Gilles Bissonnette, the head attorney for the New Hampshire ACLU gave an excellent presentation to a packed room in Concord, NH this week. He talked about what CPB (Customs and Border Patrol) internal checkpoints are legally allowed to do, how far out of bounds they’ve been going, and what you can do when you’re there to non-cooperate. He fielded many questions from an engaged and interested audience. Here’s full video of the presentation:
Regarding the AFL-CIO’s survey, (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) a pro-union group, I am pro-union, but I’m against coercion. Unions have for too long looked to government to force their way on individuals who do not wish to participate. Neither unions nor businesses should be using government coercion to get their way. I support market-based mechanisms for workers to ensure better conditions, like unionizing and collective bargaining, boycott, protest, and word-of-mouth. I am opposed to the use of the state to target opponents, however, and union groups like the AFL-CIO have embraced state coercion, so while they have good intentions, their means are corrupt. Coercion has unintended consequences.
The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy questionnaire appears to want to use government coercion to force businesses to give certain benefits to workers. Individuals should be free to organize for better employment terms, but not use the aggressive coercion of the state, so I couldn’t agree with much of what they were asking. Using violent monopolies to get your way is morally bankrupt and will only make our society worse off. If you want change, find a way to get it by persuasion or peaceful market pressure. Don’t use the violence of “the state”.
Here’s my campaign website where you can learn more about my near-zero budget campaign.
This one was easy. Libertarians are always in favor of individual rights, in this case the right of self-defense and the defense of others. Given that libertarians are against aggressive force, they support the use of defensive force as a way to stop aggressors. No one should have to ask permission to defend themselves or own whatever they feel is necessary to defend themselves. That includes felons who should have their gun rights restored.
A few weeks ago in Keene there was a standoff in West Keene to which dozens of cops and state police responded. They brought out the BEARCAT, MRAP, a bomb robot, all kinds of cruisers and trucks, and apparently every state cop from all over – in full camouflage, plus Keene police and Cheshire Sheriffs.
To their credit, the cops didn’t hurt the man in the home this time, but they didn’t need to respond like this. This is a scary level of police militarization and very dangerous to liberty.
Think this was the first time something like this has happened in Keene? Think again. In 2012 police had a similarly ridiculous response to an even less-threatening domestic incident in West Keene where a man stormed off into the woods while armed. Oh and don’t forget the lockdown of part of Downtown prior to that in 2010 over an abandoned backpack full of beer. More recently, who could forget the ridiculous response to the Pumpkinfest Riots the police created in the first place by raiding peaceful day parties.
The three of them outnumber the total number of Libertarian Party state reps in all the other 49 states combined.
At this year’s LPNH convention in Concord both Reps Dyer and Phinney spoke to the attendees about their decision to flip to the Libertarian Party of NH and what it’s meant to them. (Rep. Stallcop wasn’t able to make it.) Phinney even highlights some of their legislative victories. Here are both videos. First, Caleb Dyer’s speech:
Boy did the gun control advocates make a mistake! Since 2010, liberty activists and cannabis users have gathered every year on April 20th at 4:20pm to take part in mass cannabis civil disobedience at the state house steps. Of course, given that the state house is public property, you never know who else might show up and this year the gun grabbers held a rally very nearby the 4/20. Theirs was right out by the street while the 4/20 was up by the state house steps.
As Shire Liberty Media blogger Carla Gericke points out in her blog covering both events, the contrast between the two events was stark – one group wanting to just be left alone (the cannabis users) and the other wanting to be controlled and to control others (the anti-gunners).
After blazing up some primo herb, guns-and-weed-loving libertarians targeted the authoritarian gun controllers for a little trolling. Some came prepared, open carrying guns or armed with pro-freedom, pro-gun signs like “Scared of Guns in NH? Move to: Massachusetts ‘the Nanny State'”. The reaction of the freedom-hating gun-grabbers was hilarious. They made a desperate effort to try to cover up the libertarians’ signs with their own, which made for some hilarious video, captured by Vincent Freeman at Shire Free Media on YouTube:
