Last night I went to Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester for their 200th bitcoin meetup. It is the longest running consecutive bitcoin meet up in the world — going for almost 4 years now.
People talked about mining ethereum and being dash masternodes — they talked about successful strategies for encouraging businesses and individuals to take cryptocurrencies as payment — and they talked about achieving more personal freedom in New Hampshire. I was impressed by the turnout. About 2 dozen or so people. A range of all types: gay and straight, techies, real estate people, media people, old, middle aged, and young mothers and their children. The group gets the whole back room in the tavern and received excellent service the whole night.
A friend of mine threw a viewing party for Victimless Crime Spree last night in Manchester, NH. Everyone in attendance had already seen the film, some of them several times, and because of that something unique happened: Audience members began interacting with the various scenes in the movie. During “Give Peace a Chance,” they lit up. During the crossing guard scene, they took out their cameras and recorded. This inspired a bunch more suggestions. This list was sent to me today, and I had to share it. Throw your own viewing party for Victimless Crime Spree, and play along!
Here are the audience participation parts:
WHEN: Lady cop yells, “I give you an order and you gonna obey it!”
AP: Yell “Don’t tell me what to do!”
WHEN: Derrick J tries to light the bowl at the “Give Peace A Chance” rally.
AP: Spark up! (more…)
With the banning, I became the latest inducted in the elite club of people like Christopher Cantwell and Zack Bass who have been similarly politically excised from the FSP organization.
It was a good run, but all things come to an end. I’m grateful for my more than a decade of helping to promote the Free State Project, and look forward to 20,000+ liberty-loving people coming here to New Hampshire and working toward freedom.
I know people have said they won’t be attending Porcfest this year due to the FSP’s decision, and I appreciate their sentiment, but to anyone who doesn’t feel as strongly, you should still attend the Porcupine Freedom Festival this June. (more…)
Today, more than 600 households statewide (39 in the Keene area) were delivered full Thanksgiving meals including turkey, stuffing, gravy, eggs, cornbread mix, vegetables, pumpkin pie ingredients, and some cooking supplies as part of the “Shire Sharing” charity now in its fifth year. Shire Sharing is based in Manchester and headed by state representative Amanda Bouldin, a Free State Project early mover.
Amanda has managed to continually grow the yearly charity event, which she began in memory of her father who did something similar in Dallas when she was growing up. In an interview for Free Keene today, Amanda reported that fundraising for 2015 reached record levels, allowing more than 600 families to be fed. She was hoping to raise enough for 500 families. (Last year, Shire Sharing fed 350 families – a huge increase in just one year!) This year, at least $17,000 was raised by direct contributions and fundraiser events.
State Representative Amanda Bouldin, Founder of Shire Sharing
Though the first year of Shire Sharing was supposed to be a one-time event, Amanda says, “when the second year rolled around, everyone encouraged me to repeat the project. so we just keep going”. Despite the obviously high stress level involved in organizing such a massive operation, she’s committed to continue: “I know SS is very important to a lot of people — not just the recipients but the volunteers, too. I can’t quit!”
Last night, newer Keene-area mover Maria Korfiatis headed to Manchester to grab dozens of the bags for delivery, then this morning volunteers from this area gathered at the Church of the Invisible Hand’s “Society for Love and Peace” (SLAP) at 75 Leverett Street to head out on routes taking meals to Keene, Winchester, Ashuelot, Westmoreland, Swanzey, and Chesterfield.
It was Keene’s second year as part of the ever-growing Shire Sharing operation, and like last year, recipients were grateful for the special delivery! (more…)
Shire Sharing is my favorite charity. It’s voluntary — People like you and me — NOT gun-funded government bureaucrats. The idea is simple: Raise money, buy bags of groceries, and deliver them to families who are less fortunate. Last year, they fed over 3,000 people! They even personalized each bag by household — because some have children, some are elderly and can’t cook anymore, and some have dietary needs like diabetes or vegetarianism. YOU can help Shire Sharing feed an entire family this Thanksgiving for just 35 bucks. They take bitcoin! (And of course credit cards too.) They have an all-volunteer staff, so 100% of your donation actually buys food. Compare that to 30% with government. Shire Sharing is Voluntaryism in action. Put your money where your heart is, and be the change you want to see. Learn more and donate today at ShireSharing.org
The Shire Society website has gotten a facelift! The site now has a responsive design so it will work on mobile browsers and desktop and still has all the features from before including the Shire Society Declaration that you can sign, the Shire map, immigration information, and useful tools and links. Drop in and declare your independence by signing the Shire Society Declaration today!
Perhaps more important is there is brand new software running the Shire Society Forum now. We’ve switched from SMF to the more-modern Vanilla Forum. That means a few major changes – now messages post instantly to a thread without having to reload the page – using the forum is a lot faster as a result. It’s also easier in general to compose a message, plus, there’s social networking sharing options on every thread.
While it’s true that a lot of activists are on Facebook, the Shire Society Forums have continued on despite the mass-exodus to Facebook. It’s important to keep alternate communications methods alive. The Shire Society Forum does that and has long been a destination for new people who are not on Facebook or don’t know where to find NH activists on Facebook. There are new people signing up every month at the Shire Society Forum, so please drop in and welcome them.
There is a world outside of Facebook and the new Shire Society Forum will help connect you with that world. If you’ve never been, come by and post an introduction to get full forum access.
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