1. This is a nice story about a very young entrepreneur in Sunapee, NH who has opened up a rather professional ice cream stand. He seems to be making good money… good for him. This is the part of the story I thought might interest you:
“Beck Johnson had a business plan, his startup funding a dream of opening an ice cream stand, but first he needed a variance from the Sunapee Zoning Board to open in a residential zone. He admits being a bit “freaked out” before his presentation, but ultimately got the go-ahead. That was Oct. 27, 2009 – four months shy of Beck’s 10th birthday.”
Ah yes. Not even a ten year old selling ice cream on his parents property is immune from the bureaucratic red tape involved in using said property as if it actually belonged to his parents.
Let us not forget the repercussions of not begging permission to use one’s own property as they see fit: violence. Being “freaked out” when you’re about to deal with people who have no problem using violence when you don’t comply with their dictates is perfectly understandable.
2. An opinion piece submitted to the Nashua Telegraph for the 4th of July is entitled “True patriotism a matter of speaking up.”
“… there is a form of patriotism we can all engage in that would honor our founding fathers. That would be to speak out against the waywardness of those who govern.”
I wish that more people in the Keene community who verbally attack the liberty activists would take notice of these words. Particularly, I wish the person who posted here on FreeKeene.com (using the handle “finally”) that they were happy that the heroic Rich Paul potentially would be facing a year in a cage in Massachusetts for possession of a firearm would take notice.
To “finally”: Some day, the government may go after something that you or your family like to do. Fishing, ATVing, hunting, etc. We will be there to defend your freedom if this should happen. If you have a child, chances are they will experiment with drugs. We (Rich Paul) refuse to allow your children to be branded as “criminals” for doing something that has harmed no one else. Sometimes, being loud and stomping feet in the town square with a bullhorn is what it takes to check the government.
We care about you and your freedom. Rich Paul cares about you and your freedom. He is willing to be thrown in a human cage so that you have the freedom to treat your body as if it actually belonged to you. He is willing to be thrown in a human cage so that you’ll never be subjected to the same inhumane treatment.
3. The Union Leader has run an article about how the NH Adult Parole Board is unhappy with the new law I blogged about earlier that would reduce the number of human beings in New Hampshire that remain caged like animals.
“The law is meant to cut prison populations and increase success for inmates when they return to society. The parole board worried the change was too drastic and would force them to parole undeserving inmates.”
I’d say more than half of the people in NH State Prison are “undeserving” of being caged like an animal… and a few of them are there right now because of me. 🙁
4. The Union Leader has run an editorial (aptly named “Dependence Day”) touting the Declaration of Independence and complaining about how much liberty the government has chewed away.
The Declaration of Independence makes very clear why the colonists took up arms against their own government:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Ah yes. “Consent of the governed.” That’s a nice thought… but it really doesn’t matter what you consent to. If you don’t agree with what the government is doing, they’ll hurt you. Men with guns will come to take you away, if you resist, they’ll kill you. That’s their version of consent.
Kevin from Lancaster, NH, writing in the comment section about Free State Project participants, said the following:
“These folks get it; they’re great Americans who understand what America is supposed to be. Those who think government should provide people’s wants or needs, and those who think government should force foreign governments to do things our way, don’t get it at all.”
I agree with Kevin, wholeheartedly. People who spew vitriol towards the “Free Staters” essentially are spewing vitriol towards the principles that this country was founded on: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The same vitriol spewed at the ideas that the “Free Staters” tout was spewed at the founding fathers for daring to challenge the king. It is the same thing a few hundred years later.
I wish they’d come to see this.
