Outlaws, Private Cities, and General Stark – FF031

podcast_adminThe Freecast

Private cities, outlaws, coat of arms says so long, more bad news except for the LP. General Stark says Live Free.

News

  • Coat of Arms update
    • It’s official. Coat of Arms is closing.
      “Sadly we will be closing our doors for good on May 27th. We genuinely thought we had agreed terms on a new lease but things didn’t go our way which was no ones(sic) fault it just didn’t work out.”
  • Rochester Fair ends 143 year streak
    • “I think it’s a sign of the times. Young folks now, they’re home doing their DVDs, and games and all that stuff on their phones.”
  • Dairy Bailout
    • Governor Sununu signed SB10 into law on April 25th effective immediately. This is a $2 million bailout of the dairy industry.
    • Not only is this milking the taxpayer, which is unethical, but it gives the milk industry an unfair advantage compared to other industries that were affected by the drought last year.
    • This will promote risky behavior because milk farmers will think that the state will bail them out again.
  • Portsmouth budget is increasing? again!
    • Portsmouth City Council at it again, proposing a 2.13% increase in the budget for 2018 and a property tax increase of 3.99%
    • As we’re speaking May 10th at 18:30 the City council is having their meeting about the budget
  • Another state rep switches to Libertarian party
    • Joseph Stallcop former democrat from Cheshire 4 (Keene) switched to the libertarian party on 05/10/2017
    • “Personally witnessing the situation at Standing Rock showed me the danger of relinquishing power and authority into an institution, while my time in Concord reinforced the ineptitude that can exist by those in charge. I originally joined the Democratic Party in hopes of making a difference through critical thinking and my classical liberal viewpoint, yet with the lack of unbiased data in caucuses as well as backlash on votes I’ve independently made, it seems there is no longer a place for me here. With a high regard for individuals personally working in their communities to implement positive change, I hereby transfer to the Libertarian Party”
  • City of Rochester doesn’t like when people help poor people
    • John Weeden, owner of Amazon park in Rochester owns the park and out of the kindness of his heart he hosts a free meal for residents because most of them are at the lowest rung of the economic ladder
    • The City of Rochester has order him to stop. Why? He doesn’t have a license.
    • Rochester has an ordinance saying free or not you need to have a license to serve food and have a health inspector inspect at least annually.
    • Now Weeden is applying to get a license and can’t reopen the kitchen until at least June because the next course doesn’t start until then.
  • Good News: Rochester resident volunteers to repaint downtown
    • David Walton, owner of Crown Point Industrial will be painting the façade of at least 2 and he hopes at least 10 to 12 buildings by the end of the summer.
    • Businesses have offered their equipment so that Walton can accomplish his goal.
  • Emails:
    • Christian emailed us in regard to the COAST bus story from last episode:
      • “The COAST funding issue is even worse than you think. The plan by the Rockingham Planning Commission is to have them be the single source for all federal funds in our region, then they distribute them to other organizations. COAST’s goal is to get as much money and grow as large as possible, just like government. I actually work for the Rockingham Planning Commission so I see all this stuff internally.”

Local happenings

 

Special Guest: Kathleen Wikstrom

 

  • Kathleen emailed in about our death penalty segment 2 episodes ago:
    • Few comments about your recent segment about the death penalty: The idea that one could voluntarily submit to Sharia Law makes no sense if you oppose the idea that one can alienate his will. That’s the reason that contracts are written with penalties for non-compliance. The penalty is instead of requiring the person to fulfill the contract, because it would require alienation of will. A person can always change their mind, but they have to pay the pre-agreed penalty.

      Another idea I wish had been brought up is the idea of making someone an “outlaw” as an alternative to capital punishment for the most terrible crimes. While “outlaw” has come to mean a serious criminal, I read many years ago about its use in Ireland, and I thought it was a pretty good concept. It’s explained pretty well at the very beginning of the Wikipedia page titled “outlaw”:

      “In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute or kill them. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system. In early Germanic law, the death penalty is conspicuously absent, and outlawing is the most extreme punishment, presumably amounting to a death sentence in practice. The concept is known from Roman law, as the status of homo sacer, and persisted throughout the Middle Ages.”

      Basically, it is saying that this person has shown such disrespect for law (and generally, in such a way that restitution cannot be sufficient) that they no longer deserve its protection. If someone rapes your daughter and is declared an outlaw, you can kill him without any legal ramifications. That doesn’t protect you from social ramifications, but the more “deserving” the criminal was of what he got (and especially the more he/she is perceived as an ongoing threat), the lower the social ramifications would be. At least in these situations, the person who seeks justice on his own is taking personal responsibility for it. I think it’s an interesting concept.

 

Philosophy of Liberty

  • Outlawry

 

Seacoast History

  • General John Stark
    • “Live free or die, death is not the greatest of evils”
    • 1728: Born in Londonderry(now Derry), NH to Scots-Irish immigrants who left Scotland because of the Test Act(I can go into this below) and then left Derry in Northern Ireland.
      • The Test Act enforced upon all persons filling any office, civil or military, the obligation of taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance and subscribing to a declaration against transubstantiation and also of receiving the sacrament within three months after admittance to office. (basically prohibiting catholics and nonconformist religions)
    • When Stark was 25 he joined the Rogers’ Rangers during the 7 Years war(aka French and Indian war). Roger’s Rangers was an independent ranger company of light infantry. Not part of the regular army. Tasked with mainly reconnaissance, as well as conducting special operations against distant targets.
    • After that war he retired as captain(1763)
    • War for American Independence
      • Immediately went back into the military after first shots
      • He led 800 men, which he organized quickly before NH state legislature could which was the largest group in Massachusetts or NH
      • He was given the rank of colonel of the 1st NH regiment
      • Fought at Bunker Hill. his son who was 15 fought at the battle as well.
      • Washington asks Stark and his men to join the continental army, they agreed.
      • Stark was with Washington at the battles of Princeton and Trenton in late 1776 and early 1777 respectively.
      • Washington asked Stark to go back to NH to recruit more men.
      • Finds out that fellow NH Colonel, Enoch Poor, was promoted to Brigadier General even though Poor refused to march his militia at Bunker Hill and kept them at home.
      • Resigned in March 1777 in disgust but pledged his future aid to NH if it should be needed.
      • Four months later, NH offered Stark a position as Brigadier General for the NH militia. He accepted on the strict condition that he wouldn’t be answerable to the Continental Army.
      • Assembled 1,492 men in civilian clothes with their personal firearms.
      • Stationed in southern Vermont 1777
      • General Benjamin Lincoln of the Continental army, who Stark also didn’t think deserved his position. Told Stark to reinforce Schuyler’s army on the Hudson, Stark said no and stayed in southern Vermont.
      • British Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum in charge of 700 men mostly Germans, attempted to capture Bennington VT. Stark’s 1,800 men surrounded Baum’s army allegedly saying “We’ll beat them before night or Molly Stark’s a widow.”
      • Baum was killed and his men gave up.
      • Reinforcements arrived for the British but Seth Warner’s Green Mountain Boys came and forced them to withdraw
      • Historian Mark M Boatner wrote, “As a commander of New England militia Stark had one rare and priceless quality: he knew the limitations of his men. They were innocent of military training, undisciplined, and unenthusiastic about getting shot. With these men he killed over 200 of Europe’s vaunted regulars with a loss of 14 Americans killed.”
      • The Battle of Bennington and the subsequent Battle of Saratoga changed the direction of the war, Britain couldn’t isolate New England and was the catalyst for American victory.
      • Stark was promoted to Brigadier General in October 1777
    • After the war, Stark retired to his farm in what is now Manchester. He is probably the only true Cincinnatus of the Revolutionary War Generals as he is the only one who truly retired from public life.
    • In 1809 Stark then 81 was invited by a group of other veterans to Bennington but had to decline due to ill health. In his letter here
    • Lived until the age of 94 died in 1822

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Featuring: Host Mike Vine, Nicholas Boyle and Rodger Paxton

Special Guests: Kathleen Wikstrom

Producer: Rodger Paxton

Editor: Matt Carano
Check out this episode!