PORTSMOUTH — Thousands of bookmarks promoting two organizations’ points of view recently created a headache for public libraries on the Seacoast.
The two groups placing the bookmarks in Portsmouth, Dover and at the University of New Hampshire are the School Sucks Project and Freedomain Radio. The School Sucks Project Web site calls for an end of public, government-funded education in the United States, charging that it is ineffective and values obedience over creativity. Freedomain Radio bills itself as a philosophical radio show.
It’s not a new phenomenon at libraries, but Portsmouth Public Library Director Mary Ann List said several in the area were hit recently with a scourge of bookmarks promoting an unspecified political cause between the pages of books. The messages tend to be politically or religiously focused, she said, and libraries typically strive to remain disassociated with that type of propaganda.
The latest dispersal was the largest Cathleen Beaudoin said she has ever seen. (more…)
We recently hosted a guest blog by local talk radio personality Mark Edge who announced he’d challenged a parking ticket and after scheduling a trial and then rescheduling it, the charge was “nol prossed” (that’s legalese for dropped) by the city’s persecutor.
That made me curious. I had actually gone to trial in April over the parking ticket that was left on my car back in November. At the end of the hearing, the robed man, Howard B. Lane, said he’d take the matter under advisement. I hadn’t heard anything from Keene District Court on this matter since the trial. I thought perhaps this was due to me changing my address and having a notice fall through the cracks. So to satisfy my curiosity, I dropped in on the court this afternoon, a full two months past the date of trial. The helpful young lady behind the counter retrieved the case file for me. I discovered that I had been found Not Guilty on the same date of the trial! (Here’s the proof, though I never pleaded not guilty as Lane indicates on the complaint.) There was no record of any notice being sent to me about the decision. Apparently the court has no obligation to provide notice when the finding is in the favor of the defendant.
Before you go calling this a win, remember that every time the bureaucrats involve themselves in your life, you will lose at the very least your time. That said, it’s great to have an explicit “Not Guilty” in a parking ticket case here in Keene! It should help encourage others to similarly refuse to pay and instead take the tickets that are littered on their cars to court. Load up the system with parking ticket trials until they stop enforcing that ordinance!
Confused, angry letters-to-the-editor continue to be published in the Keene Sentinel, followed by the requisite vitriolic posts in each letters’ comments section. I’m posting links and the text below. If you feel inspired, please write your own letters-to-the-editor here.
As I was out for my daily exercise recently, I passed the Keene Middle School just as the buses were lining up and the children were beginning to exit the school after a day of learning.
This day, however, was the first time I have been disturbed by an event such as an afternoon school exodus.
What was unsettling was that the children were exiting to a small group of protesters touting signs that say “school sucks” and blasting libertarian rhetoric through their bullhorns. (more…)
A loyal Free Keene subscriber sent me this article about a New Hampshire grandmother who died as a result of National Grid electric disconnecting her power for an unpaid bill. I agree the article is something worthy of discussion/dissection by those of us who philosophize about the ideas of a society without a coercive violent monopoly.
“53-year-old New Hampshire grandmother Kay Phaneuf died this weekend after National Grid cut her power over an unpaid bill. Phaneuf suffered from a heart condition that required her to sleep in an oxygen tent and use a plug-in oxygen machine.”
I personally do not think the power company did anything wrong. I also personally think that this death was tragically needless and could have easily been avoided had Mrs. Phaneuf communicated her medical situation and/or asked for help.
Society as we know it is crumbling to the ground with the examples of lawlessness I observed at PorcFest 2010. In total I saw/was made aware of examples that would accumulate at least up to 158 years in cages… were the maximum sentence be given for all the “crimes” I personally witnessed. Imagine all the “crimes” that were happening that I didn’t personally witnessed/was made aware of. The hubris of some people…
Not a single person was harmed. No one was forced to do anything. Putting anyone of these peaceful people in a cage would be harming someone who has harmed no one else. That is what the state does.
A police officer blocks a man from carrying his wife into the emergency room because he ran red lights getting her to the hospital, the Downsizer Dispatch, undercover officer draws gun on a man for speeding ; the driver videotaped the interaction and now faces 16 years in prison for it, and Hampton NH talent show threatened by American Idol for using the word “Idol” in its name.
We recently hosted a 
Society as we know it is crumbling to the ground with the examples of lawlessness I observed at PorcFest 2010. In total I saw/was made aware of examples that would accumulate at least up to 158 years in cages… were the maximum sentence be given for all the “crimes” I personally witnessed. Imagine all the “crimes” that were happening that I didn’t personally witnessed/was made aware of. The hubris of some people…
