Grateful Dead

Yeah, I would agree the Muslims are persecuted to a larger or smaller degree in this country. I missed that. There was a time before JFK when people questioned the allegiance of Catholics to the pope too. I guess that rises to the level persecution. To a larger or smaller degree there is some kind of social onus on all religions, except for WASPs, but very little of it is actual persecution because of religion. Have you traveled abroad to countries where religion is officially persecuted? There are freedoms we take for granted in this country. There is even a Church of John Coltrane in SF, or similar name. Is throwing the Hare Krishnas out of the airports persecution? The US government did seem to officially persecute the Moonies for a while in the 70s. Actually, this is a pretty interesting subject, Parkas

"North Korea said on Tuesday its strategic rocket and long-range artillery units have been ordered to enter combat posture targeting U.S. military bases on Guam, Hawaii and mainland America after U.S. bombers flew more sorties threatening the North. The North previously threatened nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea, although it is not believed to have the technology to hit continental United States with an atomic weapon." In 2002 the US envoy to NK told then President Bush that NK had 5 nuclear warheads. ~ May you live in interesting times ~ (An old Chinese curse)

Is waiting for the rapture and/or believes "the end" is near? And acts like it?

The level of religious persecution in this country now is nowhere near the degree that caused this land to get settled in the first place, but there is indeed persecution going on. It's much more subtle, though, and under-the-radar; the media is largely to blame and has been since 9/11. We talk of the war on terror, but we ignore the many non-Muslim, non-Arabic terrorist groups that remain active and unbothered by America's so-called "War on Terror." Why? Because, according to post-9/11 standards, if you're of Arabic descent and a Muslim, chances are you're a terrorist. It's akin to the treatment of the many Japanese-American citizens that were living in this country around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. They were persecuted simply because they looked like the enemy, regardless of whether or not they were even remotely affiliated with the Japanese Emperor. And where did we throw them? Concentration camps, similar to where the Nazis kept the Jews around the same time. Not religious persecution but persecution nonetheless. And what about the fringe churches that have been picketing the funerals of gay soldiers who died overseas? They're using their religion to persecute those who don't believe what they believe. Or the persecution of the gay community as a whole by the Christian Right? Trying to keep them from having the Constitutional right to be a legally-recognized married couple sure sounds like persecution to me. I guess you could say the persecution is on a more social level than what we typically identify as persecution, but, in my opinion, it's still persecution. When I used to go to church, no one was told to hate gay people or that gay people were going to Hell because their lifestyle went against what's in the Bible. I remember hearing sermons and stories about how God loves us all no matter what, and that it's our job to love our neighbors in the same way. I just hope it doesn't get any worse. Of course, it all depends on how you define "persecution," too....

Likes to spend time on his private curtilage, thank god.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbYbqZKphyQ **how pathetic that the legality of herb is still an issue. Sale of personal property remains a great source of confiscation income for cash strapped police departments, though, and since pot is so ubiquitous in our society, that's a major cash cow to be passing up by blanket legalization.

cur·ti·lage [kur-tl-ij] noun Law. the area of land occupied by a dwelling and its yard and outbuildings, actually enclosed or considered as enclosed. Origin: 1250–1300; Middle English courtelage < Anglo-French; Old French cortillage, equivalent to cortil yard ( cort court + -il diminutive suffix) + -age -age "curtilage." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 26 Mar. 2013. < Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/curtilage >.

Well, at least there is still a little freedom left. Not much though. There is NO comparison between the amount of freedom we had pre-9/11 and the amount of freedom we have now.

I don't see persecution of religion where I live. Dubya was off-the-wall whacko (about 13 years ago) with that fundamentalist little book he made his entire White House staff read but I I don't see other religions persecuted. Would you care to share a few examples? The thing I do see is a strong Christian identity in the armed forces of the US and the labeling of an enemy anywhere they fight as "barbarian". Even this does not seem to be the majority and the demonizing of the enemy is a normal human tendency. Kind of a thing that religions are supposed to educate about...

all the more remarkable because the majority was Scalia, Thomas, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan: No, they can't search your house without a warrant after they've brought a drug-sniffing dog onto your front porch with no consent. Truly lovely bit from Scalia: "The police cannot, without a warrant based on probable cause, hang around on the lawn or in the side garden, trawling for evidence and perhaps peering into the windows of the home. And the officers here had all four of their feet and all four of their companion's, planted firmly on that curtilage — the front porch is the classic example of an area intimately associated with the life of the home." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Court-Drug-dog-sniff-is-uncons…