What issues matter to you?

[Free libertarian]

U.S.  being the world police    
taxes ...all of them
laws for victimless crimes
Growth of the prison "industry"
Real I.D., anything big brotherish
NAIS  (National Animal Identification system) ...check out nonais.org for an explanation of what NAIS is and details of how to help stop Government control of our rights to grow our own food etc.

"Farm" bill


 I chant the buy local mantra from time to time.
For a variety of reasons I'd also like to see more people start to do the homesteading thing. At the end of a person's life most won't recall the good times as what they did at work in jobs they hated. Instead
they'll remember those times as something simple like their gardens harvest, paddling a canoe, the crunch of the falls first apple or a quiet walk with somebody they care about. At least I will.  
Mankind has the capacity to shape a different world but we can't seem to get past our faults of equating more stuff as somehow better.  No, I'm not some starry eyed socialist, I just think many of us baby boomers were taught that success was something measured in dollars...I'm finding out that may not always be true.  If in the pursuit of money we have no time to make pleasant memories where are we?
 
One of the issues I have is difficult to put into words but maybe it's the American emphasis on more is better and that whole "we're #1 crap" we've been schooled in. Okay I'm being cynical...guilty as charged.  Sometimes I think we are a nation of whining fat sheep, but then I think that isn't being very nice to sheep.      

[Dylboz]

I chant the buy local mantra from time to time.
For a variety of reasons I'd also like to see more people start to do the homesteading thing. At the end of a person's life most won't recall the good times as what they did at work in jobs they hated. Instead
they'll remember those times as something simple like their gardens harvest, paddling a canoe, the crunch of the falls first apple or a quiet walk with somebody they care about. At least I will.  
Mankind has the capacity to shape a different world but we can't seem to get past our faults of equating more stuff as somehow better.  No, I'm not some starry eyed socialist, I just think many of us baby boomers were taught that success was something measured in dollars...I'm finding out that may not always be true.  If in the pursuit of money we have no time to make pleasant memories where are we?
 
One of the issues I have is difficult to put into words but maybe it's the American emphasis on more is better and that whole "we're #1 crap" we've been schooled in. Okay I'm being cynical...guilty as charged.  Sometimes I think we are a nation of whining fat sheep, but then I think that isn't being very nice to sheep.      

I seriously got a little misty eyed reading that...

[K. Darien Freeheart]

I don't think I have heard of Free Talk Live, I am assuming that it is a libertarian type of show, is that a national broadcast or just in your area?

Unfortunately it's not in my area, but it IS nationwide (technically it's international now, they're on in Tobago). You can download the podcasts for free. Ian and Mark (the regular hosts) are both members of the Free State Project, nice people, and members of this forum but Mark doesn't post that much.

[grasshopper]

I'd say, getting back to natural laws of good so: getting back to natural laws of good !
  I bet if we all die, there will be no more global warming, hunger, nationalism, disease, war, stealing, corruption, people that want to take from you by the business end of an ar 15, drug additcs, christians, agnostics, athiests, bad schools, crazy drivers, home invaders, empires, or sand boxes.   

I really wish it was legal to "_____" bad guys, with sutes and ties or body armor that are committing treason against our Cnstitution.  A few "hanging on a pole" in front of the White House would remind them who is the boss in this country.  Dammed Monkeys.....
   Passifists are cool but an armed thug only has to pull the trigger, then that peacefull activist is dead.  Ask Mao, he knew how to get the people to obey!   

[kola]

head counting for violence? shame shame.

YOU are an OFFENDER, a criminal extremist, a domestic terrorist, a commie..

gitmo bay has your room ready.

beware.

Kola 

[grasshopper]

Nuh nuhh ahh!  I said Monkeys!  They throw shil all over the place, make a mess.  Animal control, not ..  well vermin control    I am always non violant, I'd rather be gassed to death than fight anything or anyone that takes my rites.  No really.

[Kat Kanning]

Taking your rites?  Beltaine?  Christmas?  How could they!?!

[Ron Helwig]

My highest priority issues:

eliminating legal tender
RKBA
education
ending laws and regulations interfering in the right to free trade

Wars and stuff are mostly federal issues, and I have little hope of affecting change at the fed level. Thus they aren't as high priority for me. I want to be productive in my efforts, so I'm focused on NH and more local stuff.

[margomaps]

My highest priority issues:

eliminating legal tender
RKBA
education
ending laws and regulations interfering in the right to free trade

Wars and stuff are mostly federal issues, and I have little hope of affecting change at the fed level. Thus they aren't as high priority for me. I want to be productive in my efforts, so I'm focused on NH and more local stuff.

Well, unfortunately everything you listed is a federal issue in one way or another.  I understand you want your focus to be on local issues, but the feds have their hands in everything you listed above.

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Actually, only two of them are "officially" federal government issues.

The right to keep and bear arms is almost entirely a state issue for now thought it is being attacked at a federal level. As for education, like soooooo many things done now a day, the federal government doesn't really have any role in education... But they use the budget to "encourage" the states to comply. It's the same situation as the drinking age and REAL ID - states aren't "required" to follow the suggestions of Congress but they'll get money allotted to them if they choose to follow those suggestions.

This is one of the reasons NH was chosen as the FSP. Unlike other states, for every tax dollar that leaves the state $0.93 of it comes back to the state. In other places, it's something like $3 come in for every $1 that goes out so New Hampshire refusing to follow those elects would result in signifigantly less financial upset than say, the same thing in Ohio.

Not to say the feds DON'T interfere, but New Hampshire DOES offer some realistic ways to resist that.

[watershed]

Class envy
Class patronage
Class elitism

Most problems can be traced to these 3 for me!

[margomaps]

Actually, only two of them are "officially" federal government issues.

Yeah, and "officially" the federal government is restricted to those few powers explicitly defined in the constitution.  Unfortunately reality differs drastically from the official story. 

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Yeah, and "officially" the federal government is restricted to those few powers explicitly defined in the constitution.

I actually look at that kind of as a positive. The fed over reaches, but it's possible to push back on a state level since they DON'T have control over certain aspects. New Hampshire is certainly the state where that would happen if it will happen at all.

[margomaps]

I actually look at that kind of as a positive. The fed over reaches, but it's possible to push back on a state level since they DON'T have control over certain aspects. New Hampshire is certainly the state where that would happen if it will happen at all.

Sure, I'm with you there.  My point was simply (and I'm sure you realize this, but I'll re-state it anyway), that we might as well not understate the fed's involvement on issues that the fed isn't supposed to be involved with.  All the issues Ron named are de facto fed issues simply by virtue of the fact that the fed has money and power intertwined with all of them.

[J’raxis 270145]

Eliminating the authoritarian model of government in general.

Specific issues that I care about, more or less in order, are legalizing consensual crimes, ending drug prohibition, and then eliminating all other government interference in people's lives (taxes, regulation, licensing, &c.). Strategically, I concentrate on the issues of government taxing and spending, because I believe that's the most effective way to restore all these other freedoms: Shrink the government down to the size where you can strangle it in the bathtub, as someone once said.