Wally always wanted to run with the sheep and not have to make decisions!

Ask a 'Free Stater' what liberty means while living in New Hampshire

                                  

                                                               “Live Free or Die,”
                                                     - New Hampshire State motto    

        Do you support abolition of all income taxes?

       Would you like to see regulatory bureaucracies eliminated, and most gun laws repealed? Do you think there should be complete free trade and that the government should be decentralized?

      Does the repeal of  most drug laws sound good to you? Finally, how does wide scale
privatization sound? If any of this sounds appealing, you may want to become a “Free Stater.”

      The Free State Project is the brainchild of Jason Sorens, a card-carrying libertarian who back in 2001 came up with a concept to give the then irrelevant Libertarian Party, a national presence in politics.

      Soren’s idea was to get 20,000 libertarians to move to a small state and pledge to carry out certain ideals where their numbers would carry some political clout. He and like-minded associates settled on New Hampshire for several reasons. It was known for to have low taxes and high regard for minding your own business.

     According to the Free State Project web site info@freestateproject.org , this is a non-profit corporation, organized for mutual benefit and “social welfare” functions. They do not endorse candidates or legislation.

     The goals of the Free State Project can be accomplished without the election of any candidates or the passage of any legislation,” according to the site. The Free State Project is not affiliated with the Libertarian Party, but welcomes its members along with “classic liberals” (not the modern liberals, but followers of Thomas Jefferson and similar thinkers), paleoconservatives, constitutionalists, and anyone willing to sign on to the movement.

     Organizers are quick to point out that the Free Sate Project does not promote secession. Soren’s idea to wield political power by bringing large numbers of sympathetic people together  may sound like a gathering of a radical, wild-eyed, ideologically separatists, at first glance. That impression has been gradually dispelled by articles in the mainstream press, including Reader’s Digest. The New York Times ran a respectful piece about Free Staters in October 2004.
     Despite what legitimacy that has been conferred upon the organization, they are not without their detractors. Some residents of New Hampshire find the displays of rambunctious democracy unsettling. Free Staters use civil disobedience and street demonstrations to get their points across

     Roderick Long, a philosophy professor at Auburn University and the brains behind the Libertarian Nation Foundation, told the Associated Press in December 2004,  “We don’t want to live by ourselves but simply want to demonstrate to the world that libertarian principals actually work.”

     Meanwhile, Sorens’ dream is slowly unfolding. There aren’t 20,000 followers, but those who did move to New Hampshire have made a political  impact. Although the Free State Project doesn’t endorse political candidates, some members have been elected to local office, including staunch home-schooling advocates elected to local school boards.

     Still, it’s apparent that most Americans don’t feel tyrannized enough to uproot themselves  and join the Free Staters.. You never know however; as the paths of communications continue to open via the Internet, more people may embrace the Free Stater ideals and actually move to New Hampshire.

     I think it’s important for people to follow a dream. It’s one of the many liberties that we Americans enjoy. Is the Free State Project a revolutionary plan or just a pipe dream? Only time will tell.

   As It Stands, we are a country of dreamers always looking for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

SPRING IN THE SHOP: a poem I wrote long ago...

In the center of the shop
sporting a smile
stands the Adjustor.

He does not hear the stamping
the shrieking
the shattered fragments of sound;

the presses pumping in perfect cadence
the whirring of huge gears
or
the split-second squirts
of
hot liquid plastic spurting into stainless steel dies.
NO
the Adjustor can only see
the pretty packer's eyes.

She swiftly strokes and stacks
spinning lids
adroitly filling each warm box
and
When he turns for just a moment
She adjusts her locks.

Dave Stancliff
1978

Doctors Say Marrow Transplant May Have Cured AIDS!

Twenty months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant an American man is said to be cured of AIDS by doctors. Researchers and doctors are admitting this one case might have been a fluke, but there's hope that more interest in gene therapy will come about. Click here for more on this story.

 

                                                                                         

 German hemotologists Eckhard   Thiel (left) and Gero Huetter of Berlin's Charite University talk with the press about their recent findings.

Rock 'n Roll heyday photos on display at Shoe Shop in Sherman Oaks

Greg Papazian was a teenager when he began taking photos of rock stars for several famous clubs, like the Whiskey a Go-Go. He took over 1600 photos before going to work at the family's shoe store. He became a cobbler, but one day a friend talked him into turning the store into an art gallery featuring his rare photos.       

 

 Greg Papazian is shown above with two of his favorite photos. Annie Lennox (left) taken in 1983 at the Palace Theatre in Hollywood, and Ron Wood, taken at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1973. He took photos of such famous groups as: Led Zeppelin; Peter Frampton; Procol Harum; Rod Stewart; The Who; Edgar Winter; Humble Pie; Uriah Heep; Deep Purple; Fleetwood Mac; Eric Clapton; Chuck Berry; Bee Gees; and T. Rex.

Lakers swat late surging Hornets to extend un-beaten record to 7-0

Before the season began those NBA pundits that talked of the Wild Western Conference being between three teams can think again. The division champs are back and just who do you suppose can stop them?

Certainly not those two top teams mentioned in the same breath as the Lakers? The New Orleans Hornets or the Houston Rockets. The Lakers have brutalized both teams while making a statement...they are the TEAM TO BEAT!

ABOVE - Kobe Bryant works on Morris Peterson during the fourth quarter. The final score was 93-86, although most of the game the Hornets were down by as much as 21 points. No team has got any closer than 7 points to the Lakers yet this year. The Lakers motto this season is: Remember what happened in Boston!

So take notice you Celtic fans. This is the Lakers year!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PHOTO?

Even in this day and age of gender neutrality this just doesn't seem right. You know what I mean? There's just no way she could....

So this is what could happen when you go into one of those bathrooms marked for both sexes.

GM scraps model debuts as the industry cuts expenses

Times are hard for American automakers. The big 3 are looking for a loan from the government. It's apparent to me that their going to have to retool, and quit selling land yachts and to catch up with the energy needs for today's struggling economy.

CLICK HERE to read more about what the automakers have been doing.

More Vietnam Era Posters...this Veterans Day 2008

   

 

Some Vietnam Era Posters : Remembering Comrades on Veterans Day

     

I was a Combat Engineer with the 31st Eng. Battalion, 79th Eng. Division and served in Vietnam in 1970. I also was part of a combination of American and ARVN forces that went into Cambodia in May/June; pursuing NVA Leadership Command and Control.

I lost too many brothers over there. They will always be alive however, in my heart and good memories. They were so young. I was 19 years-old. I didn't know shit about politics or anything like that. All I learned was how to survive in a very bad place. When I came home it was a bad place for veterans like me.

Now, I see Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering with PTSD, like me, and I wonder when will it ever end? When will we ever learn that war is not the answer?

 Peace brothers and sisters...all of you from every war...alive and those who aren't here anymore. Peace.