Category Archives: Freedom

So, while these students grow in their critical thinking faculties and life choices, they also grow in their core course. The pilot intervention in Haryana was evaluated via Randomised Control Trial (RCT) by no less than J-PAL, the organisation founded by Nobel Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. The baseline was done in 2013-14 and the end line in 2018, a good two years post Breakthroughs exit, 94.2 percent children retained their learnings on gender equity.

Thanks to critical thinking, the boys shared household chores, supported their female siblings in their professional career aspirations, practiced gender equity in their everyday lives. TKT is now running in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi too. 92 percent TKT graduates in Uttar Pradesh feel there is absolutely no valid reason to hit a girl. The same Uttar Pradesh, which has given the world screaming headlines on crimes against women in the last few years. This is why courses like TKT need to be scaled up pan-state.

Just exercising authority, seniority wont cut it. This requires instructors, faculty who are more than just teachers, who are friends, mentors, realistic aspirational role-models, who encourage thinking, analyses, challenging norms. The litmus test of critical thinking in schools is enabling safe ecosystem with allies in school, in households and the larger society. To never forget that education is not just a right in itself but also an essential right to enjoy other rights, underlines two time UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Education, Kishore Singh.

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Indias NEP 2020 Can Only Work If Freedom Of Speech Is Guaranteed - The Quint

Three decades after his release from captivity the British journalist discovered the delights of skiing during the festive period

The mountain peaks of the Val dAosta in Italy soared high and majestic into clear blue sky above Courmayeur. The snow was brilliant white and deep perfect conditions for the start of our Christmas skiing holiday.

The only blot on these bright first moments was me: I lay spread-eagled in the snow, having come a cropper seconds after donning my skis. You alright Dad? my 14-year-old daughter Lydia called, from lower down the slope.

I was a bit embarrassed, but fine, thanks. This was Lydias first Christmas outside England, and my first for nearly 30 years. In 1986 Id gone to Lebanon to cover the civil war, my first foreign assignment as a TV news producer. Westerners were being targeted by militant groups and while trying to get to the airport and return home, I was kidnapped and held hostage for over five years. Christmases in captivity were grim; yearning for happy times at home while chained up in tiny, windowless cells, with poor food and random brutality from our captors.

In 1991 UN-led negotiations saw the release of all remaining hostages. Since then Ive enjoyed traditional Christmases at home with extended family. But last year our plans were vague, and when Lydias mum committed to volunteering for Crisis at Christmas, I suddenly thought that Lydia and I could do something different too. Not as worthy perhaps but a lot of fun if I could stay upright.

I dusted myself off and we headed up on the Pra Neyron chairlift that rises from Courmayeurs mid-mountain hub of Plan Chcrouit. Swinging above the snow-tipped forest, all the bustle of getting to Courmayeur ebbed away and, taking deep breaths of fresh mountain air, we relaxed.

The chairlift stopped briefly, and we smiled at each other, enjoying the sudden stillness. Its just so beautiful! Lydia said, in wonder. Yes, and so peaceful. I replied, the sense of calm so different from the awful tension of the captive years. Far below the pistes were dotted with tiny figures, skiers and snowboarders in an LS Lowry vision of Narnia.

At the top of Pra Neyron we got our first sight of Monte Bianco, as we learnt to call Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, from the Italian side. Skiing from the chairlift, the rudimentary skills gained on our last outing two years ago Lydias first ever ski trip, my first for a decade emerged. We both took a few more spills, but it did nothing to dent the delight of dad and daughter being on the slopes again.

Racing freely, if chaotically, down the side of a mountain under wide blue skies was in total contrast to that past life of captive horizons, limited by concrete walls in small cells. Though not a skier then, Id sometimes take mental flight and imagine conquering the pistes of Lebanons mountains. Now, happily for me, its that confined experience that seems like a fantasy.

The plan this trip was that we would improve our skills and that first day clearly showed the need. Ryan Brown, our instructor from the Monte Bianco ski school, took us back to the basics of snowploughing, before moving on to parallel turns. Lydia was immediately in control, while I took longer to overcome the urge to lean backwards and throw myself into crashing turns.

Later, eating lunch in the packed Pizzeria Christiania at Plan Chcrouit, we watched TV coverage of a World Cup giant slalom event, the racers pivoting through the turns, shoulders almost touching the ground. Ill soon be doing that! I said. But although I thought Id been getting into the rhythm, Lydia wasnt convinced. Sure Dad, as soon as you stop falling over at every turn.

When we met Ryan for our second lesson, we mentioned watching the race, and he told us that a couple of weeks before hed been competing in slalom at Pila, across the valley from Courmayeur. And yet he was teaching me, whose prime ambition, despite what I said to Lydia, is not to race but to ski sedately and steadily down, rather than veering faster left and right before crash!

By the end of the lesson, though not utterly sedate, I was much steadier. I even, occasionally, skied for whole minutes without thinking about what I was doing, just going with the rhythm of the piste.

Our base, Hotel Courmayeur, sits at one end of Via Roma, a winding, cobbled street through the town centre, lined with chic boutiques, smart restaurants and bars. A huge Christmas tree ablaze with lights was set up in Piazza Abb Henry at the other end, and we loved the views from here down over rooftops and up to mountains.

Walking back to the hotel past enticing delicatessens, I realised that we were missing out on our usual last-minute Christmas preparations; buying food, making ready for guests, wrapping presents. But while I love the buzz of Christmas at home, it was a nice change to have nothing to do except relax which, back at the hotel, meant playing pool and table football before the gala Christmas Eve meal.

We exchanged greetings with fellow guests and staff, but while it was fun to try the main dish, the traditional, Baccal, or salted cod, we both reckoned Christmas dinner at home makes a better feast.

But, on Christmas morning, any worries about missing out were blown away when we woke to clear blue skies, then had our confidence boosted by newly smoothed pistes that flattered our newly-minted skills.

Christmas Day lunch, Courmayeur style was not turkey and trimmings, but burgers and hot chocolate, scoffed while gazing at the mountains. Wed had no carol service, and only brought one present each far from the usual, but that was all part of the fun.

We ended the day swooshing down a red into the centre of Plan Chcrouit, where we high fived happily among a throng of incredibly elegant fur-coated Italians and their little dogs. The sunshine had brought Courmayeurs fashionable non-skiing clientele up from town to enjoy a stroll and drinks in the mountain restaurants.

In the middle of the week, we took a day off skiing, instead soaring to 3,500m on the Skyway Monte Bianco cable car just outside Courmayeur. Its 360-degree rotating cabins serve off-piste runs for gung-ho skiers, but we were happy to leave our equipment behind.

Where is Monte Bianco exactly? asked Lydia. Erm, right there! I said, pointing confidently. But the massive mountain could have been anywhere, so dense was the snow swirling around the terrace at the top of the cable car. On a clear day the view must be amazing, but it was still exciting to be there, feeling the elemental power of nature. Skyway has a bookshop, a crystal exhibition, a museum, a fantastic restaurant, even a winery. But out on the terrace I was reminded that, for all our ingenuity, the mountains are a wilderness we cannot control.

Thud, a snowball landed on my back, and I turned to see Lydia laughing as she scuttled back indoors.

Brilliant sunshine lit our final days skiing and we found the confidence to try a new piste, a red run from the Maison Vieille chairlift. It was wonderful to be sharing this beautiful environment, and mostly having the piste to ourselves New Year tends to be much busier Im told.

This Christmas away from home was different, no familiar feasts and just the two of us, but it had been a super holiday. Most importantly, unlike those five Christmases in Lebanon, wed chosen to be away, enjoying our freedom on the slopes of Courmayeur.

I wondered how Lydia found it, worried that it hadnt been Christmassy enough.

She laughed, Christmassy enough? Dad, we've finally had a real White Christmas as well as brilliant skiing!

A weeks holiday in Courmayeur staying with Inghams (inghams.co.uk; 01483 938 047) at the three-star Hotel Courmayeur starts 839 per person half-board, including flights and transfers. Skis and boots, lift passes and ski lessons can all be booked in advance through Inghams. Tickets for the Skyway Monte Bianco (montebianco.com) start at 52 for a return journey from Courmayeur to Punta Helbronner.

John McCarthys trip took place before the Covid-19 pandemic, in December 2019. The Foriegn Commonwealth and Development Office currently advises against all non-essential travel to Italy arrivals into the UK, from Italy, must self isolated. Ski resorts in Italy are currently closed until January 7 2021 and on 20th December the Italian government announced the immediate suspension of all flights between the UK and Italy until January 6 2021.

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John McCarthy: 'As a hostage, I dreamed of skiing now the freedom of the slopes is finally mine' - Telegraph.co.uk

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Freedom Boat Club Members spend the holidays on the water - FOX10 News

In Magic: The Gathering, werewolves are savage night hunters on Innistrad. Here, following their instincts sets them free.

Magic: The Gathering features some thematic worlds, such as those based on real-life time periodsor cultures. For example, there'stheEgyptian-inspired Amonkhet or the pan-Asian setting of Tarkir. Innisitrad, meanwhile, is a dark plane based on gothic horror, and sure enough, this world is home to aristocratic vampires, the vengeful dead, scheming cultists and, of course, werewolves.

Werewolves are found everywhere on Innistrad, and they draw their power from the huge silver moon that looms overhead each night. No one knows how lycanthropy was introduced to this chilling world, but one thing is for sure: everyone dreads the howl of the werewolf at night.Here, these beasts enjoy true freedom.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering - Building a Commander Deck for Arahbo, Roar of the World

Werewolves have always existed on Innistrad, and unlike most other monsters on this plane, they are not the restless undead, nor did they come from the fiery pits of the underworld. Instead, werewolves are the ultimate expression of nature's savagery. They also represent the fact that, for all their laws and cities, human beings cannot fully separate themselves from the wild.

Humanity came from nature in the primordial days of instincts and hunger. The modern lycanrthropic condition is an alluring call to return to those savage roots and cast off the stiff, itchy pretenses of civilization. Mankind needs to be free, and werewolves have cast off the chains of law and order for good.

Werewolvescan be found all over Innistrad, but most of them live in the Kessig Province, which features plenty of forests and mountains where the werewolves can make their dens and gather in small packs to hunt more effectively. Cathars and inquisitors may be sent all the way from the Gavony province to hunt werewolves in return. However, only the most experienced, hardened hunters have a chance against these beasts. Typically, it's the Kessig natives who have the best luck, since they have the most experience with that province's dark, misty forests.

RELATED:Magic: The Gathering - How Narset Became Tarkir's Truth-Seeking Planeswalker

Werewolves live a dual life, having one foot each in the free wilds and in human civilization. Once bitten, a victim will begin to change on the inside, and when the first full moon arrives, the new werewolf will transform for the first time, shredding their clothes and running off into the wild. They are unrestrained by human vulnerability or laws; instead, theybecome the apex predator, free to hunt and destroy at will. Werewolves act on instinct and hunger, as nature demands, and they fit right into the food chain -- at the top, of course.

When a werewolf transforms back in the morning, the person may find themselves nude and scratched up, and covered in dirt or the blood of their victims.They may be confused and ashamed,draggingthemselves back to their hometown or village to try and blend back in until the next full moon. Other werewolves, such as Ulric of the Krallenhorde pack, sincerely enjoy being a werewolf and identify much more with their beast side.

Once Avacyn the archangel was finally freed from the Helvault, she and the other angels cast the Cursemute, which transformed most werewolves into wolfir, noble humanoid wolves who would fight on humanity's behalf against other monsters. This gave humanity a much-needed reprieve from the terror of werewolf attacks, but this mercy was short-lived. Once Emrakul arrived on the plane and warped everything, Avacyn went berserk, and the Cursemute was lifted.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering - How the Time Spiral Block Made Time Itself the Theme

The werewolves returned in full force and resumed the hunt, but soon enough, Emrakul replaced them as Innistad's apex predator. Emrakul twisted all living things into Eldrazi version of themselves, and that included the werewolves, which mutated into strange Eldrazi beasts that ran in dronepacks, rather than traditional packs. This bewildered the cathar hunters, who had no idea what they were dealing with. They actually became nostalgic for the days of ordinary werewolves.

In the game, Werewolf creatures only appear in the two blocks based on the Innistrad plane, as this tribe is practically unknown elsewhere. These creaturesdebuted in the Innistrad block, appearing in red and green. Innistrad introduced the Transform mechanic and the concept of double-faced cards, and all Werewolves were like that. Their front side was a Human of some sorts, and theycould flip over to their Werewolf side to become bigger and gain new abilities.

RELATED:Magic: The Gathering - Kaldheim Features Legends Worthy of Viking Epics

Either or both sides of the creature may have tribal synergy with Wolves and Werewolves, such as Howlpack Alpha's +1/+1 stat boost and its ability to make 2/2 Wolf creatures without cost -- this is the flip side of the Mayor of Avabruck creature. Immerwolf is part of the "Captain" cycle in Dark Ascension, giving all allied Wolves and Werewolves +1/+1. It also won't let friendly Werewolves transform back to their human side, keeping them strong. Moonmist, meanwhile, can take the opponent by total surprise and flip over all Werewolves to their beast side and prevent damage done to them.

Meanwhile, the Shadows Over Innistrad set brought back traditional Werewolves. However, in the Eldritch Moon set, Werewolves could pay a mana cost to flip over to their Eldrazi side -- and they cannot flip back. These Eldrazi Werewolves may have unique abilities, such as menace for three creatures instead of two.

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Batman Just Taught the Bat-Family Their Greatest Lesson

I graduated high school in Kansas City in 2009, then earned my Associate's in Arts in 2011 at MCC Longview, then my BA in Creative Writing at UMKC in 2013. I have a passion for creative fiction and I've studied and practiced my craft for over ten years. Currently, I'm expanding my resume and skill set with jobs such as SEO writing and journalism.

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Magic: The Gathering - How Innistrad's Werewolves Found Freedom in Nature - CBR - Comic Book Resources

By Rob Boston

InsideSources.com

Judging by the diversity of holidays observed this time of year, humans seem to have a need for a communal celebration in early winter. As the days grow shorter and cold weather grips much of the Northern Hemisphere, its comforting to be reminded that sunlight and warmth (and the crops they nourish) will return. Thus, many of these festivals, from the Saturnalia of pre-Christian Rome to todays Christmas, often feature use of evergreens and lights and encourage merriment and gift-giving.

Winter festivals have evolved over time, and as the centuries passed, the way people celebrate them has also changed. In previous ages, government sought to compel people to behave in certain ways when it came to religion.

Theocratic European states of the Middle Ages believed there was only one correct expression of Christianity and forced everyone to follow the national or local model. But the right of conscience could not be squelched forever. Dissent was inevitable, and it came with righteous fury and, unfortunately, a similar spirit of religious intolerance. Americas early Puritans made it illegal to celebrate Christmas, considering it popish.

After Americas revolution, our founders decided to chart a different course: They disentangled religion and government, putting each on its own path to secure its own destiny and success. In doing so, they gave each of us a great gift: the power to decide for ourselves what faith, if any, we will follow and how we will practice it.

Today, there are some people who, like those old theocrats in Europe, are convinced that only their mode of worship is right and true. At this time of year, we often hear them complain about an alleged war on Christmas. What these people are really saying is that they are angry that not everyone chooses to celebrate the same way they do.

For millions of Americans, Christmas is a deeply religious holiday that marks the birth of Jesus. They attend religious services, pray, sing hymns and listen to scripture readings. For others, the holiday is primarily secular, with figures like Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer taking front and center. And many Americans mix the secular with the sacred and embrace elements of both.

But there are other choices. Some Americans celebrate holidays such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Diwali, and others dont celebrate at all. Its a wonderful time of the year, really, because we have the right to choose.

The Christian nationalists among us who enjoy playing the role of the Christmas Police would love nothing better than to compel the rest of us to celebrate the holiday in just one way theirs. They press government officials to display Christmas symbols in public places. They seek to infuse our public schools with pageants and events that elevate the spiritual elements of Christmas something better done in a church. They even complain when they fail to hear Merry Christmas from a clerk in a big-box store or their coffee cup doesnt look Christmas-y enough.

These people seem to think that unless the government, culture and even big business are actively endorsing their faith, then its under attack. In fact, religion does best when left to prosper on its own; it does not need the interference of the state. Americas tradition of separation of church and state has gifted us a vibrant, diverse religious life marked by thousands of Christian and non-Christian faiths. You are free to choose one. You are free to create your own, highly personal spiritual experience. You are free to reject them all. You are also free to change your mind, to argue, to debate and to contend for your ideas. What youre not permitted to do is employ the power of the government as your theological enforcer.

During this time of year, lets reflect on one of the greatest gifts we, as a people, enjoy: complete religious freedom secured by our constitutional promise of separation between church and state. That freedom gives you the right to worship or not as you see fit, as long as your actions dont harm others or take away their rights.

This means that Dec. 25 can be a deeply moving and profoundly spiritual experience if thats what you want. Or it can be a day to watch silly holiday movies and open presents. Or it can be just another day on the calendar.

Freedom of conscience gives us the right to make that choice. What a wonderful gift it is. Lets be thankful for it all year-round.

Rob Boston is editor of Church & State magazine, published by Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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Commentary: The greatest gift this season freedom of religion - The Daily World

These days, many argue that our Covid (C-19) response is a planetary fiasco, whose size is yet to surface with its mounting disproportionate and enduring secondary effects, causing tremendous socio-economic, political and psychosomatic contractions and convulsions. But, worse than our response is our silence about it.

It is an established fact that the quintessence of Nazism was not Hitler and the circle of darkness around him. It was rather a commonly shared banality of crime atmosphere: Benevolent acceptance of ordinary village people living next to Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Dachau that the nation must be purified The day when questioning stops and silent acceptance becomes a new normal is a day when fascism walks in a big time. Of course, today we have a diagnosis for it: Manufacturing consent through choice architecture, of a fear-imprisoned, via media infantilised (returned to the pre-Oedipal phase) psychology of the de-socialised and alienated, an atomised one.

Did we really forget basic teaching of our history: Every time when the power was unchecked, it degenerated into the obscure brutality; ritualising its force with a stamp on or under our skin to visualise and immortalise the twilight of reason?

So, our C-19 response illustrates the argument goes nothing else but a social pathology: the non-transparent concentration of power, and our overall democracy recession further bolstering surveillance and social control systems. All that as lasting consequences of cutbacks, environmental holocaust, privatisation (or PPP-ization) of key intergovernmental and vital national institutions, ill-aimed globalisation as well as of the fixation on overly allopathic, mandated (not repurposed but usually novel and expensive) drugs-centred healthcare, and lack of public data commons. Pandemic or plundermic

Trust in and support to governmental and intergovernmental institutions is rapidly deteriorating. Ever larger number of citizens do not see the mainstream media (or pop culture celebrities) at service for population. Faith in the western medicine is in a free fall. Generational contract and overall social consensus are challenging our fabrics like never before in recorded history. The first real stress-test since the end of the WWII, the UN didnt pass. Many feel deeply disappointed with and disfranchised by the universal organisation and its Agencies for its lasting self-marginalisation.(1)

Early lockdowns, mid-March 2020, were justified by a need to flatten the curve of the sudden virus (harmfulness, mortality and transmissibility) impact, since there were no enough hospital beds. In the meantime, the lockdowns were extended and widened, curves not arguably altered. Still, for the past 9 months, there is hardly any new hospital built in the EU although the non-essential medical services are by and far suspended. Neither there was or is any massive investment into general health prevention. The only visible infrastructure growth is in 5/6G networks expansion.

Following a simple ratio that the ones level of health is genetic expression of life-style choices made, it is no surprise that there are also growing speculations if the lockdown as the most notorious expression of monofocal perspective and rejection to any scientific debate-based integrated judgment is invasion or protection:

E.g. Le Monde Diplomatique while examining the possible merge between tech oligopoly and political monopoly claims: Political decisions have been central in shaping this tragedy from the destruction of animal habitats, to the asymmetric funding of medical research, to the management of the crisis itself. They will also determine the world into which we emerge after the worst is over. Over the past 30 years, every critical juncture had a similar epilogue: pardon and enhancement for the capital, a burden and suppression for the labour. The C-19 is no exception to it: Ever since early lockdowns of March 2020, the capital flows unhindered while the labour, ideas and humans are under the house arrest (2). The XXI century frontline is the right to health (incl. body integrity and informed consent) and labour, privacy and other fundamental human rights and liberties. (LMD, IV20)

Still to be precise, the WHO- decreed virus pandemic brought nothing truly new to the already overheated conduct and increasingly binarized world affairs: It only amplified and accelerated what was present for quite some time a rift between alienated power centres, each on its side of Pacific, and the rest. No wonder that the work on the C-19 vaccine is more an arms race than it is a collaborative humanistics.

Would all this be in its epilogue about the expansion of techno-totalitarian model of government as an alternative to liberal democracy? Devolutionary singularisation into techno-feudalism as the highest stage of capitalism? Is now a time to return to the nation-state, a great moment for all dictators-in-waiting to finally build a cult of personality? Hence, will our democracy be electro-magnetised and vaccinated for a greater good (or greedier god)?

One is certain, confronting the long-term interests of stakeholders with the short-term interests of shareholders, the private sector from both sides of Atlantic exercises disproportionate power in the technological share (infrastructure and data). It also largely benefits from the massive public research funds while in return paying dismal, negotiable tax if at all (3). Far too often it comes with the nondisclosure agreements, liability protections and other unilaterally beneficial legal instruments as well as with the close ties between the private sector, intelligence agencies and media (4).

The same applies to a big Pharma which increasingly dictates a non-preventive, monofocal approach to medicine and research, and controls reporting about it not always in the name of our public health.

Therefore, the above represents the largest underreported threat to our democracy and future societal conduct.

Conclusively, bioinformatics is a dual-use technology. Past its formative age, it has today a huge weaponization potential for at home and abroad. Consequently and urgently, this necessitates a comprehensive legislation which builds up on the Universal Charter of Human Rights and Nuremberg Code, and rests on its effective enforcement (with the monitoring of compliance mechanisms as set for the IAEA, OPCW, RC-BTWC and the Nagoya protocol) (5), nationally and internationality.

By many accounts, 2020 will be remembered as the worst year in living memory (since 1939). Some would say; C-19 stopped history. Actually, 2020 only quarantined and halted us, while in fact it accelerated history. This especially refers to the Old Continent.

As this author noted in spring 2020: It is amply clear from the C-19 event that the right to health is an issue for all. The search for a reliable cure for pandemics control is not a matter of private business, but of fundamental individual rights situated on higher levels of sociableness, as embedded in the UN and EU Charters, and being obligatory for each of the UN Specialized Agencies or EU bodies to comply with. (Not a fear based manufactured consent, but the right for informed consent as an inseparable segment of the constitutionally endorsed right to health.)

Even if the vaccine becomes the agreed or preferred option, it must be made available patent-free for all, and locally manufactured. However, binarization of debate onto a pro-and-con vaccine represents a dangerous reductionism and waste of planetary energy critically needed for a holistic and novel approach. There is no silver bullet for the European problems. Consequently, there is no solution in one-directional medical research in response to any pandemic, and in a single-blended (or centrally manufactured) and mandated medication for all. (Dogma is based on a blind belief; science necessitates constant multidimensional exploration. Science, especially a medical one, holds no single or absolute truth: The closest it can get is to the least wrong answer which must be contested constantly, literally every day.)

Proportionality of our (current and future) responses in Europe is another key issue. Hence, what presents itself as an imperative is the universal participation through intergovernmental mechanisms. That rule applies for at home and for abroad, as the Union has to comply with (and set example to) it urgently since biology and geopolitics have one rule in common; comply or die.

Growing particularisms in Brussels quarters, where (on taxpayers money and public trust) it is more and more the particular be it individual, regional, national, lobby-groups driven interest that prevails over the solid all-European project of our common presence and future.(6)

Past the Brexit, the EU has to be extra cautious about its chronic democracy-deficit, apparatchik alienation of Brussels, as well as the brewing concerns that the EU without UK becomes yet another greater Germany.(7)

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Living Antifascism: There Is No Health Without Freedom - OpEd - Eurasia Review

ADA, Okla. (KFOR) The second man who was convicted in a controversial Oklahoma murder case could soon be a free man.

Tommy Ward was convicted in the 1984 murder case of Denice Haraway.

It became the focus of the Netflix docu-series The Innocent Man.

On Friday, a district judge ruled there was enough evidence to dismiss those charges.

The judge has vacated the conviction and dropped the charges against him. Hes kind of in a place where he was pre-arrest last time, Wards attorney Gref Swygert told KFOR News 4. Thats where we are in terms of the case itself.

This is the heartwarming news we need! Still a potential for state to appeal but a huge victory towards justice in this case! https://t.co/oqXwGumx4O

Swygerts hope was to have Ward home by Christmas, but those dreams were dashed on Monday.

A Judge granted a temporary stay of release to the Attorney Generals Office, giving the AG time to file with the court of criminal appeals.

I find it pretty unreasonable that they would do that, Director of the NETFLIX docu-series Clay Tweel said.

In the 33-page opinion from the judge, the judge said investigators determined The only relevant evidence was evidence which fit their theory. She went on to say the district attorneys office probably knew evidence was being suppressed and turned a blind eye.

The director of the NETFLIX series The Innocent Man tells News 4 he believes Ward deserves to be free.

How is this possible, how can it happen? Thats what the series tried to break down, how it could happen, Tweel said. That doesnt make it any less painful, and overwhelming, to think about that this guy has been in jail for that long.

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Freedom isnt happening for one Oklahoma man featured in the Netflix film The Innocent Man after a judge vacates his conviction - KFOR Oklahoma City

Judging by the diversity of holidays observed this time of year, humans seem to have a need for a communal celebration in early winter. As the days grow shorter and cold weather grips much of the Northern Hemisphere, its comforting to be reminded that sunlight and warmth (and the crops they nourish) will return. Thus, many of these festivals, from the Saturnalia of pre-Christian Rome to todays Christmas, often feature use of evergreens and lights and encourage merriment and gift-giving.

Winter festivals have evolved over time, and as the centuries passed, the way people celebrate them has also changed. In previous ages, government sought to compel people to behave in certain ways when it came to religion.

Theocratic European states of the Middle Ages believed there was only one correct expression of Christianity and forced everyone to follow the national or local model. But the right of conscience could not be squelched forever. Dissent was inevitable, and it came with righteous fury and, unfortunately, a similar spirit of religious intolerance. Americas early Puritans made it illegal to celebrate Christmas, considering it popish.

After Americas revolution, our founders decided to chart a different course: They disentangled religion and government, putting each on its own path to secure its own destiny and success. In doing so, they gave each of us a great gift: the power to decide for ourselves what faith, if any, we will follow and how we will practice it.

Today, there are some people who, like those old theocrats in Europe, are convinced that only their mode of worship is right and true. At this time of year, we often hear them complain about an alleged war on Christmas. What these people are really saying is that they are angry that not everyone chooses to celebrate the same way they do.

For millions of Americans, Christmas is a deeply religious holiday that marks the birth of Jesus. They attend religious services, pray, sing hymns and listen to scripture readings. For others, the holiday is primarily secular, with figures like Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer taking front and center. And many Americans mix the secular with the sacred and embrace elements of both.

But there are other choices. Some Americans celebrate holidays such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Diwali, and others dont celebrate at all. Its a wonderful time of the year, really, because we have the right to choose.

The Christian nationalists among us who enjoy playing the role of the Christmas Police would love nothing better than to compel the rest of us to celebrate the holiday in just one way theirs. They press government officials to display Christmas symbols in public places. They seek to infuse our public schools with pageants and events that elevate the spiritual elements of Christmas something better done in a church. They even complain when they fail to hear Merry Christmas from a clerk in a big-box store or their coffee cup doesnt look Christmas-y enough.

These people seem to think that unless the government, culture and even big business are actively endorsing their faith, then its under attack. In fact, religion does best when left to prosper on its own; it does not need the interference of the state. Americas tradition of separation of church and state has gifted us a vibrant, diverse religious life marked by thousands of Christian and non-Christian faiths. You are free to choose one. You are free to create your own, highly personal spiritual experience. You are free to reject them all. You are also free to change your mind, to argue, to debate and to contend for your ideas. What youre not permitted to do is employ the power of the government as your theological enforcer.

During this time of year, lets reflect on one of the greatest gifts we, as a people, enjoy: complete religious freedom secured by our constitutional promise of separation between church and state. That freedom gives you the right to worship or not as you see fit, as long as your actions dont harm others or take away their rights.

This means that Dec. 25 can be a deeply moving and profoundly spiritual experience if thats what you want. Or it can be a day to watch silly holiday movies and open presents. Or it can be just another day on the calendar.

Freedom of conscience gives us the right to make that choice. What a wonderful gift it is. Lets be thankful for it all year-round.

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CON: The greatest gift this season freedom of religion - Blue Mountain Eagle

Illustration by Ryan OlbryshCar and Driver

From the January 2021 issue of Car and Driver.

If, like us, you have trouble remembering the past twelve months, let us refresh your memory: You likely woke up on January 1, 2020, after a night of revelry (remember revelry?) to learn that former Nissan CEO and then prisoner of Japan Carlos Ghosn had escaped house arrest by hiding in a very large box and hitching a ride on a private jet to Lebanon. You also may have thought at the time, "Well, this has to be the craziest thing that'll happen this year." How wrong you were.

Within a week of Ghosn's daring escape, Mercedes unveiled an electric concept vehicle based on the 2009 science-fiction movie Avatar, a film about a mining colony attempting to wipe out an indigenous species and its culture. But before that settled into our consciousness, we heard rumblings that GM was bringing back the Hummer as an electric vehicle. The company eventually unveiled it in October, deftly making the transition to battery power while still capturing the weird excesses of America with a vehicle that's more likely to plow through a tree than hug it. A Watts to Freedom modeas close as GM marketers will get to typing "WTF"launches the electric Hummer to 60 mph in a claimed 3.0 seconds.

Ford took a moment (and a picture) to share that the frunk of its upcoming electric Mustang Mach-E would be a great place to lay out a shrimp cocktail spread on a bed of ice while tailgating. Try doing that in your Shelby GT500, knuckle draggers! That was in February, which meant it was likely the last time many of us thought about hanging out with friends around a vat of shellfish before COVID-19 started shuttering factories in Asia. The pandemic spread across the globe and shut down entire economies and borders and took a heavy toll on human lives. Auto sales briefly tanked and then bounced back with surprising strength and speed, even as millions of Americans traded their commutes for working from their couches.

Oil prices fell. Then fell again. They eventually dropped below zero dollars. For a few days, oil was worth less than worthless. Meanwhile, in response to the coronavirus, nearly every automaker became a medical-equipment provider (or at least tried) as factories switched from producing vehicles to making ventilators and masks. Elon Musk did his part by declaring Tesla an essential business and keeping its Fremont, California, factory running until authorities stepped in. Product launches and development programs were pushed back, but we're aware of only one vehicular casualty of the pandemic: Lincoln had announced in January it would be partnering with EV startup Rivian for an upcoming vehicle. By April, it had walked back those plans, leaving us with whiplash. We had just published a story on the electric Lincoln in our 25 Cars Worth Waiting For issue. Guess it's 24 cars worth waiting for, then.

If you lived in the state of Georgia in May, you may have noticed your roads got a little bit more hectic when the state allowed nearly 20,000 kids to get their driver's licenses without taking a road test. No less horrifying, a parade of imbeciles with more money and time than sense and compassion took advantage of shelter-in-place orders and nearly empty roads to chase new Cannonball Run records.

Speaking of having more money than sense, EV startup Nikola went public, raised a ton of cash, then entered into a deal with GM, wherein the Detroit automaker will build its hydrogen powertrains and electric pickup in exchange for equity. Almost immediately after the agreement made headlines, Nikola's CEO and founder resigned amid allegations that the company misled investors. The stock tanked. It turns out the deal hadn't been finalized yet, but as of press time, GM is still at the table but now only supply fuel cells to the startup instead of helping it build the Badger, which as far as the EV world is concerned, is extinct.

Because there wasn't enough turmoil in the U.S. auto market already, in August, Ford pulled a C-suite switcheroo, replacing its top JimCEO Jim Hackettwith anotherJim Farley, the noted car-guy exec and cousin of deceased comedian Chris Farley. Hackett had only been in the top spot for a little over three years. He had replaced Mark Fields, who helmed the Blue Oval for less than three years. If Farley can make it to the four-year mark, his story will be as triumphant as Tommy Boy.

The weirdness hit close to home, too. Many of us have become super into vans and RVs because we all want to leave our houses and flying with strangers seems like a big no-no. Forty-two years after this publication set up shop in Michigan, we've discovered new driving roads less than an hour from the office. We've seen the insides of our co-workers' houses, even as we rarely see our co-workers in person. It all makes a disgraced CEO's desperate escape to freedom seem utterly ordinary.

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2020 in Review: Watts to Freedom Just Happened? - Car and Driver

On December 14, Whistleblower Network News (WNN) hosted a webinar on how to effectively use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The webinar featured leading whistleblower lawyer Stephen M. Kohn, who is a founding partner of whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto as well as the Chairman of the Board of the National Whistleblower Center. Over the course of his career Kohn has filed thousands of FOIA requests, and litigated many more. During the webinar, Kohn covered the most essential aspects of FOIA, starting with the principles and history behind it.

Kohn began with some background information about the intent of FOIA and the way it has historically been used. He detailed the passage of the law in 1966 and the things that held it back from being effective when it was first passed. Originally intended as a way for the public to access U.S. Executive Branch documents, the 1966 law was immediately mired with red tape and bureaucratic roadblocks. Kohn described the changes that the 1974 amendments had on the law, changing it into the current law that we know today.

Kohn then described the steps of the process in the simplest terms possible: First, write the best description of the documents you are requesting and make sure you are submitting your request to the correct government agency. Then, apply to have your FOIA request expedited and the fee waived. Kohn then went into detail about each of the steps and demonstrated how to use language that provides a request with the best chance of success.

The session was followed by a Q&A session dealing with a number of audience questions. Kohn responded to questions dealing with how to best direct FOIA requests to the correct agencies, bipartisanship of FOIA requests, who can file FOIA requests, and how to avoid bureaucratic obstacles. He also offered his personal tips and tricks for getting the information that you or your organization needs. Watch the full video below.

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Stephen M. Kohn Leads Whistleblower Network News Webinar On Use Of Freedom Of Information Act - Whistleblowers Protection Blog