives, legal conflicts, and the long-term consequences of policy decisions.

Understanding the Data Without Ideology, Blame, or Assumptions Crime statistics show a striking and consistent pattern: men commit the majority of criminal acts, especially violent offenses. Across decades, countries, and political systems, this trend remains remarkably stable. Yet conversations around crime often become politicized, with competing narratives focusing on race, poverty, immigration, or cultural decline. Lost in the noise is a crucial fact: …

For 25 years, True Power Martial Arts Academy has been a cornerstone of strength, resilience, and community in Stillwater, Oklahoma. What began as a small dojo with a big heart grew into a family of students, teachers, and supporters who found far more than martial arts training within its walls. They found belonging. Today, after a quarter of a century of service, True Power is closing its doors for the final time.

How federal reform, prevention policies, and civil-rights debates reshaped America’s child welfare system A System at a Breaking Point Foster care in the United States has long been a paradoxical institution—designed to protect children, yet often criticized for fragmented services, inconsistent standards, and inequitable outcomes. When Donald Trump entered office in 2017, the child welfare system faced mounting national pressure: rising foster care numbers, a shortage of family placements, the opioid epidemic, and calls for sweeping reform.

The debate over the minimum wage in the United States is one of the most enduring and polarizing in modern public policy. For some, a higher minimum wage represents essential economic justice. For others, it threatens business stability, regional autonomy, or job creation. Most arguments, however, rarely confront the full economic picture—especially the lived experience of workers surviving on low wages in a country where prices, productivity, and living costs have changed dramatically in the past 15 years.

The Image That Forces a Conversation The striking image of a face split down the middle—one half portraying an Indigenous person and the other an African person held in bondage—serves as a powerful reminder of two foundational truths that shaped the United States. On one side lies the history of Indigenous nations whose lands, lives, and cultures were systematically targeted through forced removal, warfare, and policies that produced catastrophic population loss.

The 2025 U.S. federal government shutdown reveals not simply a budgetary standoff but a systemic breakdown of political responsibility and governance. Both major parties treated Americans’ livelihoods as leverage, emphasising control over compromise and undermining public trust. This essay explores how the shutdown’s resolution underscores the moral decay of modern politics, analyses the mechanisms by which both parties engage in power-play, and assesses implications for democratic legitimacy and policy effectiveness.

There are two Americas living side by side, sharing the same land but not the same reality. There are two Americas.One America is buoyed by privilege, untouchable and insulated.The other America is sinking under the weight of wage stagnation, rising costs, shrinking supports, and a mental-health storm gathering overhead. The current policy direction is not benign. It is…

Why this is timely Education remains a top public concern because student achievement has yet to fully recover from pandemic losses, costs continue to squeeze families, and employers say they can’t find enough workers with the right skills. 2024–2025 data show mixed academic recovery in K-12, persistent chronic absenteeism, and renewed pressure on college affordability and access after the turbulent FAFSA overhaul.

How border, asylum, and legal status debates shape families, front-line services, and community integration. Why this is timely Immigration has climbed the public agenda throughout 2025. In January, an AP-NORC survey found more Americans naming immigration as a top U.S. priority for the year, amid expectations of major policy shifts; subsequent polling tracked rising salience alongside increasingly nuanced public views about immigrants and the economy.

Why America’s Trust Deficit Is More Than a Political Problem — It’s a Crisis of Connection Beyond the Numbers In an age of record partisanship and pervasive cynicism, the gap between Americans and their institutions has never felt wider. According to the Pew Research Center, only a small fraction of citizens today say they trust the federal government to do the right thing most of the time.

A nonpartisan look at the reasoning behind Democrats’ and Republicans’ shutdown strategies—and why partisanship hurts everyone. Government shutdowns have evolved into a recurrent and disruptive fixture in the American political landscape. While ostensibly triggered by disagreements over federal spending, their underlying causes often run much deeper—anchored in entrenched ideological divides between the major political parties. These standoffs are no longer mere budgeting impasses; they reflect broader philosophical conflicts about the role of government, the scope of public services, and the use of institutional power to advance partisan agendas.

(Feminist Academic & Policy Analyst) Between 2020 and 2025, the United States underwent some of the most turbulent economic and political shifts in decades. From pandemic recovery packages to major tax reform bills, these policies shaped not only GDP curves but the lived realities of millions of families — especially single mothers, who continue to stand at the intersection of economic precarity and gendered responsibility.

A Non-Partisan Look at Power, Process, and Shared Accountability On October 1, 2025, the United States federal government entered a partial shutdown—its first since 2018—after Congress and the President failed to reach agreement on either short-term or long-term funding measures. This latest impasse did not arise in isolation; rather, it emerged from years of deepening polarization, institutional gridlock, and declining public trust in the political process.

In the turbulent years following the American Civil War, the site known as the Devil’s Punchbowl near Natchez, Mississippi, has emerged in both historical discourse and popular memory as a locus of catastrophic suffering for newly freed African Americans. While accounts vary in their specifics, a general narrative holds that this bowl-shaped natural hollow was used as a refugee encampment—some say even a prison—for thousands of formerly enslaved people, many of whom died from disease, starvation, or neglect (

Exploring the Intersection of Faith, Law, and Identity in Modern Heathenry Through the Figure of AFA’s Lawspeaker Modern Heathen and Ásatrú movements represent a unique convergence of ancient religious revivalism and the bureaucratic realities of the twenty-first century. These movements often strive to reconstruct the spiritual and cultural frameworks of pre-Christian Northern Europe, while simultaneously operating within modern legal, social, and organizational systems.

A nonpartisan public-policy analysis of powers, guardrails, risks, and likely outcomes In a recent statement, President Donald Trump declared that he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 “if necessary,” a pronouncement that immediately reignited debate over one of the most controversial instruments of executive power in American law. The Insurrection Act serves as a statutory exception to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878…

From Deborah to Mary Magdalene — Stories of Faith, Freedom, and the Feminine Divine. For generations, the Bible has stood at the center of debates about gender, power, and purpose. It has been used to justify oppression and to inspire liberation — wielded both as a weapon and as a source of healing. Too often, selective interpretations have silenced women’s voices, confining them to the margins of the story.

Finance, Media, and the Carceral System in One Portfolio A small circle of financial giants—Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street—holds outsized stakes in both private prison operators (CoreCivic and GEO Group) and cultural powerhouses (Paramount/BET, Universal Music Group, Warner/Atlantic). These asset managers do not run the day-to-day operations of these companies, but their concentrated ownership ensures they profit from—and can exert influence over—two industries that shape both confinement and culture.

How Female Rulers Redefined Strength in a Patriarchal World Throughout history, women have been written into—and often out of—power. In the Roman world, where patriarchy defined both the state and the household, a woman wielding authority was not only unusual but threatening. Yet some of Rome’s greatest adversaries were precisely that: women. Figures such as Cleopatra VII of Egypt, …

On October 1, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. EDT, the U.S. federal government entered a shutdown after Congress failed to agree on funding for fiscal year 2026 and could not pass a continuing resolution (CR). The failure centers on partisan disputes over spending levels, healthcare subsidy extensions under the Affordable Care Act, and cuts to foreign aid, among other budget priorities (Stanton, 2025).

How the Bible’s Redaction Erased Asherah and Subjugated Women The intersection of gender and religion has always been battleground. The Bible, probably the most influential book in human history, has been invoked repeatedly to sanction patriarchal power. But closer examination of ancient Israelite religion reveals that subordination of feminine divinity was not theological exigency but a reinterpretation justified on political grounds.

Why the distinction matters for better research, better policy, and better public conversation What is inference—and why should anyone care? Political life is messy. We never observe all actors, intentions, or decisions. Inference is how we move from the data we can see to the truths we want to understand. Without it, we’re stuck with anecdotes or spreadsheets; with it, we can make…