Thanks to Manchester Public TV for offering me three minutes to speak on issues of importance. I discussed New Hampshire declaring independence from the United States, ending the war on drugs, and ballot access fairness. Here’s the video that will play every eight hours between now and the primary:
Steven Zeiler, Free Keene Blogger and Bitcoin Evangelist – Photo Courtesy Seacoast Online
Libertarians in New Hampshire make the news all the time. Does that happen where you live? Maybe you should join us here in the freest state?
NH #1 Most Free State – 2016
At the bottom of the charts, number fifty is New York, which is a long distance below number forty-nine, California. Where did your state rank? You can check out the interactive map or dig into the well-researched nearly 300 page study on their site.
With all the freedoms we have in NH, no wonder so many people who love freedom are moving here. Not only is there the most successful libertarian migration in the world happening here, but before that started there were already over 101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire. Originally a persuasive text list, in recent years it was made into an excellent hour-long documentary which you can watch for free.
If you are a libertarian or voluntarist and don’t yet have plans to move here to New Hampshire, why are you waiting? Thanks to migrations like the Shire Society and Free State Project, there are thousands of liberty-minded people who’ve already moved here in the last decade and thousands more pledged to come.
Concentration of libertarian activists into a small, low-population state like New Hampshire makes all the difference in the world for accomplishing our goal of liberty in our lifetime. If you’re tired of the continued failures of the libertarian movement, get to New Hampshire ASAP.
For more on the study, we dug in deep on last night’s Free Talk Live:
Derek Dextraze and Ian Freeman
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…)
More than three years after the City of Keene filed suit against Robin Hood of Keene, the parties in the case have filed what should be their final legal arguments at the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Robin Hooders are the activists who have made international headlines for saving thousands of innocent motorists from parking tickets in the small city of Keene.
The city’s persecution of the peaceful activists has failed at nearly every legal turn. In its first visit to the NH Supreme Court, only one aspect of the city’s harassing case was sent back to the superior court for review. The city gang then lost again at the superior court level and are now appealing that most recent decision to the Supreme Court.
The NH Supreme court has already decided the allegations of “tortious interference”, “civil conspiracy”, “negligence”, and the demand for financial compensation were unfounded and the activities engaged in by the Robin Hooders are protected by the first amendment.
The appeal is for the Supreme court to look ONLY at the lower court’s ruling regarding the request for the “buffer zone” injunction. In their 50 page brief filed with the court in late May, the city, in a footnote, withdraws their request for an injunction against me and Garret Ean. I hardly ever Robin Hood and Garret doesn’t even live in Keene anymore!
In a 34 page brief filed by our pro-bono free speech attorney Jon Meyer, he points out, using the Parking Enforcers’ own testimony, that there was at no point any kind of threat or even a safety concern: (more…)
Isabelle Rose, owner Bon Vivant – Gourmet Street Food
Chef and entrepreneur Isabelle Rose is cooking up delicious Vietnamese, French, and Vegetarian fare at reasonable prices. She told me that the food truck had been a dream of hers since 2009 when she started to make Vietnamese food for the local farmers market. Her food was very popular there and she started saving money up to launch Bon Vivant without going into debt. Smart lady! I stopped in this week for the first time and enjoyed a large bowl of steak pho noodle. It was delicious and very filling. I’m excited to have more ethnic food available fresh in Keene!
Not only is the food excellent, but Bon Vivant is accepting payment in bitcoin! Isabelle says she decided to accept bitcoin after reading about it here at Free Keene and being encouraged by Chris Rietmann, the owner of next-door Route 101 Local Goods. Just today she says three customers have noticed the bitcoin sign and asked what it is.
Steak Pho Noodle @ Bon Vivant
Keene’s not the only area of New Hampshire where bitcoin acceptance is spreading. Free Keene blogger Steven Zeiler recently announced that a major Portsmouth restaurant is now accepting bitcoin.
Keene’s Bon Vivant is already visible on the CoinMap – a website that shows the locations of bitcoin-accepting businesses around the world. Per capita, Keene has more bitcoin-friendly businesses than does San Francisco, the supposed #1 place for bitcoin acceptance. With a population of over 837,000, San Francisco has, according to CoinMap, about 114 bitcoin-accepting businesses – that’s one for every 7,342 population. By comparison, Keene has over 23,000 population with 13 bitcoin businesses – that’s one for every 1,769. Keene has four times the concentration than does San Francisco.
To learn more about bitcoin, the amazingly successful decentralized cryptocurrency, visit Bitcoin.com and to join the local network of bitcoin-accepting merchants and customers, check out the Keene Bitcoin Network on facebook.
Bon Vivant and Route 101 Local Goods
The NH Pink Pistols, an LGBT-themed firearms group, practiced shooting targets at Granite State Indoor Range in Hudson yesterday. 8 people came to shoot. Last month there were 5 of us, and the previous month only 4. The range was clean, the staff was friendly, and the range was easy to use. Apparently the facility is less than 2 years old. We each shot individual targets for practice, but we also played a game of Battleship using a creatively designed target. Afterwards, some attended a Liberty Meetup in Nashua, but I had to run — I had a date at Street — a Portsmouth restaurant that now accepts bitcoin!
New, unexpected people came to this event — they must have heard about it from Facebook. The NH chapter of Pink Pistols is “officially closed” because we don’t have board members and bureaucracy to the satisfaction of the national group. I will wait for a few more successful meetups before I re-establish the group as “official”. I had a fun time, we tried out each other’s firearms, we got some practice with our own, and some even learned techniques to improve their shooting. If you’re LGBTQ and live in the Shire, please join the NH Pink Pistols Facebook Page for updates on our group and the location of our next shoot.
Here is video from yesterday’s event
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