goldstandard-05-06-21-S-y

(white) goldstandard-05-06-21-S.pdf
(gold) goldstandard-05-06-21-S-y.pdf

The post Senate Gold Standard – May 6th, 2021 appeared first on NH Liberty Alliance.

“. . . the Valley Street Jail, the largest county correctional facility in the state, had a full-blown (COVID) outbreak on its hands: . . . “

When Hillsborough County Commissioner Toni Pappas toured the Valley Street Jail in Manchester last December, as she and fellow commissioners are required to do at least twice a year, she didn’t appear to find any cause for concern.

read more

CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE

This is an important analysis of the distribution of vaccine in prisons and jails. Vaccination varies by state. While Florida is not vaccinating inmates, New Hampshire vaccinates in the order they would become eligible if in the general public.

A state-by-state patchwork of vaccine rules has left prison inmates with different outlooks even as the C.D.C. has recommended prioritizing them.By Ann Hinga Klein and Derek M. Norman   March 17, 2021 New York Times

Nearly half of the roughly 8,700 state prison inmates in Kansas have received a coronavirus vaccine, and state officials say that all prisoners who want shots will have gotten at least a first dose by the middle of April.

But in Florida, no inmates in state-run correctional institutions have gotten shots, corrections officials said, not even those who would qualify under the state’s age and health guidelines if they were not behind bars.  “There’s no way you’re going to get some prisoner a vaccine over a senior citizen,” Gov. Ron DeSantis has said.

read more

SHOCKING STUDY RESULTS:

A first-of-its-kind study released on Thursday shows that about 113 million American adults have an immediate family member who is formerly or currently incarcerated.

read more

"Thousands of laws and regulations make it almost impossible to reintegrate fully into civilian life, trapping formerly incarcerated people in a state of quasi-citizenship that makes it more likely they will be sent back to prison. "  Across the country, people with felony convictions face a daunting web of small obstacles to rebuilding normal lives. What will it take to fix?

We issue punishment with the idea once your debt is paid to society most offenders will be reintegrated back in the community with the idea and hope you can start again. However, ". . .even after they have served their sentences, and long after they finish probation or parole, people with felony records are effectively imprisoned, but in their home communities."

REAM ARTICLE HERE:

https://www.politico.com/.../post-prison-laws-reentry-451445

 

I never imagined I would homeschool my own children. In fact, I can remember leaving my homeschooling roots behind (I was homeschooled K-8) to attend a traditional high school thinking, “That was great, but I’d never want to do that.” I went on to become a high school English teacher and brought many of my homeschool experiences with me to create an engaging and dynamic classroom. Once my daughter was born, my husband and I found ourselves thinking the same thing my parents probably thought when they decided to homeschool me and my siblings in the ’80s: there’s got to be a better way. 

Maybe you’ve thought the same thing? Maybe the idea of sending your kid into a crowded school, or locked-down classroom or having multiple children on different Zoom schedules doesn’t sound like fun. There’s no doubt that education has taken a radically different form over the past six months as schools, teachers, and parents have navigated the effects of the pandemic. While not everyone has the privilege of choosing to homeschool, it can be a great alternative if you’re feeling like there must be a better way.

Getting Started

If you’re thinking homeschooling might be an option for you and your family you’ll first want to familiarize yourself with your state’s laws regarding homechooling. Every state is different, so it’s important to know what you need to do. You can find a list of laws by state HERE.

Homeschooling Styles

When it comes to homeschooling there are multiple methods and approaches. Our family has opted for a flexible style that allows us the freedom to choose a curriculum that works for each child’s learning style and incorporate our love of the outdoors. However, I was educated at home with the School-at-Home model: we had desks, there was a whiteboard bolted to our family room wall and the structure of our day was similar to a traditional school day.

Keep in mind that every support group you’ll find in the Seacoast and around New Hampshire often reflects a certain style, understanding these styles and finding the one that fits your family best is key to finding your “tribe” and being able to thrive as a homeschooling family. It’s also important to note that you can move fluidly through all the styles of home education until you find a structure and method that works for you.

• Classical – The classical or traditional approach to homeschooling focuses on grammar, logic and rhetoric and centers around classic texts and the Socratic method. This method is reading-centric and involves rote learning, which can be challenging for struggling readers.

• Unschooling – The unschooling method is a free-form model where learning is driven by the student’s interest and curiosity. Unschooling is unstructured and does not incorporate evaluation with quizzes and tests, instead focuses on learning through self-guided discovery and exploration.

• School-at-Home – This homeschooling method is often the first that families try when they start homeschooling. With a traditional school day as a reference, the School-at-Home method often centers around a complete curriculum and follows a similar schedule and structure to a traditional school day.

• Eclectic Homeschooling – Eclectic homeschooling is a relaxed method that borrows from each of the other methods. This flexible method allows parents to pick and choose curriculum and resources based on their own and their child’s preferences and learning styles. This customized approach can be more work but is often the place where most homeschoolers end up after trying multiple methods and curriculums.

You can find a more in-depth description of these methods and more HERE.

Choosing a Curriculum

Choosing a curriculum is often the most daunting task once you have decided to start homeschooling: how do you know what’s the right fit for you and your child? I was faced with this same decision when we started homeschooling. After requesting multiple catalogs and spending hours online I ultimately decided that instead of purchasing a complete curriculum package (which can get incredibly expensive), I would piece together resources on all of the required subjects. For our daughter’s first year I found various workbooks that I liked and purchased them on Amazon (Handwriting without Tears, Explode the Code, Hooked on Phonics and Mathematical Reasoning). I looked at recommended reading lists, enrolled her in an experiential science class, and found a read-aloud history book that interested all of us. We took a relaxed approach and Sophia passed her end of year evaluation with flying colors.

I tried the same approach with my son Jack with much resistance, he wasn’t the same kind of learner as Sophia and required a totally different technique. At first, I struggled with the fact that he was “behind” where his sister had been at his age and felt as if I was failing him. But just this past year he improved leaps and bounds and closed the gap in the areas where he was behind. Allowing him to move at his own pace has been critical for him in staying encouraged and motivated. This is one of the benefits of homeschooling, if your child is ‘behind’ you can cater to their learning styles and needs, go at their own pace and trust their internal timing. Our third child, Liam is also a learner unto himself. He is just entering school-age this year and we’ve yet to see exactly how he will respond to some of the methods we’ve employed with our other two children.

Now that all of our children are school-aged, we’ve opted to use some online resources (Accellus Academy) along with texts and workbooks that we hand select to piece together a complete curriculum that works for each of our kids.

A complete curriculum (like this one) can be helpful if you’re feeling unsure of your ability to plan the school year and keep multiple children on track at grade level. However, it can be a very expensive way to start and if you make the investment and find out later that it’s just not working, it can be incredibly frustrating. While it is important to cover all the topics required, create a portfolio, and prepare your child for evaluation, the way in which you explore and learn those subjects is entirely up to you!

My suggestion is to start as inexpensively as possible. Begin with your end-goal in mind (these can be grade level bench-marks) and then plan your year in 3-4 weeks at a time, setting smaller goals for each unit. If this detailed planning intimidates you, adopt a more exploratory method. The most important thing is to take the pressure off yourself, any kind of pressure or stress you create will trickle down to your children and in my experience is the source of most resistance, fighting, and struggle.

Approach

When my husband and I set out to homeschool our kids (he is now the primary parent at home and shoulders the teaching responsibilities) we had two primary goals that had nothing to do with grade-level or subject matter. At the end of each day, we want our children to feel encouraged and confident. Those are our goals. Our homeschooling philosophy is centered around the idea that if our children are feeling encouraged and confident, that will empower them on their learning journey. Encouraged and confident kids are more curious and more engaged with whatever subject matter they are learning

With encouragement and confidence the priority, the material can often take a back seat. Which as a former teacher,  was hard for me to wrap my head around at times. I tended to focus more on comprehension and often pushed to the point of frustration and tears. What I have noticed is that when my priorities shifted, the learning environment improved: comprehension flows more naturally for a child who is feeling encouraged and confident. The quote from Dr. Jane Nelsen is true, “Kids do better when they feel better.”

Local Resources

Your state is probably full of resources, support groups and classes that are geared towards homeschoolers. A little digging on Google and you are sure to find a homeschool group that jives well with your family. We’ve found some great local resources here in New Hampshire and it’s through these classes we have met many of our close friends. My children have taken science classes at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, sailed down the Piscataqua with the Gundalow Company, taken art classes at the Woodman Museum, and bombed down the trails at Gunstock with the Homeschool Ski School.

We’ve been a part of a homeschool co-op where we gathered weekly and each parent took on the responsibility of teaching a topic. I chipped in by teaching PE and creative writing. A co-op is a great way to connect with other homeschool families and can help diversify the way in which you educate your child.

While the current health crisis is sure to impact many of the things we have been a part of in the past, our hope is that these activities will resume soon. Until then, we continue to explore our state and stay in touch with homeschooling friends in a context in which we all feel safe.

You got this

Despite my experience as a high school English teacher, I was seriously intimidated by the idea of teaching a non-reader how to read. Expository essay, Brit Lit, Creative writing–all no problem, but phonics? Not so much. We struggled at times in that first year, but ultimately found our way. Now my daughter is a skilled reader who stays up way past my bedtime with her light on reading and re-reading her favorites.

Homeschooling isn’t easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding to bear witness and be inextricably linked to your child’s learning journey. Watching them become engaged and curious about new topics, struggle through and ultimately comprehend new concepts can fill your parent-heart with joy. Those highs are offset by days when you want to quit, ship them off to some imaginary boarding school where they’ll wear capes and ride brooms and never have to deal with the whining, bickering and complaining again. It’s all real. And it’s all part of the journey.

As with anything in life that is worthwhile, there is often struggle involved. It’s important to acknowledge that struggle is not a sign of failure. I like to think of it as a sign that you and your family are a beautiful work in progress. Whenever I reach that breaking point of frustration–when I want to throw in the towel–I give myself permission to “begin again.” Its a concept I have learned through meditation, that when you become distracted by your own wandering thoughts, you simply reset and refocus on your breath. You choose not to beat yourself up about “getting off track” or failing in your meditation, but instead let the momentary lapse in concentration go and begin again. Homeschooling (or anything for that matter) is the same, there will be lapses and slips and struggle, but the way forward is through grace, reminding yourself of your ultimate goal (for us encouraged and confident kids) and beginning again, over and over and over again.

-Sarah

This article originally appeared on the Sarah Canney Blog and can be found here:

https://sarahcanney.com/blog/homeschool-beginners-guide

 

The post Homeschooling 101- A Beginner’s Guide To A Relaxed Approach appeared first on The Freecoast.

If New Hampshire were to leave the union and no longer be one of the ‘Divided States‘ of America, would our state be better off? Would it even survive? After all, it receives millions of dollars each year from the federal government and the state only has 1.3 million people! There is no way it could survive on its own. Even if it did, would its citizens’ quality of life improve if the U.S. government was no longer in their lives?

Originally published on The Liberty Block, the following is a guest post by Alu Axleman, which represents the personal opinions of the author, and not necessarily that of the Foundation.

1) No more federal taxes

Currently, the state of New Hampshire has no general income tax or sales tax. The average property tax for a home is around $5,000 in New Hampshire. In addition to property taxes, the average worker might pay roughly $1,000 in sales taxes per year on food and other small expenditures. Comparatively, the average New Hampshire worker may have around $15,000 stolen from them each year by the federal government via ‘income taxes’. Federal gas taxes, federal payroll taxes, and all of the other federal taxes, could push that figure well above $30,000 or even $40,000 annually. If New Hampshire left the union, workers could expect to save $15,000-$40,000 per year right off the bat. What could you do with that kind of money each year? Help your aging parents? Upgrade your home or car? Buy those firearms (and ammo and accessories) you’ve been longing for? Take your loved ones on a vacation?

2) No more gun laws

Considering New Hampshire has no restrictions on firearms, accessories, or ammunition (yes, it’s almost as if ‘anarchy’ isn’t as dangerous as your public school teacher made it out to be), all of the many gun laws that Granite Staters are forced to obey only come from D.C. Once New Hampshire secedes, all of those unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, ineffective, anti-freedom laws disappear. Get ready to enjoy fully automatic guns, suppressors, SBRs, and anything else you can imagine, and forget about ever needing to fill out NICS forms, tax stamps, or any other type of permission slip from politicians before obtaining firearms! Imagine – you could shoulder a brace and sell a short shotgun without worrying about the ATF killing you.

3) No more federally-funded police state

One of the many ways that politicians and ‘law enforcement’ officials in New Hampshire terrorize, control, extort, and abuse us is by utilizing federal ‘grants‘ to obtain tools that make tyranny much more effective. Among such tools are the BEARcats and other military vehicles that police in New Hampshire have been given by the U.S. government. The U.S. government also gives money to law enforcement agencies in New Hampshire and many other states for the express purpose of establishing suspicionless sobriety checkpoints. Most recently, the Portsmouth police were given seven new drones by the federal government. Remaining in the ‘Socialist Authoritarian State of America’ also allows federal agents to establish immigration checkpoints anywhere they desire in New Hampshire whenever they want to. As with sobriety checkpoints, these suspicionless searches violate natural rights to freedom and privacy and violate the U.S. and N.H. Constitutional protections of those rights. These illegal checkpoints all go away once we leave the union. While police in New Hampshire should do the right thing and refuse the federal (read: taxpayer) money, wouldn’t you love to see that temptation be removed?

4) Federal Department of Education

The U.S. government extorts money from individuals and uses $70 billion each year to mandate exactly how nearly every child must be taught. The Federal Department of Education is perhaps the biggest contributor to the decline in the academic success, economic success, culture, and freedom in the U.S. since its establishment in 1980. Parents in New Hampshire are currently part of the small number of parents in the U.S. who can still legally educate their own children. Within the coming years, the U.S. government will make it 100% mandatory that every child attend a government-operated school. Once that happens, do you want to be part of the U.S. or do you want to have the ability to ignore the ridiculous law that would be irrelevant to your sovereign nation?

5) Federal Reserve

The U.S. government currently allows the Federal Reserve to control monetary policy via complicated maneuvers, which include setting the interest rates that apply to the US government and nearly all banks in the U.S. The Federal Reserve’s board members are appointed by the president, but they enjoy the privilege of functioning as a ‘non-governmental’ entity, which allows them to be nearly 100% unaccountable to voters. The Federal Reserve may be the biggest reason that the U.S. is currently $22 trillion in debt. The Federal Reserve and the U.S. government also oppose alternative/competing currencies. Being that New Hampshire is the cryptocurrency capital of the U.S., it is inevitable that the U.S. government will begin to attack New Hampshire for allowing its people to use the currency of their choice.

6) National ID

Within a year, New Hampshire citizens will be forced by the U.S. government to obtain a national ID card if they wish to continue to fly domestically without a passport. Within a few more years, everyone in the U.S. will be forced by D.C. politicians to obtain a ‘REAL ID‘, regardless of whether they want to use airplanes. While such a federal law might seem benign to some, nationalizing yet another significant institution would be one more large step towards the politicians’ goal: A singular American state.

7) Perpetual foreign interventionism

Millions of people – perhaps billions of people throughout the world, believe that peace and an end to perpetual war is the most important issue facing humanity. Tulsi Gabbard is the most popular candidate on the Democratic side in the U.S., and among many Americans, largely because she loudly condemns the culture of perpetual foreign interventionism. I used to support the military and all it does abroad; however I am beginning to consider that maybe some foreign people do resent Americans because ‘our’ (read: the politicians’) military has been occupying their land and abusing them for decades. If the U.S. military maintains a presence in 185 countries, maybe we’ve gone too far. If we have been fighting the ‘war on terror‘ against a few primitive terrorists in the Middle East for 20 years with few signs of winning or slowing down, maybe the U.S. politicians don’t really have an interest in winning. As George Orwell famously said, “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.” As a sovereign nation, we could choose to have a truly defensive military and we would be free to create our own alliances.

8) Domestic surveillance

Between the NSA, CIA, FBI, and hundreds of other federal agencies, the U.S. government conducts massive amounts of illegal spying on innocent individuals. Over the past few years, Americans have largely realized that the government is a serious threat to our privacy. Americans have lost a ton of faith in these once-respected agencies. Do you enjoy being forced to pay politicians and their agents to spy on you and other innocent civilians? If not, you should support New Hampshire secession.

9) Civil asset forfeiture

While nearly everyone in the United States strongly condemns civil asset forfeiture once they learn what it is, few people know that it is a federal program. If not for the U.S. government, it would not exist. Civil asset forfeiture is the federal law which allows government agents to extra-judicially confiscate any property (money, drugs, guns, cars, houses, etc.) from people who have not been convicted of any crime. A person could have his property stolen by government agents without even being charged with a crime. When a Texas state senator proposed a bill that would require a person to be convicted before police could steal his property, President Trump and Sheriff Harold Eavenson openly discussed whether to ‘destroy his career‘. The U.S. government justifies this blatant theft by arguing that if any type of property may be connected to a crime in the past, present, or future, law enforcement should be able to seize it as soon as possible in order to prevent the suspect from committing additional crimes with the property. The U.S. government extended permission to state and local police to participate in this program – as long as they share their spoils with the Feds. They call it ‘equitable sharing’. Cops have utilized this tyrannical law to confiscate houses on the grounds that the homeowner’s teenage grandson may have once sold a bit of cannabis to a friend on the property. Police regularly use ‘civil asset forfeiture’ to steal whatever they desire, from drugs, to guns, to cars.

10) IRS

As is the case with many federal agencies, the IRS can use its power to target its political enemies. Under President Obama, the IRS unfairly targeted conservative groups. The abuse was so severe that even Obama’s IRS director admitted to it. As social media, technology, government surveillance, and data collection of individuals in the U.S. increase, it would seem entirely realistic that the IRS could target individuals as well as groups with unfair scrutiny and punishments. Do you want to remain in the union when the Warren-Castro administration directs the IRS to target pro-freedom individuals like yourself? I sure as hell don’t.

11) Economic regulation

A thriving, prosperous economy is the most important priority to many individuals. Those who have engaged in any type of business understand that the best thing for a society’s economy is lack of government restrictions. It’s the reason that our economy quickly became the best in the world. It’s the reason that New Hampshire’s economy is infinitely better than New York’s. It’s the reason that Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, and Japan, are booming while North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela struggle.

President Obama utilized the mass hysteria caused by global warming propaganda to pass 4,000 new environmental laws. The EPA is only one example of politicians using regulations to destroy economies. When constituents become too prosperous, they threaten the government due to their increasing independence, weaponry, and overall influence. Therefore, politicians often seek to worsen economies and then swoop in and ‘save the day’ with yet another taxpayer-funded welfare program. Obama’s damage to the U.S. economy was so severe that the number of Americans requiring food stamps (ultra-poor) increased from 34 million to 44 million during his presidency. Politicians love having an excuse to increase welfare programs. It makes them appear very generous.

Regulations imposed by the FDA harm the economy and our health. Run by politicians and their cronies, the FDA regularly chooses winners and losers in the health and pharmaceutical industries. Many people remain unaware that the FDA was likely the primary reason for the massive EpiPen scandal of 2016. Due to their corrupt, strict requirements, it takes an average of 2.5 billion dollars and 12 years to bring a new medication to the market. This is not the case in other countries. No wonder companies have to charge a fortune for their medications! And we are forced to pay $4 billion every year to fund the agency.

Politicians since the inception of the US have passed seemingly infinite amounts of restrictions, each of which makes the economy more difficult to navigate. Now that politicians have illegally appointed unaccountable bureaucrats to do the dirty work for them, regulations are being created more than ever before. Depending on the estimate, federal regulations on businesses cost Americans around $2 trillion every year. Once New Hampshire separates from D.C., our economy – which is currently the best in the U.S. – would certainly improve dramatically.

12) Activists’ time, money, & resources

While it’s probably impossible to calculate exactly how much time and money New Hampshire’s passionate liberty activists spend on federal issues and candidates, we are certain that it’s significant. Every two years, pro-freedom activists in New Hampshire spend a lot of time and money on the state’s two U.S. House races. They always come up short, but even if they were successful in electing the ‘better’ congressional candidate, the U.S. Congress would remain largely unchanged. Even if New Hampshire could miraculously elect two Massies, the U.S. House would still be controlled by around 430 authoritarian socialists. The same goes for the U.S. Senate races and presidential elections.

Unfortunately, many activists in New Hampshire do not yet understand the multiple reasons that federal politics is a lost cause. If you think that New Hampshire’s domestic politics is teeter-tottering right now between good and evil (Democrats do win roughly half of the state’s elections) imagine how much better the state would be once we formally separate from D.C. Those millions of man-hours and the millions of dollars wasted by great liberty activists would begin to be used only on elections that occur inside of New Hampshire, like the race for governor, state house, state senate, executive council, and local races. The anti-freedom voters and politicians would begin losing so badly that they might deport themselves from New Hampshire to anti-freedom states like Massachusetts.

Any individual who lives in New Hampshire and values freedom and prosperity or who distrusts the politicians from D.C. should support the notion of New Hampshire governing itself. Such a declaration would free this great state from the control of people like Trump, Clinton, Obama, Bush, McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer, and the like. Leaving the union would also improve the quality of life for New Hampshire’s residents in nearly every way. Citizens of a sovereign New Hampshire would enjoy keeping thousands more dollars of their own income each year. They would enjoy defending themselves without any federal infringements on their self-defense tools and accessories. New Hampshire would thrive once free from the trillions of dollars worth of economic regulations established by D.C. politicians. If you want to be free from the corrupt central government that spends trillions on foreign interventions, forces you to pay for the massive amounts of welfare programs and unconstitutional agencies, and makes you a criminal for buying a firearm, talk to your legislator about New Hampshire independence today!

The post Twelve Benefits to New Hampshire Independence appeared first on Foundation for New Hampshire Independence.

NHExit, a grassroots group supporting independence for New Hampshire, has launched a podcast and interview series, now into its sixth episode.

Listen to the latest episode over at podcast.nhexit.org, on YouTube, or subscribe to their feed via RSS with your favorite podcast app.

The NHExit Podcast is hosted by Russell Kanning, former publisher of the New Hampshire Free Press and a longtime advocate for the Granite State’s freedom from D.C.

(Note: NHExit is a separate, unaffiliated organization from the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence.)

The post NHExit launches podcast, interview series appeared first on Foundation for New Hampshire Independence.

The Human Action Foundation announced a new suite of donor programs today.

The HAF Supporters program now offers three levels: Bronze, at $30+ a month; Silver, at $60+ a month; and Gold, at $120+ a month. The goal is to include a wider span of donors in the community with specific programs to recognize their ongoing contributions.

The Foundation also revamped its Sponsors program, switching from set packages to custom offerings for each business.

The Benefactors Club continues to recognize the Foundation’s top donors every year.

For details on the Foundation and its new donor programs, visit:

https://humanaction.foundation/

 

Editor’s Note: The Freecoast is published for our community as a volunteer effort. If you appreciate our work, please pay it forward by making a contribution to our favorite charity, the Human Action Foundation.

The post Human Action Foundation Expands Supporters Program appeared first on The Freecoast.

Latest Update: July 5, 2021

Here is the upcoming events calendar for the Freecoast Liberty Fellowship. Newcomers are always welcome! Events are the best way to get to know the local liberty community.

Questions? Contact us!

Featured Events Stay tuned for upcoming Featured Events!

 

Recurring Events Monthly
Second Saturdays 2-5pm • Freecoast Market Day • The Praxeum

Every second Saturday, the Freecoast gathers for a day of fun and free trade at the Praxeum.

 

Past Events

September 12, 2020 • Freecoast Day!
August 15, 2020 • Freecoast Holiday: Obon Festival
August 12, 2020 • Seacoast New Movers Picnic
August 8, 2020 • Homeschool Community Market Day
July 31, 2020 • Homeschool Curriculum Flip-Through
July 11, 2020 • Freecoast Market and Independence Day Celebration
July 01, 2020 • Seacoast New Movers Picnic
June 13, 2020 • Freecoast Blood Drive
May 9, 2020 • Freecoast Blood Drive
March 28, 2020 • Freecoast Blood Drive
February 8, 2020 • Freecoast Market Day
January 15, 2020 • New Movers Potluck
January 11, 2020 • Freecoast Market Day
December 14, 2019 • Free State Project Calling Party
December 14, 2019 • Freecoast Market Day
December 1, 2019 • Feast of The Freecoast
November 16, 2019 • NHLA Training, Review NH Bills
September 22, 2019 • Friends of The Freecoast Bonfire
September 3-8, 2019 • The Sixth Annual Freecoast Festival
August 21, 2019 • New Movers’ Potluck
January 5, 2019 • Blood Drive
November 25, 2018 • Feast of the Freecoast
September 7-9th, 2018 • Freecoast Festival ’18
July 15, 2018 • Freecoast Powwow
May 5, 2018 • Spring Potluck
April 15, 2018 • April Powwow & Sunschool: Colonization, Empowerment, & Semiotics
April 8, 2018 • Portsmouth Seasteading Monthly Meetup
April 6, 2018 • Secure Your Cryptocurrency With Multisignature Wallets
March 18, 2018 • Freecoast Powwow
February 18, 2018 • Freecoast Powwow
February 16, 2018 • Praxeum Benefactors Soireé
January 21, 2018 • Freecoast Powwow
December 17, 2017 • Freecoast Powwow
November 24, 2017 • Feast of the Freecoast
November 18, 2017 • Freecoast Powwow
November 1, 2017 • Praxeum Benefactors Soireé

The post Events – The Freecoast Liberty Calendar appeared first on The Freecoast.

Every month, the Freecoast community gathers as a whole to reconnect, break bread, and celebrate a holiday together. This month we’re celebrating Obon, the Japanese Buddhist festival honoring those who came before us.

Whether biological, intellectual, or spiritual, many of us have ancestors worthy of remembrance and respect, those who symbolize our deepest values and made possible the life we live today. Obon is a time set aside for their memory, a time to thank them and reflect on their impact on us. With the help of community members who have attended the festival in Japanese communities, we will be using some traditional elements, such as hanging lanterns, to bring the meaning of the day alive.

As with all Freecoast holidays, we’re also planning to use this time to enjoy each other’s company, have great conversation, and watch our children play together. Come for the symbol or come for the people, whatever the reason we’d love to see you this weekend! We’ll be meeting on Saturday starting at 6 PM at the Praxeum, bring your own picnic foods. More details available on Facebook.

The post The Freecoast Celebrates Obon! appeared first on The Freecoast.

Hello friends! We are excited to announce that The Praxeum has re-opened to the Freecoast community! These times are trying and strange for all of us, thank you for being understanding as we have navigated these unfamiliar waters to try to figure out the best way to be available, while keeping in mind everyone’s safety.

The following guidelines are currently recommended for The Praxeum:

**Masks are encouraged, not required** We ask you to please respect that there are varying degrees of comfort level for everyone that will be attending events.

We are so happy to be back and cannot wait to see you all at The Praxeum soon.

The post Open For Business! appeared first on The Freecoast.

This weekend, at the Freecoast’s Independence day cookout, we had a declaration competition. This was my entry:

When, in the course of communal events, it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the bonds of courtesy which have kept the group civil with one another, and to assume among the peoples of the Coast, the gossipy and cliquey attitude to which the laws of human nature incline them, a decent respect to the opinions of their fellows requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to nosy conversation.

We hold these truths to be quite relevant, that most men are created communal, that they are endowed by their nature with certain social values, that among these are information, strategy, and the pursuit of judgment. That to secure these needs, private conversations are instituted among friends, deriving their just powers from the truth and relevance of the details. That whenever any form of social norm becomes destructive to those ends, it is right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new norms, laying their foundation on such principles and organizing their expectations in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their community’s virtue and harmony. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that norms long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when long trains of communal blunders and blowups, deriving invariably from the same misguided application of the virtues of niceness and minding ones own business, plague them, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such norms, and to provide new guards for their future prosperity.

Such has been the patient sufferance of this community and its siblings and predecessors; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former norms of civility. The history of modern nerdy communities is a history of repeated missed opportunities and ruined scenes, all having in direct cause a desire to avoid drama. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid community.

We have allowed bad actors to flourish in our midst, ranging from harshing the vibe to the vilest of physical abuses.

We have lost our influence on the values and purpose of our groups, allowing many to dissolve into boring mediocrity.

We have missed opportunities to learn more about our fellows and thereby to encourage and take advantage of their virtues while avoiding and diminishing their vices.

We have let issues fester under the surface until they erupt in community-rending conflict.

We have failed to strategically coordinate efforts toward positive community and individual ends.

We have foregone chances to mutually calibrate judgments, nudge evaluations, and intimately bond with close friends and allies.

We have forced our most socially skilled peers, those responsible for a vibrant community, to choose between overt defiance of our norms, disingenuously performing their function privately and likely feeling shame, or depriving us of their benefits altogether.

I, therefore, a representative of myself, appealing to my reputation and reasoning for the rectitude of my intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of myself, solemnly publish and declare, that this community and others like it of right ought to be a more dramatic and catty people; that they are absolved from all obligation to be in all things public, reserved, and cordial; and that as dramatic and catty people, they have full power to dish, matchmake, vent, praise, and to do all other acts and things which catty people may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the correctness of my judgment and experience, I pledge to you all my honest useful assessment, my listening ear, and my understanding that you’ll totally bitch about me to your friends after this speech.

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At this time, we appreciate more than ever the work of local entrepreneurs in charity and business. This is the second in a series of posts highlighting causes supported by the Freecoast community. 

Freecoasters are passionate about supporting those within our community and beyond. Combined with this is the ambition of achieving decentralized monetary freedom. With these goals in mind, several are working on practical ways to utilize cryptocurrencies for daily transactions. Cointr.ee is one such project where we can do just that.

Cointr.ee is a platform for people who earn their money through community support. It helps creators earn money by making it as easy as possible for people to support their work.

Cointr.ee simplifies donations by allowing you to list all of your crypto donation addresses in one place, sharing them with a single link. Add all of your websites and social media platforms on your page so people can follow and support you wherever you are. This video shared by Cointr.ee creator gives a great overview of the practical use of Cointr.ee.

As businesses are opening back up, many creators still face massive restrictions. We can use cryptocurrencies to extend our reach to the Seacoast and beyond in order to offer support. Check out Cointr.ee to get started!

 

The post Community Causes: Cointr.ee appeared first on The Freecoast.

At this time, we appreciate more than ever the work of local entrepreneurs in charity and business. This is the first in a series of posts highlighting causes supported by the Freecoast community. For the full series, click here.

The obvious starting point for our series on Freecoast community causes is the Human Action Foundation (HAF). This charity was founded by Freecoasters and seeks to provide support for alternative approaches to work, school, and community.

Many people are finding that traditional institutions are no longer relevant to their interests. But when they opt for an individual approach, they lose the support provided by these institutions.

HAF provides programs to address this deficit. From its inaugural liberty community center on the Seacoast of New Hampshire, HAF supports a range of events for entrepreneurs, artists, homeschoolers, and anyone else on a path of self-improvement.

The Foundation’s impact is felt in the local community and through a network of freethinkers extending far beyond the Seacoast. For liberty anywhere bolsters liberty everywhere.

In this pandemic, HAF remains active providing support to community members who have experienced layoffs, as well as those adapting to remote work or homeschooling for the first time.

Charities not directly involved in medical care are experiencing strain. In consideration of public health, HAF has suspended events at its liberty community center since March 16th. The Foundation quickly pivoted to providing an online meeting venue; nonetheless, many programs have had to be delayed or cancelled. While HAF has seen remarkable loyalty from its donors despite their personal hardships, we encourage any readers of sufficient means to consider including HAF in your charitable giving.

Whether supporting freelancers especially hard-hit by the lockdown, or sharing knowledge on remote work and school with the wider community, the Human Action Foundation has a vital role to play in helping people cope with this crisis.

To learn more about the Foundation, visit:
https://humanaction.foundation/

 

Sincerely,

Mike Vine
President
Human Action Foundation

 

Author: Mike Vine
Published on: April 28th, 2020

The post Community Causes: The Human Action Foundation appeared first on The Freecoast.

Few if any libertarians are acknowledging the hard problem of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forget the question of how and whether quarantines would be enforced in a free society. We have potential millions dead from disease on one side and an economic depression on the other. Exactly how is a free market actor supposed to decide the appropriate level of risk to take when making each decision?

Many private organizations are currently implementing their best “common sense” approach to being good members of society. Google can work from home, that’s easy. The local cafe may risk operating, but perhaps they Lysol the door handles every half hour. But in the end it’s a shot in the dark. They have no idea how many people will live or die as a result of their decisions.

It’s as if this scenario was designed to destroy all of the abstractions we use to make sense of rights and economics. Decisions to meet people today in large groups render potentially massive consequences for completely unrelated people. Under these conditions, how do you construct a framework of liability? Without liability, how do you put a price on risk? Without a price on risk, how you decide whether to reopen your business?

I don’t have any serious answers, but I think it’s something we as libertarians should be thinking about. If we distrust the government’s guidance on this issue, as growing numbers of non-libertarians are, we should be ready with an idea of our own. And this wouldn’t even be “a libertarian alternative” to some standard government solution to this problem. The government barely has a solution. They segregate businesses into “essential” or “non-essential” and make sweeping policies for either one. There’s no room for nuance because they can’t trust us to be reasonable. And again, to be fair, we have no guidance for what reasonable behavior is. We need a price signal.

The half-baked solution I could come up with is to hold people and businesses liable for who they infect, even if by accident, all the way down the tree. That is to say, if I infect 3 people, they each infect 3 people, and so on, I’m liable in some way for the health outcomes of all of them. My liability would be shared, in some way, by other people in the tree, since they also hold some responsibility. This is the only way that comes to mind for everybody to account for the consequences of their actions. And it’s an absurd idea that’s impossible to implement.

Putting aside practicality, it also seems very harsh to hold everybody liable in this way. However, people could get liability insurance, just like they do for driving. Insurance companies would charge a premium based on each person’s behavior. Once you have an insurance policy covering your infection liability, you could open your business, which would increase your premium. You could outfit your business with extra precautions, which would then lower your premium a little. And so on. The insurance company, as usual, does the hard work of determining the risk profile of each scenario. From there you can decide whether the revenue you would get is worth the premium and the investment in safety precautions.

Perhaps you could take my half-baked idea and come up with some clever way to make it practical. Or maybe you have a new idea altogether. Let’s start the discussion.

The post We Need a Price Signal appeared first on The Freecoast.

Amazon is hiring 100,000 people in response to coronavirus demand. I thought I’d misread the figure at first. Surely they meant 10,000? But no, the Seattle ecommerce giant is, in fact, hiring a mid-size city’s worth of people to make sure it can keep up with demand. And not just them – Walmart, CVS, Instacart, and others are all hiring tens to hundreds of thousands of people.

To which I say, “why bother?” Seems like an odd question, because we just assume that companies are relentlessly pushing to expand and improve. But anyone who has run even a small business will know how much of a pain onboarding a single employee can be – much less doing that 100,000 times in a month or two. There’s sifting through applications, doing interviews, training, instilling company culture, then dealing with any complaint or problem a human can dream up because that’s what people do!

And the guys and gals who run these businesses don’t need the headache. Jeff Bezos? The Waltons? They have so much money, it would be a job just to try and spend it all. Ask Bill Gates, who literally does that for a living now.

This seems especially the case because by all reasonable accounts, this economic flux is temporary. These companies may well have to lay off a substantial portion of the new hires in a few months.

So why do they bother?

There are many good answers, brand loyalty among them. But it got me thinking something I hadn’t considered before: thank goodness for the extravagant lifestyles of the rich! That’s what keeps them pursuing these heroic feats in the marketplace – the need to feed their personal consumption habits. If they were all buddhist monks, they truly wouldn’t need to keep chasing profit – and I have to believe they wouldn’t be hiring by the battalion.

Now some might object that at the multi-billionaire level, even extravagance doesn’t make a dent in their net worth. But to that I say that we must consider under “consumption” the many intangible purchases of simply having a lot of money. The fame, the ultra-elite networking opportunities, the ability to play the role of philanthropist, the sense of being the best at what you do.

It starts to sound like an Austrian School-style axiom – we are motivated to produce by what we wish to consume.

So here’s my message to the billionaires: enjoy your superyachts so I can enjoy my next-day delivery!

 

Author: Mike Vine

Published: April 1, 2020

The post All Yacht And Bothered: Why Billionaires Care About Us appeared first on The Freecoast.