Category Archives: Freedom

The idea of people being jailed for their sexual preferences seems like the stuff of dystopian fiction, now, but for older lesbians and gay men, the risk of imprisonment was very real, indeed.

It wasnt until 1981 that Scotland followed England and Wales (which had acted in 1967) in decriminalising homosexual acts. And even then, the freedoms granted had limitations. The presence of a third person in a private place where gay sex was taking place automatically rendered the act illegal. And, pandering to the then widely-held notion that homosexuality was something that could be passed on by predatory older men, the age of consent was set at 21, compared with 16 for heterosexual couples.

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So, legislation in 2014 allowing same sex couples to marry was both hugely significant and long overdue. It was also, at that time, unfinished business. Gay couples in Northern Ireland remained unable to marry. It was only when the UK Government stepped in in 2020 that the law was brought into line with England, Scotland and Wales.

With Northern Ireland firmly out of step with the rest of the UK in 2014, activist Gareth Lee kick-started a chain of events which culminated last week with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declining to support his case against a bakery which had refused to decorate a cake with the slogan Support Gay Marriage.

Lee had approached Ashers Baking Co. in Belfast to have the cake made but the company refused on the basis that the slogan he had requested stood in conflict with their position. The company would happily bake goods for anyone but would not put messages which contradicted their Christian beliefs on its products.

Lee sued and a Northern Irish court ruled he had been discriminated against on the basis hes gay. Of course, that wasnt the end of the matter. In 2018, the UKs Supreme Court ruled the bakerys refusal to provide a cake bearing a pro-gay marriage slogan did not amount to discrimination.

The ECHR did not, last week, express a view on whether Lee had been a victim of anti-gay prejudice. Rather, it ruled the case inadmissible because he had failed to exhaust domestic remedies.

This, then, may not be an end to matters even though it should be.

Lees campaign touches the liberal heart. Of course, lesbians and gay men should have the right to marry.

But that doesnt make his battle just.

When the ECHR rejected his case, Lee said that freedom of expression must equally apply to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people and I dont think anyone could find anything to disagree with there.

But freedom of expression does not merely give us the right to say what we believe, does it? It gives other other people the right to do the same and, boy, some of those people are going to say some pretty stupid and hateful things.

In the case of equal marriage, one is perfectly free to express the view that it is wrong. If one is a business owner and the expression of such views negatively impacts on trade, then thats hard cheese.

Freedom of expression must include the freedom not to support any position espoused by another. Surely the right of the company not to back Lees political position is as precious as his right to hold it?

Theres much talk of culture wars, these days, and while Im not sure that a narrative of perpetual division is entirely accurate, it certainly seems were living in tribal times. Our political debate is of the lowest grade, with opposing parties quick to call bad faith in each other.

On social media, we see terrifying orchestrated campaigns against people deemed to hold unworthy views on a range of issues. Often these views are entirely misrepresented in order to maximise outrage. Weve seen countless cases of people losing jobs and having their lives turned upside down after being hounded by online mobs because they expressed controversial opinions.

Its important that during this new era of outrage we dont become complacent about peoples right to hold and express views which might offend us.

Support Gay Marriage is a perfectly legitimate political slogan but so is Ban Gay Marriage. I wonder if those who believe Ashers should have taken Lee's commission would feel equally strongly that a company should be compelled to supply a cake bearing a slogan opposing the right of gay people to wed.

The old saying about disagreeing with someones views but defending to the death their right to express them is a bit melodramatic for my tastes but the principle is sound. My freedom to express my uniformly wise and considered opinions means I must tolerate others right to say whatever bloody stupid thing it is theyre saying today.

Opposition to gay marriage is very much an obsession of a minority, these days. YouGov polling from last month shows that half of us strongly support the policy. A further quarter of people tend to support it.

Perhaps, like me, you would prefer to see greater support than now exists. Perhaps you would like it to be the case that not a single soul thinks it wrong for two men or two women to marry.

All the evidence from past polling shows the number of people who support gay marriage is rising. Theres still a way to go but society is moving.

Doubtless, campaigners such as Gareth Lee have played a part in ensuring the current direction of travel but they will not reach their preferred destination by using the law to compel others to promote views with which they might disagree.

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Gay cake: Freedom of expression works two ways to say and listen - Euan McColm - The Scotsman

Flash back to April 2021, and here we are again. COVID-19 numbers are skyrocketing and masking requirements for Summit County are back in play. Whats a concerned Summit County citizen to do? Follow the mandates for masking and social distancing? Get vaccinated?

Why yes, thatd be a good start!

My advocating for that will likely result in responses seeking to educate me on the ineffectiveness of masking, citing everything from fogged glasses to scientific studies (or the lack thereof) to prove the case. But lets take a moment to consider masking as a component in helping bring this latest surge under control.

While there is science supporting the use of masks as a way of controlling the spread of COVID-19, our imperfect implementation of the protocol is a significant variable in its effectiveness. As a reader pointed out to me, our current practice of wearing a mask into a restaurant only to take it off once seated doesnt make a whole lot of sense. Sure, were limiting our spread of particles between the entrance and our table, but are we negating that benefit when we later unmask?

Maybe so, but whats the alternative? Wearing a mask 100% of the time while at a restaurant or bar isnt realistic. Our current imperfect masking practices may in fact be the middle ground that our country needs to avoid the shutdowns of spring 2020 and keep our economy intact. Might we be sacrificing the health of some of our citizenry in the process by allowing this imperfection? Possibly, but thats one of the compromises weve made in trying to navigate our way through this pandemic.

It could also be that the minimal amount of prevention that wearing a mask in that restaurant scenario provides is worth it from the every-little-thing-helps perspective. Some will claim that the minimal amount of protection that social distancing and masking provide isnt worth the loss of choice for Americans, that were giving up our freedom for something that isnt 100% effective.

Id counter that argument in two ways: First, a Summit County health care provider said even small efforts will go a long way in curbing this current surge. We shouldnt let the quest for the perfect defense against COVID-19 be the enemy of progress toward improved control of the disease.

I also believe that your freedom and liberties end at the tip of my nose. Im not OK with individuals endangering me or my loved ones so that they can practice their own brand of liberty. I think most people would agree that something should be done to stop the individual who is racing a car up and down the street that their kids play on. That racer might claim its their God-given right to drive recklessly, but how does that square with the God-given right the rest of us have to be protected against the actions of others? Whether its putting a mask on to minimize spread or getting a vaccination, your choice to not do so puts others at risk, and your freedom to continue that practice should be viewed in that context.

And now to that big ol gorilla in the corner: the COVID-19 vaccine. While I and most of my immediate and extended family are vaccinated, I must admit that I have become concerned with its efficacy. But given the significant numeric difference between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Colorado, it still seems getting vaccinated should be a no-brainer.

But the push for vaccination has expanded to the need for a booster and now even to talk of a second booster. The vaccination moving target and the numerous breakthrough cases weve seen have shaken my faith in this aspect of prevention, and Im glad other methodologies for addressing COVID-19 are being explored. But in the meantime, I will continue to follow masking mandates in hopes that this small effort will help with curbing the surge.

Tony Jones column Everything in Moderation publishes biweekly on Thursdays in the Summit Daily News. Jones is a veteran of the IT industry and has worked in the public and private sectors. He lives part time in Summit County and Denver. Contact him at eimsummit@gmail.com.

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Opinion | Tony Jones: Your freedom ends at the tip of my nose - Summit Daily

Selma (name changed) was a journalist and activist living and working in Panjshir province in northeastern Afghanistan. She, like many others,lost her job following the Taliban takeover of the war-ravaged country in August.

After being threatened, she left the region and is now in hiding, selling bolani, a local flat bread, on the streets to survive.

"I worked as a journalist and human rights activist," said Selma, who asked DW not to reveal her true identity for fear of reprisals. "As you know, women's rights are strongly related to religious ideologies, so we were always in dispute with extremists. This put us in danger."

Selma is one of the thousands of journalists and media workers who have lost their jobs in Afghanistan since August.

According to a report published in December by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 40% of media outlets have closed over the past five months with an estimated 6,400 journalists losing their jobs. Hundreds have fled the country. The report added that over 80% of female journalists are now out of work.

Some provinces in Afghanistan have been left with only a handful of media outlets, and those that remain have stopped broadcasting music, pulled foreign content and taken female hosts off the air.

Most have also softened their news coverage out of fear of closure or worse, and now broadcast strictly religious content.

Afghan citizens who enjoyed a variety of media choices over the past two decades now have little access to critical news and information.

"Without a free press capable of exposing bad governance's failings, no one will be able to claim that they are combating famine, poverty, corruption, drug trafficking and the other scourges that afflict Afghanistan and prevent a lasting peace," Reza Moini, the head of RSF's Iran-Afghanistan desk, said in the report.

In the face of a crumbling media landscape, Taliban officials have been telling the international community that they stand for press freedom and that journalists are not under threat.

In a television interview with DW, the spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said Afghanistan has a "very free and vibrant press."

"Unfortunately, I do have to say that some media houses have closed down, but that is not because of us," said Balkhi, adding that they were largely the result of a loss of donor funding.

This positive take on the media situation was echoed by Abdul Wahid Rayan, spokesman for the Information and Culture Ministry."We have meetings and collaborations with journalists and media owners all the time, and anyone who has any problem can share it with us,"told DW. "We believe in freedom of the press."

Since the Taliban took power in August, no Western country has recognized the new government. This has made it difficult for the Islamic fundamentalist group to access international capital and funding.

Even in the face of a looming humanitarian crisis and growing calls for support from the United Nations, foreign governments have so far not recognized the Taliban administration and provided support.

Some observers see the Taliban's stated support of a free press in the country as part of a larger strategy to attract international recognition.

One long-time media observer, who fled to Europe in August andasked not to be named as he fears retribution against his colleaguesin Afghanistan, supported this argument.

He told DW if any journalist is arrested or tortured, and it iscovered in the international press, itwould hurt the Taliban's goal of international recognition.

"My organization has documented dozens of acts of violence against journalists and in not a single case has there been anyone brought to justice," he told DW. "We feel that any talks with the new government should include the situation on the ground with regard to press freedom as a basic human right."

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the relative peace that came with it, hundreds of media outlets sprung up in all corners of the country.

With funding sources ranging from international donors to local politicians, to indigenous advertising revenue, the country's media landscape expanded to become the most diverse in the region.

The largest commercial television station in the country is TOLO TV, which is owned and operated by MOBY Group. The station was launched in 2004 and it, along with its affiliates, continues to broadcast across Afghanistan.

Saad Mohseni, chairman and CEO of MOBY Group, told DW that there are a range of factors contributing to the shutdowns of media outlets, including the loss of grants from the international community, loss of advertising revenue, lack of staff and intimidation in the provinces.

Though he remains hopeful for the media sector, Mohseni said the daily directives coming from various Taliban ministries were making it difficult for broadcasters to know what can and cannot be aired.

"We have to take it one day at a time," he said.

Ezatullah Akbari, a member of the media watchdog Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan, has worked with many of the media outlets outside of Kabul that have since closed.

He saidthe country could soon lose the majority of its journalists, many of whom he trained.

"A lot of journalists are just leaving Afghanistan as they are out of work and out of money," Akbari told DW.

For most female journalists, leaving Afghanistan remains the only option.

One of the few remaining in the country is Meena Habib. She has been a reporter for eight years and publishes Roidadha News, a local news website. She also does investigative work for various other news outlets, often focusing on women's issues. She told DW that the situation is dire but that she is continuing to do journalism because she believes in her profession.

"Journalists, especially female journalists, have faced an unclear fate over the last five months since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban," she told DW. She, too, has faced threats by the Taliban and was beaten when covering a women's protest.

After two decades of being free to pursue an education and a career, women like Habib must now live in a new reality where they are no longer equal members of society. While Taliban officials claim women can continue to work, the reality is that in the field of journalism, this is not the case.

According to the Reporters Without Borders report, 15 out of Afghanistan's 36 provinces no longer have a single female reporter. In Kabul, only about a quarter of the women who were working at the start of August are still on the job.

"The progress seen in the past 20 years was swept away in a matter of days by the Taliban takeover," said the report. Habib acknowledgedthat press freedom does not currently exist under the Taliban but that external pressure could help the remaining journalists.

"The international community should work to ensure that the rights of female journalists who want to continue reporting in their own country are protected," she said.

Unfortunately for Selma, remaining in Afghanistan would mean continuing to live in fear of the Taliban.

Now living alone in a large, unfamiliar city, she is unable to see her family. This has taken a tremendous emotional toll and she is desperately looking for a way to flee.

"I need to find a way out of this darkness," she said.

Ahmad Hakimi and Sifatullah Zahidi contributed to this report.

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

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Afghanistan: How press freedom has crumbled since the Taliban takeover - DW (English)

LUMIKK555/iStock via Getty Images

Written by Sam Kovacs

The DFT service has gone through a whole year now. We can make all the promises we want in our marketing content, but do we deliver the goods?

I'll let you be the judge.

In this article I'll review our three portfolios in a very chart intensive manner.

Capital gains are invariably the largest part of returns in bull markets. Stock prices go up, and many investors and fund managers have difficulty keeping up with the index.

When I refer to the index, I'm referring to the S&P 500 (SPY). In 2021, the SPY increased by 26.9% before dividends, and 28.7% including dividends.

Although we're a dividend oriented service, our portfolios have clearly laid out goals:

For the low yield portfolio: To beat the index over time with a basket of low yield high growth stocks which still provides a significant amount of income.

For the Hybrid portfolio: To match the index over time while providing a mix of yield and growth which results in significant amounts of income.

For the High Yield portfolio: To provide a high level of income (6% yield) while offering satisfactory capital gains, all while realizing that it is difficult to match the index with such a strategy.

So how'd we do?

The Low Yield portfolio posted +30% performance in 2021 before dividends, beating the index by 3.1%. The first half of the year saw the portfolio blast ahead of the index, before converging for most of Q3 and Q4.

I guess we were good boys, because the Santa Rally increased our portfolio values more than the S&P 500 and gave us an edge over the index in the last few weeks.

Year

2021

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

The Hybrid portfolio increased 26.5%, lagging the index by 0.4% in 2021. Not unlike the low yield portfolio, as the reopening trade got stalled halfway through the year, it started moving sideways before ripping higher in the last few days.

It is good to note, that upwards momentum has continued, as the portfolio is now beating the index when you add the first few days of January.

Year

2021

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

The High Yield portfolio was the worst performer of the lot, increasing 19.44% lagging the index by 7.5%. While I'm not satisfied with this performance, it is something that high yield portfolios suffer, because of the lack of exposure to growth names, and the necessity to include vehicles like preferred stocks and BDCs.

Year

2021

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

But as you might know, the name of the service is the Dividend Freedom Tribe, and not just the Freedom Tribe.

Dividends have a significant contribution to portfolio performance, and when you follow our philosophy, will ultimately be your source of income.

You can use a capital gain to increase your income by realizing it and reinvesting into something with a higher current yield.

Anyway, let's see the performance adjusted for dividends. As a reminder the S&P 500 is up 28.7% in 2021 with dividends.

When you add dividends to the mix, the Low Yield portfolio was up 33.8%. A number of special dividends from the likes of EOG (EOG) helped increase that amount over the nominal yield.

This amounts to beating the S&P 500 by 5% with a portfolio of value oriented blue chips. Not bad, we'd say.

As of the time of writing (January 6th) the performance gap since inception has increased to 6.4% when including dividends.

Year

2021

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

It was a photo finish for the Hybrid vs the S&P 500 without dividends, but when you add in dividends, the Hybrid portfolio's performance increases to 31.5%, beating the index by 2.8%.

A convincing performance.

Year

2021

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

It should be noted that the Hybrid portfolio was incepted before the two others, in May 2020. Below is the full chart since inception.

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

Remember that laggard of a portfolio? Turns out, when you add back dividends from the High Yield portfolio, you get a total performance in 2021 of 26.5%, or just 2.2% below the S&P 500. Not bad at all for a high yielding portfolio, if I can say so myself.

Year

2021

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

Exactly a year after we launched, 2 of 3 of our portfolios are beating the S&P 500 by convincing margins, and the high yield portfolio is neck and neck with the index.

We're as far from closet indexers as possible. Our Alpha has been generated with portfolios which are fundamentally different from the index, as we'll review in the next sections.

We're going to review how our portfolios differ from the S&P 500 on the diversification front.

Below is the diversification breakdown of the S&P 500 according to Seeking Alpha:

Source: Seeking Alpha

One small differentiation is that they have the titles "consumer cyclical" and "consumer defensive", where we have "consumer discretionary" and "consumer staples".

I believe these should match very closely and won't impact the analysis.

The SPY is heavily weighted in Tech, with 26.5% of the portfolio allocated to the sector.

Healthcare, Financials, and Consumer Cyclical follow with 12-13% weights.

Let's see how our portfolios fare in relation.

The Low Yield portfolio has about half the tech exposure of the index, but double the financials exposure.

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

We're comfortable with this exposure to financials, as the sector, which is still shunned on valuations, is set to do very well in 2022, in an inflationary and rising rate environment.

The portfolio also has 10% in energy, which is 4x the index exposure. This is the lowest exposure among all our portfolios, as high growth opportunities in the sector are less prominent in the sector.

There are little variations after this, but the overexposure to financials and energy, with under exposure to tech, is likely what needs to be remembered.

For instance, Utilities and Materials are both the lowest exposure, and don't have significantly different weights than in the index.

One of the differentiating points among our portfolios is that the low yield portfolio also has relatively high exposure to industrials.

With the Hybrid and High Yield portfolios, we see many of the same themes: more energy and financials, less tech, but another theme comes into play: a lot more real estate.

Real Estate is 13% of the portfolio, and this is to be expected in dividend oriented portfolios as there are some brilliant REITs which offer good combinations of yield and growth.

In the Hybrid portfolio, the consumer discretionary exposure is a lot lower than the index, making it more defensive in nature.

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

The High Yield portfolio is arguably the least balanced portfolio of the 3, due to the high yield constraint.

It is very heavily weighted in Energy, as there are many high quality high yield energy names. It also has big exposure to financials, with BDCs accounting for approximately 4% of the portfolio.

A large 20% of the portfolio is invested in Real Estate. Once again, nothing surprising here, we have to deal with the high yield constraint to build a portfolio.

It has very low exposure to tech, consumer discretionary and industrials relative to our other portfolios, and to the index.

Nonetheless, the portfolio isn't unjustifiably exposed to any given sector, and we're quite content with the diversification.

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

Our portfolios have positions in all sectors, and are well diversified across names and sectors.

But more importantly they are different from the index. So while in 2021 our performance was more or less similar to the index, any big moves from sectors with overexposure or underexposure could quickly create divergences.

In 2021, Financials, Energy and Tech all went up by similar amounts, which is the biggest part of why our portfolios had similar performance.

But if the performance in these sectors diverge, as they have so far in 2022, with tech down 3% while energy is up 6% and financials up 3%, we can expect the portfolios to diverge from the index.

We remain cautious, and will tilt our portfolios to sectors with better opportunities over time, by trimming overvalued sectors and allocating to undervalued sectors.

It's active management done right. Patient, cautious, optimistic.

To further analyze how different our portfolios are both from one another, and from the index, it is interesting to compare the top 10 positions.

You'll note that our portfolios include none of the top 10 S&P 500 positions, as none of them match our dividend oriented strategy.

In the Low Yield portfolio, Amgen (AMGN) despite its subpar capital appreciation is our top performance, as we've been averaging down, and continue to believe in the superiority of this management team. Healthcare is a tricky business, all AMGN needs is one good "win" to see its stock price go heading up.

On the other side of the equation, the likes of Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) are all trading at valuations which make them risky bits. The Low Yield top 10 is a pure quality/growth/value intersection. While not all of the stocks are still on our Buy List because of valuations, I'm super happy with how it's set up.

In the high yield portfolio, there are no surprises. The high quality High Yielders make up the bulk of the portfolio. Quite happy with the fact that the top 4 positions are all in different sectors.

Finally the Hybrid is really a mix of both, with the notable difference of Bank of America (BAC) being the largest position, as we bought a large position in the stock when it was half the price it currently is.

You can only beat the index by as much as you're willing to underperform it.

We won't cave in to pressures from high flying names, and believe we can do great focusing on fundamentals.

Source: Dividend Freedom Tribe

These numbers are really just here for informational purposes, and they're not true top performers, as we've sold a certain number of positions, but they show the highest unrealized gains exclusive of dividends in our portfolios.

The Hybrid portfolio which was set up earlier, has a lot of higher gains, which were mostly materialized from very low buy ins in '20.

See the article here:

The Dividend Freedom Tribe's Performance In 2021: Matching And Beating The Market - Seeking Alpha

By Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Mila M. Jasey

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a proud Rutgers Law School graduate, taught at her alma mater for nine years before continuing an illustrious career that culminated in her elevation to the position of associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. While teaching, she also served as director of the ACLUs Womens Rights Project, where she argued six landmark cases before the high court.

Justice Ginsburg posited the law is gender-blind and all parties are entitled to equal rights; she used this reasoning to support her contention that reproductive freedom is grounded in the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause and not the right to privacy as asserted in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

As she explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing, discrimination on the basis of sex includes pregnancy status, using the example of her representation of a plaintiff who was discharged from the military for refusing to obtain an abortion. She framed her Struck v. Secretary of Defense argument in the context of equality the inherent right of equality, the right to choose and freedom of religion, all of which were at stake. (Prior to oral argument, the discharge was waived, and the regulation changed, rendering the case moot. Roe was decided mere months afterward on other grounds.)

Justice Ginsburg referenced the universal truth that the one thing that conspicuously distinguishes men from women is that only the latter become pregnant, and to subject a woman to disadvantageous treatment based upon pregnancy status constitutes a denial of equal protection. The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a womans life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself, when government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.

When the argument is framed as one of equal protection, the Mississippi and Texas abortion bans become incongruous at best, and a clear violation of a womans constitutionally protected right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

S49/A6260 codifies the constitutional right to freedom of reproductive choice. The bill enumerates this proposition and establishes that, Self-determination in reproductive choice is key to helping establish equality among the genders and to allowing all people of childbearing age to participate equally in the economic and social life of the United States and the State of New Jersey.

The decision to terminate a pregnancy is one of the most difficult any woman will ever make. It must be safe, affordable, accessible, and free from judgment, punishment, and especially government interference.

If the bill is passed, as expected, and swift action by the governor ensues, New Jersey will set precedent as the first state in the nation to meaningfully protect reproductive rights and ensure reproductive freedom through statute. Our actions shall serve as a model for the nation and establish a statutory standard that it is hoped, many of our sister states shall emulate.

Assemblywomen Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Mila M. Jasey represent the 37th and 27th Legislative Districts respectively. They are First and Second Prime respectively on A-6260.

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The decision to bear a child is one a woman must make. Pass the Reproductive Freedom Act. | Opinion - NJ.com

By Paul Tubiana

As we are approaching our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvanias hospitals are again seeing a second winter of overflowing, but this time with mostly unvaccinated patients. We should reflect on the failed leadership of the states GOP to recognize the problem and its obstruction of good-faith solutions.

We should reflect on how exhausted and overworked doctors, nurses, and first responders have become as theyve shouldered the burdens of the pandemic so that greedy and irresponsible elected officials and some community leaders could maintain their power.

We should reflect on how seniors and medically vulnerable people had to lose their freedom, dignity and in many cases their very health or lives so that others could enjoy their shallow freedom and carefree lives.

We should reflect on how the governor, stripped of his ability to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic with mask mandates and other means now must call on the federal government for assistance. The 75% of COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated in the overflowing hospitals are paying the price for their opposition, but the rest are innocent victims.

Childrens health and lives were also sacrificed by the vanity of adults and misinformation that their parents accepted as truth for political expediency. Lets also not forget the economic toll taxpayers, hospitals, and insurance companies bear for the cost of irresponsible people and their GOP enablers.

The founders chose representative government instead of direct democracy to make sure in times of crises and upheaval that we would not be ruled by popular whims and mobs. Increasingly, the GOP-dominated legislature, unable to pass their agenda constitutionally and unwilling to honor their constitutional oaths with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, is seeking to override co-equal branches of government using legislation by constitutional amendment.

We are in a war against a virus, but the GOP is engaged in mutiny to overthrow the captain because the captain wants to save the lives of everyone on the ship. Whatever happened to the GOPs tradition of personal responsibility, self-discipline, unquestioning subordination to authority, truth, and respect for others? Two recent examples come to mind: The May 2021 constitutional referendum ballot questions concerning the governors emergency disaster powers and more recent plans to remake the Pennsylvania courts.

I contend that the state legislatures constitutional referendum was illegal and violates the U.S. Constitutions separation of powers, the system of checks and balances. The legislature successfully usurped the executive branchs emergency powers authority to the detriment of the health and lives of Pennsylvania residents.

I contend that the illegal referendum and ensuing legislation were an unconstitutional breech of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The state legislature deprived persons of life, which also precedes liberty. The words of the 14th Amendment and Declaration of Independence both came from the writings of John Locke who also wrote:

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.

Paul Tubiana is a Bethlehem resident who was the subject of a 2020 lehighvalleylive.com story about his questioning of former President Donald Trump during an ABC News town hall in Philadelphia.

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Pa. GOPs pandemic response shows its ignorant about real meaning of freedom | Opinion - lehighvalleylive.com

Good morning, dear friends! Given what today is the anniversary of, please be kind to yourself and to others today.

Anyways, to the links:

Theres going to be a lot riding on Edison Flores this year and this preseason. It is the first offseason and full preseason with Hernan Losada, and so hopefully the nutrition and offseason training has prepared the team for his system straight out of the gate. Flores has a couple years left on his contract with DCU, but he was signed before Losada and Lucy Rushton got here, so theyre not necessarily beholden to keep him in a way they might if theyd signed him. Regardless, I hope for great things from him this year.

USWNT to head to Carson, Frisco for SheBelieves Cup

The oddly-named SheBelieves Cup continues, and this year it will be out west. Expect a number of members of the Washington Spirit to be called for for this tournament, which will take place in late February.

The Crew to sign Ghanian winger Yaw Yeboah from Wisa Krakw

After being connected with D.C. United as well, it looks like the Columbus Crew have procured the services of Yaw Yeboah from the Polish league. With the number of wingers D.C. United has, this move wouldnt have made of ton of sense unless someone was being shipped out, but well still get to see what Yeboah can do for the Crew.

Who are David Blitzer and Arctos Sports, reported new owners of Real Salt Lake?

Real Salt Lake have finally dumped Dell Loy Hansen, with the new owners bringing a wealth of professional sports ownership experience. David Blitzer, an executive at Blackstone Group, is also an investor in English club Crystal Palace FC, German club FC Augsburg, Dutch club ADO Den Haag, and Belgian club Waasland-Beveren. Hes also an investor in the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, as well as Major League Lacrosse.

Blitzer joined the 76ers ownership group at the same time as now-D.C. United managing partner Jason Levien (who has since sold his share in the basketball team).

MLS silly season in two acts:

Theres a lot of agents, players, management, and owners playing fast and loose with the media right now, so take every transfer rumor you hear with a grain of salt until the window closes.

Former D.C. United technical director Dane Murphy poaches another MLS player, after having signed Daryl Dike while he was at Barnsley.

This looks to be one of, if not the biggest transfer in USL history.

Thats all I have today; whats up?

Excerpt from:

Edison Flores, Silly Season, and SheBelieves Cup: Freedom Kicks - Black And Red United

The Transcendentalists of the title are, specifically, Emerson and his disciple and protg Thoreau. Thoreau was five years old in 1823, when his father, John Thoreau, moved the family to Concord, to take over his brother-in-laws floundering pencil manufacturing business. Emerson would settle in 1834, after a peripatetic youth in Boston and Cambridge. His father had died when he was eight, and his mother supported her large family by running a boardinghouse, ferrying the children between rentals in Boston. Emerson entered Harvard at 14 on a scholarship, was ordained as minister of Bostons Second Church and married at 26, widowed at 27, and famously resigned from the ministry at 29. He was 31 when he moved back to Concord, where his grandfather, the Reverend William Emerson, had been the town minister.

By the time Thoreau and Emerson struck up their friend/mentor relationship in the fall of 1837, Concord was in the throes of an unprecedented transformation. The town had long been a bastion of tradition, where everyone attended the same church. When Emersons grandfather died in 1778, his successor, Ezra Ripley, both took on the leadership of the First Parish Church and married the elder Emersons widow. At the helm of the church for 63 years, Ripley fashioned himself a liberal, who favored calm deliberation. He presided over what Gross describes as a sort of paradox in terms, a rational, orderly awakening, in the early 1810s, as the rest of the country experienced passionate, fiery full-fledged revivals. Life in Concord at that time often tended toward the complacent. As Gross puts it, between 1796 and 1825, whenever Concordians were offered the chance to change, they largely stuck with familiar ways.

But churchgoing changed radically between 1825 and 1850. In 1826, a group of parishionersfeaturing Thoreaus aunts Elizabeth, Jane, and Mariasplit off with a group of others to establish the more conservative, orthodox Trinitarian Congregational Church. The dissenters were not merely after stricter principles. Rather, what they wanteddesired, we might even say, with a hot sensuality hard to come by in Concordwas emotional intensity. Ripley couldnt bring himself to understand this desire: He had a confidence in free inquiry and believed that Concord was enjoying the forward march of intellect and the higher cultivation of moral powers that he had always anticipated from the progress of liberal principles. Ripleys loosening grip, Gross establishes, is a story of liberalisms insufficiency, its tendencydespite its claims to clear-sighted rationalityto remain blinkered regarding values and desires it wrongly assumes everyone else shares.

A similar longing for emotional intensity became a generative force of Transcendentalisma dissatisfied desire for somethingmore. In The American Scholar, a Phi Beta Kappa address Emerson delivered in 1837, he expressed his longing to live in an age of Revolution in which a man might plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide. In the 1842 lecture The Transcendentalist, Emerson aligns the movement with a kind of religious dissent, The Transcendentalist believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy. Thoreau himself sought out extreme emotional experience, and some vivid veins of dissent coursed through his family, especially its women. Thoreau treasured being disliked and cultivated the feeling of frisson it created: Writing in his journal, he notes that there is some advantage in being the humblest, cheapest, least dignified man in the village, so that the very stable boys shall damn you. Methinks I enjoy that advantage to an unusual extent. Church, or at least First Parish, was not the place where a person in Concord could find this kind of frisson.

Read more:

Emerson and Thoreau's Fanatical Freedom - The New Republic

Letters to the Editor| The Columbus Dispatch

While the human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic has been staggering, and its emotional toll on health care workers unimaginable, the economiccost to the health care systemhas been enormous, as well. Yet, a significant portion of the billions of dollars spent on hospital care could have been avoided.

More: "Doctors and nurses crying after their shifts," CMO says. 'Health care heroes' need support

According to the Health System Tracker, a publication of thePeterson Center on Healthcare andtheKaiser Family Foundation, there were a total of 690,000 vaccine-preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations form June through November 2021with each of those cases costing an average of $20,000.That equals 13 billion, 800 million unnecessarilyspentdollarsthat will come from taxpayers or insurance rate payers.

In the end, those claiming the freedom to be unvaccinated are doing so at an enormous cost to others. It gives freedom isnt free an entirely new meaning.

Chuck Ardo, Lancaster

More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch

I am writing with regard to a Dec. 28 Dispatch editorial published in the Canton Repository "Lawmakers hellbent on making gun violence worse."

More: Our view: Hellbent lawmakers are doing 'something' about gun violence making it worse

In the "world of rules" you refer to, needing a license to drive a car, hunt deer, and take fish from Ohio waters, I fully agree with, as license fees help pay the costs of maintaining roadsand funding the ODNR to keep our state a viable place for wildlife to flourish, while giving the residents who wish to participate an environment to do so. It doesn't require a constitutional obligation to do so, either.

Regarding the concealed carry law that awaits the governor's signature, we must realize that the right to defend ourselves is granted by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. It is clearly stated that this right "shall not be infringed" -period.

More: Concealed carry, guns in schools: Two major gun bills win approval in Ohio House

Any need for a license will not be adhered to by those who have bad intent. The law-abiding citizen who is only wanting to have a chance of surviving a situation where his/her life may be in danger is no threat to anyone other than the "bad guy."

I highly urge the governor to sign this bill into law.

Randy J. Lindower,New Philadelphia

With every man, woman and child having access to one or moreguns, why should there be a question as to why homicides have risen in Columbus and the U.S.?

More: Amelia Robinson: Instead of celebrating Christmas, far too many are 'dying by the gun'

The actions of many of our elected officials explains why instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed toward the sky.

John Lindamood, Columbus

I am a vaccination card supporter (referencing Dec. 26 letter to the editor "Do vaccination card advocates support proper ID for voting?") and also support proper ID for voting.

More: Letters: Common sense needed about COVID-19 vaccines. Ohio Republicans need to shape up.

The problem is that William Kloss forgets we already have proper identification for voting:at the voting venue they compare my signature with the one on file when I registered as well as asking other questions about my address, etc.

If I vote by mail I have to submit my name, address, signature, date of birth and either part of my Social Securitynumber or my driver's license number. So showing a driver's license to vote would not add anything, and of course, not everyone has a suitable license. There is no need for anything else.

Martin J. Williamson, Worthington

Read this article:

Letters: Freedom to refuse vaccine comes with enormous cost

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene of a crash in the inbound lanes of Freedom Drive in west Charlotte Tuesday morning.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Two people were killed and two others were hurt in a crash on Freedom Drive in west Charlotte Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Medic responded to a reported crash on Freedom Drive near Alleghany Street around 5:30 a.m. The crash involved a 2004 Nissan Maxima and a 2017 Hyundai Sonata and both received severe damage.

Medic said two people were pronounced dead at the scene.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department confirmed the identities of the two as Onjenay Porter, 25, and David Coleman, 32. They were passengers in the 2004 Nissan Maxima.

The drivers of both vehicles were taken to a hospital for treatment.

CMPD says the Nissan turned directly in front of the Hyundai, causing the crash.

The driver, Kenya Harris, was determined to be impaired by an officer. Warrants were obtained against Harris, who remains hospitalized, for felony death by motor vehicle.

Officers say impairment and speed do not seem to be contributing factors for the driver of the Hyundai, who was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

Freedom Drive was shut down between Alleghany Street and Camp Greene Street for the investigation. The road reopened shortly after noon.

Drivers in the area can use Tuckaseegee Road to get around the incident. Drivers heading toward Uptown can use Ashley Road or Wilkinson Boulevard to get into the city.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police have not determined the cause of the crash at this time or identified the people who were killed. Any person with information about this incident is asked to call 704-334-1600 or 704-432-TIPS.

Contact Chris Mulcahy atcmulcahy@wcnc.comand follow him onFacebook,TwitterandInstagram.

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Continued here:

Driver charged with DWI after 2 killed, 2 hurt in crash on Freedom Drive - WCNC.com