LISTEN NOW… People have eaten in strange and baffling ways for thousands of years – and your hosts are performing some experiments of their own! Join Carla (on day five of a fast) and Brinck (on hour 2 of a fast) for this week’s episode of Told You So! LISTEN NOW…
LISTEN NOW… We’re so glad to be back in this exciting new decade! Join your hosts in an exploration of what they’re hoping to accomplish in 2020 on this week’s episode of Told You So! LISTEN NOW…
When confronted with your first New Hampshire winter, everyone will tell you to invest in woolen undergarments. Everyone will tell you to, but YOU will ignore this advice for at least the first if not the second winter. You will say: “Don’t you tell me what to do,” while thinking, “What difference can a pair of woolen socks really make?” As someone who waited 4 winters to invest in all the woolen underthings, let me tell you unequivocally: A LOT. I’m talking warm tootsies 24/7. Toss in a pair of woolen leggings and a long-sleeved undershirt for when you will be outside for extended periods, and you will find yourself saying: “Wait, what? Winter is over already?” Treat your woolen items with respect–don’t toss them in the dryer!–and they will love you back, winter over winter. Toasty!
And strip down when needed. Layers give you the flexibility to be comfortable, no matter what the temperature is, inside or out. Added bonus: New Hampshire winters come with built-in stripteases!
If you take vitamins, consider doubling your Vitamin D intake during the winter months. This is a no-brainer mood picker-upper.
Short days getting you down? Let technology be the cure! While winter technically starts mid-December, the days then actually start getting l-o-n-g-e-r again. In the meanwhile, chase away the blahs with a light designed to enhance your mood, and make you feel warm and fuzzy inside the head.
Embrace the weather, and get outside. Learn how to ski, and then learn how to ski at night. Discover the tranquility and peace of snowshoeing in fresh powder. Ride a toboggan. Get into a snowball fight. Join fellow Free Staters at a winter luau (pictured). Take a New Year’s Day Polar Plunge. Whatever you do, crawl out from under that blankie, and carpe diem the crap out of winter.
Whether you are a believer or an ardent atheist, you can manage your relationship with winter by observing some version of the serenity prayer, whether your prefer the religious classic: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change/The courage to change the things I can/And the wisdom to know the difference,” or, the activist version from Angela Davis: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change/I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
Accept your power will likely go out, a Nor’Easter will spoil well-laid plans (possibly to get laid), the plow guy will show up late; it’s winter, trust me, something gnarly will happen. Bottom line: New Hampshire isn’t for sissies. How you approach these challenges will determine how you cope long-term. Change your mindset, and the rest will follow. Including Spring. I promise. It comes like clockwork, every damn time.
There is no place on Earth for liberty activists like New Hampshire, regardless of the season. Pop-up parties follow people with power (literal power, like lights and generators). Friends help friends. And there is no better place on Earth to make real, lifetime, meaningful friends than as part of the Free State Project community. Liberty warms the cockles of our aching, over-achieving, dreamer, doer hearts. Join us in New Hampshire, and let us keep you warm with the glow of knowing we are achieving “Liberty in OUR Lifetime.”
This article first appeared on fsp.org on December 15, 2014.
YOU moved your ass all the way to New Hampshire, where it is currently, well, yanno, wintery blerghinism, and, when you moved, YOU committed to EXERTING YOUR fullest practical effort, and I’m going to ask you straight up today to evaluate and determine, honestly, in your heart of hearts, to yourself, whether YOU are FULFILLING YOUR PLEDGE, or whether YOU could be doing JUST A LITTLE MORE to help build a voluntary society with smaller and more limited government here in NH?
I’m not here to (only) guilt-trip, I want to REMIND YOU:
1. It takes a quillage and we need HELP! It’s frustrating when the same 10-20 people keep doing all the work! SHOW UP!
2. You CAN make a difference! SHOW UP!
3. Find 1 or 2 things you are passionate about, and… SHOW UP. Be present. Pick a fight. Come testify on a bill. Support someone who is running for office (like Elliot Axelman‘s upcoming special election in Hooksett, you have two weeks to help, do it!) Run ideas by old timers if you want. Try something new and see what happens. But FFS, PLEASE DO SOMETHING to enhance Liberty in Our Lifetime.
Here are some simple suggestions to get started:
1. Commit to attending 3 liberty meetings a month. This could be your local meet-up, Bardo Farm’s potluck, Merrimack Valley Porcupines, Lakes Region Meet-up/North Country/FreeCoast, New Movers, Market Days, your local political events (where you can network) etc. Check the FSP calendar if you’re not sure where to go, or what’s cooking. Or, join me on Monday’s at The Currier Museum’s Cafe from Noon-3PM where we gather to co-work on projects together. Whatever you choose, please, choose to SHOW UP.
2. Find a board or group that shares your passions and VOLUNTEER. I joined Right-to-Know NH a couple of years ago for this very reason, and still serve as secretary, even though there are few things I hate more than writing minutes. SHOW UP!
3. Into politics? NOW is the frigging season. Come testify on bills! Join GencourtMobile. Volunteer with the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance (basic membership is FREE, or support the organization by becoming an annual or lifetime member). Help the NHLA review bills—there are LITERALLY THOUSANDS! (See “we need help” above.) SHOW UP!
4. Buy YOUR Liberty Forum tickets today! Join hundreds of activists, state representatives, and speakers like Babylon Bee’s Kyle Mann and Julie Borowski (and me! :-)). I’m all for voluntary interactions, but I kinda wish I could make it mandatory. 😛 SHOW UP!
5. On Reddit? This Friday at 2PM help us promote the FSP to r/politics. This is a huge opportunity to help spread info about the FSP to a new audience. SHOW UP!
After a dozen years here in New Hampshire (yeah, that’s where the gray hair comes from) I still 100% believe in the Free State Project’s mission of attracting productive people to the freest state and working to keep it that way, and I 100% believe New Hampshire is our best chance (and now LAST chance in America) to achieve Liberty in Our Lifetime, but only if we all PULL TOGETHER, WORK OUR BADASSES OFF, and SHOW UP. Please, and thank YOU!!!!
It was an honor to once again participate in the 6th Annual FreeCoast Festival. I gave a presentation about “How to Renegade Right” at the Praxeum in Dover on Saturday, and on Sunday, spent a charming afternoon hanging out with dedicated liberty lovers at a special edition of Market Day. Good times, great to see everyone, and meet newbies. Welcome to the prickle!
LISTEN NOW… Across cultures, people seem to be growing more and more fragile – are we capable of toughening up? Author Nassim Taleb takes a big departure from mainstream wisdom and suggests that we should work to be antifragile – which is much more than simple resilience. Join your hosts to explore the concept of antifragility, and how it can help you be a stronger person. LISTEN NOW…
Was looking for something on the Tubes and ran across this Dave Ridley interview at Taproom Tuesday in 2008, soon after we moved to NH . My favorite parts are… too many to mention! D’aaaaw, Younger Me Who Is Still Figuring Stuff Out. You go, Queenie!
I joined Jack Kenny for a heated discussion about the 24/7 Orwellian police surveillance cameras being proposed for downtown Manchester. I stick to my guns that the cameras are symptomatic of government overreach that will ultimately lead to a dystopian future, and Jack takes the “security over liberty” position, and even trots out the Nazi quote from Minister of Propaganda Goebbels himself: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
While we are on the subject, read Edward Snowden’s take on why privacy is such an important right. And consider this Computer Weekly article, “Debunking a myth: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
A New Hampshire state Senate committee recommended the Senate put off action on marijuana legalization until 2020, in a blow to a legalization effort that has sputtered in recent weeks.
A few thoughts regarding the objections listed in the Concord Monitor article:
1. Unless you plan to ban children from ever watching TV again, where shows about MJ are freely available, you really need a better excuse than “we need to protect the chillun”. If we can successfully protect children from a much more dangerous **drug**… ALCOHOL… methinks we can do the same for a safer, natural alternative.
2. It’s “illegal federally” is an excuse in NH now? For shame! What about states’ rights and the 10th Amendment? Or does that only apply when y’all want to circumvent federal stuff you DON’T like… Wayfair and internet taxes spring to mind. Don’t get me wrong, NH should be nullifying the nonsense coming out of DC left, right and center, but this a BS excuse, and y’all know it! I will add, I hope Trump de-schedules cannabis… I assure you he would win reelection in a landslide!
3. Speaking about crack-pots (haha), the most dangerous part of this whole issue is THE PEOPLE WHO STILL BELIEVE THE GOVERNMENT’S EIGHTY+ YEARS OF LIES AND PROPAGANDA. Here are some facts: Cannabis has NEVER been the cause an overdose fatality. It is a PLANT found in NATURE. All human beings have cannabinoid receptors in their bodies. Maybe, just maybe, y’all can stop MEDDLING with peaceful people’s lives and stop criminalizing people’s personal choices. You have done enough harm. Stop, just stop.
PS: Can you imagine if someone tried to “legalize” an amusement park like Six Flags in America today? “You want to strap kids to what and do what???” Stop treating children like hopeless, helpless, delicate flowers, stop coddling them and treat them with the respect they deserve, which means telling them the TRUTH about things. Yes, even “scary things” like drugs, but also the destructive, racist history of the War on Drugs, a war waged by our own government on US.
This week on ManchTalk I’m flying solo as my co-host, Tammy Simmons, is on holiday. I discuss the Quality Inn DEA/MPD SWAT fiasco that resulted in three deaths and locked down South Willow street, the Orwellian Surveillance State coming to the streets of Manchester, the police cameras that were placed downtown with no public input, why personal privacy matters, why government transparency matters, and how YOU can get involved.