Daily Archives: March 31, 2021

Experience The Thrill Of Online Casinos: How to find adventures at home? – About Manchester

Posted: March 31, 2021 at 4:12 am

Does sitting at home during lockdown make you feel bored? There are no concerts you can go to, not even to mention more adventures activities one may prefer. Moreover, one may have too much free time and be in need of an additional hobby.

Are you looking for some adrenaline rush? With dozens of online casinos featuring countless games, all players can experience the thrill of gambling! In this featured article, we will shed light on the most productive ways of maximizing your casino winnings regularly. Even though there are endless possibilities for taking advantage of online gambling, we collected all the best options in one article. Without further ado, take a look!

Regardless of whether youre an experienced gambler, taking a serious approach is wise. Consider playing slot machines or table games with high RTPs, alongside avoiding those titles with wacky return ratios. Also, you should choose a casino with the highest number of positive reviews. You can rely on the experience of other players, to find a top payout online casino. The same goes for wagering techniques, which contain much rationale for your winnings in the long run.

Forget about wagering MAX, as advised on other sites. Alternatively, be prepared to check the pay tables, regularly bet on all lines, and access only high-RTP games. The primary rationale behind all those actions is to change your attitude concerning gambling. Since there is virtually no cheat or hack way to win jackpots all the time, maximizing your chances mathematically is just wise.

Most experienced gambling enthusiasts are likely to agree that bonuses and promotions can make gameplay more engaging. The same goes for winnings and odds for claiming jackpots on both slot machines and table games. The best online casinos offer lucrative Welcome and Reload bonuses for all tastes and preferences. The more games or spins youre eligible to access, the higher your chances of claiming a hefty jackpot are in a casino online. For that sole reason, monitoring and checking the best promos available right now is recommended.

Our review team also thinks that unique offers for progressive jackpot slots are too tempting to resist. Thanks to dozens of various offers on the Canadian market from Jackpot City and other platforms, no one will ever be disappointed with the heftiness of such bonuses. Check them out!

Another vital recommendation for all gamblers seeking jackpot is to know the difference between different jackpot variations. Both local and network types can come of different value, alongside having unique terms and conditions. While local jackpots offer higher chances of winning, network ones involve more players competing for multi-million prize pools.

Thats why we advise deciding what types are more appealing for your play style and in-game preferences beforehand. Be sure to stick to an online casino in Canada that offers both variations to make the most of available gameplay offers. After all, competing for a jackpot might be daunting, but the outcome of your adventure will undoubtedly pay off!

Understanding volatility is a key to success for any gambling enthusiast as well as enjoyment from gameplay. In case youre a slot player seeking jackpot, selecting slot machines based on volatility, coupled with RTP, is a must. While the high volatility might reward you with fewer, yet big wins, low volatility titles have more frequent wins with a lower level of rewards.

Volatility levels might become critical factors in choosing a suitable slot machine for Canadians who want to win high. In the case of decent winnings, being patient and playing high volatility slot machines is always a good idea. Regardless of what you choose, remember that winning a hefty jackpot is possible in most games, whereas volatility is a factor for you to select.

Undoubtedly, there are no cheat ways of maximizing your winning chances with some miraculous formulas. Instead, we recommend utilizing the mentioned approaches that have proven useful to maximize winnings in the long run.

Be sure to make the most of bonuses, get acquainted with casinos and different games, and play wisely to reach new heights in online gambling. After all, regardless of how inevitable a jackpot seems to be, a bit of luck and your actions can forward you to claiming it.

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What are the main benefits of playing online slot gambling? Here are some key features – Techstory

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Online slot game the most crucial and the best source of entertainment of all time. In a land-based casino, people organize slot games, but with few games, they provide their user to play the same games on a regular basis. Whereas in online gambling, the owner of the reputed website show their interest to make their users attract towards them by organizing the latest new games of slot online on a daily basis. With the arrival of the internet in the whole world due to advanced technology, there are varieties of games on the web.

The term micro gaming is responsible for gaining the popularity of online casino at a rapid speed. Online casino is mainly installed by micro gaming within a very short period of time, and in the present time, online gambling is the most famous online game in the world. A sometimes, slot game in online gambling comes up with a bad review by the gamblers because this game is all about the chance.

So everyone, before taking entry in this game, should prepare himself to get ready for each and every situation, even losing or wining. Slot games are one of the most popular game in the mode of online gambling and mostly it is played in the United States of America. Most of the people in the USA are engaging in the online casino whenever they got time from their job.

When comparing online casino and land-based casino, we will come to know that how much better is an online casino. Lets have a look at below-mentioned points-

The thing which makes online gambling a popular platform for entertainment and earning money is convenience. All the lovers are mostly dependent on this feature for playing online casino, which makes this platform such an easy to place bets. In a land-based casino, an individual should travel many kilometres and wasting money on petrol and parking. But in an online casino, one should be relaxed from all these things because the online platform provides their user to place bets in sitting at home full of comfort.

This method can save our money from which we can place bets to earn a wide range of money. All gamblers should love to play slot online because all would like to play this game on every electronic device. An individual should search a reputed website so that they can be sure of their safety and security of paid funds. The most important factor which makes an online casino popular is that this platform provides their user with new games every day with the latest technology.

Most of the players from slot games are influenced by the earning rate for this platform. On the internet, there are many websites that allow their users an opportunity to play a variety of slot games. It depends on our selection that which game suits us for placing bets. Before registering, we can make out a lot of research for identifying the apparent websites which help their users to provide a variety of options and offers for playing online casino.

We can check the right website by observing the reviews and details of that particular site. In a land-based casino for playing slot games, we need to have a lot of money in our pocket, whether we are a beginner or experienced player. But in an online casino, many websites are there which allow their customers to play free practice online slot games to make their skill developed for earning a wide range of amount.

There are many owners of online websites to organize an interesting tournament for gamblers to make attracts them. The slot game is one of the most thrilling varieties of online gambling, which provides many stimulating games, so players should earn higher payouts. In the tournaments of slot games, the main fact is players winning chances always increased after they registered for events from reputed websites. The land-based casino does not provide customers with any extra rewards to make their users happy and attractive.

Online slots also give many surprises to their users for winning many rewards, bonuses and jackpots to increase his or her balance in bankroll. Many of the big businessman and landlords play for the source of entertainment and investment. They do not worry about their losing side, and this gives their mind relax so that they can pay full attention to their running game.

Here are major online games in slot events. We need to select one of them according to our own preferences, which one is suitable for us. If we are a beginner then, first of all, one should gain knowledge about that particular game that he has chosen and also learn all rules of that game. An individual should grab all the tricks and tips to tackle his game in a smooth manner.

These qualities help one to win the game by earning a high amount to make all his needs fulfilled. Online slot game gives the player an opportunity to include in a single slot with many players. We should not make any barrier with our desired slot platform to make our connection with them, which helps in giving a discount.

There are many benefits of online slot games. One of the most crucial is convenience. It means that every individual should place bets while slipping on your favourite sofa or drinking with your family. Slot games are the best source of enjoyment and offer heavy rewards to increase their balance. Promotions will serve by the websites when we were signing up for placing bets. Such rewards players should receive in the form of additional chips, free spins, cash bonuses and many more.

This encourages them towards placing many bets from the platform of an online casino. With the immense winning for a longer period of time, the player should get much time in online slot games. While registering on one particular website on a regular basis, a player should get many rewards and bonuses whether he or she will lose or win; that doesnt matter. So overall online casino is the best platform for earning money by placing various bets.

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Is Gambling a Part of the Japanese Culture? – – VENTS Magazine

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Japan may not be famous for gambling and casinos, but somehow, it has become popular in the past decade. In Japan, there are some sports legal to bet at, including powerboat racing, bicycle racing, horse racing, soccer, and motorbike. Most working Japanese people hit the casinos after hours, which has become an immensely popular activity for the Japanese society.

Certainly, the online gambling in Japan has seen a rise, like many other countries across the world. Many players sign up for web casinos since they can gamble for major bonuses and prizes, which is also increasing their chance to win. There are many websites aimed to help new players navigate the Japanese casinos. Gambling on smartphones has also risen in popularity.

In one way or another, gambling has offered entertainment for Japanese people since ancient times. One of the famous old gambling games is called Cho-Han Bakuchi. Nowadays, modern forms of gambling and most casinos seem to be banned in Japan. The only ones that are allowed in the country is sports like cycle racing and horse racing, and online betting websites. But they also might come with restrictions.

For the past decade, Japanese gambling market has been very strict, but this hasnt stopped Asia from becoming a major trendsetter in online casino games, despite all the rumors about gambling being banned and hated by the Japanese government and Asian or Japanese people. Tokyo has a famous nightlife if you want to explore more the online casinos in Japan, such as poker, blackjack, and slot machine games, consider Tokyo.

Lets take a step back and clarify what gambling is. Simply think of it as a way to play games of luck and chance for money. Gambling is a form of entertainment, a relaxing activity, to help people challenge themselves and have fun. This is why it was invented and how it should be seen and understood.

More and more people are talking about gambling as a bad thing. Indeed, its important to gamble responsibly and dont lose yourself on games of chance. It depends on how you decide to control this activity, because yes, you can control it. Its all in your mind in order to avoid transforming this beautiful and fun activity into a nightmare, its essential to follow the next tips:

There you have it gambling isnt as bad as you would think or heard if you play it responsibly.

The Japanese casino and gambling industry is still rising in popularity. The government legalized land-based casinos and maybe some casino games, such as roulette, will get some attention too. Japan is a nation steeped in traditions and cultures, so anything that is new in this country is treated with thought, especially if its overseas. But the younger generation are more open minded and this helped the online casino industry to improve. But this activity has always been viewed with extreme caution.

It goes without saying that Japanese people know how to act when they gamble online. The gambling industry in Japan doesnt stop to amaze us with its unique trends. The industry has produced a significant amount of the worlds gambling revenue. India and China contributed to this. In Asia, for example, most gambling games are illegal, and those that are allowed are very strict controlled. According to studies, Japan has a great chance of becoming the major gambling market in Asia. The state promotes the gambling industry as an important part of the traveler infrastructure. So, dont miss your chance of gambling in Japan and win big prizes.

Gambling in Japan was officially illegal since 1907. Of course, many illegal casinos have popped up in Japan, and especially in Tokyo since then. But while these casinos would hardly come in contact with police, operators still needed to watch their backs so they wouldnt get themselves in trouble. It looks like in 2016, out of nowhere, the Japanese government legalized gambling. Those were good news for Japanese people, but unfortunately, travelers to Japan who loved gambling needed to wait longer until they had the permission to play casino games.

Legal games in Japan:

So, is gambling legal in Japan? The answer is yes, but no. Although this might sound really confusing to you, there are laws that can ban traditional casinos in Japan, and theyre very strict. But maybe this might not be surprising to you at all. After all, the great news is that when it comes to Japanese casinos, you dont really need to be literally in Japan to play at slot machines and other casino games. Find out more Japanese gambling information before you explore Japans gambling casinos.

Online casino games are the best opportunity to enjoy a great selection of gambling games, anytime, and without the worry of having to leave from your home. Not to mention about the amazing tournaments with poker games. But, despite the popularity of gambling in Japan, most players have tried this form of entertainment, but they still have questions to ask about it.

If youre new to gambling, you might want to follow these tips:

Getting excited about winning at gambling may often make you forget about having fun. Casino games are made for fun, so you should always remember to enjoy your gambling experience, no matter where you are.

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5 Monopoly casino Games that you didn’t know about – Techstory

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The most interesting and evergreen board game is now available at online casinos for you. If you have ever been a monopoly fan, now is your time to have fun and line your pockets with cash at the same time. This article is for all the monopoly fans who love to gamble and would love to play the board game but in the new form. Monopoly games are now available at casinos and can be the best entertainment for you. Casinofox.in offers all the right tips and information needed to know about Monopoly at online casinos.

Monopolys beginnings can be traced back to 1903 when American antimonopolist Lizzie Magie developed a game in the hopes of justifying Henry Georges single-tax theory. It was created as a teaching tool to highlight the drawbacks of land concentration to monopolies.

From being invented as an educational tool to becoming the board game every household has, Monopoly has come a very long way.

Hasbro currently publishes the board game Monopoly. Players travel around the game board by rolling two six-sided dice, buying and selling properties, and building them with houses and hotels. The goal is for players to collect rent from their opponents to bankrupt them. Money can also be won or lost by Chance and Group Chest cards, as well as tax squares; players can also end up in prison, where they will be unable to escape until one of many conditions is met. There are various house rules for the game, as well as hundreds of different versions, spin-offs, and related media. Monopoly has been licenced locally in more than 103 countries and printed in more than 37 languages, making it a part of international popular culture.

If you have grown up playing monopoly and now want the adult version of it, why not play at online casinos? We have curated a wonderfully entertaining list of the five most amazing monopoly games at online casinos. Read below and choose your favourite.

Barcrests entrance into the Monopoly world of online casino games is one of the most famous. Monopoly Big Event is a 5-reel, 2pay line slot with a top prize of 250,000. The minimum bet per spin is 0.20, but putting a Big Bet spin raises the minimum bet to 20 or 30 per game. However, with a higher price comes a higher chance of winning. The RTP increases to 9 percent when you play a Major Bet spin.

This Monopoly slot game from WMS has 5 reels, 4 positions, and 3pay lines, which is a significant improvement over the slot machines weve already discussed. The bonus game reel mechanism, which triggers when you land 3, 4, or 5 symbols in a row, is one of the Mega Movers best features. This slot game has an RTP of 96.0per cent with a minimum bet of 0.05 and a maximum bet of 50.

For those who are familiar with how classic roulette functions, Monopoly Roulette Hot Properties will need very little clarification. However, there is one significant difference: the eye-catching yellow HOT pocket that appears first on the roulette wheel. Those who are into gaming, will love this one.

This is a slot game that lives up to its epic tag. Epic Monopoly has a total of 160 pay lines spread through four sets of reels, with classic Monopoly icons like the top hat, puppy, battleship, and more. If you get three or more Epic symbols in a row, youll get a first-class ticket to bonus town. Epic Monopoly has a return to player (RTP) of 96.01 per cent.

There are 30 pay lines in this 5-reel, 4-row Monopoly gambling game, which means there are 30 ways to win! This version of the Monopoly slots game is a simple one-armed computer. Players will collect cash and spin a Price is Right-style bonus wheel for each spin. Monopoly Big Money Wheel has an RTP of 95.95 per cent.

There are games that we play to pass our time and forget the next hour and then there are games we grow up playing and love from our core. Monopoly is such a game. If you are looking for monopoly at online casinos in india, you can refer to sources like Casinofox.in.

Monopoly is one of the most spectacular games to ever be invented. If you are looking to blow some stress and take a ride down nostalgia then head straight to Casinofox.in to know all about monopoly games. Monopoly is now available at your online casinos, play at your leisure.

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The Amazing And Engaging Sport That Is Cricket – CricketAddictor – Cricket Addictor

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There are many sports that we have truly come to know and love over the years. Cricket is definitely one of them. Even though cricket has been around for many years, not everyone has been aware of just how amazing and fun the sport actually is. But why is cricket so popular amongst so many people?

With many different sports to choose from, it is always somewhat interesting once one specific sport suddenly grows wildly in popularity. What makes that one sport standout compared to all the other sports? Even though you will most likely always be able to find some people who are interested in some type of sport, it is just a well-known fact that some sports are more popular than others. Normally we think of football and basketball. But did you know just how popular cricket is, especially in England where it originated from? Perhaps you already know what cricket is, but have a hard time picturing why the sport is as popular as it is. Well, it surely depends on who you ask. However, there are some reasons that are told over and over again. Cricket is a fairly easy sport to understand, and you will very quickly learn how it works. But it is in fact the simple and easy understanding of the sports, that helps people fall in love with it. Besides that, it is truly engaging to watch, and you will feel entertained every time. In some ways, the sports remind us of online casino games. Of course, the way cricket is played is nothing like online casino, but if you take a look at the reasons as to why both cricket and online casino are so popular, you will quickly see some similarities. Online casino is also very easy to understand, and you pick up on the rules straight away. If you play yourself or just watch online casino games, you will also get very engaged with the games, since they are fun to watch. Again, just like with cricket.

Perhaps you have never really gotten yourself into enjoying cricket all that much. Well, it is never too late, so, if you want to know more about the sport, why not watch some games about it? You can even go to England and watch them live, if you want. You can also just read about it here on our site and learn more about how everything really works. We like cricket a lot, as you can probably tell from our site. You can find everything you need to know about cricket right here, such as cricket stats. Take a closer look at the sport, who knows you might end up really liking it? If you are still struggling to figure out exactly why cricket is so popular you can click right on this link. We do however think, that once you start gaining interest in the sport, you do not need an article to help tell you why so many people love it, you will quickly discover that yourself.

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COVID-19 and the future of religious freedom – Deseret News

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This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

Four years ago, I read a book that altered the course of my career. Up to that point, Id reported regularly on faith-related legal disputes, but I hadnt thought much about the attorneys and law firms involved. I had covered the output of the Christian conservative legal movement but missed the fact that the movement existed.

Defending Faith, which was published in July 2017, changed all that. Suddenly, I was aware of how seemingly unrelated cases on abortion rights, LGBTQ anti-discrimination law and religious persecution were linked together. I saw that the attorneys I spoke with about concepts like the separation of church and state felt personally called to protect their fellow Christians and secure the future of religious freedom.

I published a story titled Serving God by suing others, which outlined what Id learned. That article, and the book that inspired it, continues to guide the way I write about religious liberty today.

Ive thought about Defending Faith especially often in the past year, as I researched and wrote about the religious freedom ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its author, Daniel Bennett, an associate professor of political science at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, was kind enough to chat with me and answer a few of the questions I keep returning to.

Its been four years now since Defending Faith was published. How has the Christian conservative legal movement evolved in that time frame?

The Trump era was kind to the Christian legal movement. Several veterans of related organizations served in positions of influence in the Trump administration, including in the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. Since 2017, the movement has grown in influence, resources and legal successes. While the Biden administration will not be as friendly, the composition of the courts (including the Supreme Court), is very favorable to the movements goals.

Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic helped or hurt these law firms?

There have obviously been quite a few controversies involving churches challenging restrictions on gatherings, and while some cases have had more merit than others, Christian conservative legal organizations have been eager to capitalize on all of them. The University of Cincinnatis Andy Lewis and I have studied this, and weve found that these efforts may have the effect of polarizing religious freedom as a political and cultural issue, which poses real problems for the future of a holistic and healthy conception of religious liberty. So while the pandemic has tended to aid and strengthen some of these firms in their public work, there could be consequences ahead.

What else have we learned about religious freedom law during this health crisis?

I think the pandemic has taught us that, even though religious liberty is an essential freedom, it is not inviolable. Where states have crafted reasonable restrictions treating church gatherings like comparable nonchurch gatherings, there havent been many successful legal challenges. Its where governments have inexplicably treated churches different from other sorts of mass gathering spaces that you see the courts siding with Christian legal groups and their clients.

I think the pandemic has also reinforced the idea that religious freedom is a major cultural flashpoint. Its exposed (or maybe emphasized) a lot of partisan and religious divisions on religious freedom claims. Its now clear, for example, that if youre a Democrat who doesnt go to church, youre going to have very different views about government restrictions on religious gatherings than a Republican who attends church weekly.

Lets end on a lighter note. If you had to recommend a book, TV show, podcast or movie to someone who likes religion news, what would you recommend?

Im a big fan of The Good Place. It tackles a lot of fundamental philosophical questions in clever and (really) funny ways. And one of my favorite podcasts is Young Adult Movie Ministry, which is kind of like a film criticism podcast through a (somewhat jaded) Christians lens. Recent episodes have covered serious films like Silence and First Reformed, but the shows also tackled the Gods Not Dead franchise and stuff from Kirk Cameron. I learn a lot, but I laugh a lot, too.

As part of my ongoing coverage of LGBTQ rights and religious freedom, I wrote an article last week about which Americans are most likely to oppose adding sexual orientation and gender identity-based protections to federal civil rights law.

Mikdash meat is a Hebrew phrase meaning small sanctuary, which is sometimes used to refer to a home. I learned this fact in a story my colleague Mya Jaradat wrote for Passover about the role of the home in Jewish life. Rabbis explained to her that, for Jews, the home is treated like a sanctuary since its the site of so many important rituals, including the Passover Seder.

Across the country, shrinking congregations are struggling to decide what to do with church buildings that seem too big and too expensive to keep. In New York City, religious leaders, land use experts and city planners have joined forces to help houses of worship in their area with that decision. They wrote a book outlining how to avoid selling a church building by doing things like renting it out to other organizations and selling the air rights above it, according to The City.

On a related noted, for the first time in 80 years, a Gallup survey on church membership has found that fewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship. For much of the 20th century, around three-quarters of U.S. adults described themselves as a member of a church, synagogue or mosque.

Ryan Burge, who is both a pastor and a political scientist, recently published a new book on the rise of religiously unaffiliated Americans, called The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are and Where They Are Going. I read the whole thing in one morning and felt it was a thoughtful reflection on the state of American religion. The Deseret News recently published an excerpt from the book.

Get weekly stories to help deepen your understanding of religion in the public square.

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Is cancel culture a threat to freedom? Poll says 64% of Americans think so – wreg.com

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Posted: Mar 30, 2021 / 08:30 PM CDT / Updated: Mar 30, 2021 / 03:11 PM CDT

(WTVO) Do average Americans feel pressure from cancel culture? A new study suggests so.

As exclusively reported by The Hill, a new poll released by the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard and The Harris Poll, 64% of Americans view cancel culture as a threat to freedom.

The survey also found 54% of respondents were concerned that they could be banned from social media or fired from their job for expressing their opinions online. 46% said they were not concerned.

It is a chilling finding that most people in the country now are afraid they would be fired if they expressed their real views on social media, saidMark Penn, the director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey.

The public generally gives negative ratings to social media companies and sees the movement as more about censorship rather than trying to correct wrongs. It is growing as a national issue, he added.

Only 13% of the participants said they did not consider cancel culture to be a problem, with 32% calling it a moderate problem and 20% said it was a small problem.

Merriam-Webster defines cancel culture as the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.

A total of 1,945 registered voters participated in the study.

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Why Constitutions Are the Safeguards of Freedom – The New York Times

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Another force Colley identifies was the spread of new communication technologies (the pen). (Here Colleys work echoes that of the great scholar of nationalism, Benedict Anderson.) During the early modern period in Europe, literacy expanded while the cost of publication decreased, leading to an explosion of newspapers, pamphlets and books. These made it much easier for reformers to exchange ideas with one another and with mass audiences. As Colley puts it, the growing ease of communication made it possible for men and women and not just in the West to become better and more regularly informed about political personalities and projects in different parts of the world. It became easier for people to compare and contrast conditions, including political conditions, in different countries and continents.

Interestingly, Colley shows that early constitutions were not simply the result of demands from below. Rather, increasingly aware of and influenced by Enlightenment ideas, rulers like Catherine II of Russia, Frederick of Prussia and Gustaf III of Sweden wrote constitutions in order to signal their modern status to their people and to one another. And in another reflection of the influence of the new communication technologies, these rulers often custom-made their proclamations for print reproduction and had them translated into different languages so they could be easily disseminated at home and abroad.

Which brings us to the final, interlocking force identified by Colley: globalization (the ship). Accompanying new communication technologies was the growing ease of travel. As is the case today, these forces combined to facilitate the spread of new ideas. And since, as Colley notes, it is easier to borrow than invent, the ability of political elites and intellectuals in South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to learn about constitutions in Europe, the United States and elsewhere as well as to travel to these places contributed to a contagion of constitution-making beginning in the mid-19th century.

The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen stresses that constitution-makers in non-Western places did not merely copy existing constitutions but rather adapted them to their own regions particular needs. As Colley says, the growing ease of communication and travel meant that constitution-makers across the globe could study and select between ideas, institutions and laws set out in an expanding print array of different countries constitutions. They could then meld and combine the borrowings of their choice with their own ideas, aspirations and legal and political conventions. Unfortunately, despite the geographical breadth of The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen, Colley fails to explain how constitutions changed across time and space. At one point, for example, she states that between 1776 and 1850 the most oft-mentioned constitutional rights were freedom of the press and religion. Was this still the case in the late 19th and 20th centuries? Did countries or regions differ systematically in the type of rights included in their constitutions? Such questions are left unanswered.

Nonetheless, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen has important lessons for anyone interested in political development today. One is the value of taking a long-term perspective when trying to understand contemporary events. Colley demonstrates that even failed attempts at implanting constitutions often had important consequences. For instance, she shows that in many cases of successful constitution-making, reformers built upon previous efforts and learned from the mistakes their predecessors made.

Colley also reminds us of how revolutionary and inspirational constitutions were and still are. Constitutions let people define and delineate power, to shape the way governance occurs and authority is exercised in their countries. At a time when many are questioning the future of democracy, it is worth remembering how important and precious these things are. At the end of The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen Colley recounts some words of Thomas Jeffersons that are particularly apt today: Tho written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally & recall the people.

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The Intersection Of Freedom And Responsibility During Pandemic, After Mass Shootings – Here And Now

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People have been having debates sometimes arguments with friends, family, coworkers and strangers about the personal responsibility of wearing a mask and getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

Heated conversations are also unfolding around guns following two back-to-back mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado. Opinions emerging from these debates often touch upon personal freedoms, liberty and responsibility as Americans living in a democracy.

These themes continue to surface as Americans grapple with what individuals responsibilities are to each other while also enjoying personal liberty, linguist George Lakoff says.

Liberty comes through legitimate authority, usually through political authority. The question then is, if you have liberty in that way, do you have responsibilities to other people who have liberty? That is, you're not free to limit other people's freedom, and that's a very important idea, he says.

While Americans have First Amendment speech, an individual cant yell fire into a crowded theater, for example. And with the Second Amendment, Americans have the right to bear arms but arent allowed to shoot people.

But personal freedoms and liberty through the context of Amendment rights is a nuanced concept.

We're equipped to understand it simply, intuitively, because democracy requires empathy, Lakoff says. ... Without empathy, without the very idea of caring about other people, there can be no notion of democracy.

That means the definition of liberty is not the same as freedom, he says. Liberty, a political notion, has to do with a legitimate authority imposing a freedom within a range of the laws given by that legitimate authority, he explains, while freedom is sort of neutral.

Politicians often use the language of freedom and liberty to suit their goals, whether it be masks, guns or many other divisive topics. Republicans in general tend to talk more about freedom than liberty, Lakoff says.

Last month, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke to conservatives about taking a hands-off approach to the pandemic.

We are in an oasis of freedom in a nation thats suffering from the yoke of oppressive lockdowns,' DeSantis said. We look around in other parts of our country, and in far too many places, we see schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed.

DeSantis use of oppressive lockdowns means the governor is pushing a narrative that public health measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus are oppressive to people and companies who dont care about whether or not they are contributing to the dangers of COVID-19, Lakoff says.

The effect is to say that a government that cares about its people is not legitimate. That's the effect, he says. It says that people are free, independent of what its government says about taking care of the health and well-being of the people at large.

Liberals approach the language of freedom and liberty very differently, he says.

For example, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer commented last week on legislation that's been proposed to restrict access to guns following the recent shootings.

We cannot seem to finish grieving one tragedy before another takes place. It's a reminder that we must confront a devastating truth in the United States an unrelenting epidemic of gun violence steals innocent lives with alarming regularity, Schumer said.

Schumer is clearly saying no, no one should be able to go out and buy an AR 15-type weapon, Lakoff says. At one time, assault weapons were banned thanks to the work of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 1994, but the legislation expired and wasnt renewed due to congressional Republicans who were supported by gun manufacturers, he says.

When American virtues such as liberty and freedom were being debated by the countrys founders, semi-automatic weapons werent even conceptualized. At the time, rifles had to be hand stuffed with a round, gunpowder-filled bullet that could only fire one shot, Lakoff says.

It seems like no matter the debate, productive conversations on liberty and freedom are difficult to have when contention is sewn into the politics of the U.S. Lakoff says theres no real way around it when one national party takes such a strong stance in one direction.

Lynn Menegonproduced and edited this interview for broadcast with Tinku Ray. Serena McMahon adapted it for the web.

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The Intersection Of Freedom And Responsibility During Pandemic, After Mass Shootings - Here And Now

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Donors and academic freedom: Given stormy seas in todays India, funding must be diversified beyond a few bu – The Times of India Blog

Posted: at 4:10 am

Ashoka Universitys reputation as a world-class liberal arts university has been dented by Prof Pratap Bhanu Mehta: His media columns highly critical of the BJP proved very inconvenient for those running Ashoka. Former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian also resigned from the faculty, saying Ashoka could no longer protect academic freedom. Students went on strike, and 150 academics worldwide condemned Ashoka.

That is a tragedy, but the big issues of higher education go far beyond Ashoka or Mehta. Five years ago, I was with a group of journalists in Kolkata covering the last state election. At a meeting with top academics, they castigated CM Mamata Banerjee for destroying academic standards. They said not only seats in good colleges but also academic posts were being sold for cash, and critics were being victimised. Todays Ashoka controversy reminds me eerily of that episode.

Despite her high-handed tactics, Mamata won that election with a massive majority. Narendra Modi also won a massive majority in the 2019 general election despite a much-criticised crackdown on dissenting students at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Aligarh Muslim University, and arresting academic critics under laws on sedition and unlawful activities laws. When the electorate cares so little about freedom in universities, politicians are unlikely to change their increasingly illiberal attitude.

Many years ago, I participated in a World Bank course to improve academic and media analysis of state budgets. While the central budget was thoroughly and expertly discussed by the media and academics, state budgets were not. So, the Bank invited state university academics to write papers on their states budget.

The quality of the papers and discussion that followed was abysmal. Why? One state professor told me, Our promotions and prospects depend entirely on our relations with top politicians and bureaucrats. It does not depend on our research papers or budget analysis. So why should we bother? No wonder the quality of college education is so poor.

I had hoped that private sector, non-profit universities like Ashoka would establish global standards without sucking up to politicians. I was wrong.

Mehta says his resignation was forced by political pressure. Ashokas founders deny this. But even if there was no overt pressure, businessmen and other donors fear antagonising the government, and will, without any political orders, distance themselves from institutions universities, journals, TV channels, NGOs connected with strident Modi critics.

Mehta was hired as an asset to Ashoka. But in recent years the trustees indicated to Mehta he had become a liability, that angry donors were withholding donations. I think Mehta should have said, so what? He and Subramanian should have fought their battles within the university and dared the trustees to sack them.

That is now in the past. The bigger problem is the fate of universities who till now viewed Ashoka as a model to emulate. This model is highly dependent on donors for the huge funding required to attract world-class faculty with world-class salaries, provide scholarships for 65% of students and expand fast.

This model carries the risk of sudden stops in donations. No one should be surprised that business donors want to distance themselves from a university whose best-known staff fulminate against the government in columns and TV appearances. Some donors are fervent Modi admirers. Others fear political retribution.

Such fears go back decades. When businessmen are asked to rate the budget on TV on budget day, virtually none rate it less than 8 out of 10, regardless of which party is in power. They know that an honest answer carries political risks. Speaking truth to power does not help. Sucking up does.

Those running Ashoka University are trying to salvage the situation. To re-establish a reputation for academic freedom, Ashoka is thinking of creating internal firewalls to check external pressures on the faculty, and an ombudsman to settle disputes.

But this will not solve the problem of donations drying up, leaving Ashoka without funds for staff, scholarships and ambitious expansion plans. The answer is to lessen dependence on business donors.

Having 15 business donors may look like diversification, but does not diversify outcomes: All 15 can stop donations simultaneously. The donor base should be expanded to non-business foundations, foreign donors, alumni donations and crowdfunding.

Reducing dependence on business donations also means cutting ambitions and costs. Cut salaries, reduce scholarships from 65% to say 40%, slash ambitious expansion plans. Use distance learning to cut costs. This may dismay Ashokas founders, who wish to quickly establish an Indian version of Harvard or Oxford. But it needs a better model to navigate stormy seas in Indian conditions.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Donors and academic freedom: Given stormy seas in todays India, funding must be diversified beyond a few bu - The Times of India Blog

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