Loss of Purpose Begets Lawlessness

devastation from what conservatives call capitalism, though in actuality, we have not been practicing capitalism for a while.

I saw this article as well and I found this law Norris mentioned really ridiculous. Even as an atheist, I would never condone suppressing people from speaking freely and practicing their religion so long as they don't impose it on others. The story of these people in California was just a mockery of constitutional rights. In the marketplace of ideas, people have a right to voice their opinions. Sometimes they'll get thrown out when they don't catch favor or in the case of academics, can't be supported. But people still have a right to be religious in a free society. I have nothing against a group of Christians praying in a park the same way I have nothing against a group of Buddhists meditating in that same park. It's all free speech. As John Stossel once said, so long as it's peaceful the government doesn't have a right to butt it's nose into other people's business.

I know we don't agree on a lot of stuff Valiant, but I agree with you here. When people are literally forced to curtail their own free speech and religious practices, something is very wrong.

My husband and I watched the news coverage on the protests prior to Obama's speech seperately and both came to the same conclusion. It looked to us as if peaceful protesters were being arrested for ...??? At first, I figured the school was exercising its right to private property, but then my husband, who was raised Catholic and has an aunt who is a nun, explained that ND is owned by the RCC and many of the protesters he saw being arrested were priests and nuns. So, I'm not so sure that in this current political climate, peaceful protest or even peaceful assembly is still permissable. I know it's Constitutional, but I don't think this gov't really cares about the Constitution. They prefer if anyone disagreeing with them just sit down and shut up!

You can bet that if a protester threw shoes at Mr. Obama, he would NOT have laughed it off. He would not have seen it as an example of growing democracy. He would have seen it as unacceptable dissent. I think Notre Dame evidences that.

is NOT owned by the RCC. If it was owned by the RCC do you think they would be teaching stuff not in line with catholic teaching. Notre Dame ceased to be a catholic institution a long time ago, and so have many others.

Some of my friends on the left have been arrested while protesting peacefully. Some of those arrests were legit and some were not.