To be clear, according to the NY state gang’s own website, businesses who accept bitcoin for payment for product and service do not need to get a bitlicense, but if customers can’t get bitcoin because NY has made it insanely difficult to buy and sell bitcoin, what good is it to accept them?
New York is doing their best to strangle the nascent bitcoin marketplace before it gets out of the cradle. Now only the most obedient and wealthy companies will be able to buy and sell bitcoin in New York. It’s protectionism all the way, and it’s likely not going to get any better for the little guy.
In contrast, New Hampshire has somme of the biggest bitcoiners in the world that are participants in the Free State Project and have moved or will be moving here once the project reaches its goal of 20,000. The FSP even put up a special page on their website touting some of the reasons why New Hampshire is a destination for the bitcoin and liberty-loving community.
No one should really be surprised about the bitcoin crackdown in New York. They call it the Empire State for a reason. The Mercatus Center annual study on the freedom of the fifty states continues to rank New York at #50, below the awful California at #49.
Keene Native Jared Goodell Launching Morning Talk Show in Manchester
Keene independent newsman and local radio pro Jared Goodell has been given a major promotion – straight to morning talk radio in Manchester, NH, starting Tuesday 8/25. Saga Communications’ Manchester-based WFEA-AM 1370 flipped to talk radio earlier this year to provide some competition to iHeartMedia’s longtime market leader, WGIR. This summer, WFEA also signed onto translator 99.9 FM.
Goodell’s show will be the first local, longform weekday talk show on the station and it’s a major win for Goodell, a Keene native who cut his teeth in Keene music radio for years – he started at age 13 at WOOL-FM in Bellows Falls, VT. It’s a bold move for Saga to tap a young talk host like Jared to head up mornings. Good for them for taking the chance on the farm team rather than going the typical route of hiring some old politico or using a national morning show.
Goodell says of his new gig, “I hope to usher in a new era for talk radio. There is a lot of speculation as to the future of the format, some of which is not great. I love talk radio and want to see it live on for many more generations. Talk radio has always been the medium that the American people could use to amplify their voice and to hold their government accountable.”
He’s proven he’s got the chops for issues-oriented talk radio in his recent week-long fill-ins for longtime local morning man Dan Mitchell on WKBK here in Keene. I was grateful to be a guest on a recent episode to discuss the Shire Free Church:
Goodell’s new show will be 7a-9a to start, eventually expanding to 6a-9a after a syndication contract ends. While his show will not air in Keene at this time, you can still listen online via WFEA’s website.
Longtime readers of Free Keene remember the controversial and short-lived “Topless Tuesdays” events from 2010. Many critics in the area still cite it as something they didn’t like that liberty activists have done. It’s relevant to point out that none of the females who participated in that were Free State Project participants. They were all townies.
Now, five years later, the topless equality movement has come again to New Hampshire, this time with over 1,100 saying (on Facebook) they will be attending “Free the Nipple” at Hampton Beach. (Who knows what the actual turnout will be.) The event is slated for all-day on Sunday 8/23. There is no specific meeting time or location besides Hampton Beach. This is an interesting approach and one of the event organizers comments on why on their facebook page:
“Even though there is no meeting spot, I have a feeling we will notice each other and make some new friends. I plan on walking around and I’ll gladly introduce myself, but I want to enjoy the beach as much as all of you! We don’t need a giant gathering or “spectacle.” Our goal is to just be normal about it. We want to show everyone that the breast and nipple can be seen without all hell breaking loose, traumatizing kids, giving old men heart attacks, or causing the apocalypse.”
Things are definitely getting interesting. Stay tuned to Free Keene for the latest on this social change in New Hampshire. Though people are legally free to be topless, there’s a large social stigma that needs to be broken. Thanks to the courageous ladies who will be participating in Sunday’s event, and especially to those who will eventually risk arrest in Laconia at an unknown date in the future.
Like with all new churches, there are many who are disrespectful to our freedom of religion. While our church may not be hundreds or thousands of years old, it’s still subject to the same constitutional protection as anyone’s. The issuance of this marriage certificage is more recognition of those rights by the people calling themselves the state. Thanks to the Registrar of Vital Records for officially recognizing our freedom of religion. They now join the NH State Police, who recognized my status as a Shire Free Church minister in a 2014 press release and Keene District Court judge Edward J Burke who recognized Shire Free Church: Monadnock’s nonprofit status by accepting our certification of a defendant’s community service hours, which Burke has also done for the Church of the Sword.
The Shire Free Church offers a sanctuary for those seeking an escape from state churches. We perform media and real-life outreach to spread god’s message of peace and love and awakening those to the evil state religion. As the state believers continue to force their beliefs on us, we will continue to use their system to accomplish our god-given mission. Please join us.
Members of a Keene activist group and self-proclaimed church plan to file an appeal in Cheshire County Superior Court after the Keene Board of Assessors again denied their request for tax-exempt status on a Leverett Street house.
The group’s members, ministers of the Shire Free Church: Monadnock, have hired Manchester Attorney Brandon L. Ross to represent them in their second attempt to prove that the duplex doubles as a parish house or parsonage.
Ian B. Freeman, Darryl W. Perry and Mark Edgington, all members of the board of Shire Free Church: Monadnock and members of a loosely organized group of Keene libertarian activists, first filed an application with the Board of Assessors for tax-exempt status in March 2014. (more…)
Cop Blocking is not one of my favorite forms of activism. To be honest I dislike it. Mostly because I try to avoid violent people as much as I can. However, in the situation when police are threatening violence to your neighbors right in front of you, I feel an obligation to help out. The Rebel Love Studio is near what New Hampshire considers a “ghetto” in Manchester. On the night of August 12th, 2015 there was a large crowd of minority teens and a large contingent of Manch PD on the corner of Cedar and Union St. Ann Leverette, Renee Kate, and I hit the streets with smart phones in hand to help out our neighbors from the threats of violence by the police. We used the opportunity to hand out cop block lit to the people the police were harassing. The Manch PD also confront us a couple of times during the incident. Luckily no one was arrested on this night.
In a surprise move for a politician, Rand Paul arrived about twenty minutes early for his meet-and-greet event scheduled for 9:30am at Lindy’s Diner in Keene today. Though Darryl W Perry and I were there before he arrived, figuring we had plenty of time, we had walked away to visit the Shipping Shack and check our mailboxes. As we were walking back, I spotted Rand already arriving and walking in before we could make it back to the restaurant. Figuring we’d hit him with some tough questions on his way out, we hung around outside, making the dumbest mistake we possibly could – presuming Rand Paul had enough integrity to walk out the front door.
Instead, just like Hillary Clinton did in Keene the day prior at an event at Keene Middle School, Rand Paul used the back door, actually leaving his own event before the time it was scheduled to begin! Moments after his black SUV pulled away, WKBK newsman Tom Novak arrived and was disappointed to discover that by being on time, he was too late!
We blew it by not covering the back door, but at least got some footage of a Rand Paul staffer refusing to answer a question about allegations that Rand’s campaign staff has been calling state Libertarian parties and falsely claiming that Rand has been endorsed by the Libertarian Party and trying to get access to the libertarians’ mailing lists.
You know Ron Paul never would have pulled a move like this. Here’s the video:
