A few weeks after winning their first-ever “Liberty in Action” achievement award for “Spreading the Message”, as popularly voted on by Free State Project members, the FSP’s unelected board of directors banned me and my talk radio show, from attending FSP events like Porcfest. (An event I helped sponsor and promote for many years.)
Last year that festival became “family friendly”, after years of prudish libertarians complaining about drug use and occasional female toplessness. To kick off the changes, I was banned from the FSP events because of my libertarian views on age of consent, according to their press release. It’s commonly known that my most recent girlfriend was a later-teenager and this supposedly infuriated key volunteers within the FSP, leading to my ouster.
Did you know that John McAfee was in his late 50s when he had a 16 year old girlfriend? According to the same WIRED article, at age 66, one of his multiple live-in girlfriends was 17! Surely plenty of men secretly wish they could do the same, while outwardly condemning John for his attraction to young women.
Have you signed the Shire Society Declaration yet?
To be clear, I don’t want John to get banned from Porcfest, nor do I have any interest in being part of the FSP. I just want to point out the glaring, laughable hypocrisy. People who love liberty should probably still attend Porcfest, but it’s getting harder to recommend that, given that the event length this year has been chopped in half but the price hasn’t lowered one bit.
Plus, Porcfest now has a more-principled competitor, SomaliaFest, which is set to happen June 16th-20th, at Rogers Campground. That’s right before Porcfest, which is slated for June 21st-25th at the same campground. Unlike today’s Porcfest, but more like Porcfest from the old days, SomaliaFest has no entrance fee. Attendees can just camp, vend, hang out with cool liberty folk, and self-organize whatever they want. SomaliaFest sounds like a good time, and much more market-driven than the now-centrally-controlled Porcfest. (more…)
State Representative Caleb Dyer recently made history by becoming the only state rep in the United States that is a member of the Libertarian Party. Now, he’s joining Free Keene as our newest blogger to give us his perspective on goings-on within the New Hampshire state house. Welcome, Caleb! Here’s his bio from the bloggers page:
Caleb is a writer, graphic designer, and tree care specialist. His parents moved him to NH when he was a baby and after graduating from Alvirne High School in 2015, Caleb decided not to pursue higher education due to the rising costs and stagnating quality. In 2016, Caleb was elected State Representative for the towns of Hudson and Pelham as a Republican. During his campaign he knocked doors each day after work; knocking on over 2,000 by mid September, and only spent ~$400; proving that, given the effort and diligence, good ideas can win on a budget. On February 9th, he switched his partisan affiliation to Libertarian; becoming the first member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in nearly two decades to serve the majority of his term as such.
Bitcoin fans around the world are celebrating as the price of bitcoin hit a new all time high as of around 10:13pm Eastern time tonight. The price has continued to travel up from there. At the time of this article’s writing, the BitcoinAverage price is over $1,200 US Dollars!
Bitcoin’s previous highest price was all the way back in 2013 on November 29th when according to BitcoinAverage.com, the price peaked at $1,183.59. It then slowly dropped over a year all the way down near $250 and has been going up since, with 2016 being a huge year for bitcoin’s growth. Will the price continue to rise overnight with the Chinese bitcoin traders getting heavily into their day? It’s exciting to watch, now that the previous high that was undefeated for over three years has been vanquished. Onward and upward, bitcoin!
All this while the already strong Bitcoin community in New Hampshire continues to expand. Two websites were recently launched to focus on the various aspects of that community: ShireBitcoin.org and ShireBitcoin.com. Plus, in an effort to plan events without using Facebook and to reach out to new people, the Keene Bitcoin Network now has a Meetup.com group! Also, the Shire Society Forums have rebranded and expanded as the “Shire Forum” and now includes bitcoin-related subforums, which are open to anyone in the Shire, whether they are part of the Shire Society or not. Finally, things are looking promising on the political front with a bill making it out of the NH house commerce committee with an 11-9 “ought to pass” that would protect bitcoin businesses from regulation in New Hampshire! (more…)
It’s a big day for libertarian history in New Hampshire and nationwide. For the first time in two decades, the Libertarian Party of NH (LPNH) has a sitting state representative in the legislature who is just beginning his first term in office. Caleb Dyer, state representative for Hudson and Pelham, announced today at a press conference in Concord’s Legislative Office Building that he has switched his voter registration from republican to libertarian and has also joined the state party as a dues-paying member. Dyer is a New Hampshire native who knocked on 2,000 doors in his district, Hillsborough 37, to win his election in November of 2016. Here’s the press conference video from this morning:
The LPNH was basically dormant for years until late 2016 when superactivists Darryl W Perry and Rodger Paxton won election to chair and vice-chair of the party, respectively. Shortly thereafter the libertarian candidate for governor was able to get enough votes to propel the party into major party status in New Hampshire. It’s the first time the LPNH has had that status in approximately twenty years, surely much to the chagrin of the republicans and democrats, who raised the vote requirement in the nineties specifically to disqualify the LP from major party status.
Libertarian State Representative Caleb Q Dyer
Speaking on the subject of the two-party duopoly at this morning’s press conference, Dyer said, “I believe that it is time to demonstrate to the people of New Hampshire that such a duopoly of partisan interest, which presently controls this house, is not in their interests.” Backed by the executive committee of the LPNH, Dyer excoriated the command-and-control structure of the two other major parties, saying their party leadership expects their party’s elected state reps to, “fall into line with the party, even against their principle”, speaking specifically of those inside the parties who oppose the status quo.
Explaining why he left the republicans, Dyer explained, “I truly believe the best course of action is to organize outside of the party, and force coalition.” He intends to rally “hundreds of people across the state to submit themselves to their peers as libertarian candidates”. He ended his speech by reading from Article Ten of the New Hampshire Constitution: (more…)
Our original reason for forming the NH Liberty Party was to provide the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire with some much-needed competition. The national party had strayed from its principle of non-aggression and the state party was basically dead in the water for many years. Plus, we wanted a party that would focus on secession in addition to liberty, therefore in 2012 the NH Liberty Party was born.
In late 2016 a major change took place in the LPNH. NH Liberty Party co-founder Darryl W Perry and member Rodger Paxton were elected unanimously to chair and vice-chair of the LPNH. After they got in, their executive committee voted in support of peaceful secession. The party also achieved a major political success by regaining full ballot access statewide for the first time in twenty years.
Things are definitely back on track at the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. Given their recent refocusing and success, we the co-chairs of the NH Liberty Party agreed today to endorse the LPNH’s current direction and recommend our members to join the LPNH and help them stay on track and stay true to the principle of nonaggression as well as openly support secession for New Hampshire.
Just a few weeks after Portsmouth activists installed a Bitcoin Vending Machine, a fifth NH-based BVM has launched, this one in Concord! Area 23, a bar at 254 N State St (Unit H in the Smokestack Center) is the location of NH’s newest BVM. Area 23 is a newer establishment, having opened its doors in 2015 and it’s been accepting bitcoin from customers as payment from day one.
Longtime Concord liberty activist Kirk McNeil is Area 23’s proprietor. Longtime readers of Free Keene may remember him for making headlines for legalizing nanobreweries in New Hampshire. Kirk said in an interview for Free Keene, “I’m happy to have a location where people can access and utilize alternative currencies and exchange methods.”
Entrepreneur and newer mover David Jurist purchased the Lamassu brand BVM, approached Kirk before anyone else and offered him the opportunity to host the unit at Area 23, given it was already a liberty-and-bitcoin friendly establishment. David told me, “it’s exciting that the capital city of New Hampshire finally has a Bitcoin Vending Machine”. I agree. It’s also timely as one of the state representatives on the “Commission to Study Cryptocurrency” has followed through on her promise to file a bill this year that will ensure bitcoin users do not need to register as “money transmitters”. (more…)
