How I went from atheist to minister in the Shire Free Church.

Ian_FancyThis lengthy post is basically a partial biography and tells my story in some detail about my path to liberty and spirituality:

I just can’t do it anymore.  I have had enough of paying for this inhumane and insane state system.

It’s more than just a system – “the state” is a belief system and a religion.  It is an evil religion that masquerades as though it is good.

Of course, I didn’t always think like this.

I suppose I should start at the beginning.  Probably like you, I attended state-run school while growing up.  They told me I was “gifted” – a designation that to this day I find ridiculous – so I went to the state school where the other “gifted” students went.  School still sucked, but I had no idea how much worse it was at the other schools as I was insulated at the institution that was generally inhabited by the kids of the elite, though there were exceptions, including me.  My family were middle class Presbyterians. (more…)

City of Keene Planning to Enact Illegal Ordinance Against Synthetic Drugs

SpiceDid you see the recent MSFI committee meeting in city hall? Here’s the video and the minutes. Allow me to direct your attention to page 11 of the minutes where a very interesting and revealing conversation takes place between city attorney Thom Mullins and councilor Phil Jones.

In it, the committee members are looking at their options to do something about the synthetic drugs. The attorney proposed a resolution or an ordinance, but admits the ordinance would be subject to challenge in the criminal courts as it is likely unconstitutional. The constitution is treated as though it’s an annoyance, but ultimately Mullins is asked by Jones that if they were to outlaw the chemicals via illegal ordinance, wouldn’t that deter challenges due to people not wanting to go through court? Mullins affirms it would deter challenges and points out that no municipality in NH has yet had such a challenge. However, he reveals, it could present a liability issue.

This entire portion of the minutes is a perfect example of what I’ve said for a long time – the government people do whatever they want and hope they don’t get called on it in court. The court system is ponderously slow and also intimidating, so the various illegal ordinances and statutes that are passed by these control-freaks are never challenged – and they know it. (more…)

City of Keene and The Golden Rule, by James Cleaveland

This post is my response to Steve Gilbert’s column, Free Keene and The Golden Rule, by Steve Gilbert

Organized-Crime

 

In a recent column, Steve Gilbert of the Keene Sentinel makes the argument that Free Keene’s Robin Hooders have violated the basic tenet of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I agree that the golden rule is a pretty good standard to try to live one’s life by. I do not feel that any of MY actions as a Robin Hooder have violated this tenet.

Unfortunately, the city of Keene does not abide by this principle. The city of Keene engages daily in a form of bullying through its parking enforcers by using the city’s position of power to coerce people into paying for parking in public spaces whether they want to or not. The tickets are a form of extortion that I believe is unwarranted since they are issued to people who are simply parking their vehicles; an act which I do not think justifies the use of force. If a private business left a bill on someone’s vehicle which kept exponentially increasing if it wasn’t paid, sent threatening letters to one’s home regarding the bill, and eventually stole and held someone’s car to coerce them to pay the bill, most would view this behavior as unacceptable and not abiding by the golden rule.

(more…)

VIDEO: Cop Admits to Being a Thug – The Challenges of Copblocking in a Big City

This is not an uncommon scene – police harassing people who may have been drinking. What is uncommon is Antonio Buehler and the rest of the Peaceful Streets Project who come on the scene and wield cameras and questions.

The whole video has some excellent exchanges, but the embedded video will skip you to a highlight where a cop actually admits he is a thug:

Ultimately, Buehler and friends are able to help the lady that owns the car escape the clutches of the uniformed gang, but not before the gang members jacks her car and arrests her friend.

Peaceful Streets’ activists are doing good work. (more…)

Christopher Hedges From a Fort Meade Courtroom

bradmanning_zimbioYesterday Truthdig and today Dandelion Salad published an article by Christopher Hedges, who was present at Ft Meade during the hearing in which Bradley Manning delivered his first public statement. Journalist Alexa O’Brien has transcribed Manning’s statement which is also published at Dandelion Salad. Below is Hedges’ entry We Are Bradley Manning:

I was in a military courtroom at Fort Meade in Maryland on Thursday as Pfc. Bradley Manning admitted giving classified government documents to WikiLeaks. The hundreds of thousands of leaked documents exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as government misconduct. A statement that Manning made to the court was a powerful and moving treatise on the importance of placing conscience above personal safety, the necessity of sacrificing careers and liberty for the public good, and the moral imperative of carrying out acts of defiance. Manning will surely pay with many years—perhaps his entire life—in prison. But we too will pay. The war against Bradley Manning is a war against us all.

This trial is not simply the prosecution of a 25-year-old soldier who had the temerity to report to the outside world the indiscriminate slaughter, war crimes, torture and abuse that are carried out by our government and our occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a concerted effort by the security and surveillance state to extinguish what is left of a free press, one that has the constitutional right to expose crimes by those in power. The lonely individuals who take personal risks so that the public can know the truth—the Daniel Ellsbergs, the Ron Ridenhours, the Deep Throats and the Bradley Mannings—are from now on to be charged with “aiding the enemy.” All those within the system who publicly reveal facts that challenge the official narrative will be imprisoned, as was John Kiriakou, the former CIA analyst who for exposing the U.S. government’s use of torture began serving a 30-month prison term the day Manning read his statement. There is a word for states that create these kinds of information vacuums: totalitarian. (more…)

The FSP is well past the ignoring and laughing stages.

Foster'sFollowing recent attacks on real estate pro and all-around good guy Mark Warden, once again the pro-state media is on the attack against the Free State Project.

This time, Foster’s newspaper pens a paranoid editorial about the FSP approaching its goal of 20,000 participants, suggesting that there is some kind of secret plan to affect the 2016 election.

Hey Foster’s, the FSP’s timetable has nothing to do with your government elections. We want people to move here to get active as soon as possible. Elections are of course part of what’s happening here, but candidates are running as both Democrats and Republicans as well as in third parties like the Libertarians and the NH Liberty Party.

Were Foster’s to reveal to their reader that FSP participants are getting elected in both parties, that might really confuse all the people who can’t break out of the two party paradigm. Wouldn’t want to encourage anyone to think outside the box, right Foster’s?

GandhiGandhi is famous for saying,

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

We’ve long been past the ignoring stage and it’s becoming clear that the statist opposition is no longer laughing.

Just wait until thousands more liberty-loving activists are here – the fun is only just beginning! If you love freedom and want to learn more about the most exciting and successful liberty movement in the world, visit FreeStateProject.org and don’t miss the 101 reasons to move to NH and also the 150+ reasons to move to Keene.