More News: Scalia, Scalia, Scalia, and Trump, Trump, Trump (Plus Pope Francis)

And still more pieces of commentary I'd like to recommend to you today — these on political themes (but since Pope Francis has blessed Aristotle's definition of the human being as the animal politicum, perhaps it's fine to lump political and religious commentary together, especially in the nation with the soul of a church?):

Quote for Day: Fred Clark on Antonin Scalia and How to Avoid Having One's Death Perceived As a Source of Liberation

Fred Clark on the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

bell hooks on Worship of Death As Central Component of Patriarchal Thinking: Reflections on the Legacy of Antonin Scalia

The Constitution is a dead document, Scalia said.

• You can know that a society or a church is dead or well on the way to death when it proclaims that its foundational documents (a Constitution, a Bible) are dead.

Remembering Antonin Scalia: Twitterverse Testimony

I wish Antonin Scalia the peace, mercy, & happiness in death that he tried so hard to deny me in life.

— Katie Grimes (@KatieMGrimes) February 14, 2016

With Bundy Family in a New Standoff with Federal Government, Ties to Extreme Right-Wing Mormonism Finally Being Noted (Plus Scalia on Religion in Government)

Should we call them Mormon extremists? After writing this, I'm legitimately thinking we should. #bundymilitia https://t.co/6rm4AcJlBv

— John Sepulvado (@JohnLGC) January 4, 2016

It's interesting, isn't it, that immediately after the right-wing Opus Dei Catholic Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia informed a group of Catholic high school students in Metairie, Louisiana, that we need more religion in the federal government, an armed rebellion breaks out in the state of Oregon? With religion as one of its roots . . . . And with that very same federal government that should, Scalia thinks, bow to religion in the sights of this rebellion . . . .

Concluding Thoughts on the Huckabee-Staver Show Involving Kim Davis: It's a Catholic Show, Too

As this work week wraps up, and as we reach the level of full glut (and concomitant dyspepsia) with more news about Kim Davis, some wrap-up thoughts about her story:

Frightening Picture Emerging of Yesterday's Shooter, John Russell Houser: "Westboro Baptist Church May Be the Last Real Church in America"

The Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America[members not brainwashed].

— john russell houser (@jrustyhouser) June 5, 2013

Why Antonin Scalia Found the Outburst of a Nutcase Shouting about Hell and Abomination at Yesterday's Supreme Court Hearing "Refreshing"

In his commentary in the New Yorker today on the arguments in yesterday's Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court hearing about same-sex marriage, Jeffrey Toobin zeroes in on a "shocking, ugly moment" that occurred when a spectator stood up and shouted, 

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "I Wonder What Justice Scalia Has to Say Now"

Because isn't he not only a Catholic, but one who frequently claims that his Catholic values infuse everything he does as a Supreme Court justice — and who has argued that Christian values must infuse capitalistic societies if those societies are to succeed? Since capitalism is more Christian than socialism — or so he claims . . . . 

Death Penalty in News: New Evidence Exonerates Men for Whom Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Promoted Death Penalty

As the New York Times notes today, a judicial development in North Carolina this week provides a "textbook example" of much that is broken in the American justice system, as well as more evidence that 'the death penalty is irretrievably flawed as well as immoral." The judicial development: as Ed Mazza reports (along with Jonathan Drew) at Huffington Post, on Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Leon Sasser overturned the conviction of Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown, his half-brother, for the rape and murder of Sabrina Buie in Robeson County, North Carolina, in 1983.

Wisconsin Judge Crabb to Defenders of Traditional Marriage: You Do Understand That Polygamy Is the Tradition You're Defending, Right?

Federal Judge Barbara Crabb in her ruling yesterday (pdf file) striking down the Wisconsin ban on same-sex marriage:

In Religion News: Scalia Father, Scalia Son, Uganda and Stone-Cold Silence of U.S. Catholic Bishops

On Wednesday, I noted that Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia's son Father Paul Scalia has served as a chaplain for the Catholic group Courage.  Yesterday in the Los Angeles Times, Michael McGough notes the younger Scalia's connection to Courage, and points out that Father Scalia has gone on record suggesting that gay people don't really exist--there are only homosexual acts: