With the banning, I became the latest inducted in the elite club of people like Christopher Cantwell and Zack Bass who have been similarly politically excised from the FSP organization.
It was a good run, but all things come to an end. I’m grateful for my more than a decade of helping to promote the Free State Project, and look forward to 20,000+ liberty-loving people coming here to New Hampshire and working toward freedom.
I know people have said they won’t be attending Porcfest this year due to the FSP’s decision, and I appreciate their sentiment, but to anyone who doesn’t feel as strongly, you should still attend the Porcupine Freedom Festival this June. (more…)
Once again, the liberty community is divided, this time over the issues about age of consent that have been raised by the recent arrest of state representative Kyle Tasker for allegedly soliciting a 14-year-old teen for sex.
Purported libertarians are on the warpath against those of us who believe teens are humans who can make decisions. The opinions that people in the community seem to hold are one or more of the following:
People under some arbitrary, government-selected age are just children, and cannot consent. Anyone who is attracted to teenagers is a pedophile and deserves to die, go to prison, or be severely beaten.
Kyle, like any accused, deserves the presumption of innocence. Reactionary libertarians should know better than to believe the police.
If the allegations against Kyle are true, what he did was inappropriate, but he did not create a victim and does not belong in jail.
The first group is driven by emotion and fear and have dropped all pretense of being principled libertarians in favor of piling-on against Kyle and anyone else who doesn’t jump on their violent bandwagon. Their belief that teens are children is insulting to young people everywhere who are mature enough to make decisions for themselves. Further, they equate attraction to teens with pedophilia, which is just plain wrong. It’s an emotional, ignorant viewpoint. Here’s more on the difference between ephebophilia, hebephilia, and pedophilia.
We discussed the issues of age of consent and relationships with people under the legal age of consent on Friday night’s episode of Free Talk Live. It got real when Rich Paul revealed his first relationship was at age 13 with a 23-year-old woman. Not only did he consent but he pursued having the relationship in the first place, something that the ageists do not believe is possible. They would tell Rich that he was a victim and that his partner belonged in prison or worse. Calling teens children is a true insult that disempowers young people who just want to be respected as equals.
Here’s the full archive from Friday night’s show if you want to hear a rational, calm discussion on these matters. This link will jump you to the beginning of the second hour of the show where we began the discussion in earnest, though the first hour covers some ideas of independence for young people:
Keene Native Jared Goodell on WFEA, Weekday Mornings
This morning I was on the radio with WFEA’s Jared Goodell on his Manchester morning talk show to discuss the arrest of state representative Kyle Tasker.
If you haven’t been following, Kyle was arrested this week for allegedly soliciting an undercover cop posing as a teenage female on facebook for sex and later hit with drug dealing charges for drugs found by police in his home.
While most libertarians would defend Kyle on the drug charges, the sex “crime” has divided the liberty community between those who are rational enough to realize that cops lie and someone should be considered innocent until proven guilty and those who throw their supposed principles to the curb when underage sex is the issue. It’s sad. Here’s the interview from this morning’s Jared Goodell show:
As I reminded Jared and his audience, it’s too early to be coming to conclusions. All we know is what the police are claiming. There’s no evidence that has been presented besides an unsigned affidavit with alleged quotes taken out of context. Tasker has yet to have the chance to present any defense from inside his jail cell on $150,000 bail.
Unfortunately, many people lose all sense of rationality when sex with teenagers is the issue. Kyle may as well already be guilty in their eyes, merely because the police have accused him. This rush to judgement is contrary to the founding principles of this country and even if it turns out he did what he’s accused of doing, Kyle STILL did not create a victim at any point.
The horrible bill (HB 1525) that would enact a prohibition on female toplessness went down in flames 18-0 this week in the NH house criminal justice committee. It was a decisive move by the committee and came after a long public hearing where an overwhelming amount of people opposed the bill in verbal and written form.
On February 19, the Libertarian Party New Hampshire filed this 58-page brief in the First Circuit in Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v Gardner, 15-2068. The issue is the 2014 law that made it illegal for a group to circulate a petition for recognition as a party in an odd year. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law.
Thanks to Ballot Access News for this report.
Some of last Saturday’s attendants at the school deliberative session are actually concerned with the Bigger Picture: the future health of the community. Sure, a good education is important, but at what cost?
In NH, as the law stands currently, a Warrant Articles can be amended to pretty much anything you want as long as the subject matter isn’t changed. New legislation that would protect the “intent” of all future warrants was introduced this year, but was ultimately killed on the House floor, 194-100. Without that protection, this is the sort of nonsense that can take place at our Town Hall meetings.
Many have voiced concerns over the extremely poor turnout and lack of participation in city and school politics over the years. The bureaucrats are clueless as to why. Ian nails it.
