The free speech wedding cake case gets under way, Dennis the Menace is back and other news and views

Even the Bernini of Buttercream Has to Serve Gay Couples - New York Times

The Supreme Court is to hear arguments Tuesday in the case of a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, who refused to make a wedding cake for two gay men, Charlie Craig and David Mullins. The legal issues in this case are potentially vexing and complicated, but there is a simple way the court could avoid most of them and resolve this case through the application of well-established law. ... 

No one has required Mr. Phillips to pledge allegiance to gay marriage. Nor has anyone denied him the freedom to speak, write or pray against it. Mr. Phillips is not a church, a political pamphleteer or a schoolchild being forced to honor a graven image. He is a small-business owner who makes and sells pretty things to eat.

That is honest and important work, but the First Amendment does not give merchants like him the right to refuse to comply with anti-discrimination statutes just because they think their personal beliefs are more important. Beliefs may not be regulated by the government, but business practices can be. This principle is well settled, and applying it to Mr. Phillips would make this a much easier case.

Hawaii Initiates A New Monthly Test Of A Nuclear Siren - NPR

21st Century Fox 'restarts talks' for possible sale to Walt Disney - The Guardian

The Rupert Murdoch-controlled 21st Century Fox has restarted talks to sell most of the company, including UK broadcaster Sky, to Walt Disney, it was reported on Sunday.

Republicans Are Looting the Treasury While They Still Can - The Nation

They know a backlash is coming, and they’re making the most of their power while they have it.

How the Republicans Broke Congress - New York Times

In the past three days, Republican leaders in the Senate scrambled to corral votes for a tax bill that the Joint Committee on Taxation said would add $1 trillion to the deficit — without holding any meaningful committee hearings. Worse, Republican leaders have been blunt about their motivation: to deliver on their promises to wealthy donors, and down the road, to use the leverage of huge deficits to cut and privatize Medicare and Social Security. Congress no longer works the way it’s supposed to.

Look who’s back! Dennis the Menace wows new generation of mischief-loving children

The Beano, the UK’s longest-running comic, is revitalised by digital spin-offs promoting the joys of youthful rebellion

White evangelicals stand by Roy Moore: poll shows candidates neck-and-neck: Allegations against Moore haven't cost him his base. - Think Progress

Alabama’s Senate race is now neck-and-neck with one crucial demographic holding on to support for Republican candidate and accused serial sexual predator Roy Moore: white evangelical Christians. With the election less than two weeks away, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll shows Democrat Doug Jones leading his opponent 50 to 47 among voters. That poll, published Saturday, notes that a margin of more than nine points is needed to be significant. If the poll is correct, the race is a toss-up — remarkable in overwhelmingly conservative Alabama.

Japan’s much-maligned ‘research whaling’ draws fire for possible violation of international treaty - Japan Times

GENEVA – Japan has found itself in hot water over its “research whaling” in the Northwest Pacific amid a possible violation of an international treaty on endangered species.