Free Keene

On Friday, April 18th, I was told by a Keene Police Officer that I was committing theft by plugging my computer into one of the outlets that stick out of the ground along Main Street. These outlets have places to be locked or turned off, but they were neither locked, turned off, or marked with something saying they weren’t for public use. The officer told me “You can ask the City if you can use their electricity, but for now you’re stealing it.” I obliged and moved on with my night.

Tuesday, April 22nd, I went into City Hall and asked the Clerk’s Office about these outlets. Were they outlawed to the public? If so, why isn’t it marked, since they look as public as the public trash cans? How do I get permission to use them? Some of the workers were unaware that such plugs even existed, but they promised to call Keene Park & Rec and give me a call when they got the answer for me.

Tuesday, April 29th, I still had not heard from them, so I followed up with a personal contact I have in the same building. Perhaps he, being an employee on the inside, could push someone to find an answer for me. Today, May 4th, I followed up with him, and they told him the same thing they told me: “We’ll get back to you.”‘

***Update: Tuesday, May 6th, I finally got a call from Ms. Little in the City Clerk’s office. She said that the outlets are not for public use, and are for event use only. The city manager told her that if someone wanted to make some of them public, I could submit a written request to the city council. Sounds like fun…
This still does not answer the question as to why they are not marked, or how any person should know that an outlet on public property is not for public use.

The Libertarian Party (LP) had, after the late, great Harry Browne’s campaigns, been falling further and further from it’s original principles. In the early portion of this decade, when the LP removed from the party platform their calls for the abolishment of the CIA and FBI, I wrote their newspaper to say I’d not send them another dime of money until they got back to their founding principle: the non-initiation of force.

As I drifted away from the LP and politics and toward market-based action, I paid less and less attention to the LP. I even said on the air recently on “Free Talk Live“, my talk show, that the only reason I was still a member is because I bought a life membership and it hadn’t been worth my while to cancel it. (Read on …)

Saturday morning, I called WKBK’s “Talkback” to discuss the voluntary society.

Download the MP3.
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The genesis of this blog post was a comment by my brother left on a previous blog post of mine. He had asked this question; once I gain my freedom, how will the issues of Policing, the Military, and the Roads be taken care of. My answer is based on things that have already happened, so it is based in fact, rather than pie in the sky theory.

I will divide my answer into two blog posts, starting with the roads, and I will post the second half about the police and military in a few days or so.

(Read on …)

You may recall that about a month ago I sent a letter to the BUREAU OF PARKING asking them to provide me with evidence of the agreement that I signed consenting to be subject to their parking fines. They were given 10 business days to reply, and did not. So, I have decided to give them one last chance to provide me with proof of obligation to pay their fines. This time, I am sending the following letter via certified mail to the head of the BUREAU OF PARKING, Ginger Reyes: (Read on …)

There’s been a theory floating around America for the past couple hundred years suggesting that government people gain their power and legitimacy via the “consent of the governed”. As I understand it, in the world of Legal Land, it is commonly held that silence is tantamount to consent. In that, if the government people demand something of you and you either comply or say nothing that you are consenting to their rule over you.

Some of us liberty activists say that that is absurd. We say that the reason people comply is not because they consent but because they are frightened of violent government people hurting them, their family, or taking away their property.

Perhaps it’s not an either-or situation. While it is true that most people comply with government people’s demands due to fear of violence, it is also true that if enough people withdrew their consent and therefore their compliance, government people would no longer have their precious legitimacy. (Read on …)

This week, I called 1290 WKBK to discuss the nature of government, voluntary alternatives, why New Hampshire was chosen by the Free State Project, unlicensed manicures, decentralized decision-making, and the gun in the room.

Download the MP3.

This morning, I called 1290 WKBK to discuss government vs. voluntary roads, then a caller requested further info, so I called back.

Download the MP3.

Saturday morning, I called WKBK’s “Talkback” to discuss the Red Team/Blue Team mentality, government corruption, Ron Paul, and isolationism versus non-interventionism.

Download the MP3.

This morning, I called “Talkback” to discuss voluntary interaction, Social Security, and Cheshire TV. Download the MP3. Please note, that when I said “I don’t want to live in Keene”, I meant “I don’t have to live in Keene”. Ideas don’t always communicate effectively via stream of consciousness. In case I was not clear, I love living in Keene!