I’m grateful to the staff of the Andover Beacon, a monthly local paper delivered to all households in Andover, NH. Thank you for inviting me to prepare a 250 word statement that is being included in their voter’s guide that is being delivered to mailboxes today! They asked me to talk about some key issues. Here’s the statement:
The biggest issue in New Hampshire today is drug abuse and the solution is simple – end prohibition. We know from history that prohibition is a failure and only makes the problems with addiction worse. Jailing and forcing addicts into treatment is not compassion. Prohibition should be ended for all drugs and addicts will feel safer to seek help when they aren’t afraid of prison.
Another big issue is the constant presence of the federal government. Its taxes and regulations are an ongoing burden to our people and businesses. They do not provide anything of value to us in return for our money and obedience and only put us in great danger with their war-mongering around the globe. It’s time New Hampshire ends our involvement with the United States and declare independence.
Of course, seceding from the federal government won’t solve all our problems in New Hampshire, but at least we’ll have more resources and freedom to make our own choices. One major change that should be made to the state government is to make all taxes consensual. It’s wrong to threaten our neighbors if they do not agree with supporting certain government programs. Making taxes voluntary is a huge paradigm shift and will instantly make all branches of government more accountable to the people. They’ll know their budget isn’t a guarantee unless they actually make taxpayers happy.
I’d also like to see ballot access made fair for all political parties. Thanks for reading! Visit NHliberty.info for more info.
I was eating dinner with my boyfriend in our kitchen watching a Facebook live stream debate about guns on campus at the University of Texas when suddenly the video stopped. A pop up said something like, “Session expired.”
Someone reported a photo of me my friends at the beach as nudity, and Facebook responded by restricting my ability to communicate with you on their platform in two ways. I can not post on my wall or respond to messages using Messenger for the next 3 days.
I feel sad that I can’t use Facebook. It is the primary way I communicate with the world. Especially the Messenger app. An acquaintance I met at a conference asked me a question, and I am not able to respond. I am not even able to explain why I can’t respond. That is embarrassing and frustrating. I want to maintain a good reputation with this new friend, but I can’t respond to him, and he doesn’t know that I can’t. Fortunately I have been using Signal, Telegram, and other messaging apps, so I am still largely able to communicate. (more…)
Reason Magazine’s Nick Gillespie recently sat down with FSP president Matt Philips to discuss the Free State Project’s libertarian migration-in-progress to New Hampshire. Gillespie has seen the evidence for himself – he’s visited the Shire on more than one occasion. It’s obvious that concentrating libertarian activists together in the same geographic area leads to success.
Now thousands more are slated to come for the FSP, while others are choosing to join the decentralized Shire Society and move independently of the Free State Project. Regardless of whether you join a movement or not, if you are a libertarian or voluntarist, take Nick’s advice: “Move to New Hampshire, you won’t regret it.”
In 2014’s New Hampshire gubernatorial primary, then-incumbent Maggie Hassan refused to debate me in the Monadnock Debates, put on at Franklin Pierce University. Since I was the only democratic candidate for governor to respond, they graciously gave me ten minutes to speak before the republican debate. I figured this year would be different. I thought for sure that having a full field of non-incumbent candidates would mean there’d be an actual, full debate.
Surprise! Looks like the “big three” candidates Mark Connolly, Steve Marchand, and Colin Van Ostern refused to respond to the invitation to this year’s Monadnock Debates. The only two candidates who did respond are author Derek Dextraze and me, Ian Freeman. As a result, the debate organizers decided to not hold the democratic debate this year, like in 2014.
I spoke with Derek about the development today and he said, “I find it interesting that the two candidates that really aren’t politicians said yes to debate. While the other three candidates that WMUR says are the only three candidates on the Democratic side for governor said no or didn’t respond.”
Derek points out another interesting phenomenon from this year’s campaign coverage, which is that some media organizations have been completely ignoring both the Dextraze and Freeman campaigns. WMUR-TV has reported on only three of the democratic candidates in their campaign coverage so far. Similarly, Manchester’s WGIR-AM has held “debates” but only invited the “big three”.
When Derek inquired with WMUR he says they told him, “because I haven’t sent them my itinerary they did not think that I was running.” Sounds like a lame excuse to me. It’s common for NH media organizations to reach out to all ballot qualified candidates. It’s either pure laziness of these media organizations or a deliberate decision to exclude smaller campaigns, despite the face that both Derek Dextraze and Ian Freeman will be on the primary ballot on September 13th, just like the “big three”. (more…)
I spent most of an hour with Rich Girard on his morning show, “Girard at Large” at WLMW-FM in Manchester, bright-and-early at 6:20am on Friday. It was my first time on his show and we had a good discussion about secession, the state and religion, drug prohibition, the death penalty, and abortion. Thanks to Rich and his crew for the opportunity! Here are the show segments:
I’m grateful to the staff of the Andover Beacon, a monthly local paper delivered to all households in Andover, NH. Thank you for inviting me to prepare a 250 word statement that is being included in their voter’s guide that is being delivered to mailboxes today! They asked me to talk about some key issues. Here’s the statement:
