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Author Topic: Unofficial History of Drama in the Free State  (Read 1306735 times)

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Cognitive Dissident

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3630 on: September 22, 2010, 07:40:33 PM »

Maybe you didn't intend it, but it sounded kinda like "People will elect a convicted murderer, but they won't elect someone implied to be a pothead protester."

I don't understand what he's getting at either, especially since Mark is involved in FTL and therefore linked to "those evil Keene freak-staters".

Y'all still are not getting it.
These are not politicians you see on TV ads.
These are people who you know in person.
If I know Mark, because I've worked with him at the animal shelter, or my Aunt Gracie has, or we had a BBQ in Mark's back yard over the summer, or at the festival the town library puts on, or I always see him at the corner store, or at the kids' soccer practice, and so on and on and on... I know him.

Now any negative advertising is pointless.

Contrast: Neither I nor anybody else knows who "Sam Dodson" is. Never seen him at the places listed above. First I hear of him, he's on the front page of the paper in handcuffs.

Any negative information from that point forward, people are disposed to believe.


Must be a New England thing.
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Evil Muppet

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3631 on: September 23, 2010, 11:39:17 AM »

That's the way it is with any small town, rural community.  Politics is a much more personal game. 
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zackbass

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3632 on: September 30, 2010, 03:04:33 PM »



Jay is the most gentlemanly person I know.


You've never been stuck in a motel room with him with only one toilet.

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BonerJoe

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3633 on: September 30, 2010, 03:10:18 PM »



Jay is the most gentlemanly person I know.


You've never been stuck in a motel room with him with only one toilet.

Oh yes, the closet incident.
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blackie

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3634 on: October 07, 2010, 09:10:33 AM »

http://nhpr.org/free-state-vs-free-keene

Free State vs Free Keene

By Donna Moxley on Wednesday, October 06, 2010

 The City of Keene has an image of being---well a little more Vermont than New Hampshire…more liberal than libertarian.

So it’s a little surprising that Keene would be the setting for a series of demonstrations that have drawn attention to the libertarian Free State Project.

But as Keene Sentinel’s Donna Moxley reports, much of the ruckus is coming not from the Free Staters……but from the Free Keeners

Varrin Swearingen moved to Keene as part of the Free State Project.

He wanted to be part of a movement that thought about freedom the way he does.

Swearingen has since become the project’s President and spokesman.

“our goal as an organization is to attract 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, anywhere in NH, not necessarily Keene, and so that’s what I’ve been focusing my efforts on mostly since moving to NH“

Swearingen writes the occasional letter to the editor and he unsuccessfully ran for State Representative as a Republican two years ago.

He has a family, a job as a pilot, and his Christian faith.

His Free State activism focuses almost solely on recruiting new people to come to the state for the Project.

He says the group is more than halfway to the 20,000 member goal. 

The Free State Project’s official stance defines freedom as living under a government that, at its maximum, provides protection of life, liberty and property. 

The idea essentially is that individuals naturally have rights and freedom, liberty, and that that ought to be protected, and government’s purpose is to protect that, not to violate that for some other social gain like welfare or war, or fill in the blank, it could be anything.

The idea of freedom, unsurprisingly, is open to much debate among the activists.

And Swearingen feels some of the Free Staters are approaching this cause with such zeal that it’s becoming counterproductive.

If you engage in some form of activism, that angers people such that they move in the opposite direction … that is they want more government to take care of some perceived problem, and maybe the perceived problem is caused by those activists, then that is indeed a problem.”

He makes no secret he’s referring to the so-called Free-Keeners.

 “There are many FSP participants who aren’t particularly happy with what’s going on in Free Keene, some have been very vocal about that. Some of the more controversial things like bullhorns at the Middle School and the public nudity stuff, and, you know the candelight vigils outside public officials’ homes and whatnot – those kinds of things are pretty provocative and I personally think that’s not the right way to go about things.”

There was also the pot smoking demos in the town square and the challenge to the public drinking rules at City Council meetings.

Those demonstrations involved drinking games in the chambers and resulted in arrests.

The force behind Free Keene is Ian Freeman.

He moved here for the Free State Project from Sarasota, Florida in 2006.

His activism is his job, and includes the Free Keene blog site he created and his radio show, Free Talk Live which airs on several stations across the state.

Freeman’s principles go beyond the Free State Project’s idea of limited government to the point of no government at all.

“I think it’s pretty clear that government is a monopoly on violence and that whatever positive ends they might involve themselves in … there are means that are immoral, that essentially the government coerces people to participate in their process.”

If the ends are so worthy, he says, people shouldn’t have to be forced to help.

Government threatens people and it scares people and it hurts people and so no matter what it does in its ends if its means are corrupt then it’s a problem.

He doesn’t like to call himself an anarchist.

The term has suffered from a century and a half of bad press.

So, he prefers the term “voluntarist.”

He also prefers to be called Ian Freeman, though he was born Ian Bernard.

And Freeman knows people have gotten annoyed at the tactics Free Keeners have used to challenge the status quo.

In fact, local frustration came to a head in August as the group staged its second challenge to the no drinking rules at a city council meeting.

Another group was there to meet them, sporting signs that said “Free Keene from the Free Keene Stigma.”

Café owner James Calloway was one of the counter-protesters.

“They don’t even do what they claim they’re doing most of the time, like whenever the cops show up they’re not really smoking pot, or when they’re doing their drinking game at city council, they’re not actually drinking beer, they’re drinking near-beer, or they’re drinking water … don’t make this stupid little label that says this is not a beer, and drink water. They’re just acting like idiots.”

Since then, there have been signs of civilized discourse.

Heika Courser, a Free Keener arrested for publicly drinking while having her breasts painted, issued a letter of apology to the city council for her behavior.

The Free Keene From the Free Keene Stigma group organized a mixer at a public park and invited the Free Keene group.

And Swearingen, the president of the Free State Project,  is still working to recruit more activists to move to NH.

For NHPR News, I’m Donna Moxley in Keene ?
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John Shaw

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3635 on: October 07, 2010, 09:50:04 AM »

"Swearingen writes the occasional letter to the editor and he unsuccessfully ran for State Representative as a Republican two years ago."

...
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"btw its not a claim. Its documented fact."

BonerJoe

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3636 on: October 07, 2010, 11:20:39 AM »

"Swearingen writes the occasional letter to the editor and he unsuccessfully ran for State Representative as a Republican two years ago."

...

What?
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John Shaw

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3637 on: October 07, 2010, 01:40:17 PM »

"Swearingen writes the occasional letter to the editor and he unsuccessfully ran for State Representative as a Republican two years ago."

...

What?

I was commenting on the way the writer of the article was portraying V.S.

They might as well have said "V.S. Fights for freedom by writing letters to the editor and running failed political campaigns."

Actually, that's exactly what they said, only spruced up.
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Cognitive Dissident

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3638 on: October 07, 2010, 01:56:38 PM »

It's kinda interesting, because since the time of that second city council meeting and Mark read my email on the air about me dropping my AMP, I haven't heard much about Keene, besides what's happened in court.  I'm sure there's less confrontational activism (such as doing things which are illegal, but shouldn't be--rather than disrupting meetings, etc.) they could be doing, which I'd expect to hear about on FTL, but it's either already changed a lot there, or they're doing a better job of deciding what to cover on the show. 

My opinion isn't as negative as Verrin's or Denis'.  I don't mind hearing about confrontations between the Free Keene crowd and the bureaucrats, but I'm glad we're no longer hearing on nationwide radio that they're basically being an annoyance.  Still, I'd be pleased to hear, from time to time, that people anywhere in New Hampshire are getting attention for living free.
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BonerJoe

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3639 on: October 07, 2010, 02:08:17 PM »

"Swearingen writes the occasional letter to the editor and he unsuccessfully ran for State Representative as a Republican two years ago."

...

What?

I was commenting on the way the writer of the article was portraying V.S.

They might as well have said "V.S. Fights for freedom by writing letters to the editor and running failed political campaigns."

Actually, that's exactly what they said, only spruced up.

But, that's what he's done. It's reporting the facts.
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Cognitive Dissident

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3640 on: October 07, 2010, 02:15:19 PM »

Meh...doing those things is better than doing nothing, which is what most people do. 

I look back on getting arrested twice, and I'm not sure I did anything for liberty in those cases.  Maybe on the occasions I refuse searches, I have. 

I do feel better, however, about writing letters to the editor, chatting with people in public about liberty (not a tough sell, in Colorado--more often than not, I get not only a polite response, but complete agreement), and going to the State House to testify against legislation.
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BonerJoe

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3641 on: October 09, 2010, 08:28:45 PM »

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Joseffritzl

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3642 on: October 09, 2010, 09:10:41 PM »

I wonder if there are leftist/socialist groups in NH that hate the liberty activists. Or are there any that still hang out with them during protests
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blackie

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3643 on: October 09, 2010, 09:35:36 PM »

I wonder if there are leftist/socialist groups in NH that hate the liberty activists.
There are. They call themselves Democrats.
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anarchir

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Re: Drama in the Free State
« Reply #3644 on: October 09, 2010, 10:04:10 PM »

I wonder if there are leftist/socialist groups in NH that hate the liberty activists.
There are. They call themselves Democrats.

Many of the left wing anarchists hate the right wing ones, even though the right wing anarchists tend to want to work together. I call the self hating anarchists "anarcho-jerks".
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