Civil Disobedience

[danhynes]

Too bad you couldnt postpone trial for a year so by that time Id have passed the bar in NH and could work on defending you and trying out some of my jury nullification techniques I have been researching. Id like to see that judge tell a jury that your method to change the law was pointless.

[AlanM]

OMG, my wife recorded this as my birthday present yesterday around 2pm, probably while I was cuffed in the police car on route from the police station to the jail:

Amethyste Fisher - No One Like You

Very nice. 
You've got yourself one heck of a wife, Mike. Talented, too!

[YeahItsMeJP]

Mike made the News in TEXAS!!!

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3320119

JP

[Michael Fisher]

Union Leader Editorial!   

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=54541

Danger!
Unlicensed manicurist on the loose!

FEAR NOT, gentle people of New Hampshire. Mike Fisher has been apprehended. For the time being we can rest easy knowing that this man is unable to file another fingernail without the proper credentials.

On Monday two Concord police officers arrested Fisher for manicuring without a license. In New Hampshire, it is illegal to give someone a manicure unless you have first graduated from high school or obtained your GED, ?(h)ave completed a course of at least 300 hours of professional training in manicuring, in a school approved by the (state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics) and passed an examination conducted by the board? or, as an apprentice in a salon, received experience equivalent to the 300 hours of schooling.

Of course women and girls give themselves and their friends manicures every day, and the police have better things to do than spy on slumber parties. What got Fisher arrested was his civil disobedience. He demonstrated the absurdity of the law by setting up shop outside the state licensing office and giving a friend an illegal manicure.

Fisher, a Free Stater (you remember them, right?), said he moved to New Hampshire from Vermont to open his own computer business. ?It?s hard in Vermont to start a business,? he told the Exeter News-Letter. ?In New Hampshire, it was just a $50 fee and a trade-name registration.?

Except, if you want to start one of any number of small businesses heavily regulated ostensibly for health and safety reasons, you are out of luck.

The state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology, and Esthetics allegedly exists to ensure the health and safety of people who use barbers, cosmetologists and estheticians. (In case you are wondering, state law defines an esthetician as ?any person practicing esthetics.? Basically, it?s a beautician.) Really, though, the board exists to decrease competition among barbers, cosmetologists and estheticians by restricting the supply of new practitioners.

Consider that under state law, doing any of the following without a license is illegal:


?Beautifying the face, neck, arms, and shoulders, by use of cosmetic preparations, antiseptics, tonics, lotions, or creams. . .?

?Massaging, cleansing, or stimulating the face, neck, arms, and shoulders, by means of the hands, devices, apparatus, or appliances, with the use of cosmetic preparations, antiseptics, tonics, lotions, or creams. . .?

?Providing pedicure services. . . beautifying the foot, and massaging, cleansing, or stimulating the foot by means of the hands, devices, apparatus, or appliances, with the use of cosmetic preparations, antiseptics, tonics, lotions, or creams, trimming or filing the toenails, and polishing the toenail. . .?

?(A)rranging, dressing, curling, waving, cleansing, cutting, bleaching, coloring, or similarly treating the hair of any person . . .?

?Giving facial or scalp massages or treatment with oils, creams, lotions, or other preparations, either by hand or mechanical appliances . . .?

?Shampooing, arranging, dressing, or dyeing the hair or applying hair tonics . . .?

?Applying cosmetic preparations, antiseptics, powders, oils, clays, or lotions to scalp, face, or neck, or removing superfluous hair from the face and neck of any person. . .?
If, without a state license, you or your friends do any of those activities in the privacy of your own home, you are breaking the law.

Surely there is a small need for some minor health regulations on barbers, cosmetologists and estheticians. But to classify everything they do as unhealthy or unsafe if not done by a high school graduate with hundreds of hours of training is plainly absurd.

[AlanM]

Great editorial! The voice of the people is being heard. Yes!!!!!!

[Michael Fisher]

OMG!!!  I have never seen anything like this before in my life!  You guys are the best!  I can't freaking believe this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe we pulled off every aspect of our plan and lived to tell about it!   

Thank you so much!  ALL OF YOU!  THANK YOU, KAT for putting your freedom on the line to be my customer.  Thanks, Dave for driving me around.  Thanks to everyone for taking the risk to come and support this illegal event and for creating signs for it - some excellent signage I might add!

This is out of control!!!   

[Pat K]

OMG, my wife recorded this as my birthday present yesterday around 2pm, probably while I was cuffed in the police car on route from the police station to the jail:

Amethyste Fisher - No One Like You

WOW um just WOW

[AlanM]

Mike, WE are the people thanking YOU. Thank you, you freedom lover. Shorty would have been proud of you. He probably would have bought you a few brown ales. If your wife hadn't of beat him to it, I heard Mad Mountain Jack was going to write a song for you. He still might. Maybe "THe Outlaw Mike Fisher".

[Michael Fisher]

[YeahItsMeJP]

Awesome Job Mike! Sorry my car broke down on the way up to Concord :-(

Thanks for doing this.

JP

[JonM]

Well, this just keeps getting better and better.  You are AWESOME Mike!.

Now if the news cycle slows down again and talk show radio hosts nationwide decide this is worth getting Mike on to talk about, wooga.

[John]

WOW!  Thank you Mike!!!!  Hip Hip Hurray!

btw, the Union Leader gave this editorial as much space as they normaly use for two.  And a great the great cartoon to . . . a smiling Free Stater who is "considered extremley pleasent".

You Are The Man!

[Kat Kanning]

OMG, my wife recorded this as my birthday present yesterday around 2pm, probably while I was cuffed in the police car on route from the police station to the jail:

Amethyste Fisher - No One Like You

OMG Mike!  She's a keeper

[Russell Kanning]

Seeing as how you thought of the idea .....and pulled it off just the way you had planned it ..."Civil Disobedience" style..........how do you want to continue this particular issue?

Could this have gone any better for Mike's first act of noncooperation with evil laws?

BTW are there any fines ....and are you going to pay them?

How did it go in jail?

[Kat Kanning]

http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_nomoremister_archive.html

Scroll down a little to see the entry about Mike.