Ian Freeman’s shunning from the Free State Project, if considered in one way, can be considered an egregious case of victim blaming, if you apply to it the stated beliefs and values of the attackers. Let us review the situation here, and note that I am stipulating some things that I do not personally believe, in order to allow a hypothetical conversation. I shudder to wade into the morass of this discussion, which in some quarters is conducted as a witch hunt, by zealots and by those who are terrified that if they don’t cry “faggot, faggot, faggot” as loudly as the other boys, the other boys might think that they are “faggots”, too. I have to wade in, though, because by one possible interpretation of the facts, what is happening is a monstrous abuse of a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
I reason as follows, using my own experience of sex with a 23 year old woman, my first girlfriend, Denise when I was 13 years old, who is the primary reason I am unwilling to name a particular number as an “age of consent”. I am willing to disclose more about this because I have recently learned, to my sorrow, that she has passed away, so nobody can hurt her now. Please note that the interpretations given here are not my interpretations, but a possible interpretation.
1) I still have very warm feelings for my first girlfriend Denise. When we were together, she was 23 and I was 13. For a number of reasons, including loyalty to Denise, I am not willing to define that encounter as rape.
2) According to the Ian Haters, what happened between Denise and I was rape, despite the fact that I pursued her from the moment I met her. That means that by Ian Hater logic, I am her victim.
3) If I am Denise’s victim, and yet I have warm feelings for her, then I am suffering from Stockholm syndrome. If that condition prevents me from naming a concrete number that should be the Age of Consent, I should not be banned for this reason, I literally cannot reconcile naming a magic age with my own experience, without either calling Denise a rapist, if I set that age above 13, or implying that sex with 13 year old is always ok, when in the VAST MAJORITY OF CASES, sex with somebody that young is completely wrong. My case was unusual, and I am aware of that.
As a mediator, I cannot choose a specific age at which all sex is automatically rape. But I can tell you the sort of questions I would ask the alleged victim if I were called to mediate such a case. My judgement would depend on the evidence. My questions would include:
1) What is sex?
2) Where do babies come from?
3) What is a condom?
4) What is a sexually transmitted disease?
5) Do you know what Death is?
6) Do you know that some sexually transmitted diseases can kill you?
7) Did you pursue sex with the accused, or did she pursue you?
8) Do you believe in God? Why or why not?
9) Did the accused threaten you in any way?
10) Did you ever ask the accused to stop what they were doing, and if so, did they?
11) Was this your first sexual relationship?
I have met very few people of 13 who could have answered those questions well enough to cause me to find that an adult who had sex with them was weak, rather than criminal. But at 13, I can say that I would have been able to answer them. If I were asked to rule on the case of Denise and myself, I would not find that she was criminally liable for a number of reasons:
1) She was of average intelligence. I have an IQ of 146.
2) I pursued her, in part, through dishonorable means, including fabricating a story of a previous sexual relationship specifically concocted to prevent her from knowing that I was a virgin. Sorry about that, Denise, I was a little bit hormone driven in those days.
3) At no time did I hesitate to continue enthusiastically toward a sexual relationship.
4) She was in a very vulnerable position, having been raped 6 months before the beginning of our relationship, and therefore was probably drawn to the fact that I could not as easily overpowered her as easily as a man her age could.
5) My seduction of her continued over the course of several months.
Disclaimers for the witch hunters:
No, nothing said here means that I am interested in or in favor of sex with children. The witch hunters will interpret it this way, but I am not willing to call my first girlfriend a rapist to escape the fires. I am an engineer. I don’t frolick. I don’t play much. I don’t interact with kids by choice, ever. I tend to like women at least 30 years old, and put a hard limit of 19 below which I will not go. But that does not mean that I would be in favor of imprisoning anybody who does go below 19. There are a great many standards I hold for myself that I would not impose on others.
As for Tasker, I do not know what happened in that case completely, but from what has been said, it seems likely that what he did was wrong, I cannot rush to judgement without seeing the evidence, because for all I know these accusations are a frame job. I’m not willing to throw him under the bus until I have reached a conclusion as to the truth and nature of the accusations against him. Innocent until proven guilty is good policy. More will be revealed, and when I know more, I will denounce him if such denouncement is due.
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…)
The main hosts of New Hampshire-based syndicated talk program (heard on over 170 radio stations coast-to-coast), Free Talk Live made a major decision tonight. On the FTL blog we announced our release of the Free State Project from our long-standing broadcast agreement. It was a long time coming. Over the years, Mark and I have been a loving thorn-in-the-side of the FSP. While we were its most successful recruiter, we were also never afraid to criticize the organization publicly. It was a relationship that came close to ending a few times over the years.
Recently a group of FSP early movers have been putting social pressure on the FSP board to disassociate from Free Talk Live, LRN.FM, and Free Keene. While a petition by the in-crowd of haters struggled to reach 100 signatures over several days, including fraudulent signatures, the anger and social pressure is real. We at FTL no longer wanted to play any role in making the FSP board choose one side over the other yet again. I am grateful we were able to work together for so long in promoting the best idea for liberty in generations, the Free State Project.
Schisms are healthy, even if the people who stoke them aren’t. In my experience, it’s always best to embrace the schism rather than fight it.
There are no hard feelings on my side. I have not revoked my membership in the FSP and I still think that libertarians, voluntarists, and liberty-loving anarchists should move to New Hampshire, ASAP.
Free Talk Live would like to formally congratulate the Free State Project on reaching 20,000 signers. Until February 3rd, 2016, the FSP was an organization primarily focused on getting 20,000 liberty-minded people to pledge to move to New Hampshire and get active for freedom. Now the FSP is refocusing on encouraging those signers and other interested libertarians to make their move. This is a goal of Free Talk Live as well, but experience shows us that when any group gets large enough there will be schisms. There are some that feel that there is no place in the FSP for Free Talk Live and with the recent change in goals of the FSP, we at FTL can see their point of view. (more…)
The federal criminal trial against local Keene business owner Panos Eliopoulos is nearing an end. The DEA raided his store Phat Stuff in May 2014 on suspicion of selling the synthetic cannabinoid PB-22. Although undercover agents had purchased PB-22 from Phat Stuff on August 9, 2013, the sale of PB-22 was not prohibited by the DEA until February 10, 2014, by which time Phat Stuff had stopped selling the compound to comply with the law. Since the Constitution prohibits ex post facto enforcement of laws, Panos could not be charged with drug trafficking. Not content to leave empty handed, the US Attorney’s Office filed a criminal indictment against Panos and his wife Katie in February 2015 for Conspiracy to Offer Drug Paraphernalia for Sale (21 USC 846 and 21 USC 863) and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering (18 USC 1956). In a plea deal filed on March 10, 2016, Panos and his attorney reached the following agreement with the US Attorney’s Office: (more…)
I am happy to announce that there are now four liberty shows being produced out of the Rebel Love Studio in Manchester NH. All of these shows air live on the Liberty Radio Network which is based out of Keene NH. The Rebel Love Show, Flaming Freedom, Anarchy After Dark, and Off The Air Live all broadcast live out of the Rebel Love Studio. Ann Leverette aka The Rebel Mistress and I are the hosts of the Rebel Love Show. The Rebel Mistress also has full-time hosting responsibilities for Flaming Freedom. Anarchy After Dark is the latest hot new late night show which consists of Renee Kate and recent new mover for the Free State Project Cody O’Connor. Cody has also brought with him to the Shire his long-time late night libertarian comedy show Off the Air Live to the Rebel Love Studio.
The Rebel Love Show airs Tuesdays, Flaming Freedom airs Thursdays, Anarchy After Dark airs Friday, and Off The Air Live airs Saturdays. All four shows broadcast live on their perspective days at 10 pm EST. Plus, each of the shows take Skype calls. If you want to call in and talk to people living in the Shire, use Skype username RebelLoveShow. For a full schedule of all the live shows being produced out of the Shire, check out lrn.fm/shows/
The ridesharing laws of Portsmouth and Manchester will soon be voided by HB 1697, which provides ‘light touch’ regulation of ridesharing at the state level.
This is good news both for Uber and new competitors like Arcade City.
Arcade City grew out of the Free Uber campaign. Our core team realized that while we were defending consumer choice in Portsmouth, Uber was busy lobbying Concord to restrict that choice by attempting to rig New Hampshire’s ridesharing market exclusively in their favor.
Uber’s lobbyists spent fifteen months trying to get Uber’s business model encoded into law statewide. It’s the “Uber model legislation” they are ramming through legislatures across the country, mostly successfully.
After the NH House passed Uber’s version of the bill on first reading last month, a small handful of Arcade City drivers worked with the commerce committee. We informed them of our different business model and provided feedback to help remove the Uber-specific provisions of the bill. They were very receptive to our arguments and did not need much convincing.
Speaking before the vote, the bill’s lead sponsor told the chamber that all of our concerns were addressed:
“Those organizations and entities that sent memos and emails out expressing those concerns, we were able to address all of them. For insurance, we were able to lower the insurance from $1 million to $300,000. We have actually de-Uberized this bill. We have now taken out those things that made [this unique to Uber]. For instance if you want to start a TNC — thanks to you folks it’s only $500 — and thanks to you folks, we have also now made sure that they can do other things Uber doesn’t do. For instance, they can take cash.”
Uber tried to rig New Hampshire’s TNC market in their favor. Arcade City successfully pushed back. On our new website launching next week, we’ll share ideas and techniques to help AC drivers around the world push back against Uber’s attempts to use the force of government to erect barriers to competition.
Apparently Uber is afraid of a level playing field. Arcade City is not.
674 ballots were cast at the polls this past Tuesday. This represents a dismal 3.8% of the district’s 17,898 registered voters. Last year 1,114 ballots were cast (6.2%). It should be noted that the Keene School District employs approximately 671 individuals.
As usual, voters were given only two options as far as the operating budget was concerned. Both were increases from the previous year. The smaller increase was passed. All other warrants which involved increases in yearly operating expenses were passed overwhelmingly. The average results for all of the school sponsored warrants were 500 for/160 against.
As far as the petitioned warrant articles (3 of which were amended at the deliberative session), the tax cap of 10% failed 298 to 334. The reduction of $500 per student failed 294/349. The withdrawal from SAU29 failed 168/467.
It’s very clear to me that the taxpayers of Keene are being held hostage by a very small percentage of the overall population. In this case I believe a large portion of them are involved directly within the school system. In my four years in Keene, I have encountered an overwhelming majority of keene residents who are unhappy with the out-of-control spending from both city and school and the subsequent tax rate, but for some reason they can’t be bothered to make it out to the polls for 30 minutes out of their day. I won’t lie to you, it is an extremely discouraging process. I can understand completely why so many have given up entirely. Anyways, stand by for next year. I’ll be at it again.
