New Hampshire

The mark of (Dean) Cain and other victories   Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged fandom ICE New Hampshire on by

I was pleased to learn that ICE agent Dean Cain is having trouble getting gigs at fan conventions. GalaxyCon, a company that runs commercial fan conventions, has notified him that it won’t work with him because “GalaxyCon’s values don’t align with Dean.” He faulted GalaxyCon for not being more specific, but I can understand their wanting to handle the matter politely. He surely knows what they meant.

In August 2025, I pointed out that having an ICE agent as a guest puts attendees in danger. Cincinnati Comic Expo had him slated as a guest, and I left a comment on their Facebook post expressing my concern. I felt I was fighting a lonely battle, but later on the organization found a reason not to have him appear. GalaxyCon also sees the danger, and Cain’s reference to a “blacklist” suggests that other conventions have similarly rebuffed him.

While I doubt that I had any great influence on the decisions, I can say I was one of the first to point out the concern. Some people in the Cincinnati organization must have seen my comment. Maybe it gave someone encouragement or a better choice of words to address the issue. The effect of what you say isn’t always immediate or obvious.

In other good news, Rockingham County in New Hampshire has “tabled” plans to hold ICE abductees in the county jail. County commissioners Tombarello and Coyle supported this position. In September 2025 I wrote about Commissioner Steven Goddu’s position, which was basically that the county should be morally agnostic and grab the opportunity for federal money: “It is not my position that the county should evaluate the appropriateness of actions ICE is taking.”

Did I have any significant effect on the decision to turn ICE away? Probably not, but it’s possible I made a little difference. This post, if the right people see it, might encourage someone to run against Goddu and replace him.

Speak out when you can, after being as informed as you can. It can make a difference.

Layout note: Up to now, I’ve laid out the blog with ten posts per page, displaying only the start of each post. This is causing problems with email subscriptions, which I just can’t get to show the start of the post and clearly let the recipient know there’s more. Starting with this post, I’m switching to putting full posts in the blog page. Once there are a couple of these, I’ll reduce the posts per page from 10 to 5. I think this will make it easier for people to follow the blog without extra navigation. Let me know what you think.

New Hampshire libraries and free speech   Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty libraries New Hampshire on by

Writing this makes me nervous. It deals with institutions I’m close to, and it’s one of those cases where both sides look bad. But it’s important to say it, and it might have a positive effect just because I’m so close. These events happened a while ago, but I just learned about them while researching something else. (That happens a lot.)

On one side we have Arlene Quaratiello, a minor New Hampshire politician and librarian who takes a restrictive view on what libraries should carry. On the other side we have the Dudley-Tucker Library in Raymond, New Hampshire, which violated her First Amendment rights. Quaratiello, who lives in Atkinson (which is also Karoline Leavitt’s home; what is it about that town?), wrote to a local news site endorsing two candidates for library trustee. She emailed a Republican Party chapter urging them to run conservative candidates for library trustee positions. Her letter advocated “protecting our children from the increasing amount of inappropriate material available … without sacrificing the intellectual freedom that has always characterized public libraries.”

This is at least worrisome, but it’s her right in the United States to express those views. She expressed them on her own time, using her personal resources. In spite of that, the Dudley-Tucker Library, where she was Assistant Director, terminated her. The reason given was “lack of separation of personal/political values and agendas from DTL policies, procedures, and occurrences” and that she supposedly was “not able to maintain the separation between personal and Library tenets.”
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Deceptive Unitil “refund” offer by SmartEnergy 1   Recently updated !

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged New Hampshire scams on by

A few days ago I got an item in the mail supposedly offering me a $100 refund as a Unitil customer. The name on the return address was “SmartEnergy,” not Unitil, so it immediately looked fake. It is.

The text inside says:

“Your order is not automatic.

To get started, you must call:

1-800-485-4839

Your REFUND OPTIONS (choose one):
I. Mail me a $100 Visa Prepaid Card
II. Mail me a $100 refund check

SmartEnergy would like to issue you a $100 refund.

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New Hampshire’s questionable alert system

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged New Hampshire privacy technology on by

The state of New Hampshire has a system where you can sign up to get emergency alerts. In itself, that’s a good thing, but the way it’s run raises red flags. The registration site is on genasys.com, and registering requires providing more personal information than necessary. The probability is close to 1 that Genasys sells this information. It’s also easy to exploit the system to annoy people.
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Auburn and Troy, NH: ICE hazard, seek alternate routes

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged ICE liberty New Hampshire on by

The towns of Auburn and Troy, New Hampshire, have set up “task force agreements” with ICE. According to the Boston Globe, they let the local police ” interrogate people suspected of being present in the country illegally and arrest those accused of violating immigration laws.” The ICE standard of “suspicion” includes looking foreign or speaking with a foreign accent. Accusation (by whom?) is an abnormally low bar for arrest; probable cause is normally required. The Troy police have made at least a dozen arrests for ICE. The towns of Colebrook and Carroll, in the northern part of the state, also have entered agreements with ICE, as have the New Hampshire State Police.
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Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged music New Hampshire silent movies on by

That’s the exact title of the 1922 movie — Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood — that I’ll be accompanying at the Plaistow (NH) Library on January 13. They called it that because anyone could make a movie called “Robin Hood” to draw off confused moviegoers, but no one else could legally claim superstar Fairbanks was in it.

Many movies have been made about Robin Hood, and there’s no canonical story. Some emphasize his “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.” Others show him as a partisan of King Richard, fighting against the encroachments of Richard’s brother John. This movie is in the latter category. Robin Hood is the Earl of Huntingdon, fighting the tyranny John exercises while Richard is away for a Crusade. The first part of the movie shows John plotting for power and achieving it, and Huntingdon becomes Robin Hood only after reluctantly deserting his king. His chief enemies are Prince John and Guy of Gisbourne. The Sheriff of Nottingham is basically a walk-on part.
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Anti-ICE activity in New Hampshire

This entry was posted in News and tagged ICE liberty New Hampshire on by

ICE has its claws in New Hampshire, even if not as obviously as in some other places. The secret police force has abducted people on multiple occasions. Local politicians are collaborating with ICE in exchange for a little federal money. But New Hampshire residents are pushing back. A new movement called Sanctuary Communities is forming to protest and monitor ICE’s brutal actions.

In my area is the Seacoast Interfaith Sanctuary Community. I’m still finding out what it’s all about, but it looks interesting. It’s been around since 2017 and says its members are “working together to support people facing the threats of immigration detention and deportation.” I’ve sent an email asking to sign up for their mailing list, and I’m still waiting for a reply. Hopefully the person running the list was just away for the weekend. (Update, Nov. 18: Yay! I’m now on the mailing list!)

These groups have been targeted by a campaign of lies. New Hampshire has a law against “sanctuary cities.” It requires law enforcement in every municipality to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The MAGAs are trying to claim it bans private activity protected by the First Amendment. If it did, that would just make the law null and void. Americans’ freedom to gather information and speak out takes precedent over Trump’s wishes.
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When governments fail, individuals step in

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged New Hampshire on by

The federal government has proved to be a single point of failure for many people. They rely, mostly for reasons that aren’t their fault, on federal assistance for daily needs. With the federal shutdown, it may be shut off. Was this properly the job of the federal government in the first place? No, helping people is best done locally and voluntarily. With the Democrats and Republicans fighting it out, it has to come back to that. Thanks to the effort of many people, it is.

There are many local assistance programs which help out people who need it, and they’ve just become a lot more important. Check who’s doing it in your neighborhood, and decide what level of help you can reasonably give. I favor the New Hampshire Food Bank. It’s affiliated with Catholic Charities but keeps religion separate from its mission (unlike the Salvation Army, which I don’t recommend). Many organizations are running food drives, collecting nonperishable donations. Giving money is better, since it lets them buy in bulk, but many people like the feeling of giving stuff that someone else can eat.

Libertarians and classical liberals should be especially ready to do this. We know that the initiative of individuals is the best defense against suffocating and unreliable governmental direction of everything. By providing assistance where it’s really needed, by your own choice, you support freedom.

The cowardice of Portsmouth’s Music Hall

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged censorship liberty New Hampshire on by

Last weekend I attended a concert by the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra in the Music Hall, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The audience seemed smaller than usual. There could be several reasons, but one possible explanation is a recent act of cowardice by the Music Hall’s management.

Update, November 6, 2025: The Music Hall’s board has removed president Tina Sawtelle in an effort to repair the damage. This is very encouraging.

Earlier in October, the Music Hall unilaterally cancelled a scheduled event by the Lovering Center of Greenland, NH. The stated reason was security concerns. What terrified Music Hall president Tina Sawtelle was news that a peaceful protest was planned outside the venue. There was no suggestion that violence or disruptive activity would happen, but the Music Hall management thought that a simple protest placed the theater in too much danger. I wonder if they barricaded their doors and windows during the October 18 “No Kings” protest in Portsmouth, which was vastly bigger. The description of the planned Music Hall protest said it was “to hold signs, pray, fill the sidewalks with chalk messages of hope and truth, and enjoy each other’s fellowship.” You don’t have to agree with their cause to recognize that it’s legitimate activity under the First Amendment.
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Plaistow, October 28

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged music New Hampshire silent movies on by

It’s time for another classic silent movie! On Tuesday, October 28, at 6 PM, I’ll accompany the 1923 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Plaistow, NH Library. Nearly half the available spaces have already been reserved, so be sure to sign up in advance. The film, based on Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris, highlights Lon Chaney’s makeup skills and his ability to win empathy for a deformed-looking character.

Hugo’s novel has been adapted many times for film. There were at least four before the Lon Chaney film. Charles Laughton, Anthony Quinn, and Anthony Hopkins are among the actors who have played Quasimodo. Disney turned it into a cartoon and compounded the blasphemy with a sequel where Quasimodo and Esmeralda are still alive. The 1923 version is widely considered one of the best adaptations.

Just by the way, I’ve noticed that the emailed version of these posts delivers the text only to the “More” marker and gives no clue that it’s incomplete. From now on, I’ll add an indicator that there’s more to the post, like this:

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