Bring Judasim and Freedom into the Eternal Fourth Dimension – HuffPost

New York and Israel Jewry in contrasting policies this week.

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Two seemingly disconnected news items this week illustrate the contrasting realities defining American Jewry and Israeli Jewry. In New York, rabbis from the post-denominational congregation Bnai Jeshrun announced they would perform intermarriages. Reaction seems quite muted. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Prof. Asa Kashers proposed Academic Code of Ethics discouraging professors from politicizing the classroom triggered a firestorm.

While each story has its own back-story, the juxtaposition is powerful.

Lifting the intermarriage ban elicited yawns because it is the latest of so many examples of non-Orthodox American Jewrys if-it-feels-good-do-it approach to Judaism, reflecting the American tropism toward less clarity, less commitment, less meaning.

Imposing academic limits governmentally is yet another example of Israels command-and-control approach, reflecting the Israeli tropism toward a heavier hand rather than a lighter touch, which risks suffocating, not liberating. Judaism, at its best, like a light, fluffy omelet avoids either extreme: it must be more substantive, more satisfying, than the American variety but, if beaten too hard it turns rubbery and is no longer tasty.

Assessed historically, both an intermarriage ban and government-imposed academic restrictions result from modern Jewrys two greatest achievements. After three millennia of hatred, Jews are loved and free in America and in most countries where we live. And after two millennia of homelessness, Jews are sovereign and free in Israel.

As the clich goes, Jews are being loved to death: we would not have so much intermarriage if we werent so accepted. Faced with this epidemic among the non-Orthodox, many rabbis are solving the problem by declaring it an opportunity.

Its awkward, because the intermarriage issue involves the most intimate decision people make. Moreover, so many of us know and genuinely love the non-Jewish partners in intermarriages that condemning the phenomenon feels like rejecting them. It gets very personal, very quickly.

Yet you cannot build something lasting on a foundation of mercury.

Having nothing solid at its core makes everything about American Judaism fluid, sloppy, idiosyncratic, excessively personal and ultimately doomed. If its not definable its not sustainable. How do you pass on a mushy, feel-good feeling? Thats not how we survived until now.

To preserve the Jewish future, we cannot stop condemning intermarriage as a phenomenon; to preserve many current Jewish relationships, we continue befriending non-Jews who love and marry Jews.

The way out of the conundrum is to learn from the Orthodox and from secular Israelis, who win the battle against intermarriage by not fighting it. Intermarriage can only be fought pre-emptively, decades earlier.

In todays modern world emphasizing pluralism, choice and autonomy, once you are in the defensive position that many American Jews find themselves in, of guilt-tripping or condemning a couple in love, the battle is lost. Only by raising children in rich, meaningful, three-dimensional Jewish environments, where they grow up understanding Judaism as something long-lasting and historical, something broad and communal, and something deep and meaningful, can we make their Jewish identities so precious and comprehensive that they could no more give that up than change their genders.

When that Jewish experience really works, it enters an eternal fourth dimension. Being properly rooted, centered and steeped in meaningful Jewish experiences inevitably adds to the identity what Einstein noted in space: the cosmic element of time and timeliness. Judaism resonates because it is not just a construct located in the moment. Rather, as a 3,500-year-old heirloom building toward the future, it has an eternal, timeless dimension as well. That added dimensionality makes it cosmic, extra powerful, even if you dont believe in God.

Judaisms 4-D identity is relevant to the academic debate too. Prof. Kasher is one of Israels leading ethicists, hailed as the architect of the IDFs ethics code. Kasher has drawn up a thoughtful, subtle code of academic ethics every professor should follow.

We shouldnt impose our politics on our students. We fail them when we propagandize rather than educating.

And any Israeli academics with any self-respect, with any consistency, should resign after supporting a boycott of Israel, which means boycotting themselves. Taking a stand rhetorically then violating it essentially is the mark of a fool, not just a hypocrite.

But heres the rub. As much as I want my colleagues endorsing Prof. Kashers code, I want them internalizing it voluntarily. The great opportunity Israel offers of sovereignty, of state power, requires Jews, after millennia of homelessness, to learn how to use power and learn when not to use it. Self-imposed academic restrictions are principled; state-imposed ones are oppressive. The problem is not with Kashers code its with any kind of government restrictions which would inevitably lead to nightmares forcing compliance, including financial blackmail, McCarthyite review boards, student informers and other professional penalties.

Freedom in Israel and elsewhere, like Jewish identity everywhere, needs that timeless, ineffable fourth dimension.

State laws belong to the more prosaic part of life, the warp and woof of the mundane we all need to function properly.

Phenomena like Jewish identity, like the academic mission, have their practical sides, but only really work when their more cosmic sides, their fourth dimension, are nurtured and respected. In a modern Jewish world blessed with so much freedom, and the old-new renewal of Jewish sovereignty, we need to learn how to indulge our freedoms within limits and how, by embracing limits and frameworks voluntarily, we can find deeper meaning in that eternal fourth dimension.

Gil Troy is the author of The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s. His forthcoming book, The Zionist Ideas, which updates Arthur Hertzbergs classic work, will be published by The Jewish Publication Society in Spring 2018. He is a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University. Follow on Twitter @GilTroy.

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Bring Judasim and Freedom into the Eternal Fourth Dimension - HuffPost

Religious freedom, anti-discrimination laws to go head-to-head in Supreme Court case – The Week Magazine

Climate scientists are uncertain if the world's "natural sponges," which for decades have helped absorb global carbon dioxide emissions, will be able to keep up with the amount of emissions being produced from burning coal, oil, and natural gas, The New York Times reports. In fact, the sponges might already be failing: Even as the amount of carbon dioxide being produced has stabilized in recent years, carbon dioxide levels in the air rose at record rates in 2015 and 2016.

That's where concerns about the "natural sponges," like the land surface and the ocean, come into play. "In essence, these natural sponges were doing humanity a huge service by disposing of much of its gaseous waste," the Times writes. "But as emissions have risen higher and higher, it has been unclear how much longer the natural sponges will be able to keep up." In other words, even if "emissions were to stay flat for the next two decades, which could be called an achievement in some sense, it's terrible for the climate problem," said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pieter Tans.

Should [the natural sponges] weaken, the result would be something akin to garbage workers going on strike, but on a grand scale: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would rise faster, speeding global warming even beyond its present rate. It is already fast enough to destabilize the weather, cause the seas to rise and threaten the polar ice sheets. [The New York Times]

More research still needs to be done to confirm scientists' worst fears. But "I'd estimate that we are about at the emissions peak," said Chinese Academy of Sciences professor Wang Yi. "Or if there are further rises, they won't be much." Read more about the problem at The New York Times. Jeva Lange

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Religious freedom, anti-discrimination laws to go head-to-head in Supreme Court case - The Week Magazine

House Freedom Caucus sees an opportunity as the debt ceiling approaches – Washington Examiner

As the various congressional factions gather to fight over spending and the debt ceiling this summer, the House Freedom Caucus is ready to dig in as it senses a moment of opportunity and a chance to score concessions from House leadership on a host of issues as days tick down to the August recess.

The group of three-dozen conservatives, who have a history of picking fights with House leadership, have taken a variety of stances in the run-up to the fight as top House Republicans decide how to move forward on both the debt ceiling and a budget. In late May, the group laid down an initial marker by announcing its opposition to a clean debt ceiling bill, which pits the group against the Trump administration and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. They also called for spending cuts to go along with any raising of the debt ceiling and for the issue to be resolved by the month-long August recess.

The GOP bill is aimed at taking away Democratic arguments that the U.S. would "default" on the debt by making it clear that if the U.S. was suddenly unable to borrow, it would use the existing flow of tax receipts to keep up debt service payments, including the regular process of paying and taking out new debt, and making interest payments.

The U.S. would not be at risk of a "default" if those rules were in place, although the U.S. would be in a position of taking in less money than it usually spends. But some conservatives are fine with that, since it would force the government to make choices about where to spend the limited money it has.

That step would eliminate the threat of a default on the U.S. Treasury securities that make up the backbone of the global financial system, calling the bluff of a doomsday scenario of a worldwide financial crisis. Treasury secretaries of both parties, however, have said that such "prioritization" of the debt isn't feasible, and that market panic would be likely in any case.

That's the Freedom Caucus' plan. But one major blow to the group was President Trump's decision to side with Mnuchin over Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, a key ally of the group, on the debt ceiling fight. Mnuchin has made clear his desire for a "clean" debt ceiling bill, which the Senate is expected to vote on in July. Mulvaney wants reforms to be brought into the mix.

On the spending battle, one unusual stance the group has embraced is support for an increase in spending levels in a potential budget deal, but with a catch. To go along with higher spending levels, the Freedom Caucus wants reforms to welfare, including cuts that could bring in about $400 billion in savings, according to said Rep. Mark Meadows. Despite potential opposition, the North Carolina Republican is optimistic their proposal could make a final bill.

"Very realistic," Meadows said when asked about the proposal's prospects. "We've had work requirements up until actually some would argue that they're still in statute right now. We've had work requirements in the past. I believe that most Americans believe an able-bodied, single adult should be doing some type of work, whether it's vocational training, volunteering for a government or a job in order to get those benefits. Now, we're not talking about moms with children or grandparents with kids. We're talking about able-bodied single adults that should be required to do some kind of work."

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman emeritus of the group, admitted in an interview that while it seems counterintuitive for the Freedom Caucus to support this type of an increase in spending, it sees an opportunity.

"You hope we get a [budget] deal now, because if you don't, we know how it plays out. We've seen it six years in a row," Jordan said. "The smarter thing to do now is get an agreement on the budget. ... The budget's the gate. Nothing else can happen until you open the gate, right? You can't do any spending until you open the gate and get a number. You can't have tax reform until you get reconciliation; you can't get reconciliation until you have a budget 'til you open the gate.

"To open the gate, we conservatives, I think, are willing to entertain spending numbers we normally wouldn't be comfortable with," Jordan said.

Top members of the group have come out in support of the House Budget Committee's proposed $400 billion in cuts, although that could be pared to $150 billion, much to their chagrin.

"We're saying, You're the Budget Committee. You're the experts. If you think it's $400 [billion], let's go with $400,'" Jordan said, pointing to their desired welfare cuts.

The fight is expected to be the latest for the group of conservative hard-liners, who had a highly-publicized back-and-forth with GOP leadership and the White House over the American Health Care Act before ultimately coming on board thanks to an amendment allowing states to opt out of some essential health benefits. However, this new battle could be an opportunity for the caucus as it pushes for Republican leadership to take its proposals seriously in spending battles rather than forcing leaders to rely on Democratic votes to pass legislation.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., the vice chairwoman of the House Democratic caucus, floated the possibility that Democrats could withhold their votes on a "clean" debt ceiling bill to see if Republicans can govern on their own, although House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., poured cold water on that possibility if such a bill reaches the floor. However, Meadows said he doesn't believe any losses incurred by the caucus on this fight could affect their leverage or input in future fights.

"You win some, you lose some," Meadows said. "I'm in it for the long term. We find that we have a lot of allies when it comes to welfare reform and mandatory spending reform. A lot of guys are with us both publicly and privately, which I think would surprise some here on Capitol Hill.

"I don't know that we're looking at wins and losses as much as we are real savings moving forward," Meadows said.

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House Freedom Caucus sees an opportunity as the debt ceiling approaches - Washington Examiner

Do Animals Need More Freedom? – Colorado Public Radio

Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. Martin Luther King Jr.

News headlines these days often center on animals. Stories seem increasingly to be of two types. The first involves reporting on what might be characterized as the inner lives of animals. Scientists regularly publish new findings on animal cognition or emotion, and these quickly make their way into the popular press. Here is a sampling of some recent headlines:

The other type of news story focuses on individual animals or a particular group of animals who have been wronged by humans in some significant way. These stories often create a social media frenzy, generating both moral outrage and soul-searching. In particular, these stories highlight instances in which the freedom of an animal has been profoundly violated by humans. Some of these recent hot-button stories include the killing of an African lion named Cecil by an American dentist wanting a trophy head; the killing of a mother grizzly bear named Blaze, who attacked a hiker in Yellowstone National Park; the case of a male polar bear named Andy who was suffocating and starving because of an overly tight radio collar placed around his neck by a researcher; the euthanizing and public dissection of a giraffe named Marius at the Copenhagen Zoo because he was not good breeding stock; the ongoing legal battle to assign legal personhood to two research chimpanzees, Leo and Hercules; the exposure of SeaWorld for cruel treatment of orcas, inspired by the tragic story of Tilikum and the documentary Blackfish; and the killing of a gorilla named Harambe at the Cincinnati Zoo, after a small boy fell into the animals enclosure. The fact that these events have created such a stir suggests that we are at a tipping point. People who have never really been active in defense of animals are outraged by the senseless violation of these animals lives and freedom. The growing awareness of animal cognition and emotion has enabled a shift in perspective. People are sick and tired of all the abuse. Animals are sick and tired of it, too.

Yet although we prize our freedom above all else, we routinely deny freedom to nonhuman animals (hereafter, animals) with whom we share our planet. We imprison and enslave animals, we exploit them for their labor and their skin and bodies, we restrict what they can do and with whom they can interact. We dont let them choose their family or friends, we decide for them when and if and with whom they mate and bear offspring, and often take their children away at birth. We control their movements, their behaviors, their social interactions, while bending them to our will or to our self-serving economic agenda. The justification, if any is given, is that they are lesser creatures, they are not like us, and by implication they are neither as valuable nor as good as we are. We insist that as creatures vastly different from us, they experience the world differently than we do and value different things.

But, in fact, they are like us in many ways; indeed, our basic physical and psychological needs are pretty much the same. Like us, they want and need food, water, air, sleep. They need shelter and safety from physical and psychological threats, and an environment they can control. And like us, they have what might be called higher-order needs, such as the need to exercise control over their lives, make choices, do meaningful work, form meaningful relationships with others, and engage in forms of play and creativity. Some measure of freedom is fundamental to satisfying these higher-order needs, and provides a necessary substrate for individuals to thrive and to look forward to a new day.

Freedom is the key to many aspects of animal well-being. And lack of freedom is at the root of many of the miseries we intentionally and unintentionally inflict on animals under our carewhether they suffer from physical or social isolation, or from being unable to move freely about their world and engage the various senses and capacities for which they are so exquisitely evolved. To do better in our responsibilities toward animals, we must do what we can to make their freedoms the fundamental needs we promote and protect, even when it means giving those needs priority over some of our own wants.

The Five Freedoms

Many people who have taken an interest in issues of animal protection are familiar with the Five Freedoms. The Five Freedoms originated in the early 1960s in an eighty-five-page British government study, Report of the Technical Committee to Enquire into the Welfare of Animals Kept Under Intensive Livestock Husbandry Systems. This document, informally known as the Brambell Report, was a response to public outcry over the abusive treatment of animals within agricultural settings. Ruth Harrisons 1964 book Animal Machines brought readers inside the walls of the newly developing industrialized farming systems in the United Kingdom, what we have come to know as factory farms. Harrison, a Quaker and conscientious objector during World War II, described appalling practices like battery-cage systems for egg-laying hens and gestation crates for sows, and consumers were shocked by what was hidden behind closed doors.

To mollify the public, the UK government commissioned an investigation into livestock husbandry, led by Bangor University zoology professor Roger Brambell. The commission concluded that there were, indeed, grave ethical concerns with the treatment of animals in the food industry and that something must be done. In its initial report, the commission specified that animals should have the freedom to stand up, lie down, turn around, groom themselves and stretch their limbs. These incredibly minimal requirements became known as the freedoms, and represented the conditions the Brambell Commission felt were essential to animal welfare.

The commission also requested the formation of the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to monitor the UK farming industry. In 1979 the name of this organization was changed to the Farm Animal Welfare Council, and the freedoms were subsequently expanded into their current form. The Five Freedoms state that all animals under human care should have:

The Five Freedoms have become a popular cornerstone of animal welfare in a number of countries. The Five Freedoms are now invoked in relationship not only to farmed animals but also to animals in research laboratories, zoos and aquariums, animal shelters, veterinary practice, and many other contexts of human use. The freedoms appear in nearly every book about animal welfare, can be found on nearly every website dedicated to food-animal or lab-animal welfare, form the basis of many animal welfare auditing programs, and are taught to many of those working in fields of animal husbandry.

The Five Freedoms have almost become shorthand for what animals want and need. They provide, according to a current statement by the Farm Animal Welfare Council, a logical and comprehensive framework for analysis of animal welfare. Pay attention to these, it seems, and youve done your due diligence as far as animal care is concerned. You can rest assured that the animals are doing just fine.

Its worth stopping for a moment to acknowledge just how forward thinking the Brambell Report really was. This was the 1960s and came on the heels of behaviorism, a school of thought that offered a mechanistic understanding of animals, and at a time when the notion that animals might experience pain was still just a superstition for many researchers and others working with animals. The Brambell Report not only acknowledged that animals experience pain, but also that they experience mental states and have rich emotional lives, and that making animals happy involves more than simply reducing sources of pain and suffering, but actually providing for positive, pleasurable experiences. These claims sound obvious to us now, but in the mid-1960s they were both novel and controversial.

It is hard to imagine that the crafters of the Five Freedoms failed to recognize the fundamental paradox: How can an animal in an abattoir or battery cage be free? Being fed and housed by your captor is not freedom; it is simply what your caregiver does to keep you alive. Indeed, the Five Freedoms are not really concerned with freedom per se, but rather with keeping animals under conditions of such profound deprivation that no honest person could possibly describe them as free. And this is entirely consistent with the development of the concept of animal welfare.

Welfare concerns generally focus on preventing or relieving suffering, and making sure animals are being well-fed and cared for, without questioning the underlying conditions of captivity or constraint that shape the very nature of their lives. We offer lip service to freedom, in talking about cage-free chickens and naturalistic zoo enclosures. But real freedom for animals is the one value we dont want to acknowledge, because it would require a deep examination of our own behavior. It might mean we should change the way we treat and relate to animals, not just to make cages bigger or provide new enrichment activities to blunt the sharp edges of boredom and frustration, but to allow animals much more freedom in a wide array of venues.

The bottom line is that in the vast majority of our interactions with other animals, we are seriously and systematically constraining their freedom to mingle socially, roam about, eat, drink, sleep, pee, poop, have sex, make choices, play, relax, and get away from us. The use of the phrase in the vast majority might seem too extreme.

However, when you think about it, we are a force to be reckoned with not only in venues in which animals are used for food production, research, education, entertainment, and fashion, but globally; on land and in the air and water, human trespass into the lives of other animals is not subsiding. Indeed, its increasing by leaps and bounds. This epoch, which is being called the Anthropocene, or Age of Humanity, is anything but humane. It rightfully could be called the Rage of Humanity.

We want to show how important it is to reflect on the concept of freedom in our discussions of animals. Throughout this book, we are going to examine the myriad ways in which animals under our care experience constraints on their freedom, and what these constraints mean in terms of actual physical and psychological health. Reams of scientific evidence, both behavioral observations and physiological markers, establish that animals have strongly negative reactions to losses of freedom.

One of the most important efforts we can make on behalf of animals is to explore the ways in which we undermine their freedom and then look to how we can provide them with more, not less, of what they really want and need.

Excerpted from The Animals Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce (Beacon Press, 2017). Reprinted with Permission from Beacon Press.

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Do Animals Need More Freedom? - Colorado Public Radio

Freedom Charter is a dream deferred – Independent Online

There is an urgent need to go back to Kliptown and, like collecting the soul of the dead, collect the lost spirit of the Freedom Charter.

A few years ago, Cope adopted its name based on the historic meeting where this document was adopted, much to the irritation of the ANC, which even went to court to try and stop this move.

Next was the EFF, whose members believe they alone are custodians, especially when it comes to the crucial issue of land. In the process, the true meaning and spirit are lost in all the noise.

The sad reality is that, since its adoption, while it has served as a mantra of liberation forces marching to freedom, we have fallen very short of its intentions, and those that have so far claimed it as custodians have failed its bold pronouncements.

It requires a full paper to expatiate this point, and so I will focus on two cardinal clauses only: The people shall govern; and The doors of learning and culture shall be open to all. Have sufficient strength and courage gone into realising these high ideals?

In an interview on Power Perspective with the spokesperson of the youth league a few weeks ago, I inquired what the young lions have done about opening the doors of learning and culture through the implementation of the ANCs Polokwane resolution on free education.

This is because, a full decade later, all we see is protestation from young people who await the implementation of this resolution amid hollow promises and policy obfuscation.

The shocking answer was that the ANC took almost 100 years from establishment to freedom. This is the nub of the matter: a lack of urgency and a refusal to snap out of the underground and Marxist Leninist theories into the modern world, where policy shifts dont have to take a hundred years to materialise.

And so the clause of the Freedom Charter that the doors of learning and culture should be open to all doesnt even serve to excite the youth league to help open those doors.

And so a nation that is not educated, and therefore whose minds are still in bondage, is unlikely to realise fully the cardinal clause of the charter that the people shall govern.

While the people have been enfranchised and this must be celebrated as a step in the right direction, how can we safely say that the people are governing without land and without the means of production being in their hands?

Failure to resolve the land question with the necessary sense of urgency is robbing the people of meaningful governance. At this rate, someone else has captured the state and the markets are governing the country instead of the people.

There are far more protests by disillusioned people now than took place in the days of uprisings against an illegitimate regime. The numbers and frequency of such protests are simply staggering, painting a picture of hopelessness and a loss of confidence in the governing alliance whose mantra should be that the people shall govern.

The people, who clearly do not believe that governance is in their hands, even burn down libraries and other state-owned properties in the belief that these dont really belong to them.

Many assumed that when democracy dawned the new leaders would govern with the interest of the people in mind to give effect to this notion of government for the people, by the people. As soon as civil society was demobilised so much went wrong. The few developments over the last few years, be it the public protectors reports on various things or even the auditor-generals latest report painting a picture of chaotic management of municipal finances, shows that that notion simply doesnt exist.

There is an urgent need to go back to Kliptown and, like collecting the soul of the dead, collect the spirit of the Freedom Charter. Quite frankly, it is gone. The ANC gathers at the end of this week to assess the implementation of its policies.

The last time it so gathered it spoke of the second phase of the transition; this week we are not likely to hear anything other than the rather hollow slogan of radical economic transformation. It is actually sad to see our movement failing to take stock and instead moving the goalposts.

The concocting of what seems like a new policy a few moments before the next election is a tactic that the people have seen right through if the last elections were anything to go by; the ANC emerged with clear losses. It is clear from the utterances of the leadership that election results are seen as one big mistake and not really the will of the people. If you claim to listen to the people you cant keep finding excuses for why you lost elections.

The policy conference remains a golden opportunity for the ANC to re-look at its record of being the true and only custodians of the Freedom Charter and to answer truthfully what has caused its failure to keep the torch of the Kliptown founding fathers.

The forthcoming gathering will discover a dead alliance, a moribund youth league, a rogue MK veterans league and a shameful womens league.

Every part of the movement is coming apart. And despite repeated protestations, the centre is simply not holding.

And until this diagnosis is accepted, rebuilding the once glorious movement will remain a dream deferred. Its time to read the charter again and to remember what our forebears wanted to achieve. And therefore we, the People of South Africa, black and white together - equals, countrymen and brothers - adopt this Freedom Charter. And we pledge ourselves to strive together sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.

Tabane is author of Power Perspective and host of Power Perspective on Power 98.7 9pm to midnight. Follow him on Twitter @JJTabane

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Freedom Charter is a dream deferred - Independent Online

Freedom players encouraged by Cedar Beach performance – Allentown Morning Call

The Freedom girls basketball program enjoyed a breakthrough 2016-17 season.

The Patriots' play during the Cedar Beach Basketball Showcase has them looking to take another step toward contending for titles in 2017-18.

Freedom handled all the local competition it saw this weekend. University City (N.J.) proved to be the one team too tough for the Patriots, beating them twice Sunday, including a 51-40 victory in the title game.

Tournament MVP Danielle Robinson scored a game-high 20 points as University City used a late 18-4 run to pull away. Hailey Selfies scored 19 points to pace Freedom and earn a spot on the all-tournament team.

"The thing that I'm really happy about the whole weekend is we battled," Freedom coach Dean Reiman said. "We had nine kids here today. We played with a lot of guts and courage and came back. We got down to them both times and came right back into the games both times.

"We showed a lot of character. All positive things to build off of."

Freedom earned its first league tournament berth since 2006 and first District 11 slot since 2010 over the winter. It graduated Meckenzie Herman, Kaitlyn Swint, Giselle Sanchez and Jaiden Coyne from that team, which went 14-10.

The Patriots lost both of their postseason contests in the winter, falling to Bethlehem Catholic in the EPC quarterfinals and Parkland in the District 11 6A quarterfinals. They still are trending upward thanks to returning talent like Silfies and a freshman team that went 18-0.

Silfies, a 5-11 rising senior wing, scored a team-best 11 points in Freedom's 33-25 win over Parkland in the winners bracket semifinals. She had 16 more when the Patriots beat Boyertown 51-37 to set up their second matchup against University City.

Jenn Kokolus led Freedom with 17 points against Boyertown. Fifteen of her points came in the first half, when the Patriots built a 31-19 lead.

"We knew that they were trapping because they were leaving their girl," Silfies said. "So we knew to skip the passes and move the ball quickly to get open layups.

"We knew they were going to be tough coming in, but we knew we had more size than them, so we attacked the boards and used our size as an advantage."

Freedom played with plenty of energy in its final game of the day. The Patriots trailed by 14 points early but used a 27-10 run to take 34-31 lead. Silfies put them ahead with a 3-pointer.

University City answered with the next 11 points. It never trailed again, winning the tournament in its first Allentown appearance.

"It was fun playing them," Reiman said. "I already exchanged numbers with their coach to try to play them in the fall. Maybe we'll schedule them because they have an open game. They're very athletic, quick.

"You keep playing teams like that and you're only going to get better. For summer, for us, that's what it's all about."

samiller@mcall.com

Twitter @mcall_smiller

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A tiring run

Boyertown lost its tournament opener to Nazareth on Friday, leaving it with a long road back through the losers bracket. The Bears reached the losers bracket final after winning three games Sunday but fell to Freedom 51-37.

Kylie Webb led Boyertown with 15 points. The Bears won the PIAA Class 6A title in March but graduated three key players from that team, including Bucknell recruit Abby Kapp and co-captain Alli Marcus.

"They're just trying to figure out their roles on the team," Boyertown varsity assistant and JV coach Troy Sweisfort said. "It's going to take time, but I think we'll be fine.

"I thought we played well here today. We weren't quite sure what to expect, because you come in with young kids. But they stepped up to the challenge and played very well."

Go, West

Pocono Mountain West reached Sunday's winners bracket semifinals before falling to University City (N.J.). The Panthers rebounded to knock Allen from the tournament but ended their run by forfeiting a matchup with Boyertown to attend an awards ceremony.

Jameka Pilgrim scored 11 points in Pocono Mountain West's 34-26 win over Allen.

Tip-ins

Parkland was the other local team to reach the winners bracket semifinals. The Trojans fell to Freedom 33-25 before Boyertown eliminated them with a 35-24 win. ... Allen won two losers bracket games Sunday before Pocono Mountain West eliminated it. Kion Andrews scored 41 total points in the Chicks' wins over Whitehall and Nazareth. She earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

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Freedom players encouraged by Cedar Beach performance - Allentown Morning Call

Freedom defeat Grizzlies on the road again, go for series sweep today – User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Balls carried off hitters bats on Saturday at GCS Ballpark, as the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, rode three home runs and a strong start from Tony Vocca to a 6-2 win over the Gateway Grizzlies.

Jordan Brower opened the scoring with a solo home run off Grizzlies (10-29) starter Will Landsheft (2-4) in the top of the fourth inning. The home run was Browers third of the season, and his second of the year at GCS Ballpark. The following inning, Jose Brizuela and Andre Mercurio drew consecutive walks with two out. Collins Cuthrell then drove a Landsheft pitch over the left-field wall for a three-run homer, extending the Freedom (26-12) to 4-0.

The Grizzlies would trim Florences lead in half in the bottom of the fifth, as Matt Hearn followed up base hits by Chase Simmons and Max Bartlett with a two-run bloop single to left-center field off Vocca (5-2). Though he allowed six runs and three walks over six innings, Vocca went on to record his sixth quality start of the season, stranding baserunners by inducing weak contact and benefitting from strong, error-free defense by the Freedom.

With Jackson Sigman on the mound in relief for Gateway in the top of the sixth, and after Austin Wobrock had doubled and advanced to third on a groundout, Daniel Fraga hit a high infield chopper that allowed Wobrock to score in spite of a drawn-in infield. Jose Brizuela added the final run of the night for Florence with a no-doubt solo home run, his team-leading seventh of the season, leading off the seventh.

Keivan Berges, Patrick McGrath, Evan Bickett and Michael Maiocco combined for three innings of scoreless relief. Berges encountered a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh, but a snap throw by catcher Garrett Vail nabbed Cody Livesay at third, and Berges struck out Craig Massoni swinging to strand both remaining runners.

Collecting one hit each in the game, Fraga and Wobrock extended their hitting streaks to twelve and ten games, respectively.

The Freedom will play for the series sweep on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at GCS Ballpark. Left-hander Marty Anderson (5-1) will start for the Freedom against Gateway right-hander JaVaun West (1-3).

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence.

Florence Freedom

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Freedom defeat Grizzlies on the road again, go for series sweep today - User-generated content (press release) (registration)

Pentagon welcomes greater freedom under Trump but is wary of blame – Washington Times

Pentagon officials are welcoming the greater autonomy and decision-making authority under President Trump, after what they say were years of Obama administration micromanaging.

Within the hallways and offices of the Pentagon, top military brass and national security leaders have lauded the actions taken by the Trump administration, saying privately that the Defense Department now has an opportunity to take the fight to Americas enemies after being freed from the White Houses heavy yoke under President Obama.

Mr. Trumps decision to grant Defense Secretary James Mattis the authority to set U.S. troop levels for Afghanistan and the fight against Islamic State could ease the bitter bureaucratic battles that divided the Obama White House and the department over war strategy.

Mr. Mattis and his aides are now weighing whether to send 3,000 to 5,000 more troops into Afghanistan in the face of recent gains by the Taliban and Islamic State. Mr. Mattis, who said Mr. Trump remains heavily involved in setting the overall strategy, is expected to make his recommendations by next month.

Defense hawks on Capitol Hill have praised the approach, arguing that the military leaders have a much better sense of what it takes to fight and win in battle zones such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

What a novel idea for the commander-in-chief to turn to his commanders and say, What do you need to win? Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, told Mr. Mattis at a budget hearing last week. Obama was a pretty lousy general.

Some skeptics warn that with great power comes uncomfortable responsibility for the Defense Department, given Mr. Trumps record of casting blame down the chain of command when certain operations go awry. If campaigns such as the one in Afghanistan fail to make progress, then the Pentagon will shoulder far more of the blame with far less political cover.

Mr. Trump previously agreed to give U.S. and coalition commanders in Iraq and Syria greater freedom on ordering airstrikes, further ingratiating the new administration into the good graces of top military brass.

Mr. Trump has finally given the military what it needed to win in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, said David Sedney, a onetime Obama administration aide and now a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

As Mr. Obamas deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia from 2009 to 2013, Mr. Sedney had a front-row seat to the administrations efforts to run war policy from the White House.

It took 11 months to come up with an Afghanistan policy, which [Mr. Obama] kept reviewing over and over again, Mr. Sedney said in an interview, recalling the endless White House meetings tied to the administrations internal debates over the Afghanistan War. Beguiled by artificial timelines and artificial troop caps with no relation to the situation on the ground, Mr. Obamas Afghanistan plan was a half-measure that extended the conflict instead of ending it, he said.

Mr. Obama cast a wary eye on the Pentagon during his tenure, reportedly complaining that the generals and admirals were trying to box him in to choose a military option in debates such as the one over troop levels in Afghanistan.

A lack of strategy?

Some analysts say the stepped-up tempo of military action under Mr. Trump including a cruise missile strike to punish Syria for using chemical weapons and the dropping of the worlds most powerful conventional bomb on Islamic State targets in Afghanistan are meant partly to obscure the fact that Mr. Trump has yet to formulate a concrete military and diplomatic strategy for either Afghanistan or the war against Islamic State.

Lots of DOD folks are Republicans and did find Obama frustrating, so I have little doubt that at an emotional level, there is some relief. But dropping a few more bombs isnt a strategy, and without effective strategies, the emotional uplift of having a new president wont last long, said Michael OHanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

I think its too early to draw conclusions [and] Id counsel folks at the Pentagon to avoid too many spikes of footballs in the end zone just yet, he said in an interview.

The presidents penchant to delegate blame when things go wrong is the negative flip side of the Pentagons freedom, said Hal Brands, a defense official in the Obama administration and now a senior analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Critics cite in particular Mr. Trumps remarks after an inconclusive covert mission in Yemen that he approved just days after taking office in January. Administration officials said the raid yielded valuable intelligence, but Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens and a number of civilians were killed.

The raid, Mr. Trump later told Fox News, was started before I got here and was something that, you know [the Defense Department] wanted to do.

He added, My generals are the most respected that weve had in many decades and they lost Ryan.

In some ways, that leads to chaos, Mr. Brands said. I am sure that is creating frustration, and not just in DOD.

Policy planners inside the Pentagon are keeping a wary eye on their social media accounts for fear of being undercut by the next tweet from the White House, he said.

In the end, the Defense Department may ultimately not be happy with what they get from this administration, he said. When things go wrong, this is not a president who will say, The buck stops here.

Chain of command

Frustration with interference from the White House under Mr. Obama appears to have peaked near the end of his second term. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, Arizona Republican, observed in late 2015 that theres a level of dissatisfaction among the uniformed military that Ive never seen in my time here.

National security policy faced significant White House scrutiny and interagency oversight over seemingly mundane matters under Mr. Obama, Mr. Brands said. While it was not unprecedented, it was fairly higher than the norm.

But Mr. Obamas apprehension over handing the U.S. military too much tactical control, over fears that those decisions would have political impacts far beyond the battlefield, catered to a narrow domestic audience at the expense of the overall war effort, Mr. Sedney said.

It kept getting us distracted. That was all inside-the-Beltway, navel-gazing, he said. It was really irrelevant to what was going on in the war.

Early setbacks

U.S. military leaders have suffered some setbacks while taking advantage of their newfound authorities on the battlefield. In March, U.S. Central Command chief Joseph Votel was forced to defend multiple cases of mass civilian casualties tied to increasingly aggressive U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Command and coalition leaders conducted three inquires that month into U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State positions, including one in the western Mosul neighborhood of al-Jadida, which reportedly leveled several buildings and left hundreds of Iraqi civilians dead.

These are absolutely tragic and heartbreaking situations, Gen. Votel told the House Armed Services Committee at the time. He said each allegation of civilian casualties tied to U.S. operations is taken seriously.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and Syria, acknowledged days after the attack that there was a fair chance a U.S. airstrike played a role in the destruction and carnage in al-Jadida.

We probably had a role in those casualties, the general said, adding that the enemy had a hand in this. He was suggesting Islamic States use of civilians as human shields and questioning why so many civilians would voluntarily gather in a single building under assault by American air power.

The Pentagon on June 2 acknowledged that civilian casualties in the Middle East had risen sharply since Mr. Trump took office, reflecting in part the nature of urban warfare in the campaigns against Islamic State fighters in Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq.

At least 484 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition strikes since 2014, U.S. Central Command, or Centcom, said in the June 2 statement. That number was up from 199 just four months earlier. Private watchdog groups say the civilian deaths from U.S. and allied bombing strikes are far higher.

The dropping of the Mother of all Bombs or MOAB on an Islamic State tunnel complex in Afghanistan may have secured a tactical win, but it also became an instant Islamic State recruiting tool, Mr. Brands said.

U.S. forces deployed in Afghanistan and the Middle East are filled with sets of capable, intelligence and sober military leaders, Mr. Brands said. But their battlefield decisions are driven strictly for tactical reasons, which at times usurp considerations for the strategic or political fallout, he added.

Gen. John Nicholson, head of all U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, or any member of the command staff could have predicted that kind of reaction from the MOAB use, Mr. Brands said.

The hope inside the Trump White House that expanded tactical authority at the Defense Department will achieve strategic successes likely will not materialize, he said. I do not know if that is realistic.

Mr. Sedney said strategic considerations given so much heft by the Obama White House should mean less to combatant commanders on the ground. Gen. Nicholsons deployment of the MOAB was not driven by public opinion in Washington, he said.

Gen. Nicholson was trying to win a war, Mr. Sedney said.

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Pentagon welcomes greater freedom under Trump but is wary of blame - Washington Times

Rotary Freedom Festival expands events for second year of … – Topeka Capital Journal

After a damp start in 2016, the Rotary Freedom Festival is expanding its signature fundraising event for the second year, and organizer Joan Wagnon is checking her Farmers Almanac regularly to track the weather.

Using all of downtown Topeka, from the Kansas River to the state capitol; vendors, entertainment, food trucks and live music will fill the city for a family friendly day of fun celebrating Topekas history.

The festival will take place Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. with a 5K race. Runners will start at 9th and Jackson Street and run down around the capitol building. One lane of Kansas Avenue will be shut down during the 5K. The run is organized by YWCA of Northeast Kansas Girls on the Run program.

Wagnon has worked closely with the YWCA in the past, serving as the interim CEO in 2015.

Im well acquainted with them and their capacity of what they can do, and I needed somebody I could depend on, Wagnon said.

Wagnon has coordinated with more than a dozen groups to bring this festival to life.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. a kids area will be set up on the east side of the statehouse. Activities include face-painting, chalk drawing, games and various crafts. The Skys the Limit mobile gaming unit will be available for a small fee.

At the corner of 8th and Kansas, in the former Ray Beers building, artistic guests are welcome to join the students of Highland Park High School as they complete their window mural project. The collaboration began in the spring semester with high school students creating poetry about what freedom means to them. On July 1, they will use window paint to transform their words into designs on the window panes.

Carol Bradbury of Bloomerang Art Studios will also be organizing a community art project for anyone wishing to participate.

Similar to last year, re-enactors will be strolling through the grounds and giving demonstrations. Performances are scheduled every two hours, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Constitution Hall, 429 S. Kansas Ave., will again showcase historical re-enactments depicting the dispersal of the legislature on July 4, 1856 by Col. Edwin Sumner.

Tours of the State Capitol are also available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Capitol will be accessible through the visitors center on 8th Street.

Chris Meinhardt, a Rotary member and one of the organizers of the event, said an antique cannon will be available again this year to shoot every half hour.

The group, the Lecompton Reenactors, theyre kind of a big deal, Wagnon said. They have done several re-enactions for many years, and they often congregate around Constitution Hall.

Various churches will be selling food downtown during the festival. Our Lady of Guadalupe Church will be in the Rotary Pocket Park, and Assumption Church will host a food stand in front of their facility at 204 S.W. 8th Ave.

A free tour bus will operate from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., giving tours of some of Topekas most famous landmarks: the Kansas River, the Capitol, Constitution Hall and the post office courtroom where the Brown v Board of Education case was first tried. Guests can step off at any of these stops to explore.

Along the Kansas River, the Rotary Club has organized a pop-up park on the north side, near the location of a proposed Oregon Trail Park. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks will provide an air-boat to give rides and discuss river development; boating and canoeing will be available.

A cookout, guitar music, levee walks and stories about the river are also scheduled. Wagnon suggests parking at 4th and Kansas and riding the tour bus to the river if interested.

Pocket parks along Kansas Avenue will feature musicians and entertainment. Native American drummers and flute players will start at 10 a.m. in the Fidelity Bank pocket park, a magician will perform every hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mars pocket park in front of Wolfes Camera, and The Capitol-Federal pocket park will showcase a variety of musicians. However, something is scheduled for every pocket park along Kansas Avenue.

At 4 p.m. the focus will shift to a free concert at 9th and Kansas Ave. The street, from 8th to 10th, will close and be filled with food trucks, Rotary beer garden tents and other vendors.

The concert will showcase the talents of Kelley Hunt, a blues singer from Lawrence; The Skirts, a womens bluegrass band from Chase County; and Maria the Mexican, two young women who play roots rock with a Mexican flair. Opening are the Smooth Tones, featuring Kelvin Ross.

Tickets are required for the evening concert but are free and may be printed at home or downloaded to a smartphone. A limited number of reserved seats for the musical entertainment are available for $10.

Wagnon explained the event is asking people to register for tickets to better understand the attendance numbers and as a way to notify people should the festival be moved indoors. By registering, guests will sign up for text alerts from the festival organizers alerting them to any changes in the schedule.

The Rotary Freedom Festival is funded by local businesses and individuals. Food and beer sales will go toward festival expenses, with remaining funds going to the Rotarys anti-bullying program.

The Freedom Festival began in 2016 as a way for rotary to raise community awareness for Topekas history, Wagnon explained. The event was dampened on two occasions by rainy weather, and if bad weather threatens this Saturday, Wagnon said the festivities will be moved inside to the Topeka Performing Arts Center at 214 S.E. 8th Ave.

To register for a concert ticket and find the schedule as well as other information, visit cityspin.com/northeastkansas/e/rotary-freedom-festival-2017.

Contact reporter Savanna Maue at (785) 295-5621 or @CJFoodFun or @SavannaMaue on Twitter.

Concert Schedule

4 - 5:15 p.m. - Smooth Tones featuring Kelvin Ross

5:15 - 6:30 p.m. - The Skirts

6:45 - 8 p.m. - Maria the Mexican

8 - 8:30 p.m. - Rotary members to host Freedom Festival program

8:30 - 10:15 p.m. - Kelley Hunt

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Rotary Freedom Festival expands events for second year of ... - Topeka Capital Journal

Intellectual Freedom and Open Access: Working Toward a Common Goal? – American Libraries (blog)

(L_R) Marguerite Avery, April Hathcock, and Jamie LaRue (speaking) at the American Library Associations 2017 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 24, 2017.Photo: Rebecca Lomax/American Libraries

How do the principles of intellectual freedom and open access intersect? That was the topic of the Intellectual Freedom and Open Access: Working Toward a Common Goal? panel discussion, sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table, which addressed the relationship from several different perspectives.

Marguerite Avery, senior acquisitions editor at Trinity University Press in San Antonio, Texas, spoke from a publishers point of view. Avery eagerly joined this conversation because, framing intellectual freedom and open access is seldom discussed over intellectual property and open access, she explains. Avery defines intellectual freedom as being able to seek and receive all points of view without restriction. Historically, this discussion refers to published sources, but now user-generated content is an area that needs to be addressed.

April Hathcock, scholarly communications librarian at NYU and a former lawyer, approaches open access as a way to bridge intellectual freedom, stating, [Open Access] allows users to gain access to the materials that they need to engage in true intellectual freedom. However, not everyone has intellectual freedom, Hathcock argues. We must look at the systemic reasons for why people dont have access to information and why people arent enjoying intellectual freedom, she says. In doing so, those who are underrepresented are then invited to this conversation and a better bridge can be built between OA and IF.

Jamie LaRue, director of the ALAs Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation, spoke from his experience as former director of Colorados Douglas County Libraries in battling costly library materials. LaRue offered a set of steps to take towards developing librarian-managed platforms for content as a counter. He says, first, have a vision by stating the problem and developing an alternative. Then, identify resources that can help with investing in the development of new platforms. Instead of asking what it will cost, LaRue argues, The right question is what does it cost if we dont do anything. Lastly, disseminate knowledge and contribute to the conversation.

Throughout the session, the three panelists answered a variety of questions on the topics of the socioeconomic dimensions and diversifying the homogeneous world of scholarly publishing, as well as making authoritative research publicly accessible to all. This conversation works in both directions, they summarize. Its important to make research available to the public, but equally essential to learn from what the public has to teach us as well.

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Intellectual Freedom and Open Access: Working Toward a Common Goal? - American Libraries (blog)

U-turn on freedom camping – Otago Daily Times

The Dunedin City Council has made a U-turn over its proposal to develop three new freedom camping sites in Dunedin.

After an outcry from those potentially affected, a proposal for camps at Rotary Park in Highcliff, Brighton Surf Life Saving Club and at Puddle Alley near Invermay has been dumped.

A report late last month said the sites were needed in response to an overflow of campers at Ocean View and Warrington.

But the plans were bitterly opposed by nearby residents of Rotary Park, and by the Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board and Saddle Hill Community Board.

The explosion of freedom-camping tourism in New Zealand has caused tension as locals deal with overrun campsites, litter and human waste.

At a council meeting on May 30 it was decided discussion on the report would be delayed pending information from a national freedom camping forum.

In the agenda for tomorrow's full council meeting the report appears, but all mention of the three sites is gone.

The report instead recommends a special consultative procedure to determine the community's views on the issue.

Options suggested were to limit freedom camping to self-contained vehicles, those with toilets, the status quo with increased enforcement of bylaws, or providing additional areas for non-certified self-contained vehicles.

Mayor Dave Cull said in a statement he acknowledged the issue drew ''impassioned debates''.

It was appropriate the council revisited its approach to freedom camping by way of public consultation because of a ''wide range of views expressed both formally and informally by the community and community board members in relation to the report, and on wider issues related to freedom camping over the last season''.

The original report proposing the new sites said there had been a 37% increase in vehicles using the Warrington freedom camping site in February and March this year, compared with the year before.

Dunedin City Council recreation planning and facilities manager Jendi Paterson said tomorrow's report was not site-specific, and consultation would focus on criteria rather than location.

Rotary Park freedom camping site opponent Sharon Weir, of Waverley, said she was pleased the council had ''seen sense''.

''The park is used very well by locals so we just didn't want trash everywhere and that would have been the risk if it had been opened up to freedom campers.''

Waverley and Andersons Bay residents were so opposed to the initial proposal to allow camping at the park they started a petition, she said.

Saddle Hill Community Board chairman Scott Weatherall, who was criticised online for supporting the proposal to allow freedom camping outside the Brighton Surf Life Saving Club, supported the U-turn.

''I think they have probably listened to what the community have had to say in the brief, unofficial consultative stage we have had.''

The board would continue to support freedom camping in the area, Mr Weatherall said.

Mosgiel Taieri Community board chairwoman Sarah Nitis said the board was most opposed to the community having to pay for the infrastructure.

''I believe non-self-contained freedom campers would be welcome in Mosgiel if central Government paid for it.''

Public consultation hearings were likely in August, Ms Paterson said.

margot.taylor@odt.co.nz

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U-turn on freedom camping - Otago Daily Times

Joshua Wong reflects on Hong Kong’s 1997 handover: We desire and thirst for freedom, democracy – Quartz

This extract has been excerpted with permission from PEN Hong Kong from the essay My Journey as a Student Activist, by Joshua Wong, part of the anthology Hong Kong 20/20: Reflections on a Borrowed Place, out this month from Blacksmith Books.

Im a twenty-year-old university student, born a year before the handover.

Having grown up under Chinese rule, I dont have any memory of colonial Hong Kong or feel any attachment to it. Instead, I was spoon-fed daily a hearty serving of self-evident truths: that Hong Kong is and always will be an inalienable part of China; and that the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, always has our best interests in mind under the one country, two systems framework.

But twenty years after the transfer of sovereignty, I now know an altogether different set of facts: that Beijing continues to deny us the right to a free vote in breach of the Joint Declaration, an international treaty it signed with Britain in 1984; that, as a result, Hong Kong is stuck in a rut on its never-ending path to democracy; and that the CCP has launched an all-out attack on our civil liberties

Six years ago, under Beijings directives, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government announced a citywide plan to introduce a national education curriculum in all primary and secondary schools. It was a thinly-veiled attempt to inculcate in our youth a sense of unquestioning patriotism and blind loyalty to the CCP. Perhaps because veteran politicians had been so far removed from the classroom, the news drew little interest from the opposition parties.

I was fourteen years old at the time, just starting secondary two. I knew I couldnt stand quietly by while a brainwashing curriculum poisoned our education. It was then that I founded a student organisation called Scholarism with a small group of secondary school students to defend free and independent thinking in the classroom through demonstrations and other means of grassroots resistance.

Our campaigns had little traction at firstour street rallies drew only a few dozen participants and our soapbox speeches didnt get much press coverage. Our efforts were met with a general sense of resignation, as many people thought it futile to try to push back against Beijings agenda.

More critically, Hong Kong society had yet to fully embrace the idea of student activism. Our rote-based education system wasand still isso focused on grades and public exams that anything else was considered a distraction. This was understandable. For generations of Hong Kongers, the only means of upward mobility and the only way to meaningfully contribute to society have been to obtain a respectable university degree (preferably in business administration) and a professional accreditation (in finance, accounting, law or medicine). Politics was so far off the beaten path for a teenager that it must be discouraged at any cost.

But the Bible has taught me well. St Paul told us not to let anyone look down on you because you are young and I took that lesson to heart. The night before the national education curriculum was rolled out, not long after literature sponsored by the Department of Education described the CCP as a progressive, selfless and unifying ruling body, we finally succeeded in galvanizing the public to stand up against the governments propaganda. More than 120,000 citizens showed up at Civic Square outside the government headquarters in support of our movement, forcing the SAR government to withdraw the plan the following day

I believe elitism in politics is over, and a new path to achieving democracy should be charted by young people who have the most at stake in the future of our city. I also believe that real changes are brought about not by playing by the old rules but by civil disobedience and mass uprisings, and that young people, free from financial burdens and family demands, have the least to lose should they be arrested or convicted and therefore should take a more prominent role.

Those beliefs enabled us to embrace the Occupy Movement of 2014 by organising, in the lead-up to the actual street occupation, a citywide class boycott, various mass protests and a referendum on electoral reform in which over 800,000 citizens participated. In fact, it was our impromptu decision to retake the Civic Square on September 26th, two days before Occupy erupted, that led to the start of the 79-day struggle

Twenty years ago, the idea of a large-scale political uprising that would paralyse the city for months was simply unthinkable. Equally implausible was the notion that a university student could enter LegCo [Legislative Council of Hong Kong] as an advocate for the citys self-determination. Twenty years after the handover, what was once unthinkable and implausible is part of a political reality, proving that Hong Kongers are not just economic beings and are much more than what meets the eye. We desire and thirst for freedom, democracy and the rule of law just like anyone else. And we are prepared to fight tooth and nail for all of those things.

Translated from the Chinese by Jason Y. Ng.

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Joshua Wong reflects on Hong Kong's 1997 handover: We desire and thirst for freedom, democracy - Quartz

Richlands readying for Freedom Fest – Southwest Virginia Today

Freedom will ring and boom in Richlands July 1.

The towns annual Freedom Festival ends a two day run with a fireworks display at dark. Prior to the big show there will be lots of entertainment starting June 28 when the midway rides open a four day run on the police department parking lot.

The midway will open at five p.m. June 28-29 with unlimited rides for one price. They will open at one p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday. Entertainment starts June 30 with the Fallen Warriors Tribute and the Jubalaires at six p.m.

The Fallen Warriors Motorcycle Honor Guard will present flags to families of veterans and pay tribute to those who died in combat. The Jubalaires will be performing patriotic music during the program.

Marcus Boyd takes to the stage at eight and Victor Lawson and Boogie Chillen will close the night at nine. The day starts with a 10k5k run and walk July 1 at eight a.m. Vendors will open at 10 and there will be face painting, history characters, window decorating contest and the Fallen warriors Wall.

There will be a cruise in to the Advance Auto parking lot for cars and bikes. Star 95 radio will have a live remote at 6:15 p.m. with a hula hoop contest and a wear your red, white and blue contest. The winners will be named Mr. and Mrs. Freedom Festival and the childrens winners will be Little Miss and Little Mr. Freedom Festival.

The Giles Artillery Battery will fire its cannon during the opening ceremonies at 8 p.m. and the National Anthem will be performed. The Benny Wilson Band takes the stage at 8:15 and will perform until the fireworks at 10 p.m. Wilson will play through the fireworks show which will last about 30 minutes.

This years theme is God Bless America and Our Veterans. Businesses and home owners are encouraged to decorate in red, white and blue. There will be a window decorating contest for businesses with prizes for the six best as well as most patriotic and Mayors Choice.

The class of 1997 will be having a reunion during the festival and will have a tent set up both days.

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Richlands readying for Freedom Fest - Southwest Virginia Today

OAS chief offers to resign in exchange for Venezuela’s ‘freedom’ – Miami Herald


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OAS chief offers to resign in exchange for Venezuela's 'freedom'
Miami Herald
The head of the Organization of American States on Saturday said he would step down from his post in exchange for a laundry list of reforms in Venezuela that he said would bring freedom to the embattled South American nation. In a video posted on ...
OAS chief Almagro offers to resign 'for freedom in Venezuela'Reuters

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OAS chief offers to resign in exchange for Venezuela's 'freedom' - Miami Herald

WWII Wings of Freedom Tour flies into Seattle – KING5.com

KING 5 photojournalist Andy Wallace

KING Staff , KING 7:10 PM. PDT June 23, 2017

The Wings of Freedom Tour shows off World War II-era planes to pay tribute to the crews that flew and maintained them. (Photo: KING)

The Wings of Freedom Tour flew into Seattle Friday. The tour shows off World War II-era planes to pay tribute to the crews that flew and maintained them.

"You know, we've got four WWII aircraft that come out here. We travel the whole country, but what's really awesome is that they're all flying, they're all authentic, and you can actually walk through them, touch them, and go for a flight on them if you'd like to," said a Wings of Freedom Tour spokesperson. "It's really epic. We've been throughout the country, seen a lot of different reactions, but it's particularly the kids that are the biggest interest to me right now, because without them this is gone."

There are four planes the public can check out at the Museum of Flight this weekend, including a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. You can even take a flight on board one of them.

WHERE: The Wings of Freedom Tour will be on display at Boeing Field in Seattle located at the Museum of Flight, 9404 East Marginal Way South.

WHEN: The Wings of Freedom Tour will be on display at the Museum of Flight until the aircraft departs Sunday, June 25 after 5:00 p.m. Hours of ground tours and display are 10:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 24th and Sunday, June 25th. The 30-minute flight experiences are normally scheduled before and after the ground tour times above.

2017 KING-TV

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WWII Wings of Freedom Tour flies into Seattle - KING5.com

How Secularism Threatens Freedom and Righteousness in America – CBN News

Over the last century, secularism in America has triumphed so spectacularly that secularists now dominate the cultural mountains of influence: business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family and religion.

Raised upon the Christian cultural foundation laid by the American Founders in the 17th and 18th centuries, secularists have produced a structure that is the antithesis to the Founders intention.

Unless confronted by the men and women of Issachar, people who know the times and know what to do (1 Chronicles 12:32), secularism spells doom for freedom and liberty in America. Why? Because virtue is a key component of freedom. The glory of a nation lies in its righteousness, not in its military or economic prowess.

Nevertheless, give the Left credit on the grounds that they surely dont lack hubris. I mean, who possibly would have the chutzpah to toy with the four-thousand-year-old definition of marriage?

In the 5-4Obergefell v. Hodgesdecision in 2015, Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan unearthed (in the bowels of Constitution!) the right to homosexual marriage. This gem of legal maneuvering found a Constitutional right to same-sex intercourse and marriage 230 years after the Articles of Confederation was signed in 1787. Apparently, the right to homosexual marriage was concealed from the legal giants of yesteryear like Joseph Story, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Marshall, Earl Warren, etc.

Of course, this discovery commands a price from freedom in Gods everlasting order. The refusal to live within the God-given boundaries, intended by the Founders, brings consequences on the nation.

There are six things the Lord hates no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family (Proverbs 6:16-19).

The first in Solomons catalog of abominations is haughty eyes. Dr. Bruce K. Waltke observed, No vice stands in sharper opposition to wisdom and fear of God than pride.* Re-defining the four-thousand-year-old definition of marriage has to reach the pinnacle of arrogance!

Would you care to guess the antidote for those who rebel against Gods unending order? Solomon wrote: The rebellious man seeks only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him (Proverbs 17:11).

Jewish Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox interprets, If a man rebels against the king, a human messenger is sent to punish him. If he rebels against Gods word, punitive angels are dispatched. It is possible that the punishment is executed by angels, because God himself, as this socially conservative book sees it, defends the political order, if it is just.

If you can, make application to the five U.S. Supreme Court Justices who ruled two years ago to codify same-sex intercourse and marriage. Solomon indicates that there is a certainty of punishment, not its proximity. Overconfidence in ones power breeds arrogance, which leads to disaster. If I were one of the five Justices, Id repent and ask for forgiveness. The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10).

Now to the larger point. Secularism has imposed its godlessness on Americas youth for the last three-quarters century, devastating public education and higher learning. American education has collapsed under the weight of Secularism. Moral and academic anarchy now reign. Something curious has happened to those who define themselves as anti-fascist, who in reality are the fascists.

As Mark Steyn wrote: The Left, the Western Left, is on the same continuum as the Charlie Hebdo killers. Theyre both in the shut-up business, who want to END the debate rather than win the debate.

Calling themselves anti-fascists, the secular Left is demonstrating its fascist inclinations by torching university buildings and shutting down speakers on college campuses.

If America is to survive, virtue and fidelity must be reestablished in public schools and universities. Loyalty and fidelity to God, is what guards the nation. Spiritual men must move to the front and lead their families. As goes the family, so goes the nation. Bill Bennett observed:

Someone once characterized the two essential questions Plato posed as: Who teaches the children, and what do we teach them?

We need to respond to this culture that sends confusing signals to young men, a culture that is agnostic about what it wants men to be, with a clear and achievable notion of manhood.

The Founding Fathers believed, and the evidence still shows, that industriousness, marriage and religion are a very important basis for male empowerment and achievement. We may need to say to a number of our 20-something men, Get off the video games five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married. Its time for men to man up.

Evangelical and Pro-Life Catholic Christians in the last century have deserted the responsibilities prescribed by Americas Founders for living free. We have assigned the making, enforcement, and adjudication of laws to those lacking Divine faith. Those antagonistic to Biblical values now control public education, higher learning, City Hall, Big Business, the Courts, Hollywood, media and politics.

Liberals welcome believers insofar as religion can be deployed in service of liberal causes, to be sure. But any expression of theological or moral judgment is met with hostility.

As long as there is no application, offering a moral standard to secularists raises no opposition.

If America is to be saved from the onslaught of Secularism, Gideons and Rahabs are going to have to lead.

David Lane is Founder of theAmerican Renewal Project

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How Secularism Threatens Freedom and Righteousness in America - CBN News

Freedom Caucus member calls for Robert Mueller to recuse himself from Russia probe – Washington Examiner

A freshman member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus is calling for special counsel Robert Mueller to recuse himself from the Russia investigation because he has brought on "highly partisan" lawyers to help with the probe.

"Special Counsel Robert Mueller should recuse himself because the integrity of his appointment is in question due to former FBI Director James Comey's manipulative leaks and the relationship between Mr. Comey and Mr. Mueller," Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said in a statement Friday. "His ability to be impartial is doubtful because he has surrounded himself with highly partisan lawyers who make a special practice to line the coffers of Democrats."

News outlets have reported at least three lawyers Mueller has hired to help conduct his investigation have donated almost exclusively to Democrats. Also, Mueller and Comey are friends and former colleagues.

Biggs is at least the second House Republican to call for Mueller's recusal.

Earlier this month, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told the Blaze that Mueller should step aside from the probe because of his "cozy relationship" with Comey.

As part of his investigation into Russia's election interference, Mueller will probe for possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The Washington Post reported Mueller will also investigate whether Trump obstructed justice by allegedly telling Comey that he hoped the bureau would end its probe of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. Another report Sunday said Mueller hasn't decided yet whether to investigate Trump.

Most Democrats and Republicans in Congress have defended Mueller, the former FBI director whose leadership of the bureau lasted longer than anyone after J. Edgar Hoover.

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Freedom Caucus member calls for Robert Mueller to recuse himself from Russia probe - Washington Examiner

Senate conservatives hope to have Obamacare impact similar to … – Washington Examiner

Four conservative senators hoped Thursday to do what the Freedom Caucus did in the House: push a Republican healthcare bill to the right and save it from near-certain defeat.

Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., announced they would not be able to vote for the recently unveiled Senate healthcare bill, which was designed to at least partially repeal and replace Obamacare, in its present form.

"Senator Paul believes that conservatives need to be included at the negotiation table," said Paul's communications director, Sergio Gor. "Staying united will be important, similar to the Freedom Caucus."

In the House, conservatives managed to establish themselves as the main faction the president dealt with in healthcare negotiations. After the first version of the American Health Care Act proved unacceptable to conservatives, they forced through another version that passed the House.

When Obamacare originally passed Congress, liberal Democrats were forced to negotiate with centrists. They discarded the public option and other liberal priorities to pass a bill that included insurance market exchanges and Medicaid expansion.

"Freedom Caucus members are still reviewing the bill but have a number of concerns that they hope to see addressed in the amendment process" said a caucus source. "Sen. Ted Cruz, in particular, has a market-based consumer choice measure he's been working on that would garner broad support from the group."

"This is basically an amendment to Obamacare, not repeal of it. So much for campaign promises, right?" said FreedomWorks' public policy and legislative director Jason Pye. "I recall [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell saying he would repeal ObamaCare 'root and branch.' Yeah, this bill doesn't do that. We hope that Sens. Lee, Cruz, and Paul can guide the bill in a direction that lowers health insurance premiums."

Paul, who represents Kentucky in the U.S. Senate alongside McConnell, said much the same thing in his own remarks.

"It's gotta look like what we promised," Paul said Thursday afternoon. "I mean we promised I heard people, I traveled the country. I heard other Republicans say we are going to rip it out root and branch' thousands of times."

But it is not going to be easy. Centrist Republicans in the House were mostly able to vote against their chamber's Obamacare replacement, the American Health Care Act, once most Freedom Caucus members voted for it.

Republicans have a 24-seat majority in the House. There is only a 52-48 Republican Senate majority in the Senate. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are as important as any of the conservatives. These centrists want to fix Obamacare, not necessarily replace it.

Conservatives like Cruz are hoping for changes in the opposite direction. House conservatives insisted months ago that they wanted to get to yes on the House-passed bill, and it was centrists like the Tuesday Group, as opposed to conservatives, who were making it impossible.

"Ideally, we would like to vote for a bill that repeals Obamacare, yes," said Lee's communications director Conn Carroll.

This is similar to what Freedom Caucus members said before their bill finally passed the House. "The only thing we will be judged by is Do premiums come down?" Rep. Mark Meadows said in a meeting with the Washington Examiner.

The version of the bill that is being floated in the Senate jeopardizes centrist votes by allowing state-level waivers from major Obamacare coverage mandates, defunding Planned Parenthood and other well-known abortion providers and tweaking tax credits for consumers who need new health insurances.

Deleting any of these provisions carries the risk of losing conservative votes, after a number of them were won after major changes to the bill.

That hasn't stopped conservatives from either chamber of Congress from making demands.

"In general, the bill's going to have to look more like a repeal bill and less like we're keeping Obamacare" said Paul. "It has to look less like Obamacare lite."

President Trump, on the other hand, seems to be strengthening the centrists' position.

"I hope we are going to surprise you with a really good plan," he told a rally Wednesday evening. "I've been talking about a plan with heart. I said, Add some money to it!'"

That's not exactly music to conservatives' ears.

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Senate conservatives hope to have Obamacare impact similar to ... - Washington Examiner

Study: Gunmakers ramping up production, focusing on ‘freedom and security’ message – ABC News

Gun makers have boosted production in recent years, focusing on more high-caliber pistols and rifles designed for self-defense and shifting away from recreational firearms used for hunting and target shooting, the authors of a new study said.

Gun violence kills more than 36,000 Americans each year, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Authors of the study, published Thursday in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, said research has focused on victims of gun violence and government policies, while their study is one of the first to focus on gun industry practices.

Looking at data compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the researchers noted a significant increase in gun manufacturing overall from 2005 to 2013, in contrast to a slight downward trend before 2005.

They also found that driving this growth was higher production of pistols and rifles, and the pistols tended to be higher-caliber models, or ones that fire larger bullets. The authors said that five major gun manufacturers control nearly 60 percent of the market, so changes in production of one manufacturer could significantly affect the others'.

"It seems clear to us that the trend is for self-defense," lead study author Dr. Michael Siegel told ABC News.

Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, further suggested that the findings provide evidence of a change in consumer demand.

"[Manufacturers] have reinvented guns not as a recreational sport or tool but as a symbol of freedom and security," he said.

The study authors further suggested that the issue of gun violence should shift from the criminal justice perspective to the public health arena a point that has been opposed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a major industry organization for gun manufacturers.

"Guns are not a disease," Lawrence G. Keane, the foundation's senior vice president and general counsel, told ABC News in a statement. "There is no vaccine or health intervention for the criminal misuse of firearms."

Siegel, however, said the study is important because it points to the industry's responsibility in preventing gun violence.

He added that the goal of the research was not to deprive gun owners of their weapons.

"They are not the enemy in public health," he said. "There are ways to reduce gun violence while valuing gun owners' values It has been painted too long as mutually exclusive."

Siegel said that the group's next research steps are to identify the most effective methods and policies for isolating the small number of people who are most likely to commit acts of violence using guns.

"The solution lies in not taking guns away from people who are law-abiding but by being more effective at keeping guns out of the hands of the people who are at highest risk of gun violence."

Hong-An Nguyen, M.D., is a third-year resident physician in pediatrics at New YorkPresbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.

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Study: Gunmakers ramping up production, focusing on 'freedom and security' message - ABC News

WATCH: Ani DiFranco demands reproductive freedom as a civil right – Salon

This Salon Talks video was produced by Alexandra Clinton

The indie folksinger Ani DiFranco, whostarted out performing in coffeehouses as a teen in the late 80s, has long beena feminist icon. She sings of love, pacifism,reproductive rights and progressive politicson her 20th album Binary,released earlier this month. For arecent episode of Salon Talks, she described herjourney as an independent musician in a world of big-media suits.

How does poetry play into the writing?

I was into poetry asa little kid, when I first learned about it in school. The whole idea of distilling language and making it communicate beyond its borders just really interested me. A little bit later I picked up the guitar and started getting into music and songwritingand so that the poetry fetish kind of found its natural extension through song. But Ive always continued to write poems just as poems, too, because its a very different sort of beast than songs.

I love the music of language. Evenbefore I was making songs just the music of the way we speak, the prosody . . . the musicality, the music of prose, the melody.

Im all about that in my writing, trying to echo the music of how we speak in a song so you can really feel it being spoken to you.

Whats the message of thenew song Play God?

That song really comes from a place of trying to frame reproductive freedom as a civil right.. . . Theres a whole area of unfinished business in civil rights that apply only to women, and we just seem to not even have that language yet that can sort of help us to put it in the realm where Ithink it belongs.

The song is just trying to talk about how women are much more deeply informed about reproduction and creation and how death is a part of life. I think every menstruation teaches us that. We spin dark every time because theres death involved, whether that egg is fertilized or not. Ive had several abortions. Ive given birth to several children. Ive had a miscarriage.

Like any woman, I think I know more than a man what it all means, so I think that I should be given that respect.

Catch more of DiFranco on Salon abouther latest album, musical inspiration and civil rights.

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WATCH: Ani DiFranco demands reproductive freedom as a civil right - Salon