Freedom of what?

Two disparate stories that make me mad:

1) Students who blog face suspension according to a new policy from a principal at a private school in Sparta, New Jersey. As deplorable as this is, it doesn't even make sense. What better way to punish a student for posting her opinions online than to give her several days off from school to spend in the comforts of her own wired home?

2) Are Catholics really an oppressed minority? Maybe 50 years ago in the rural rivertowns of Missouri, but today??? Republicans seem to have discovered a fool-proof plan to nix the Roe v. Wade debate among Supreme Court justices: Appoint a Catholic and decry anyone who questions his conservative agenda a religious bigot.