http://www.nytimes.com/…

So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.

To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.

I keep fairly up to date on the latest information regarding climate change and I’m still not convinced of the extent to which humans have influenced the climate. The lists of scientists which oppose the politically correct version of anthropogenic global warming climate change grows larger and larger all the time. Regardless of whether or not global climate change is man made the solution is more freedom and property rights protection rather then less. It is fascism and collectivism which has lead to the increase in pollution and use of oil. The government is the largest polluter, excuses other polluters and subsidizes organizations which the free market likely wouldn’t had invested in.

http://keenesentinel.com/…

Published: Saturday, June 13, 2009

For those of you who don’t know me, allow me to introduce myself.

I moved to Keene in 2004 with my wife of 16 years and two children, now 7 and 8.

I have owned the same home in Keene since moving here. I attend Grace Evangelical Free Church in Spofford, am a DC-10 captain for an international charter airline, home-school our active children and play drums and other musical instruments.

I also serve as the president of the Free State Project.

Over the past several weeks, numerous news articles and opinion pieces have mentioned the Free State Project. I’d like to offer facts and opinions that I hope will shed light on the subject from an angle not yet covered.

I am in the unique position of being both a resident of Keene, a focal point of recent local and national press, and an official representative of the Free State Project.

First, as a representative of the Free State Project, I’d like to present several facts that correct or clarify inaccurate and misleading statements that have appeared in The Sentinel and other media outlets lately:

1. The Free State Project is very simple: It seeks 20,000 participants who agree to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protections of life, liberty and property.

2. The Free State Project does not take positions on specific issues, legislation or candidates for office. It does not specify any area for participants to move to, and it does not specify tactics for achieving a “free state.”

The project itself does not exert the fullest practical effort. Participants in the project do so on their own.

3. The Free State Project does not own or control any radio shows, newspapers or magazines.

4. The Free State Project is funded through donations and does not have members, dues, or shadowy corporate backers. Its budget is small and financial reports are posted on the Web site.

5. The Free State Project’s most visible activity in New Hampshire consists of two events each year: the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, and the Porcupine Freedom Festival.

The 2009 Porcupine Freedom Festival will be June 25-28 in Lancaster. Those interested in learning more about the Free State Project, and meeting some Free State Project participants are encouraged to attend.

Though the project takes no position about the activities that have received so much attention lately, I do have personal opinions as a resident of Keene.

I, too, wish all the antics would stop.

It disappoints me that a mature group of people could be so foolish as to waste tax-funded law enforcement resources by initiating attacks against such nonviolent silliness as giving a manicure, holding a plant, or not meeting someone’s aesthetic preferences for outdoor furnishing.

Then, when performers of such nonviolent acts make audio or video recordings of the taxpayer-funded assaults, or choose not to cooperate with threats, the law enforcers get upset and initiate more acts of physical violence.

All this makes law enforcement look more like a gang of perpetually-adolescent thugs than civilized adults.

All of this generates news and opinion pieces, peppered with factual inaccuracies and slurs, that support the notion that it’s good to spend tax dollars assaulting nonviolent, non-fraudulent behavior, whether it be provocative or just plain goofy.

And that’s just plain goofy, or at least it should seem so to anyone who values liberty.

Maybe the question here is, who values liberty? Will the real liberty lovers please stand up?

VARRIN SWEARINGEN
President
Free State Project
2 Starlight Drive
Keene

http://freekeene.com/…

I’m writing in response to Keene Sentinel columnist Michael Schuman’s story titled “Will the Free Staters Please Sit Down?” I must admit, a couple of years ago, before coming to understand the message of liberty, I would have agreed with Schuman’s opinions.

Schuman’s views are consistent with what many would describe as main stream America. Unfortunately many of his ideas are based in ignorance and misunderstanding that stems from a lack of critical thinking. Like most of us, Schuman probably attended government indoctrination centers where school children are taught to stand on their X, respect authority, and do as you’re told without question.

Take a look at the pledge of allegiance. How many other countries have one? How many of you know it was written by Fancis Bellamy, a National Socialist (Nazi) flag salesman, to “instill a strong belief in the state.” Dont believe me? Look it up on the internet. You’re likely to find the same picture I did of school children doing a Roman salute – the same one Hitler’s army used – before that was changed after WWII.

Schuman’s description of a classical libertarian is severely flawed and his examples display an ignorance of private property vs. individual rights.
Read More…

http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

Glenn Jacobs – Kane! – writes:

Yesterday afternoon, I visited one of Knoxville’s two shopping malls–the downscale one on the east side of town. It had been months since I’d been in this mall; since then it has lost its Dillard’s department store, one of its anchor stores. Fully a quarter of the storefronts were closed, with more on a limited schedule.

But there was one place where business was booming…the county government has opened a branch office in the mall. The line of people waiting to pay property taxes and have their licenses renewed was out the door.

Above the entry to the office, a sign proudly proclaimed “Bringing Government to the People”. Hmmm, I thought “we are the government,” or at least that’s what we are always told. Just like the real stores in the mall, the government relies on slick marketing to “sell” its product.

It strikes me that this a microcosm of the American economy. While the rest of us suffer from the boom and bust that the government has caused, the government is there to pick through the bones.

Government–the anchor store of the new economy.

Bill Anderson followed up with:

Seeing Lew’s post reminds me of a drive I took the other night on PPG Road near Cumberland, Maryland. I passed a sign that announced it was an “Industrial Park.” However, the “industry” on that road is an office of Homeland Security, a huge lot where FEMA trailers are stored, and a federal prison. Welcome to the American growth industries of the 21st Century!

Dale Everett, Richard Onley, Ian Freeman, Keith Carlsen, and Patrick Shields (from left) discussed efforts yesterday to obtain the release of fellow Free Stater Sam A. Miller from jail. They were not successful. (Cheryl Senter for The Boston Globe)

By Sarah Schweitzer
Globe Staff / May 29, 2009

KEENE, N.H. – From a jail cell in this rural corner of New Hampshire, Sam A. Miller waged a philosophical battle, one milk carton at a time.

The soft-spoken electrical engineer declined food for nearly a month, save for swigs of milk. To eat, he said, would be caving to the tyrannical government powers that placed him here for illegally filming in a courthouse and refusing to reveal his legal name to jail officials. (He says it’s private; jail officials obtained it from a fingerprint trace.)

His resistance has made him a folk hero among antigovernment types who have been making their way to New Hampshire from points across the country since their leaders put out a clarion call six years ago.

The Free Staters, as they are known, hope to lure thousands of like-minded souls to the state, with the goal of paring government to a bare minimum by eliminating things like taxes, speed limits, and zoning laws.

Thus far, just 427 Free Staters have relocated. Yet, here in Keene and in pockets across New Hampshire, Free Staters are making their case in increasingly provocative ways.

“Like Ghandi, like Martin Luther King, we need to educate and enlighten the public,” said Miller, who joined the Free State movement after breaking up with his fiancée.

The actions have ranged from the odd, such as when Free Staters filed another person’s fingernails without a manicurist’s license on a public sidewalk or held an unlicensed puppet show, to the irksome, as when they tried to dig a garden in a downtown Keene park, to the instigative, such as the day they stood on a street corner with a marijuana bud held aloft. Sometimes, they simply veer toward obstinate, wearing hats in a courtroom after being asked to take them off or refusing to remove a couch from a lawn.

When arrests have followed, Free Staters have sought to film the criminal proceedings from beginning to end, including scenes from courthouse lobbies, where filming is not allowed in some cases, such as in Keene District Court. The lobby filming has yielded more arrests (often, with Free Staters going limp as officers approach) and more footage that Free Staters post on websites such as FreeKeene.com, which has proved an effective recruiting tool.

The so-called liberty actions have been met with some bemusement by residents of this gently tolerant city, population 22,800, home to Keene State College, near the border of Vermont. But some say the tactics have taken on a menacing hue, such as when Free Staters have gathered on the streets of downtown Keene with holstered guns on their waists, visible on their waists.

“When they first came to town, there was a welcoming spirit. A lot of people were like, ‘OK,’ ” said Richard Van Wickler, a Keene resident and superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections. “But unfortunately what happens is that when [Free Staters] take the radical approach, that invites people to get angry.”
Read More…

http://www.eff.org/…

It’s not often that you get former presidential candidates from the Green Party and the Libertarian Party to agree on legislation, but Bob Barr and Ralph Nader have done just that — jointly supporting the Right-To-Repair Act of 2009 (H.R. 2057):

This aptly named bill would allow independent repair shops to compete for the business now guaranteed only to dealer-controlled establishments. This is important because car manufacturers now severely limit the number of repair shops that are allowed to have the tools, diagnostic codes and updated repair information essential to being able to repair late-model cars (which are heavily dependent on computers for performance and repair).

By thus unfairly limiting the universe of repair shops able to diagnose and repair late-model cars to only those repair shops that are connected with their dealers, the manufacturers dramatically limit consumer choice and significantly increase the costs to those car owners (by some 34 percent, according to a study preformed for the Automotive After Market Industry Association by Lang Research).

We’re all for promoting competition and consumer choice. But this bill points to a much bigger consumer issue. The problem that this law attempts to fix is the direct result of the use of computers in cars, accompanied by proprietary diagnostic tools and “lock-out codes.” Sound familiar? It should, as it’s the very sort of thing that can also make it difficult to repair computer systems, sell replacement garage door openers, and refill printer toner cartridges. One underlying legal problem here is the DMCA, which prohibits bypassing or circumventing “technological protection measures.”

So while the Right-to-Repair Act of 2009 is legislation that deserves our support, it doesn’t help those who repair things other than cars. For example, it won’t help Joe Montero, who treks to the Copyright Office every three years to argue for a DMCA exemption to permit the repair and replacement of obsolete and malfunctioning software “dongles,” those little hardware devices purportedly intended to prevent software piracy, but which often end up frustrating perfectly legitimate customers.

Sorry EFF… it doesn’t deserve your support. The problem here is intelectual property law and it’s increased support by such things as the DMCA. Car companies have the right to keep the software, diagnostic codes and repair information secret if they so choose. The customers however also have the right to reverse engineer anything and everything in the product and shouldn’t be threatened by the State for doing so. Using the guns of government to solve a problem created by the use of the guns of government is no solution.