journals

Last weekend I manned an OPH table at the Hillsborough Balloon Festival and Fair.  Hillsborough is a very small town west of Concord, New Hampshire, population less than 2000 as of the 1990 census.  Every year since 1994, they’ve been throwing a fairly traditional summer fair, but they add the twist of launching several hot air balloons [...]

One of the first things first-time visitors to New England notice is its compact size: A crow flying 100 miles from almost any treetop outside of Maine will end up in the next state, if not Canada. But map distances bear absolutely no relation to travel time, thanks to the mountain ranges pitched up across [...]

Not much going on on this here blog lately, huh? Well, there’s a simple explanation for that: there’s absolutely nothing political going on in New Hampshire right now. NOT!Actually, there is tons going on. All of the major Presidential contenders have come to the state, some of them multiple times. Both [...]

The birds are chirping, the peepers are peeping, the Presidential contenders are prancing around the state trailing crowds of supporters and hecklers in their wake… it must be springtime in New Hampshire! Numerous Free State Project early movers are foaming at the mouth about the fact that Congressman Ron Paul, aka “Dr. No”, has [...]

You, who are on the road,Must have a code that you can live by.And so, become yourself,Because the past is just a good bye.Teach your children well,Their father’s hell did slowly go by.And feed them on your dreams,The one they picks, the one you’ll know by. [/hippie moment]Forgive me for slacking on the blog front; I’ve [...]

Spring is busting out all over in New Hampshire, but a week ago, we had the “perfect storm”.  I’m not referring to a meteorological phenomenon; rather, several bills that were important to liberty lovers were scheduled for state House or Senate committee hearings on the same day. Due in no small part to incessant nagging by the [...]

As I walk throughThis wicked worldSearchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity.I ask myselfIs all hope lost?Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?And each time I feel like this inside,There’s one thing I wanna know:What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? OhhhhWhat’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding?And as I walked [...]

This blog is approaching its denouement. Over the past 1 1/2 years, I’ve shared many of my personal adventures moving to, and living in, New Hampshire as a participant in the Free State Project.  My hope was that, at minimum, I’d amuse a handful of people; ideally, I’d inspire at least one person to get off [...]

I hope my faithful readers (both of you) don’t take the recent drop-off in blog entries as a sign of less activity in the Free State.  Things are more hopping than ever.  Earlier this week, a good 20 FSP early movers hustled themselves to a restaurant on a work night to surprise the bejeezus out of an FSP [...]

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the [...]

This evening I’m blogging from Burlington, VT, site of the Middlebury Institute’s secession conference.  It was a beautiful drive up from southern NH northwest across the state, then across most of Vermont.  There’s already snow on the ground up north, and portentous flurries in the air. I had hoped to stop by the Cabot Creamery, [...]

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or, for that matter, prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to [...]

Last Sunday I drove out to the Rockwellian boonies of New Hampshire to attend the 50th birthday celebration of John Babiarz, Libertarian Man-About-the-State.  I didn’t really want to drive that far (social events tend to make me break out in hives as it is), but how could I refuse?  This guy made the same drive [...]

It’s finally happened. Microcomputer technology has increased in power and decreased in price to the point where a middle-class American can enter an entire virtual world: 3-dimensional, visual, aural, even sensual (if you’re into that sort of thing, and buy the necessary accoutrements). You can look how however you want, do whatever you [...]