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The distinctions between 'freedom' and 'liberty' as they were originally conceived in the US

Erich Reimer
Townhall
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 00:01 UTC
american flag
We hear the words "freedom" and, to a lesser degree, "liberty" a lot nowadays - and with good reason, as these concepts go to the fundamental root of what it means to be an American.

As we hear these terms however in our political, policy, legal, entertainment, and historical discourse, I began thinking about whether the terms are truly as interchangeable as they have seemingly become nowadays.

"Liberty" seems like an archaic term while "freedom" is much more commonly used modern ideal. However neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution of the United States use the word "freedom," rather describing our rights in the terms "Blessings of Liberty" and "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

According to Webster's Dictionary, one definition of "liberty" is "the quality or state or being free," essentially as a synonym of freedom. However the other definitions are more subtle, implying that it is a form or subset of freedom. Essentially, that liberty is freedom within certain bounds.
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Newspaper

Guilty or innocent? Guardian columnist calls out UK govt as 'clueless' in blaming Russia for poisonings


RT
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 16:27 UTC
2 hazmaters
© Henry Nicholls/Reuters
It is a basic tenet of British law that the accused are innocent until proven guilty. And yet when it's Russia in the dock, that seems irrelevant.

Top Tory ministers have squarely accused the Kremlin of the Novichok poisonings in Wiltshire, and the mainstream media has been awash with unknown sources and so-called "experts" claiming they have reasons to believe Russia is involved.

In a refreshingly articulate piece in the Guardian, however, former Times editor Simon Jenkins called out the government over its baseless allegations. While it is disappointing that it took a MSM journalist so long to reach such an elementary conclusion, it is still comforting that a piece entitled "If the Novichok was planted by Russia, where's the evidence?" has finally made it to print.

Comment: Should we applaud for MSM finally reporting statements of the obvious? Anomaly? Turn of the tide?
See also: Simon Jenkins: If the novichok was planted by Russia, where is the evidence?

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Arrow Up

Migrants in Germany transferred 17.7B euros to their countries of origin


Voice of Europe
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
GermanMigrants
© Jazzmany/shutterstock.com
In the year 2016 migrants transferred billions of euros to their families in their home countries, German newspaper Die Welt reports.

More than 20 billion dollars (17.7 billion euros) flowed from Germany back to countries of origin in 2016, which is six billion more than in 2007.

While the German government sees it as a type of developmental aid, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, that requested the investigation on the matter, is sceptical.

According to the party recipients of state benefits should be banned from passing on money to their home countries. "It cannot be that development aid from the German social system is financed," AfD spokesman Markus Frohnmaier says.

But Germany's Government considers the remittances to be "development-promoting", because the money arrives directly at the place where it is needed, Die Welt writes.
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USA

'How's independence working out?' UK's 4th of July newspaper article faces Twitter wrath


RT
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 20:43 UTC
4th July kids
© Mike Segar/Reuters
The UK's Independent newspaper got more than it bargained for when it published an article sarcastically asking how independence from the former British Empire was working out for Americans - on the 4th of July.

The article criticized the "bulbous shape" of US President Donald Trump, the "abysmally sycophantic shape" of both houses of Congress and the "atrophied state" of the judiciary. The author also blasted Trump's so-called "Muslim ban" and wrote that the US was a land that "steals and incarcerates brown-skinned babies" in a reference to Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policies.

But Americans were having none of it - and they took to Twitter to let the Independent know about it. Some Twitter users pointed out through memes that a British publication should probably not be lecturing the US on that day in particular, given the fact that it was the British Empire that the Thirteen Colonies declared independence from in 1776.
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Fire

Fanning the flames: Establishment media condones harassment and mob violence against Trump supporters

John Nolte
Breitbart
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
Trump supporters harassement
When not calling Trump supporters "Nazis" as a means to dehumanize us, the establishment media like to whine about the lack of civility in American politics, even as they cover up, ignore, downplay, or straight-up approve of the wave of violence and public harassment we are seeing against supporters of President Trump.

It is open season on Trump supporters, and the media is only fomenting, encouraging, excusing, and hoping for more... The media are now openly calling Trump supporters "Nazis" and are blaming Trump for a mass murder he had nothing to do with. This, of course, is a form of harassment because it incites and justifies mob violence.

Here is the list, so far, and remember that if any one of these things happened to a Democrat, the media would use the story to blot out the sun for weeks. But what we have when it comes to Trump supporters is a media eager to normalize harassment and violence.

Comment: One bright spot is that many are becoming disgusted with the outrageous behavior shown by unhinged leftists who are being encouraged by politicians and celebrities:

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Camera

Police release mugshot of mother accused of selling her children

Eddie Cruz
Kristv.com
Tue, 03 Jul 2018 17:55 UTC
Esmeralda Garza
© Nueces County Jail/KRIS-TV
29-year-old Esmeralda Garza, who is accused of selling one of her children and in the process of selling two others.
Jail officials over at the Nueces County Jail have released the mugshot of a mother accused of selling her children.

DPS Troopers released a statement to KRIS 6 News about an investigation and a raid that happened Friday morning, June 29th, 2018 in the Corpus Christi area.

The news release states that agents located a seven-year-old boy, who was allegedly sold by 29-year-old Esmeralda Garza. The boy was purchased by two other males according to jail records.

Investigators added the investigation uncovered that two more children were in the process of being sold. DPS Troopers said Garza was attempting to sell two children, a two-year-old girl, and a three-year-old girl.
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Star of David

Israel's Supreme Court freezes demolition of Palestinian village


Middle East Eye
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 19:12 UTC
Residents of Khan al-Ahmar
© AFP
Residents of Khan al-Ahmar wait under a tree after Israeli police declared the village a closed military area on Thursday
Israel faces mounting international condemnation as its security forces prepare to demolish Palestinian village

Israel's Supreme Court ordered late on Thursday a pause on the demolition of the Palestinian Bedouin town of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media outlets reported.

Israel has faced mounting international condemnation as its security forces continued preparations to demolish the town.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli soldiers cracked down on activists who had come to support the town's residents, injuring 35, four of whom were hospitalised. Thirteen people were arrested, including a teenage girl, a PLO official said.


Comment: 38 wounded, 15 arrested Palestinians by Israeli forces while razing homes near Jerusalem


Comment: See also: Palestine condemns the demolition of the Bedouin village by Israeli authorities in West Bank

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People

Mexico's president-elect, AMLO waives right for bodyguard protection - 'the citizens will take care of me'

Tom Phillips
The Guardian
Tue, 03 Jul 2018 22:09 UTC
Leftist Amlo has also refused to live in ornate presidential residence and pledged to cut his own salary

AMLO López Obrador
He has just been elected commander-in-chief of a nation mired in an intractable drug conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives in little more than a decade.

But on Tuesday, Mexico's incoming president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, claimed he would waive the right to close protection in a bid to stay close to the people.

"I don't want bodyguards, which means the citizens will take care of me and protect me," López Obrador, or Amlo, as he is best known, told reporters as he called on Mexico's incumbent president, Enrique Peña Nieto, to discuss the transition.

Amlo, a 64-year-old leftist who trounced opponents in Sunday's vote, was repeating an undertaking made on several occasions during his historic campaign - one of several promises designed to bolster his image as a man of the people who will rule for Mexico's 53 million poor.

"I don't want to go around surrounded by bodyguards. I want you to take care of me, I want the people to look after me," Amlo told a rally in Hidalgo state in May.

Comment: Who is López Obrador? Mexico's AMLO, Trump and the error of comparison

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Bad Guys

Charity established by Mother Teresa under investigation for black market baby trafficking in India

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Projecy
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
child trafficking mother theresa charity
Police in India have arrested a woman working at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity for allegedly selling a 14-day old baby, while two other employees at the charity have been detained and questioned regarding other potential cases of black market baby trafficking.

The BBC reported that a complaint registered with the Indian state of Jharkhand's Child Welfare Committee (CWC) led to the arrest and detainment of the charity's employees.

"We have found out that some other babies have also been illegally sold from the centre," a police official told the BBC. "We have obtained the names of the mothers of these babies and are further investigating."

Mother Theresa, who died in 1997, founded the Missionaries Charity in 1950 - which has more than 3,000 nuns worldwide - set up hospices, soup kitchens, schools, leper colonies and homes for abandoned children across the world.

While the Missionaries of Charity still run centers for unmarried pregnant women, they no longer arrange adoptions.

Comment: Black-market baby trade thrives in India after adoption law reform
In late 2015, India changed its adoption rules when the Ministry of Women and Child Development brought all prospective adoptive parents and children together in an online database run by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), a body that monitors and regulates adoptions both within India and for couples overseas wanting to adopt from there.
[..]
The system, which also makes it easier for single and divorced people to adopt, may look good on paper, but Arun Dohle, who runs Against Child Trafficking, an NGO that investigates adoption practices and gives assistance to victims, argues that no one is working on the root cause of the problem: corruption and illegal trafficking.

Dohle goes as far as to compare India's legal system of adoption with the black market.

In the black market, "You can buy a baby from a nursing home, you get a new birth certificate, put your name as the parent and everything is fine. You call it adoption so it's a good thing, right?" he said.

"The legal route is the same thing. The only difference is that the shortcut [the illegal way] takes a shorter period of time and is a bit more expensive. The system doesn't work.


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Beaker

DNA tests are in the works for separated migrant children and parents - aims to prevent traffickers from claiming children

Sonia Moghe, Nick Valencia and Holly Yan
CNN
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 16:02 UTC
migrant family asylum
© CNN
Whether this practice is beneficial or unethical depends on who you ask.

DNA tests are being performed on children and parents in an attempt to reunite migrant families separated at the US border, said a federal official with knowledge of the reunifications.

The safety and security is paramount, and it is not uncommon for children to be trafficked or smuggled by those claiming to be parents," the official said.

"To our knowledge, this is a cheek swab and is being done to expedite parental verification and ensuring reunification with verified parents due to child welfare concerns."

The source could not discuss how long the practice has been taking place, if the testing requires consent or if the DNA is stored in a database.

Comment: It's a thorny ethical question, but given Trump's concern about eradicating child-trafficking, this may be one of the more effective ways of thwarting it.

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