Media and Art as Means to Change Culture

December 23, 2012 by JJ Epic · 3 Comments
Filed under: Free State Project, JJ's Fun House, Video

2012 has been a whirlwind year for me with so many successful projects. I finished Free Keene TV with my 52^nd episode in July. I finished Porcfest Chronicles in October with 51 individual videos. I had a lot of fun working with Gary Johnson, John Babiarz and Hardy Macia making the zombie videos for political campaigns. Shire Sharing and the Free State Project round out the year with a few more videos documenting the hard work carried out by liberty activists.

I enjoy producing and publishing videos for the expressed purpose of spreading the ideas of liberty. It is a labor of love. At the same time I have spent hundreds of hours creating this content and it is always nice to get a little cash for the work. Bills, food and all that! So I created a chip-in for anyone that wants to give me a few bucks for my efforts:

This video is perhaps my last for the year. I visit the Maine Liberty Summit with Antigone Darling who gives a speech about liberty and secession. We network with neighboring liberty lovers and talk about the Free State Project.

Some of my stats for 2012:

27 Episodes of Free Keene TV

51 Porcfest Chronicles videos

3 Zombie videos for Libertarian Party Candidates

2 Shire Sharing Videos

6 Videos for NH Gubernatorial Candidate John Babiarz

4 Videos for the Free State Project

? Additional videos for miscellaneous ventures

Why I am moving to Manchester and yet call Keene Home

July 4, 2012 by JJ Epic · 8 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, JJ's Fun House

I did what many will tell you not to do. I moved to Keene nearly five years ago with $500 and all the property I could fit in my compact car. I took a leap of faith and landed in the home of Kat and Russell Kanning, much to my fortune. With no job lined up prior to my move and my limited resources, my brand new car was quickly repossessed.

I remained steadfast in my resolve to make the move a success. A month after my move I voted for Ron Paul in the New Hampshire GOP Primary. Two weeks later I landed perhaps the best job of my life thus far. I quickly started saving money and soon bought a used car.

Curiously my first “liberty event” was karaoke at a then “Free Stater Owned” bar just outside Keene. I didn’t sing at the time as I had not yet discovered my talent for karaoke. I also attended the Social Sunday events and a training session for New Hampshire Liberty Alliance bill reading. I sat and listened mostly, absorbing the energy around me, adapting to the new culture, community and ideas. Read more

Cannabis Culture’s Feature Article on Keene’s 420 Celebrations!

April 9, 2010 by Ian · 5 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, Civil Disobedience, Essay, JJ's Fun House, Noncooperation, Personal Freedom

Thanks to Jodie and Marc Emery and the rest of the great crew of Cannabis Culture for publishing this awesome feature article all about Keene’s cannabis freedom movement, starting with Andrew Carroll’s arrest last year and going through the Nashua crackdowns. Not only that, but they allowed JJ from the Free Keene Press to write the piece! They included activists’ photos as well as videos from OTN and Anarchy in Your Head. It’s an amazing piece that is going to help put Free Keene on the cannabis activism map!

If you found this website via Cannabis Culture, please take a look around – there’s a lot more happening here than cannabis freedom activism.

Here’s the text of the piece: Read more

Loch Leviathan

August 14, 2009 by JJ Epic · 11 Comments
Filed under: JJ's Fun House

by James B Schlessinger Jr

The Leviathan grows and consumes
It’s great maw is a place of Doom
teeth like guns
cold blood runs
heartbreak
earth quake
now sealed
your fate

One gaze and you are held in shackles
Left in confusion, the great beast cackles
Its claws pierce through
what privacy you knew

The armor is thick with the strength of apathy
the guise is flawed; to protect me from me

In its right hand a pen
made to write and rule men

In its left hand the scales of justice
behold, the great beast rolls loaded dice

All that’s left to decide is how you will pay
If you work with us, you can go home today

Dynamic Stoic

July 9, 2009 by JJ Epic · 1 Comment
Filed under: JJ's Fun House

By James B Schlessinger Jr.

Is it a sin to want to be free?
To live as I want, leave me be
What would you have me do?
Do you want me to be like you?

Should I dress the same?
Should I take your name?
Should I fall like rain
And bow to the pain?

Faceless, heartless
Complain less
And digress

Introducing The Free Keene Press!

June 15, 2009 by JJ Epic · 4 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, Introduction, JJ's Fun House, Keene Weekly News, News, Outreach, The Free Keene Press

Keene liberty activists once again have a paper dedicated to the happenings in Keene, NH. I have finished the first issue of The Free Keene Press. Meant to be an extension of the Free Keene blog with a bent directed at the community of Keene. The FKP will start out as a single page inside the New Hampshire Free Press.

The NH Free Press was once titled the Keene Free Press when Kat Kanning, the paper’s creator, lived in Keene. Now like a seed inside a piece of fruit the next iteration of a local Keene newspaper is borne within the pages of the former one.

My goal is simply to have one more avenue of communication with the individuals who inhabit the Keene area. I will not shy away from controversy or contentious content but instead I hope to give insight where there is confusion. I have plans to expand this paper and to do some actual investigative reporting but for now it will start out small and grow into whatever it becomes.

If you have any ideas or thoughts in how to make this a better paper please share them and if you would like to lend you time in any way be sure to let me know.

You will find a .pdf of this first issue among the links to the right, titled Press. http://press.freekeene.com

Please direct any special comments or inquiries to press@freekeene.com

Thank you,

James B Schlessinger Jr.

The Reality on the ground in Keene, NH

April 14, 2009 by JJ Epic · 14 Comments
Filed under: Copwatch, Corruption, Hypocrisy, Issues, JJ's Fun House, Keene Weekly News, Police

A great deal has happened these last several days involving activists and various Law Enforcement Agencies around Keene, NH. Many videos have been posted and much outrage expressed. In the end I think the heat of the moment causes us to lose sight of the reality and perhaps creates an illusionary world where one does not exist.

I might catch hell from my friends for posting this but I’m the type of person who speaks his mind regardless.

In general the Keene Police Department and the local Sheriffs have acted in a very professional manner and have shown a great deal of restraint in dealing with activists. Most notably, Lt. Shane Maxfield. In every incident I have seen involving the Lt. he has been calm and communicative, dare I say honorable. This is reality. Whether you like the job they do, the actions they take or the orders they follow, we are fortunate to have good humans in those uniforms. And they are human, just as we are, subject to the same flaws and features, the same mistakes and misjudgments.

I do take issue with the way Patrick was carried today and the way Sam was likely treated, I do take issue with the orders to arrest peaceful activists for victimless crimes and I do take issue with the use of force in general to achieve a hegemony of the State over the Individual. One need only read my previous blog entries to see how I feel.

Court of Discontent

April 4, 2009 by JJ Epic · 3 Comments
Filed under: Corruption, Hypocrisy, JJ's Fun House, Personal Freedom, Police, Rant, Thuggery

In Justice

By James B Schlessinger Jr.

This terrible sickness
Where is the victim?
Where is the witness?

Swear in the truth
Tell you no lies
Lest ye be judged
By my own two eyes

The Circuit of circus
The Juggling of Justice

Will all hands be tied
When and innocent dies?
At the hands of a court
Is humanities demise

Laws to determine
What’s said in a sermon

Laws to endanger
“Radical” behavior

Laws to give voice
When we make a choice

Laws to enslave
From cradle to grave

The War on bleh

February 18, 2009 by JJ Epic · 5 Comments
Filed under: Corruption, Economic Freedom, Hypocrisy, Issues, JJ's Fun House, National, Personal Freedom, Police, Rant, Thuggery

learn.genetics.utah.edu

Unv. of Utah

“Like cocaine, Ritalin is a powerful stimulant that increases alertness and productivity. Ritalin and cocaine also look and act the same. Both have a similar chemical structure, and both increase dopamine levels in the brain. They do this by blocking a dopamine transporter protein responsible for the reuptake of dopamine at the synapse.”

“Ritalin is not addicting when taken as prescribed by doctors. Why this difference between Ritalin and cocaine? Ritalin is a pill that you swallow, so the drug takes longer to reach the brain. Cocaine is taken in high doses by injection or snorting. It floods the brain quickly with dopamine, which makes it dangerous and addicting.

Unfortunately, Ritalin is quickly becoming a drug of choice for teens. It’s relatively cheap and accessible. And because it’s a prescription drug, it’s perceived to be safe. But if Ritalin is abused (taken in high doses) or taken improperly (by injection or snorting), it can be just as addicting as cocaine. This is because drug delivery methods can influence the addictive potential of a drug. ”

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Drugs are drugs.

The War on Drugs has been a success. It has done what was intended: growing the size and scope of the government, militarize local law enforcement and injecting into local law enforcement tendrils of federal influence via funding.
Read more