The Union Leader is running an article about an individual who was arrested by the Rockingham County Sheriffs Department for driving without state permission:
“A Nottingham man was ordered held without bail after he argued that the county sheriff’s department had no constitutional right to arrest him for driving from the courthouse without a license.”
Drive, without state permission, eventually what happens?
Some of the local critics seem to think that the “free staters” in NH are organized from the top down, with Free State Project founder Jason Sorens at the top, issuing commands as our dear leader. It doesn’t work like that. The FSP is just an organization designed to bring liberty-lovers to NH. What they do when they arrive is up-to-them. Perhaps to Sorens’ chagrin, he is definitely not in charge. No one is. Sorens has always been openly critical of the Keene brand of outside-the-system activism and recently posted a link to the recent anonymous Sentinel editorial attacking Free Keene on the FSP forum with the subject, “Keene residents tiring of Free Keeners”. While that may be a true statement, it ignores the people in Keene who appreciate the liberty activists, of which there are many. The newspaper’s editorial and echo chamber comments section is not necessarily representative of how things really are. Now, why would that be?
Perhaps it’s because (more…)
An anonymous commenter on the Keene Sentinel site has asked questions, and I will answer them (quoted exactly as they were written) here so they aren’t lost behind the Sentinel’s paywall after a week:
1. are you advocating 12 and 13 year olds drop out of school and self educate?
No, I’m advocating they visit SchoolSucksProject.com and listen to the podcast there.
2, If freedom of life choices and self ownership is the foundation of your ideology when does a person start to make these choices for themeselve?
Here’s the original confused, fear-ridden letter from Pam and my reply as published in today’s Keene Sentinel:
I see that Pam Martens has brought her misinformation to the pages of your fine newspaper and felt inspired to respond, as one of the much-maligned “free staters.”
Pam wrote:
“A majority of Free Staters currently in New Hampshire have indicated they want to replace public education with home schooling and private schools; they want to end all government regulation of businesses, from licensing manicurists, to getting drivers licenses, to elimination of planning and zoning boards. They don’t believe government should be able to mandate taxation to pay for schools, roads, Social Security or any social welfare programs like nursing homes.”
First, I highly doubt Pam has spoken with a majority of free staters, as there are more than 800 of them here in New Hampshire. Of course, the New Hampshire liberty movement is much larger than that. So-called “free staters” are merely the backup for the already existing liberty lovers here, many of whom are natives, unlike Pam.
What she doesn’t understand is that most liberty-oriented people I know are in favor of many of the things she talks about, minus the coercion. I’m fine with schools, roads and helping the poor. In fact, I contributed a significant amount to the United Way during last year’s funding drive, because I believe in charity.
However, government is not charity. It is force. I cannot support using the evil means of aggression to achieve good ends of helping people in need. We can help people in need without aggressing against our neighbors. (more…)
Varrin Swearingen (president of the Free State Project) has had his response to Pam Martens’ attack piece published in the Keene Sentinel. Here’s a link to his letter to the editor – as you can see Varrin is already under fire by anti-freedom commenters.
Here’s the text of his letter:
Pam Martens calls for an “untrammeled debate” on the issues (“We have a right to speak our minds,” Keene Sentinel, April 4), but before getting into any specific topic, we need to address the elephant in the room: Where do our rights come from?
Mrs. Martens writes, “rights are derived … from engaged citizens in a participatory democracy.”
She believes rights are granted by society, and denies individuals any natural rights of their own; what some might call “human rights.”
Her opinion conflicts with the simple idea that each of us has our own inherent, unalienable rights, and that government, democratic or otherwise, should be limited to protecting those rights. (more…)
Westmoreland busybody and statist Pam Martens has continued her uninformed hit pieces on Free Staters. Normally they don’t get mentioned here, but this time she mentions Keene activism (it’s such a great quote, I added it to the “unintentional endorsements” section of the 111+ Reasons to Move to Keene.):
the Free State Project holds extremist views and their participants have wreaked havoc in areas like Keene and Grafton. We’ve seen a steady stream of Free Staters taunting the Keene police and ending up in the Westmoreland jail, costing taxpayers dearly.
You can see her full hit piece below. Wreaked havoc? What exactly has been ruined or destroyed in Keene besides old ideas? Are the 420 celebrations wreaking havoc on the idea of prohibition? Quotes like these make it clear that the liberty movement is really bumming out the statists up here. You should come join the fun – just over 25 more signups before the Free State Project reaches 10,000 participants!
We also had a youtube critic send me an angry message where he accuses liberty activists of making an “unimaginable blunder” by holding candlelight vigils outside the homes of government aggressors. (I posted the full text of his message and my reply here.) In it he claims FreeKeene.com is “failing”. Really? By what measure? Failing because some people are upset? What about all the people who appreciate the liberty activists? I imagine liberty activists aren’t too popular amongst those who work for or benefit from the state. We can’t please everyone and shouldn’t try. To say this website is failing, however, is simply a denial of reality. Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? (more…)
Recent Forum Posts
