A church pastor, late to the Sunday service, crashes through the door of a Concord bar, and the congregation inside turns to look. A second pastor, Stu Light, stands on the piste with a foam sword in hand. He calls out to the first pastor: “I look forward to killing you.”
At the Church of the Sword, where belief in a god or gods comes secondary to espousing principles of self-sufficiency and arming oneself, the greeting could be considered their version of “peace be with you.” After all, one of the holy texts of the 5-year-old, nontheistic, New Hampshire-born religion is Sun Tzu’s Art of War.
“We believe in an active struggle against those who would deprive us of life and liberty. We believe in studying and applying the martial path in the judicial and legislative arenas, as well as in self-defense,” says a sampling of the church’s statement of beliefs.
So when the town of Westmoreland said last year, and the Cheshire County Superior Court agreed this year, that the Church of the Sword isn’t a real religion – and therefore doesn’t qualify for a religious tax exemption – they took it as an attack on their freedom and struck back. (more…)
According to a recent press release from the NH ACLU, Alton town selectmen had a local activist arrested for daring to speak out at a meeting. Jeffrey Clay was supposedly given five minutes to address the board, but two minutes in was interrupted by the rude selectmen who voted to close public input when they did not like what Clay had to say to them. He was demanding they resign, accusing them of corruption, so they proved his claim and had him arrested:
The Laconia district court threw out the obviously illegal charge of “disorderly conduct”, and the ACLU has filed suit in civil court. As NH ACLU head attorney Gilles Bissonnette points out in their press release announcing the suit,
Sadly, these types of free speech violations still occur in 2015. In a free society, governmental officials are required to tolerate harsh criticism and even a demeaning attitude towards them—including viewpoints that can feel like “character assassination”—and cannot discriminate based on these critical viewpoints. As the U.S. Supreme Court has held, “[a]s a general matter, … in public debate, our own citizens must tolerate insulting, and even outrageous, speech in order to provide adequate breathing space to the freedoms protected by the First Amendment.” Thus, speech directed to and about the government is singled out for protection because speech—including opinions about how well or badly officials carry out their duties—lies at the very heart of the First Amendment.
Jury nullification outreach efforts reach new heights in NH
On August 3rd and 4th, New Hampshire activists (organized by Joel Valenzuela of Rights Brigade) reached an incredible six courthouses with jury nullification outreach information supplied by NHJury.com. Activists canvassed much of the state, reaching locations in Dover,Laconia, Brentwood, Concord, Manchester, and Nashua, sharing with jurors the knowledge of their age old right to nullify bad laws. (more…)
Today I chalked a hopscotch on the sidewalk in front of the bitcoin booth. The first person to enjoy it was a man in his 60’s who asked, “May I?” before hopping along with the pattern. Children and adults alike opted to jump through the chalk squares. For about twenty minutes.
Laurie, the woman who appears to be in charge of the vendors at Cheshire County Fair, came over to me and told me that it had to go. She said that we can’t have children slowing down the foot traffic. She also informed me that we were “already on probation” because of our previous violations (stepping out of our booth to meet people who were walking over to talk to us, wearing a gun, and not wearing a shirt). She later returned and poured water on the chalk.
Recorded live at Polyfest (Porcfest) on June 26th, 2015 from Rogers Campground in Lancaster NH. Topics this week include hitting the strip club at Porcfest, pro male nudity, Shire days at Porcfest, Carlos Morales playing us out of our trip, preparing for the Big Gay Dance Party, Poly Party review, hippie flipping, Cody considers the move to Manch Vegas, the Porcfest vortex, the wide range of groups at Porcfest, and Luke and Murdoch discuss their Porcfest experience. Guests this episode include Derrick J, Ellen Ball, Cody O’Conner, Murdoch Pizgatti, and Luke Rudkowski. The Rebel Love Show airs every Tuesday night at 10 pm EST on LRN.FM
In a video recorded on Keene’s Main St. Sunday evening, State Rep Gladys Johnsen calls Keene Cop Block‘s JP Freeman “dumb” and tells him that he has no right to record video of her! This, after being pulled over by KPD’s officer Leslie Ainsworth – kudos to KPD for not giving the state rep special treatment. Here’s the video of Johnsen’s shocking behavior:
This is certainly not how a state representative should behave, especially in front of a camera. You’d think she’d know something about the freedom to record, considering she co-sponsored the bill to mandate police body cameras (currently retained in committee). However, her bill does not allow the public access to the police footage, which is a huge issue and goes to show that Johnsen is just an arch-statist to the core. Her NH Liberty Alliance report card for 2014 ranks her as a “D-“. In the yet-to-be released 2015 rankings, Johnsen scored as “Dereliction of Duty”, meaning she missed 70% or more of the NHLA’s scored votes. The NHLA recommends she step down from office as a result of missing so many important votes.
Is there really religious freedom? The state claims in their documents that religions are exempt from taxation. Now, three liberty-oriented churches in New Hampshire are going to court appealing the tax exemption denials of tax assessors statewide. The Concord Monitor’s Nick Reid reported recently on the Church of the Sword, Peaceful Assembly Church, and Shire Free Church‘s efforts to stand for religious freedom:
