by Ian | Oct 10, 2009 |
Mark your calendar for 11a-12p, this Saturday 10/17. Last week there was only one call to WKBK’s Talkback about Kurt Hoffman’s imprisoning for 180 days. I called this week, asked what they thought of Burke spending $15,000 to put a man in a cell who just wanted Burke to use the word, “please”, and didn’t get answer from the show’s hosts. (The hosts are Keene city councilors.)
So, let’s be heard and focus on the third hour of the show, 11a-12p. This will give late risers the ability to sleep in and still participate. Get calling info on this thread about how to listen to and call WKBK’s Talkback.
Also, in concert with this we are going to retool the weekly chat session. It used to start at 9am, but that has proven to be quite unpopular as only a handful of people will just pop in and out throughout the three hour show. The chat has been basically dead for months. So, we’re going to reschedule the weekly chat for Saturdays from 11a-12p in the Free Keene chat room. This tightened window should bring more people into the chat at the same time. Please join in to help strategize our calls about Kurt.
by Ian | Oct 5, 2009 |
This story by the Keene Sentinel’s David P. Greisman is about the small group of mostly high schoolers that showed up to protest the cannabis celebrations on Saturday. I had a lengthy discussion with protestors Ann and Diana to try to understand where they were coming from. They did think that cannabis consumers should be left alone at home, but otherwise support putting them in cages as well as making cigarettes illegal. They think that putting addictive substances in your body is “immoral”, with the exception of caffeine, because… well, they drink it. They actually had cups of coffee out at their protest. Diana even admitted to being addicted to caffeine. I pointed out to them that I would never advocate their caging for such peaceful activities and asked if they believed in god. They answered yes, but that god has nothing to do with this. According to them cannabis is man’s fault because man plants the seeds. (They did not believe it still grows in the wild!) They did not answer my question about where the seeds came from beyond saying that not everything natural is good for you. Finally I asked them what Jesus would do to cannabis consumers. Wouldn’t he use compassion, love, forgiveness, and understanding? That was my final question as I bid them good day. Here’s the Sentinel’s story:
It didn’t matter to them that there were only a handful of them there. It didn’t matter to them that the occasional person who drove by yelled at them or gave them the finger.
It only mattered to them that they were there, standing Saturday afternoon in Keene’s Central Square, protesting against marijuana use after more than a week of seeing people protest in favor of the drug in that very same spot.
The gatherings in favor of marijuana legalization or decriminalization had drawn dozens upon dozens.
The gatherings against? Five, at most.
“We wanted to show that not everyone here does drugs or is all about smoking marijuana,” said Diana M. Stepka, a 17-year-old from Chesterfield. (more…)
by Ian | Oct 3, 2009 |
Ronald,
I just wanted to say that I forgive you for assaulting me and stealing my cell phone. I would also like to apologize for my immediate angry outburst. I really should have been thanking you for providing me with such wonderful footage. People as usual are saying I should “press charges”. Justice and revenge are not my intent, so you needn’t be concerned about that. I can’t say for sure there will be no fallout for you from within your organization, however.
There is a possibility the state agents in charge of your organization will be embarrassed into doing something about your unprofessional behaviour. From my perspective as one who is forced to pay your salary, it doesn’t seem like you were doing a very good job yesterday. As a captain in Keene fire/EMS you should be focusing on taking care of your patient instead of harassing members of the media. I don’t think you were acting in a manner that is appropriate for a leadership role in any organization. That said, you shouldn’t really be too concerned about fallout from within, as usually the government does a pretty good job of protecting their own from any sort of serious punishment (even with video footage of obvious criminal acts), so you’ll probably be alright.
I just wanted to share my reflections and let you know that I forgive you for your anger and what you did to me. Presuming you keep your job, I’d suggest you ignore the media from now on, or better yet actually try being friendly to them.
by Ian | Sep 18, 2009 |
Bravo to Pam Slack and the rest of those who voted for marijuana reform at the city council meeting last night.
To those who opposed it, please note there is nothing wrong with the city council working toward hurting people less often. If they must exist, that behavior seems totally appropriate to me.
The city council hires and fires the city attorney, clerk, and manager, from my understanding. The manager hires and fires the police chief. Seems clear to me that the council could hand down a do-not-enforce or at the least a lowest enforcement priority policy to the police chief (who seems like a reasonable guy from my recent breakfast with him). That would actually accomplish significant decriminalization in a fairly short order (as opposed to Fred Parsells’ suggestion of a “substantial” fine, which would continue to harm peaceful people) resulting in many Keeniacs no longer having to be afraid of being caged for enjoying recreational or medicinal cannabis consumption.
I support steps in the right direction, but there’s no reason that this can’t be done in one step. Imagine the city council people saying this to the police chief: (more…)
by Ian | Aug 28, 2009 |
On last week’s “Talkback” on WKBK, liberty activists called to talk about health care. You’ll also get the smarmy Dartmouth guy’s opinion on the matter.
Grab the archive.
Please join us for our weekly listening, chat, and calling sessions on Saturday mornings from 9a-12p in the Free Keene Chat room. If you’re online, you can listen to Talkback streamed live via the Liberty Radio Network and if you’re in the Keene area you can tune in to WKBK 1290 AM or 104.1 FM. The Talkback discussion thread is here on the Free Keene Forum.
by JJ Epic | Jul 29, 2009 |
By Andrew Carroll
Seeing the trenchant prose of Friedrich Nietzsche disrespectfully spray-painted on a church building, coupled with
anarchy symbols and clichéd atheist mantras, left this particular Nietzschean anarchist with a bad taste in his mouth.
With no actual knowledge of Nietzschean or anarchist philosophy to stop them – and plenty of angst to aid them – the vandals have made nothing but fools of themselves, even amongst fellow anarchists, atheists, and Nietzsche fans.
The famous, and usually misunderstood, quote “God is dead” is not, as our vandals seem to think, a criticism of the concept of God and any ethics derived therefrom, as much as it is a challenge to the atheists of the world, to the godless, whose value system is inherently nihilistic. This nihilism is something that Nietzsche believes must be overcome (and he died trying to do it). He believed the atheist must struggle, in a world without God, to create his own values and find his own meaning. Thus Zarathustra, the character who speaks the famous quote, goes on to say that we, after killing God as a source of value, must “become Gods ourselves…” In other words, we must become the source of our own values.
(more…)
