If you use the trails down by the river in West Manchester, thank this guy, Louis Calitz from We Heart West for helping to keep them clean! We Heart West is comprised of action-oriented home owners and renters in West Manchester that are committed to improving the community. My doggos are grateful too 
. Lead by example, and “Live free and thrive!”
PS: I’m married to this handsome fella!
I can’t wait for Liberty Forum! Do YOU have your tix yet? If you’re planning to attend, please get yours today, and help take some pressure off the awesome organizing team! Thanks!
In looking over the schedule, NOW ONLINE, there’s a lot to choose from, but duty calls.
On Saturday, March 16th at 11:30AM in Ballroom B, I will be speaking about real estate tokenization with Porcupine Real Estate’s Mark Warden, Matthew Ping from Ledgeview Commercial, and Kumar Bukkapatnam of Standard Management. We’ll be discussing the untapped potential of DAOs as a vehicle for buying a slice of the Free State.
In addition, on Friday, I will first be listening to Nackey Loeb First Amendment winner, Laurie Ortolano, followed by a RTK panel discussion with one of the leading First Amendment lawyers in New England, Gregory Sullivan. Also on Friday, there’s a secession/independence panel where Free Staters will discuss their different visions for the future of New Hampshire.
I’d like to extend my personal thanks to Liberty Forum organizers Marian Ward, supported by Tammy Simmons Garthwaite, for all their efforts! It’s never easy, and I appreciate YOU!
The ISFL Conference in Prague in 2016 holds many conflicting memories for me.
On the one hand, I was thrilled to be invited and participating in the conference, especially since I’d never been to the Czech Republic before, but, it was also on this trip that I became aware of how undeniably unhealthy I had become.
Physically, I was overweight, inflamed, and my fat ass was not enjoying hours of walking around a new city, usually a favorite pastime.
Mentally, I was exhausted. I’d been arrested, gone through a grueling court case which I eventually won 4 years later. I’d gotten fired from my day job, canceled if you will, before there was a name for it. I’d just triggered the move, announced at a press conference in February 2016, during the First in the Nation Primary, followed by an iconic Liberty Forum with Edward Snowden as our keynote.
I’d just handed the reins to Matt Philips, who was taking over as FSP president. I’d told the board, for the first time in five years, I would not be checking in at all for the week I was in Prague.
Drama!!! Much drama ensued, which you can read about in my next book.
The point of this post is about CHANGING THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE.
In order to do that, you need:
I’m in better shape, healthier, and happier now than I was 8 years ago.
There are many reasons for this, first and foremost an incredible, supportive (and competitive) partner, Louis Calitz.
Together, we changed our diets and lifestyles, including both independently quitting alcohol by December 2017.
Once you eliminate the low-grade malaise that proliferates your life on alcohol (it’s a neuro-toxin and depressant), other things become illuminated.
Things like Individualism.
And Individualism within a group.
Building a community of individuals is hard.
Building a strong community of strong LIBERTARIAN individuals is harder.
Everyone’s heard the joke, “It’s like herding cats.”
Some of you have heard my corollary, “Sometimes, you want to put those damn cats in a pillowcase and drown them by the river.”
But, of course, you don’t, because ultimately, we subscribe to the Non-Aggression Principle.
But you do need a coping strategy for when the collective, the whole, the wild and undefined group, lumped together as “Free Staters” gets blamed for AN INDIVIDUAL’S behavior.
Here’s the truth: I am NOT responsible for another person’s actions. And neither are you. And you should never let the enemies of liberty get away with demeaning a whole group for the acts of an individual. For example: You never see newspaper articles identifying murderers by their political parties, so why would we tolerate the media painting us all under one brush when an individual libertarian does something heinous?
It took me a long time to fully internalize this. Whenever “a Free Stater” does something you don’t like, it is an opportunity to talk about INDIVIDUALISM.
If you don’t like the brand, ask yourself, what are YOU doing to build a better one? How are YOU spreading the message of liberty? How are YOU showing up in the world?
Are YOU wearing a clean shirt today?
Catch this week’s Manch Talk where we cover AI developments, next weekend’s Liberty Forum, the upcoming hockey showdown between NHLP and NHGOP on Saturday, Right-to-Know, school choice, and more!
We discuss the current proposal to privatize 5+ unit dwelling’s trash collection in Manchester, the upcoming Liberty Forum (March 15 & 16), the hockey match between NHGOP and the LP–it’s currently a draw 1:1 so the stakes are high, and all proceeds go to the Children’s Scholarship Fund, so, really, everyone wins!
I was looking for something entirely different when I ran across this photo of me in my early Thirties in a waterfall in, I’m pretty sure, Thailand (but could have been Laos or Vietnam) but more to the point, I’m sharing this because rarely does one run across a photo of yourself in a bikini and go, You know what I should do, I should share this pic with the whole world, but then, once in a while, you DO run across that pic, and you’re just in the right mood and frame of mind, and you’re now just old and wise enough to appreciate yourself in your youth, which you did not do back then when you should have, so now Old Prime Carla has your back! LOL
Today’s lesson: Rarely should we be as hard on ourselves as we are. Unless you’re not even trying. Then, BUCK THE FUCK UP!
EDIT: I originally posted this on Facebook, but now changed that “Old Carla” to PRIME CARLA, because I believe we are what we think, and I’m not old yet–I’m not even half way! Those who caught my emceeing at Anarchapulco will get the “Prime” joke, which goes something like this: When you can’t read your cue cards on stage without glasses and you’re trying to be smooth and proffesh, while trying to balance the cue cards and your “Old Lady glasses” between speakers, and so finally, you just end up just yelling, “THESE ARE MY ‘IN MY PRIME’ GLASSES, PEEPS! IN MY PRIME!!!”
“The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” ~ Epictetus
This one struck me recently regarding an argument about gun grabbers on X.
Life is successfully navigating the time you have by deciding where best to focus your attention because that’s the ONE THING you can control in life: YOUR MIND.
Controlling your mind is superior to having your mind controlled.
If you find yourself doom scrolling or binge watching content or worrying about something dire that may or may not happen in the future, are YOU fully present in this experience, or are external forces “making you feel this way”?
I’ve become hyper-aware of who or what is “stealing” my time, and I’ve learned to guard my attention like it’s precious. (Oh yes I did, ring ring!)
And I’m applying this “sanity code” to federal politics too.
For example: Conversations about who is or isn’t a gun grabber is not material to my life and I simply won’t expend any more energy on it.
If they pass laws to ban guns, who will comply? It’s an artifical, manufactured hysteria point at this stage, with lucrative vested interests on both sides keeping the issue alive.
Here’s my take: If someone is confiscating guns, I know what I’m doing. Beyond that, I have other things to spend my time on.
Control your mind or someone will control it for you.
Read the whole article HERE…
“Carla Gericke is acting president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence and a spokesperson for the Free State Project (FSP), a movement which encourages libertarian-leaning individuals to ‘move to New Hampshire for liberty.’
To join the FSP, which it claims more than 20,000 people have already done, individuals are required to ‘state my solemn intent to move to the State of New Hampshire’ then ‘exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of individuals’ life, liberty and property.’
Justifying the policy, the FSP states: ‘By concentrating our numbers in a single state, we are maximizing our impact as activists, entrepreneurs, community builders, and thought leaders.’ While not all FSP activists support outright independence for the Granite State, Gericke certainly does, telling Newsweek: ‘It’s an idea whose time has come and a reflection of the frustration everyone on the political spectrum is feeling.’
On January 3, Representative Jason Gerhard, a Republican in the New Hampshire legislature, introduced a bill stating that should the federal debt ever reach $40 trillion, around $6 trillion more than at present, the state “shall declare independence and proceed as a sovereign nation.”