Some three centuries into the Age of Reason, there still seem to be an inordinate number of public clashes between the secular and the sacred. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is using the two-week runup to the 4th of July to stage something called the "Fortnight for Freedom," a nationwide campaign aimed at ensuring that the Catholic Church (and other institutions) can continue to exercise their religious liberty by denying their employees access to contraception and abortion.

Abe and Joe examine this and other incidents in a recent string of reactionary patriarchal freakouts.