{"id":557,"date":"2008-12-22T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sugargroup.net\/varrin\/couch-or-snowman\/"},"modified":"2014-05-21T23:49:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T03:49:42","slug":"couch-or-snowman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sugargroup.net\/varrin\/couch-or-snowman\/","title":{"rendered":"Couch or Snowman?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s more dangerous, a couch or a snowman?<\/p>\n

These questions apparently haunt bureaucrats across the nation. The answer is, both are so dangerous that placing them in your front yard is an act worthy of jail time.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire may be home to the most dense population of pro-liberty activists in the world. It may already be the freest state in America. But, New Hampshire isn’t so far ahead of everywhere else that we can’t find something to complain about.<\/p>\n

Free Talk Live<\/a> host Ian Bernard was recently the target of the Keene City Code Enforcement department. A city employee<\/a> complained of a couch in his tenant’s front yard. The incident<\/a> ultimately resulted in him being sentenced to 93 days in jail (3 days for the couch, 90 days for three counts of contempt). For those who don’t think the government operates on brute force, think again. <\/p>\n

Some have responded to this suggesting that New Hampshire is a lost cause. If a couch in the yard is all it takes for bureaucrats to get their panties in a wad in New Hampshire, there must be a lot of better places, right? Some might long for the open spaces of Wyoming or Montana. Others have suggested (including one person I know here in New Hampshire) the vast and remote expanse of Alaska might be better? <\/p>\n

Think again. If a citation over a couch isn’t absurd enough, how about snowman abatement<\/a>? That’s exactly what’s happening in Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska, another so-called bastion of freedom in America, has shown it’s really no better than New Hampshire or anyplace else for that matter. The couch might be unsightly for a long time, but a snowman melts. The city doesn’t have to do anything for the problem to go away, yet they threatened to jail Billy Powers if he continues to build the snowman in his front yard. And we’ve seen from Ian’s case what happens when you don’t ‘cooperate’ with the government.<\/p>\n

What will make the difference is not escaping to a more free place. Face it, the government-worshippers have won. What we need is a concentrated cadre of pro-liberty activists that are effective enough to turn back the tide of ever more aggressive government. That’s what the Free State Project<\/a> is all about. If you think you can escape, think again…. think Free State Project… <\/p>\n

V-<\/p>\n

P.S. – yes, that userpic is me in front of the very snowman in question (taken two winters ago). For a larger version, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s more dangerous, a couch or a snowman? These questions apparently haunt bureaucrats across the nation. The answer is, both are so dangerous that placing them in your front yard is an act worthy of jail time. New Hampshire may be home to the most dense population of pro-liberty activists \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,112],"tags":[39,62,61,59,15,60,58,34],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom","category-travel","tag-alaska","tag-anchorage","tag-city-government","tag-code-enforcement","tag-free-state-project","tag-free-talk-live","tag-keene","tag-new-hampshire"],"yoast_head":"\nCouch or Snowman? - Varrin's World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sugargroup.net\/varrin\/couch-or-snowman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Couch or Snowman? - Varrin's World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What’s more dangerous, a couch or a snowman? 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