The bullies over at the Keene School District along with their supporters in the community showed their true colors once again at this year’s town hall style deliberative session.
“We don’t need a very small minority of people in this community — that do not in any way represent the will of the people — telling us how to do our job.” That was School board member, Susan Hay.
It seems in her world, it’s perfectly acceptable to steal money from her neighbor to pay for her sacred cow as long as it’s the majority making the decision and as long as she’s on the winning team. I can only imagine the ruckus she would have made if we had had another 60 or so supporters in the room–one day we will.
There were 13 ballot initiatives up for discussion. Nine were created by the Board itself; aimed at raising the already bloated and unsustainable budget. That’s how they “do their job,” which Ms. Hay takes extreme pride in. Four submitted by petition were focused on reducing the budget.
The purpose of the deliberative session is to discuss, debate and clarify the articles before being placed on the upcoming ballot in March. Instead of leaving my four warrants in their original wording for the voters to decide on, former school board member and local busybody, Ted Parent, made it his goal to neutralize all four and extensively added an additional 2 hours to the already-lengthy proceedings.
After the meeting, I was approached by a good dozen participants who were all sympathetic and urged me to continue the fight, knowing that the entire proceedings had been unfairly stacked against us. I wish they had all stepped up and told the entire room instead of just me in private. This at least is encouraging. The seeds have been planted.
The most ironic part of this entire process is the anti-bullying stance these school authorities spout off on a regular basis. Don’t they realize their entire system is fundamentally built and supported by the practice of bullying others? You give us your lunch money or we’ll take your house. If you don’t like it run for office yourself ( join the ranks of bullies). Or Move to another playground (and take your chances with another gang).
The people came out to the State House to overwhelmingly say “YES!”
A bill proposed by Senators Bradley and Boutin and cosponsored by JR Hoell would remove the requirement for a Concealed Carry License. This means that anyone legally allowed to open carry in NH could also carry discreetly. This is a big deal for me, since currently I am fighting an uphill battle against my local police chief for denying my license despite NH supposedly being a “Shall-issue” state. The reality is that if the police don’t like you, they can deny you by claiming you’re “not suitable.” What does “suitable” mean? It’s not defined anywhere in the law!
Clearly a change needs to be made, and the people know it. About a hundred people came out to the State House to speak in support of the bill that would make New Hampshire more like Vermont by loosening restrictions on free people to protect themselves. Only 4 people spoke against the bill. 2 of them were law enforcers who were, by the way, wearing guns openly (I don’t think anyone else can do that). Are there 2 classes of men? (more…)
Why am I paying for this crap! • 4 New warrant articles. School officials concerned • Problems with the education system? You should totally run for school board. /Vomit • @IanGoogling • BallGate, autotune, and you’ll love my nuts • Patriarchy wins!! At least on Survivor • The Penguin circa 96 • Jay, Darryl, and Shaunna join • Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
Here’s a fascinating post by freedom-hating blog Miscellany Blue that does a great job at summing up some of the really exciting things that will be happening at the annual Grafton, NH town meeting. It’s a testament to the power of numbers. With relatively few movers to Grafton, liberty activists have the state-supporters on the defensive, desperately begging for advocates of coercion to come to said meeting. Here’s the report from Miscellany Blue’s William Tucker:
The town of Grafton is ground zero in the Free Stater effort to move in and dismantle government. The group’s antics during last year’s town meeting — which began with an argument over the “Rules of Decorum” that prohibited cursing, name calling and personal attacks — made national headlines. “This year’s meeting should be even more interesting,” brags Free libertarianin an online comment. (more…)
As part of NHJury.com’s new mission, we’re reaching out to help educate legislators about Jury Nullification. To that end, board members Rich Paul and I went to speak with the NH house judiciary committee on a recent bill regarding expanding protections to a jury nullification defense, HB 246.
NHJury.com‘s board members will continue testifying in the upcoming weeks as there are even better jury nullification bills that are still-to-come to the committee. Rich’s testimony was caught on camera, but a malfunction prevented mine from being recorded:
The gears of government everywhere turn slowly, but in New Hampshire, at least they are turning on the issue of cannabis freedom. The state passed a medical cannabis law back in 2012 (though it still needs improving and the dispensaries have yet to open). The state representatives have voted to decriminalize and even to legalize cannabis, but the efforts have been blocked in the senate in close votes.
Overall, New Hampshire is behind the ball on decriminalizing cannabis. All the surrounding states have had significant decrim on cannabis possession, in Maine’s case, since the 70s! Vermont and Massachusetts in recent years dramatically decriminalized possession of up to an ounce. In Mass’ case the penalty is down to an unenforceable fine.
The current situation in New Hampshire is that a decrim bill will be heard this year, and on Tuesday morning the criminal justice house committee heard a bill that would merely create a study committee on legalizing cannabis. However, the hearing went on for nearly two hours, with the supermajority of speakers favoring the study committee. Only two people, one lady from “New Futures”, an apparently prohibitionist group, and a state cop were the ones arguing against the state reps learning about legalization.
Several people spoke in favor of the study committee, including state reps, Cheshire Jail superintendent Rick Van Wickler, the NHCLU’s director, medical cannabis users, and more. The criminal justice committee will vote on the bill in executive session where it will then be sent to the full house.
