It was a brisk and sunny October evening in the Shire. I drove down to the Cheshire County Jail where Freedom Activist Michele Seven would be turning herself over to the House of Corrections and serve time rather than pay the State a fine for driving without a State-approved “Registration” for her vehicle.
Having driven all around the continent without registering her cars with any State Agency for years, it was New Hampshire’s finest who finally put a halt to the Freedom Activist’s years-long crime spree of driving her vehicles without carrying Government-required papers.
When I met up with Michele, she looked composed and focussed. She has a sentence of 2.5 days which she will serve in consecutive Friday-Saturday overnight caging until time is served. She faces 8 more tickets of this kind and could face the same time for all of them. That’s every Friday night in jail for half a year—as punishment for not paying fines and registration fees to the Government.
About 8 Freedom Activists came out to send Michele off with hugs and words of appreciation, and the atmosphere was defined by a lightheartedness tempered by occasional reminders of the heavy-handed State.
I, for one, feel uplifted by Michele’s fortitude when facing the State. She lived her life as a free human until the agents of the State intervened, and now she’s choosing the lesser of two evils by aiding in her own caging rather than paying to perpetuate the State’s bad behavior.
Michele’s story is another powerful reminder of the depth of the saying, “Good people disobey bad laws.”
Free Keene welcomes Derrick J. Horton as our newest blogger. Here’s his bio from the bloggers page:
Derrick J is a handsome young peace activist dedicated to living free by helping others to live free. Now a regular co-host on Free Talk Live, he left his gayborhood in Philadelphia in 2011 after Molyneaux, Rand, and Mises flipped on his AnCap lightswitch. He loves to meet new people and report on stories of agorism in action or participation in civil disobedience. The activism that Derrick J enjoys most are public 420 celebrations, “Robin-Hooding,” and traveling without proof of government permission. His work centers around exercising self-ownership and is highlighted here at FreeKeene.com as well as LiveFreeOrDance.com, FreeSpeechFriday.tv, Fr33Agents.com.
In late 2010 Pete and I were in the mist of our second tour around the country doing LibertyOnTour.com. It was during that time we started shooting Uncle Sam videos. The idea for these videos is, if “Uncle Sam” – the government – was a real person what would he be like? Would he have any friends? Would people voluntarily hand over their hard earned money to this asshole?
He’s been hiding out for most of this year but Uncle Sam was recently spotted in New York City at Occupy Wall Street. He was attempting to strengthen his relationship with ‘the few’ upset protestors. As you’ll see in the video below Uncle Sam doesn’t do very well with the public. Uncle Sam doesn’t understand that you can’t use money and/or force to solve problems. Yet, alot of protestors were willing to give Uncle Sam more of their freedom and money in exchange for just that.
We can’t turn to Uncle Sam to fix our economy, end the war or anything for that matter. He’s the man who wrote the checks for the bailouts, signed the papers sending the troops into other countries. All while demanding more taxes, on all kinds of things, and becoming more and more aggressive to those that speak out against his ideas. He’s the one that steals from one to give to another. After all, government doesn’t have anything it doesn’t take (I mean steal – because that’s what taxation is if you don’t want to pay them) from the productive people of the world.
So would you be friends with Uncle Sam? Would you voluntarily give Uncle Sam your money (ie – taxes)? If yes, would you give Uncle Sam more money to go after those who wanted to spend their own hard earned dollars?
Last Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted that a bill that would repeal gay marriage, which is immensely popular in New Hampshire, “Ought To Pass”.
Some of the language of the bill is downright silly:
Children can only be conceived naturally through copulation by heterosexual couples. Because of this biological reality, New Hampshire has a unique, distinct, and compelling interest in promoting stable and committed marital unions between opposite-sex couples so as to increase the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by both of their natural parents. No other domestic relationship presents the same level of state interest.
(Because we all know the purpose of government is to make babies.)
Unfortunately, due to overwhelming Republican majorities in both the NH House and Senate, this has a serious chance of passing. But, as Boston.com reports, the repeal effort is provoking dedicated opposition: (more…)
I was frustrated by some behavior at the last city meeting about Central Square, so I want to suggest a few strategies for wielding more influence at tonight’s meeting, and other meetings in the future. These suggestions are based on both my own experience talking to people and my understanding of the relevant social science research.
1-
Some people at the meeting will be prejudiced against libertarian activists and Juggalos. Why help them exercise that prejudice by advertising your background with your clothing? If you dress more discreetly, these people will be forced to listen to you without prejudice (at least for a little bit).
Dressing nicely and professionally helps, too– it automatically improves your social standing, and encourages people to give more weight to your argument.
2-
Decorum is important. If you break the rules of the meeting– say, for example, by speaking out of turn– that is perceived as rude. When people see that you are being rude and disruptive, they conclude (correctly) that you don’t care about what they have to say, and that you don’t intend to contribute to a productive meeting. Then they stop listening to what you have to say.
If you want your views to be dismissed out of hand, the most effective way to do that is to disrupt the meeting by breaking decorum. (So don’t do it!) See the rest
Tonight is the big meeting at city hall about Central Square. The public will be allowed to speak and it begins at 6:30pm. The Keene Sentinel has details on the many proposals that will likely be on the table.
You can expect the local authoritarians to be in attendance. Will the ideas of liberty be present and well-communicated? Will roots be struck and paradigms challenged? Be there and advocate peaceful, consensual solutions to social problems.
Hopefully, Juggalos will be there to show that they are not a group and are individuals who differ, just like liberty activists.
First, they came for Keene. It was this summer when “administrative judge” Edwin Kelly wrote an “ORDER” banning all cameras and audio recording devices from the district court in Keene. After that ban, Derrick and Jason Talley were arrested for using video cameras in court lobbies.
Talley was arrested in “superior” court, where the same Keene-only ban was enacted. (In reaction to the large activists-with-cameras presence we have had here for a long time.) Thus far, the superior court ban has not been expanded to all superior courts in NH, but as of 10/24 it has been expanded to all of NH’s circuit courts, according to a new “ORDER” from Edwin Kelly. Click for a PDF.
In a big “fuck you” to the freedom of press, Kelly writes:
No cameras or audio equipment may be used in the lobby or other public, noncourtroom,
area of any courthouse;
Free Keene welcomes Derrick J. Horton as our newest blogger. Here’s his bio from the 
