Today in Concord, ministers and members from Church of the Sword (COTS), gathered at the NH supreme court for oral arguments in their appeal of the town of Westmoreland denying their request for tax exempt status. Ministers from the Shire Free Church were there in support. The question before the court was whether the Cheshire superior court should have thrown out the case in a decision earlier this year, which affirmed the town’s opinion that the COTS is not a church, claiming it’s not religious since the church doesn’t have a belief in god.
However, as COTS’ attorney Dan Hynes pointed out, and COTS ministers argue, there are traditional, long-running churches do not have a god, such as the Buddhists, Taoists, and many Unitarian Universalists.
Given the NH supremes are only judging whether the lower court erred in tossing the case, don’t expect their decision to include an opinion on whether or not COTS is a church. A decision in COTS’ favor would simply mean the lower court should not have dismissed the case, and that the case should move ahead (likely to jury trial) at the superior court.
Here’s the full hearing, plus short interviews with COTS founder Kirk McNeil and COTS attorney Dan Hynes:
A particularly ridiculous portion is where the attorney for Westmoreland argues that anarchists can’t have a religion. Don’t miss it!
On Saturday, October 10th, Free State Project early mover and Keenevention keynote speaker Christopher David was peacefully offering a very valuable service to the people of Portsmouth – late night rides home at a far faster and more affordable rate than the local taxi monopoly.
He was picking up some eager customers outside of the Daniel Street Tavern when he was threatened with $500-$1,000 ransom for trying to help them return home.
He recorded some incredible audio of the incident, which you can watch and listen to below.
There’s an absolutely incredible customer rant leveled at a taxi driver who attempts to box David in, which you really have to listen to for yourself. Aside from his shocking directness, the customer also points out,
I took a cab once from here to Hampton, where I’m living, and it was $60. I take an Uber, it’s $28 – it’s a nicer car, and it’s nicer people.
So, why would the city of Portsmouth possibly want to shut down a business that customers enjoy so thoroughly?
Perhaps even more to the point, why would the bouncer at the Daniel Street Tavern (you can leave them a review here, as I have) be chasing down police offers to tell them of an Uber driver trying to get his customer home to safety?
Taxi services on the Seacoast are notoriously slow to respond to customer inquiries, and are also known to shut down before bars have last call. Uber was filling this niche in the marketplace very nicely, until the Portsmouth city council decided to ban Uber this summer.
This leads to a very dangerous situation for all drivers in the Portsmouth area, giving incentive for more drivers to be on the road while impaired. It’s one thing for a city council to attack the people of Portsmouth. That’s pretty much what city councils do. But bouncers at private institutions, who should theoretically have a vested interest in their customer’s safety? It’s downright irresponsible.
If you want to support Christopher in his heroic efforts to nullify the Uber ban in Portsmouth (and perhaps lay a groundwork for nullifying these ridiculous bans worldwide), head over to FreeUber.org and get involved.
For additional coverage of the Free Uber movement in Portsmouth, check out Rights Brigade, a New Hampshire based activism group that has been assisting Christopher in canvassing the city with flyers to raise awareness for the city council’s protectionist schemes.
For the first time ever, Keenevention will feature shows from Keene-area media producers, recorded live in the hotel conference room! “Peace, Love, Liberty Radio” will record live during the lunch break at noon on Friday and “Black Sheep Rising” will do the same on Saturday starting at noon. Peace, Love, Liberty radio is Darryl W. Perry’s thrice-weekly news and commentary audio program and Black Sheep Rising is Conan Salada’s monthly video show, which airs weekly locally on Cheshire TV channel 8 and also on YouTube.
The criminal gang known as the “city of Portsmouth” is now openly threatening to ticket illegal UBER drivers like Christopher David, who has pledged ongoing civil disobedience. Christopher’s already lawyered up and is ready to record any encounters with Portsmouth police.
Portsmouth city councilor Brad Lown, in an article at Seacoast Online, claims the city gang, “want UBER to be here”. No, what they want is for UBER and its drivers to bow to their unnecessary regulations. They want CONTROL. They want money. He also probably doesn’t want the negative press they’ll get when the cops eventually target Christopher and anyone else brave enough to face a $500 ticket.
The Portsmouth city attorney claims they’ll begin enforcing the ordinance on UBER drivers in the, “very foreseeable near future”, whatever that means. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest in this saga.
Few of life’s everyday curveballs deliver as much frustration as a parking ticket slapped to a windshield. Local authorities versus street parkers: Isn’t it obvious who always loses?
But in New Hampshire, this joust is actually favoring drivers who forget to feed their meters. Robin Hood of Keene, an activist group based in Keene, N.H., has been combating meter maids since 2009. The methods are simple enough: Trot a few paces ahead of parking enforcement, add time to expiring meters and leave a business card alerting the vehicle’s owner that the group’s efforts have spared them a citation.
Free State Project early mover Jody Underwood is the chair of the Croydon, NH school board and she believes it’s legal for the school board to send taxpayer dollars to private schools (which it’s been doing for a year), in kind of a localized voucher system. The board argues this is something they can do, as Croydon does not have its own school for grades 5-12. The state of NH gang disagrees with their legal opinion, and is now suing the Croydon school board over their program. NH Public Radio posted an interview with Jody here.
To help Croydon with their legal bills, you can contribute to this gofundme that is trying to raise just over $2,000.
If Croydon prevails, other school boards may follow suit and allow more choice in the government’s monopoly system. Stay tuned as this story develops.
Darryl and I went to today’s meet-n-greet event at Panera in Keene for yet another presidential candidate in Keene, this time former New York governor George Pataki. Unlike most candidates and to his credit (he doesn’t deserve credit for much else), Pataki actually answered both of our questions. Darryl asked about general election debate restrictions and I inquired why he was having his campaign event at a gun-free-zone. Here’s the video:
