I gave this spiel at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum in February – a great event put on by the fine folks at the Free State Project. It was a real treat to speak to such a fine audience.
The first four minutes of the speech has too much verbal wheel spinning – but it sorta hits stride 5 minutes into the 44 minute spiel when I tell how I hijacked a Massachusetts Turnpike tollbooth. The talk also includes sordid details about my pathbreaking work at the Harvard Business School, learning how not to shovel working with the Va. Highway Department, raiding GATT headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and getting tarred as a federal undercover agent in North Carolina. The highlight of the Q&A is the story of almost getting stabbed by an angry Boston sculptor lady I met at a natural food store.
The full title for the speech was “Libertarian Hooliganism: Having Fun Raising Hell for Freedom.” I have to tip my hat to James Babb – who came up with that title when I spoke to the LP Penn last summer. It was too good not to recycle.
Thanks to Red Pill Recording for their excellent video work and thanks to Liam Leane for getting the video up online. And I appreciated Brian Lewis sitting in the front row during the talk so I could watch his reaction to tell if the damn jokes were working.
Most of the stories in this speech are plucked from Public Public Hooligan.
I never realized the pain you’ve had to endure because of the government’s lack of acceptance of you, but I’m glad you’re able to hold back the tears. Keep a stiff upper lip and all that.
On the bright side, there’s always a few Republicans that overlook their disdain for you when you write something the Democrats hate, and then the next thing you know, the Democrats forget how much they loathe you when you write something portraying Republicans in an unflattering light.
So, when things are going good, there’s about half the government that pretends they don’t wish you were dead at any given time – as long as the other half does wish you were dead.
Thanks, Tom. I reckon I’ve been lucky so far that there has not been too wide a consensus wishing me dead any specific moment.
I’ll keep trying.