Enjoy these pictures now:

Your Friend in Liberty,

John Buchanan

I really dig the RV. It’s a 1986 Country Camper motor home. For the past few days we have been working out all the bugs. So far so good. The refrigerator isn’t working yet, but we hope to get it taken care of soon. In addition to that, we need to seal up a leak that’s coming from the black and gray water lines (it was dripping outside yesterday). We bought some PVC glue in hopes that this will do the trick. The only other mechanical thing is the muffler, but it’s not a top priority. It only has some small holes, so right now it’s only an emissions problem. Ain’t no “thang.”

Check out our home on wheels:

Right now it’s 7 in the morning, so once they get their butts out of bed, we’ll go to Panera Bread, pound some coffee, turn into Cornholio, surf the free Internet, and then head out to Seaside, Oregon. This little city by the side of the sea will be the starting point for the walk. My brother will begin his 3,400 plus mile walk across America in the name of liberty tomorrow, April 14th.

I will walk some of the trip, but I’m not committing myself to any specific amount. My main job will be to help drive the RV and the Subaru from place to place. What will happen along the trip is that we will probably park the RV for a day or two or three, and then shuttle Will back and forth from the RV to the last place he left off walking.

I’ll also be contacting local Ron Paul MeetUp groups encouraging them to walk with us at various points for a mile or two. One of the main goals for the “Walk For Liberty” is to get people excited about the Free State Project. Ron Paul people would make a fine addition to our trip, its goals of attracting the media, and ultimately to the FSP.

If you are a Ron Paul supporter, and you’ll be near one of our walking points from Oregon to New Hampshire, please contact me and let us know that you want to join us for a bit. Tell your friends. Inform your family. Let’s get the word out that we need to do something to reverse the declining change of American liberties. We are losing them left and right, so walk with us to raise awareness for the Free State Project and the Ron Paul presidency campaign.

Good luck to us all.

Your Friend in Liberty,

John Buchanan

P.S. - Here’s my bro at Panera Bread:

Below you will find a list of my top fears in regard to going to jail/prison. Whether or not my fears are disproportionate to the reality of life in prison is irrelevant. The first one is the scariest, but the others are in no particular order.

• Rape. This scares me the most.
• Sharing a small cell with one or more crazy people.
• Having mean, intimidating people glaring at me.
• A shiv in the back.
• The drab, lifeless environment of concrete and metal.
• The inability to do what I want…when I want.
• The deep depression that I will undoubtedly experience.
• Thoughts of suicide that might manifest themselves.
• The bad food.
• Inability to be with friends or family.
• No privacy or time for myself.
• No laptop or Internet at times I want.
• I might have to kill someone to protect myself.
• If I survive and go out in “the real world,” I will be different in a most negative way.
• I might lose my girlfriend, Yuka.

I’m willing to bet that my list would be similar to others. Why is prison so bad? What’s the point of prison? Are people really getting reformed and reprogrammed into better citizens? Why does the government allow the reputation of prison to include rape, racism, and non-reform?

Most people will agree that prisons don’t work (at least that’s what I think). The system doesn’t “fix” the “criminal.” Lots of people are content to think that prisons are okay to exist as a place to separate the bad from the good and it doesn’t matter what happens on the inside. The main objectives are to relocate the riffraff and to create a deterrent for possible “criminals.”

But what happens when people go to jail and become a rape victim? What if your son or daughter “went away” and they never hurt another person before going? What if little Joe got busted for marijuana and got raped in prison? What if little Sally got sent away for forgetting to pay a traffic ticket and got raped in jail?

“According to SPR.org, a website devoted to combating rape in prison, one in ten male inmates is raped in prison, mostly by fellow prisoners. Among women the number is one in four and the offenders are more likely to be prison staff members,” Wikipedia, Prison Rape and Sexuality.

Does the punishment fit the crime?

So if I don’t pay taxes and the IRS finds me, tries me, and sends me to prison, I will have a 10% chance of getting raped. But actually since I’m a white guy, the chance will be higher because “white inmates are disproportionately targeted for abuse.”

What should I do?

I will think about this for a day or two and then write my answer in my next blog post.

Your Friend in Liberty,

John Buchanan

First I need to define what the Free State Project is:

It’s currently a group of over 8,000 liberty-loving individuals who have pledged to move to New Hampshire to form a community of activists dedicated in changing the local and state government’s maximum role to that of protecting life, liberty and property.

That number is only the start because we would like to see 20,000 people who join and ultimately move within 5 years of achieving said number. Here are the benefits of moving to New Hampshire NOW and working towards governmental change NOW:

Little To No Taxes

• New Hampshire has no general state income tax.
• No general sales tax.
• It has the lowest taxes as a percentage of gross income nationwide.

If you see taxes as an unspoken form of slavery, you can make this your #1 cause. It’s completely up to you as to which issues to tackle. Many Free-Staters would like to abolish taxes across the board. Just imagine how much you could save if you weren’t forced into paying Uncle Sam at the threat of aggression. You would have more money to travel or to buy a bigger house or to save for retirement. If you make the money, then you should decide how to spend it voluntarily.

Better Job Possibilities

• New Hampshire is ranked the 3rd highest for percentage of high tech jobs.
• The unemployment rate is only 3.6% in New Hampshire whereas the national average is 4.8%.
• It’s ranked second in the nation as the state most tax-friendly to businesses. Thus it makes it a fantastic place to start a small business.
• There are no taxes on machinery or equipment as well as no inventory tax. Another great reason to start a business here.
• New Hampshire is frequently listed in the top 10 states for having a business-friendly environment.

So whether you want to work for someone else or to create your own business, New Hampshire is good right now. But you can make it your cause to make the state even friendlier to start-up businesses by eliminating the need for government licenses and permits. People should not be required to ask the government for permission to offer a service or a product. Getting the government out of the world of business is essential to restoring our liberties in our lifetime.

Personal Protection and Safety

• New Hampshire is the lowest for gun homicides per 100,000 people at only 0.43 people whereas Louisiana is the highest at 10.13 homicides per 100K.
• The free state has some of the LEAST restrictive gun laws in the nation.
• You can open carry in public (except courtrooms) without a permit.
• You can have a conceal carry license without providing a picture, fingerprints or training.
• New Hampshire has the lowest number of all crimes per 100,000 people. District of Columbia (6,230.3 crimes per 100K) and Arizona (5844.6) are the two highest. NH has only 1675.5 per 100K. So New Hampshire is by far safer.
• New Hampshire is the only state with no seatbelt enforcement laws (over 18 years of age) yet the number of deaths rank this state the 47th lowest at only 1 death per 100 million miles driven whereas Montana is the highest at 2.5 deaths. So if forced usage of the seatbelt is so essential, why are more people surviving in New Hampshire than the other 46 states?

Better Educational Opportunities

• The student/teacher ratio for public schools is 13.2
• New Hampshire is ranked in the top 15 smartest states for 2006-2007.
• The New Hampshire constitution does not mandate public schools.
• Parental qualifications are not mandated in order to home school their children.

Most Free-Staters believe that the government school system is greatly flawed. So why should all homeowners be forced to pay for property tax that goes to these schools, regardless of whether or not the homeowners have children? If you believe the government should quit “educating and programming” your child and relinquish control back to the parents and to the free-market, New Hampshire is the place to make this change, along with the help of the supporters who have joined the Free State Project.

A Nature Lovers Dream

If you love the great outdoors, New Hampshire has breathtaking backdrops to inspire your imagination and activism. You can choose to live next to the ocean, in a booming city, in a sleepy New England town, or in a cabin in the woods with views of lakes, ponds, rivers, and waterfalls. Awesome adventures await you in the beautiful mountains and valleys. New Hampshire has plenty to keep the most intrepid nature lovers entertained.

Utilize the awe-inspiring scenery to recharge you after a long day of activism. One can really feel connected to the land in New Hampshire.

Unbelievable Personal Support

If you are an activist in a state like Florida for example, you might have noticed that it’s difficult to the point of being impossible to find faithful supporters of your cause. The problem with activism in other states is that the good people are spread too thinly. But in New Hampshire the people are more concentrated. It’s easier to rally 5 or 10 people with only a days notice (or less). You might be lucky to find 1 or 2 people to join you in a protest in another state.

The great thing about the Free State Project is that it has created a community of like-minded people working toward a common goal. This results in an instant network of friends and allies you can turn to. Depending on the city you move to, you can announce your coming arrival and many Free-Staters are apt to physically help you move your stuff into your new house. Wow! Strangers helping strangers; that is what’s happening in New Hampshire.

You can feel the following:

• You can feel connected to an honorable group.
• You can feel the power of an instant network of friends and supporters.
• You can feel a sense of belonging and comradery.

If you are passionate about liberty, you will surely find many like-minded people to surround yourself with. And if you like your privacy, that is totally respected as well. It’s up to you as to how much or little you utilize your fellow Free State Project members.

Gain Confidence and Pride

When you are working toward a goal, you can feel good about life. Your self-confidence will soar when you think of a problem and try hard to solve that issue. You will respect yourself knowing that you are doing your part voluntarily for the common good (whereas the government forces us to contribute to the common good in a most inefficient and scary way).

Not only will you feel confident in your new life goal and feel proud for doing so, but the people around you will feel the same. Free-Staters love to meet new people who are as passionate about liberty as they are, and they will respect you for it. Pride and respect for a job well-done will be one of many rewards you can find in New Hampshire.

Create a Life Purpose

What is the meaning of life? This is quite subjective, but I will give you my thoughts anyway. I believe one way to achieve happiness is to make others happy. If you can make another person’s life better, then your life will get better as a result.

The Free State Project can open doors for you. You will learn so much about yourself and your fellow Free-Staters that your life will feel fulfilled. You can make it your life’s purpose to change society for the better without the use of force. A voluntary style government is more civil and ethical than an aggressive government. What a noble cause: giving people the power of self-responsibility and the right to live life as they see fit in a way that respects the life, liberty, and property of others.

Your life will have meaning in New Hampshire. You only live once, so “move” wisely.

Your Friend in Liberty,

John Buchanan

When I was in university majoring in art, I had one of those self-discovering moments when I learned something new about myself. At that time, I was taking a painting class, and I was working on a still-life. I was about halfway through with it when I realized that the composition wasn’t working, the colors were off, and overall I just wasn’t pleased with the whole project.

I had probably spent a good 12 hours or more on it when I decided to stop and just start again from scratch.

The other students in the class were amazed that I would start again considering the painting was due in two days. But since I am a intuitive, semi-logical and efficient person, I knew without actually putting it into words that it didn’t make sense to continue.

As it turned out, I’d been doing this a lot with my art projects in other classes as well. My painting teacher, who was also my instructor in another class, knew my habits.

That day when the 3 hour class was about halfway finished and I decided to start again (based primarily on a sub-conscience decision), my professor came up to me and said, “I really like it how you’re not afraid to start over. You’re really smart not to spend time on something that isn’t working.”

This really surprised me. I had never consciously realized that this was part of my character. I just did it because it made sense, but I had never formed this conclusion into words. This was the first time I “realized” this about myself.

As for now, I am aware of my projects and their current state. If I realize that the composition of my life is unbalanced, or the colors of my situations are dull, and if I realize that something is a waste of time and won’t likely be a success, I won’t finish it for the sake of completing what I’ve started.

I will stop and start afresh.

I’m sure you’ve probably figured out that this is leading up to something specific in my current life. And you would be correct.

The other week I wrote my first blog post for LibertySeeds, and I said how I was going to send a letter to a random person enclosed with a one dollar bill and some suggestions on places to learn about liberty and the corruption of the government. That was my intent, but now I realize that the execution of this was quite wrong because it would most likely be a waste of time (and money).

I had this change of mind because of something my brother said. He was talking about the Walk For Liberty, and he said how our mission was to spend our time on folks who were already liberty-minded because our ultimate intent is to get people turned-on to the Free State Project who are apt to listen. We shouldn’t waste our time trying to convince a staunch socialist about moving to New Hampshire when we could be spending our time on the multitudes of people who truly love freedom and liberty but perhaps don’t know much about the Free State Project. It’s best to focus our energy on our “target audience.”

That’s a damn good point, Will (or Bill as only I call him).

Why waste our time trying to sell cars to blind people? We will be more successful and prosper quicker if we are efficient by selling our ideas to people who like cars and need cars.

So I now realize that my spontaneous idea of sending 52 letters and 52 total dollars to potentially blind people in the course of one year will not be as efficient as say, donating an extra dollar a week to Free Talk Live.

I am currently a part of the AMP program with Free Talk Live. For those of you who don’t know, Free Talk Live is a call in talk radio show that speaks the truth about the government and gives positive solutions to problems. They don’t make a lot of money yet, so they need the help of their listeners. So they’ve created the AMP program (Advertise, Market and Promote) to help get on board with more radio stations throughout the country (they are now on over 30 radio stations).

So I am not going to finish what I originally wanted to do. So for now, I am going to up my current 3 dollar a month donation to 7 bucks every month. FTL is a better investment.

That’s my thought for the day that I want to share. If you would like to listen to the latest episode of Free Talk Live for free, click here. If you would like to donate to FTL like me, go here. Thanks for listening and/or donating.

Your Friend In Liberty,

John Buchanan

When I was 17 years old, I was at a friend of a friend’s house. I knew this kid, we had hung out before, but we had kind of a strange relationship because we only made fun of each other in a dry, semi-humorous way.

That afternoon when I walked into his living room with some of my friends, he pulled out a shotgun and aimed it point-blank at my chest.

I just smiled and said, “Go ahead, make my day.”

Well, we just laughed it off a bit, he withdrew the gun, and we walked into the kitchen as the barrel was pointed towards the ceiling.

In the kitchen, I drank a V-8. I was the master of burping (and I still am), and I distinctly recall burping so hard that a little bit of the red drink came out my nose. Interesting…

We spent about 10 minutes talking about the gun and various other stimulating conversations that teenagers usually have. Wanting a change of environment, we started to make our way back toward the living room.

BOOM! The shotgun went off. I was still standing. I looked over my shoulder searching for the bloody hole in my back. I felt no pain, but I was in shock.

The action of the shotgun accidentally going off and the racing thoughts in my head only took a second.

I quickly realized I wasn’t hit. The hole was in the ceiling, but guessing by the position of the gun and the new entranceway to the attic, the shot’s trajectory screamed by my head within 6 inches.

Even though this kid was an idiot, and I was as well for encouraging his reckless behavior of “showing off” with a gun, I still believe that the vast majority of guns do more to protect Americans than not.

An armed society is a protected society, and just because a few folks get themselves killed because of ignorance or disrespect for the gun or even from sadistic violence is not enough justification for the government to step in with THEIR pointed-guns saying, “Okay nice people, it’s time to put ‘em down; you don’t need that gun. We will protect you just fine.”

They say this through the barrel of a rifle. Does anyone not see the hypocrisy?

Let’s compare California to New Hampshire.

That west coast state is notorious for having violent crimes with guns, and it’s the 6th highest for gun homicides per 100,000. Whenever I think of LA, I can’t help but associate it with gangs of criminals carrying guns. When we look at the statistics, California has one of the highest rates of gun homicides but it’s one of the toughest states to own a gun or to legally carry one in public (I don’t know…is it even possible for a person to open-carry in Cali?).

Now when you go to New Hampshire, it’s a state without any connotations of violent gun crimes. And the statistics back this up as a fact. This east coast state is the absolute lowest for gun homicides per 100,000! Yet many ordinary people can openly walk around with a gun strapped to their hip for all the world to see.

Back to my earlier point: an armed society is a protected society. I believe the main reason New Hampshire is safer comes from the idea that criminals will think twice before doing some harm to another because he doesn’t know if the potential victim is packing heat or if someone else nearby is armed.

But in California, the criminal is willing to bet that the only people with guns are fellow criminals and police (which are almost the same). So if the crazy guy with a gun avoids the cops and other thugs, then he will feel confident in robbing a store or mugging some random person.

No one is openly carrying in California like they can and do in New Hampshire!

The only truly scary thing in this world is when a bunch of petrified people get together and try to control another group with the threat of violence all in the name of safety. The anti-gun groups want to use the government to stop good people from having and using guns. Don’t they realize that the government will stop the use of guns by using guns themselves? This is sick!

Taking away guns is not ideal for the common good. Did it work for California? What’s the situation like in New Hampshire?

It’s a no brainer, people!

Even though my head probably came closer to being blown off than your head ever will, I still want guns in the hands of people who want them. If more respectable people had guns, I would feel safer in LA.

And if I walked into a Starbucks in New Hampshire, I would know that if a thug came in and started picking people off, the guy enjoying a coffee next to me might put a stop to the situation.

Would you have that kind of protection in California? And remember, the cops will not protect you; they will only come and clean up your bullet-ridden body. We can protect ourselves (and our neighbors) better than they can and ever could!

Your Friend in Liberty,

John Buchanan

How does neglect get to this state? What’s so hard about cleaning a little bit here and there? Just 5 minutes of dish washing a day would be enough to downgrade the bio-threat to safer levels! Why the procrastination? Why the indifference?

I believe when a problem becomes too big, it appears overwhelming, bigger than life, and impossible to solve. So the easy solution is to give up, put on a blindfold, plug the nostrils and stumble around the house not seeing the problem right under the proverbial nose.

One of the problems with the American government is that it creates a lot of filthy plates and bowls and then has the audacity to say, “That bowl is clean; eat up citizen!”

But I’m not eating that anymore!

I see how it’s time to clean house. My concern is that most people lay around sleepy-eyed in two difference beds. In one room, you’ll find a person who says there’s a problem and that the house should be cleaned up but then quickly falls back asleep. On the other side of the house, in a bedroom filled with stacks of bowls, a person watches TV never realizing that the dishes block the light from the window. This person is happy to pinch the nose and gaze at the tube while peaking through the covers. The problem is all around but never acknowledged.

I no longer want to live in a dirty house. I want to become that guy who sees a dirty knife and says, “I’m sorry, there’s a spot on this; could I have a new one?” But really, I don’t want the government to supply my cutlery needs; I would rather kick’em to the curbside and yell, “Get lost! You’re no longer welcome as a guest in our house, you slob!”

It’s time to spread the word that we live in a roach-infested house and that an exterminator should be called. Who will we tell? And who will actually spray every corner of our house with pesticide?

Answer: you and you and you. Everyone who cares!

The first step is to get people out of bed and to show them exactly how the dishes pose a problem. After that, the housekeepers (that’s you and I) need to take out the garbage thus making a change. Just 5 minutes a week (not every day) is all we have to do in order to get people in the proper mindset.

But how does 5 minutes of activism a week work? Will it even make a difference? Remember, those dishes are stacked to the ceiling! OMG!

Last night I only got a few hours of sleep. I woke up and the words “anonymous activism” floated through my sleep-clouded mind. I then had an idea. The next thing I knew, I was out of bed and walking towards the bedroom door. Seriously, I never willed myself out of bed like I usually do, especially if I’ve only slept for 5 hours!

So I grabbed my laptop, fixed some coffee, and here I sit on the sofa writing my first blog post for my newly created site, LibertySeeds.com. So what was the idea that compelled me to “awake walk”?

Money…but let me tell you this first.

To be honest, I’ve never been much of an activist. I used to wear, “Save the whales!” t-shirts when I was in middle school, and I liked to tell authority off in various ways, but I never really did much in the way of deep cleaning.

I used to be that guy who always knew there was a problem with the dirty dishes, but I preferred to sleep, so off I went into lah-lah-land (insert snoring sounds).

Any way, it was my brother, Will Buchanan who put the alarm clock next to my bed. The buzzer went off and started playing a radio talk show. The actual show I’m referring to is Free Talk Live. It’s a 6 day a week broadcast in which people can call in and talk about anything, but most of the discussions are about the problems with government and society. What’s fantastic about this show is that it’s not stuck on a negative rant of the-world-sucks-mentality; it really tries hard to offer solutions. The tone is ultimately positive and encouraging.

Listening to Free Talk Live changed me. I started agreeing on issues I never considered before. So I started sharing these thoughts with my friends, and we had discussions about welfare, the military, and taxes, you know, things like that. But simply talking to my small circle of friends was not enough.

And once again my brother put another alarm clock on my nightstand. He invited me to join him on his house cleaning mission dubbed, Walk For Liberty. He pledges to walk 100% of the way from Oregon to New Hampshire so as to raise awareness for Ron Paul’s presidency campaign and the Free State Project. Education is important. So, I agreed to join this cleaning quest and speak my mind to the country by saying, “Those dishes are dirty, and here’s how we can clean them together.”

So here I am, sitting on a sofa in Hawaii at my brother’s place preparing for our 6 or 7 month powerhouse cleaning tour of America. But I’m anxious to start. I want to make a difference now.

We still have about a month an a half before our walk for liberty starts, so here’s my idea for anonymous activism that anyone can do. Just 5 minutes (or less) a week will start to make a change.

Since the first step is to get people out of bed, we need to give them a wake up call. But in our case, we’re going to give them a wake up letter right to their very homes. Not an email! An actual old fashioned letter. We want to make an impact. Traditional things like that can work. So can money. So we’ll combine the two.

My so called science experiment will be to send a letter to a random person once a week. I will tell them my observations on the governmental problems and my desire to clean house. Education is key, so I will give them websites to check out, TV shows they should watch, and radio programs to listen to.

When cleaning an overwhelmingly dirty house, it should be done with baby steps when it comes to people who’ve never cleaned before.

So in addition to the letter, I will give them a dollar to prove that my intentions are true and that they were not one of millions of people who received the letter. I want them to feel special. I want them to hear the alarm by their over-used bed. I want them to take action. So if I have to bribe one person with one dollar a week to read a libertarian based website or to listen to Free Talk Live, well, that’s a dollar well spent!

The letter could be handwritten (ideal for a stronger impact), but if you’re too busy, you could use a typed-up form letter and then just fill-in your name and whatnot, add the crisp dollar, and send it out.

If you’re a new housekeeper like me, then we need to start small. But the potential for this could be huge.

Just imagine if 100 anonymous activists sent out 100 letters a week for one year. That’s 5,200 letters! And how many of those 5,200 will tell their family, friends, and co-workers about getting a letter and a dollar? What if each one told just 5 people? That’s 26,000 people who heard the message that started from just 100 people! The numbers add up quickly.

What if 200 of us housekeepers did this for a year? That’s 52,000 people a year getting the “true word.”

Remember the expression, money talks? The dollar with the letter is crucial. You could even take it a step further and write a message on the dollar with a pen. Just write something inspiring and add the website address of an appropriate liberty-minded cause.

So just imagine if 52,000 one dollar bills went into circulation with a written statement? The message could easily get out to over 100,000 or 200,000 people. All of this from the work of 100 to 200 dedicated anonymous activists who spent less than 5 minutes a week for one year.

I will start this experiment this week and I would love others to join me. I pledge that I will send out 52 letters and 52 one dollar bills with advertisements for liberty within the next 52 weeks. How many will you send out?

Good luck to us all!

Your Friend in Liberty,

John Buchanan