Blag at his day job^

Michael Dean with snowball and 9mm

Short interview in the middle of an hour-long good show, Blag Dahlia from the Dwarves interviews Michael W. Dean about Guns and Weed, on the podcast/radio show RADIO AS YOU LIKE IT.

Description: Michael and Blag are equally stunned and entertained while discussing the immorality of the War on Drugs and the War on Guns examined in director MICHAEL DEAN’s latest documentary GUNS AND WEED: THE ROAD TO FREEDOM +++plus+++ new music from MURDER CITY DEVILS, CEREMONY and GET DEAD – LOCK, TOKE n’ LISTEN!!!!

Get the MP3 of the interview HERE.

Interview proper starts about 16 minutes in. We talk a lot about anarchy vs. statism, liberty, drugs, 80s punk rock, jello biafra, dead kennedys, The Dwarves, guns, weed, and growing old with grace. Blag plays a bunch of violent songs that have nothing to do with me or my ideals, and asks me some rote questions about liberty that I get asked every time a non-libertarian questions me about my beliefs.

I think he actually did ask me “But who would take care of the roads?”, but then didn’t use that part.

All in all, a fun time was had by all, and I really like Blag. And I’ll turn him into an anarchist yet.

–Michael W. Dean

Larken Rose Talks About Setting the Slaves Free [ 1 h 02 min 11 s | 57.01 MB ] Play in Popup | Download

Larken Rose shares his thoughts on how to make the world free, who the real enemy is, and makes a suggestion for how to stop the tyrants from using the police state. Larken also shares his experience fighting the state extortionists and talks about his time in jail. For a provocative, no-holds barred perspective strap on your ear goggles and let Neema and Larken take you on a freedom ride.

Shop Amazon. Click the linked image above. Once there, bookmark the Amazon link. Whenever you shop Amazon through that link, the Freedom Feens Podcast will get a little bit of money Amazon without costing you anything!

FREEDOM FEENS Podcast – Michael W. Dean and Neema Vedadi’s fun ‘n’ feisty weekly chat about Constitutional, libertarian, voluntaryist, minarchist and anarchist issues, abuse of authority by police, the War on Drugs, self-defense, States’ Rights, Natural Rights, Austrian Economics, DIY art, low-budget filmmaking, digital recording, activism, punk rock, hip-hop and more.
http://www.freedomfeens.com/

(PLEASE CLICK “SHARE.”) When your statist friends say “…But in your libertarian paradise, who would take care of the _________ (roads, schools, protecting the environment, etc.)???”. Well, now you can respond with “Well, let’s find out!” And you can find out and show them, by altering the classic board game THE GAME OF LIFE*. Freedom Feen Michael W. Dean shows you how.

Makes for good fun that requires no electric power, so it will work after the grid goes down. Libertarian fun and learning for ages 9 and up.

First, buy a copy of THE GAME OF LIFE. WalMart has new versions of the game for about 15 dollars, or you can sometimes find a classic version at a yard sale.

Next, download this Word document of our sticker template, save it and print it onto a sheet of mailing label sticker paper. You will have to use scissors to carefully trim them to size.

Suggestions (of course, since we’re libertarians, you are FREE to change as you wish):

–Throw away the career card for Police Officer.

–There are no more speeding tickets. Ever.

–Regarding marriage, you can get gay married if you want. You can also adopt as many kids as you like, through private agencies, of course.

–For cards that say “Share the Wealth” on the front, throw away the ones that say “Collect Card” or “Pay Card” on the back. Do not throw away the ones that say “Spin to Win” on the back. Do not throw away the ones that say “Exemption Card” on the back.

–Cut out one of the stickers you print that says “Libertarian” and put above “LIFE” on the box cover.

–Cover board space that says “Sponsor Public Arts Exhibit. Pay $125,000″ with sticker that says “Sponsor Private Arts Exhibit. Pay $125,000.”

–Cross out the things in the rule book as shown in these photos^

–Cut out the other sticker that says “Libertarian” and put above “LIFE” on the first page of the rules booklet.

–Cut out the sticker that says “The Game of Libertarian Life” and on the board near the spinner on a space with no letters or people.

–On the college career card for “TEACHER”, cover “TEACHER” with sticker that says “PRIVATE TEACHER.”

–Cover board space that says “Vote” with sticker that says “Take Rifle Class.” (Don’t cover the word “LIFE”, and still take a Life Tile when you land there.)

–Cover board space that says “Run For Congress” with sticker that says “Win Marksmanship Contest.” (Don’t cover the word “LIFE”, and still take a Life Tile when you land there.)

–Cover board space that says “Win Nobel Prize. Collect $100,000″ with sticker that says “Win World Rifle Championship. Collect $100,000.”

–Cover 4 board spaces that say “Taxes Due” and the 1 board space that says “Tax Refund” with the stickers that say “Tax Protest. Collect amount of  ‘taxes due’.” (Amount is listed on your Career Card.)**

Playing  THE LIBERTARIAN GAME OF LIFE  is great rainy day fun for the whole family! You’ll have more joy, less hassles and EVERY PLAYER will finish the game with more money!

=-=-=–=-=

My wife helped with this. Behind every great man is a good woman he steals his best ideas from.

TO THE COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK HOLDERS OF “THE GAME OF LIFE”: This entire post is a fun suggestion for private use only, we believe it is Fair Use, and it is not meant to demean the game. So don’t come after us with your government guns a-blazin’. It will be a public relations nightmare for you. Better to leave it alone, and sell more copies of the game because we’re talking about it. Let the free market take care of it.

*For fun only. The Game of Life, as it comes out of the box, or altered as shown here, is basically a game of chance.

**We do not recommend that you avoid paying taxes in real life. That’s illegal and you’ll end up in prison. This post is just a game, and for entertainment only.

  | Download

Michael W. Dean and Neema Vedadi talk about how the Freedom Feens now has streaming audio, they talk about why the right to bear arms is infinitely more important than the “right” to vote, how voting is basically a suggestion box strung up in the cotton field by our slave masters, and what anarchy is. They talk about a dream of being armed and naked in school, the irony of getting a “you don’t own this” claim on a video called “I own me”, the personal politics of smashing guitars and burning money, the joys of saying goodbye to old statist childish things, why we need DMSO caffeine swabs to go with our electronic cigarettes, why “Freemasons run the country”, why a cafe owner booted a cop from his business, why anarcho-capitalists are generally better public speakers and better at defining and articulating their motives than left-anarchists, and tyrannical ballistic fingerprinting system patents for sale on eBay. Then Neema talks about the census tyrannizing him with the American Community Survey even after he filled out the regular census, and Michael explains why his home studio vocal booth is a sacred place.

A lot of people comment on how great the Freedom Feens podcast sounds. Some have even dubbed it “the best sounding podcast in the world” (their words, not ours). We’re honored, especially for something done by cats who aren’t in the same state, let alone the same room. And we do work pretty hard at it.

I’m in Casper, Wyoming. Neema’s in Eastern Washington State. Neema used to live in Casper, he did when we made the movie, but he moved, and we do the podcast over the internet.

We do a lot of research during the week and take notes on current events and random thoughts, and compile a list and each print it out. But it’s just a list of what to talk about, it’s not a script. We riff on the spot with what we say on the podcast.

We record what’s called a “double-ender podcast.” We talk on the phone, but don’t record the phone call.  I use a land line with a headset, Neema uses an iPhone held in place and acoustically isolated by using his “gun ears”, the hearing protection he uses while shooting. These eliminate echo and feedback of me from his phone. We each record our part only, with microphones on stands in front of us. We record in sections of approximately 23 minutes, stop, save the file, and do this three times for each cast. We record about 70 minutes for each 60-minute cast, and I edit it down to about an hour, removing, “ums”, “ahs”, coughs, repletion and things that I just don’t think should make the final edit. It takes about 7 hours to properly edit each one-hour cast, and it’s a very intensive process.

Michael Dean podcasts with the Zoom H2

I record on a self-contained recording device called the Zoom H2, which I call “the studio on a stick.” I use a mic stand with a sock as a shock-mount to cut out vibration from the floor if a cat runs into the stand or if a truck goes by outside. I keep a flashlight handy to check the readout on the H2, because I have the H2 display set to turn off after one minute to conserve batteries so I don’t run out during a cast and lose a file.

Neema’s set up. Note the pillow acoustically isolating the external fan cooling the computer in front of the left monitor.

Neema records on his end into an old Dell Inspiron B130 laptop from 2006. (They don’t make that model anymore, here’s a newer, better one.) It’s hooked up to a second monitor because he cracked the screen trying to set it up for a drunk freestyle rap session in college. Here are its stats: 40 GB Hard Drive, 512 MB RAM Intel Celeron M Processor, Bus Speed 400Mhz. His DAW is Cubase SX.

Cubase with one track of mono

For the cast he just records one track of mono.

Voxformer

Before sending me the file, he masters with a plugin called Voxengo’s Voxformer. Neema says, “It makes my voice sound more clean and clear. I get great EQ and Compression all at once. For podcasting I use the Nice and Transparent preset.”

M-Audio Fast Track Pro External Audio Interface

Neema Vedadi Podcasts with the AKG Perception Mic

Neema uses a AKG Perception large diaphragm condenser microphone into an M-Audio Fast Track Pro external audio interface . This provides phantom power for the mic, processes audio, acts like a pre-amp and converts to a digital signal for the computer, which is delivered via USB. When podcasting he uses only one of its two XLR inputs.

I usually nap before podcasting, then drink a lot of coffee right before and during. Neema says “I drink an energy drink before the first segment and a beer or whiskey on the rocks after the second segment. When it’s all done I export MP3s and then e-mail them to Michael to edit all night. Then I go to bed with my wife.”

The reason we take breaks and do three 23-minute sections rather than one 70-minute session is to allow us to stretch, get beverages, and pee out all that coffee, energy drink, beer and whiskey, but also to keep the file from crashing on Neema’s computer or on my Zoom H2.

We usually record on Wednesday night, I stay up all night editing it and release it Thursday afternoon when I get up, or Thursday evening if I go to bed without finishing the editing.

I record my end as 16-bit stereo 44.1 kHz WAV files. Neema e-mails me his end as 128kbs 44.1 kHz Mono MP3 files.  If we go over 23 minutes in a section and it’s too big to e-mail, Neema sends it to me via U-Send-It.

I edit using a fast ET1831 eMachines 64-bit PC with 4 gigs of RAM, a 700-gig hard drive, running Windows 7 Professional. Its processor is a Dual-Core Pentium 2.6 Ghz. This is the same computer we edited the movie on (using a $500 Vixia camera, Adobe Premiere and two external 1-terabyte eSATA hard drives. Information how we made the film is here and here.)

Mixing the audio in Sony Vegas Video 8

I pull Neema’s file and my file from the first 23-minutes into Sony Vegas Video 8. I started using Sonic Foundry Vegas 1.3 way back in 1997, before Sony bought it, back when it was only a multi-track audio program with no video support. There are better multi-track audio programs, but it’s what I’m used to and comfortable with.

I synch my and Neema’s tracks by scrubbing one left and right in the time line until they match, then go through and mute coughs and some places we talk over each other by adding points in the volume envelope. I pan Neema 18% to one side and me 18% to the other side. I check the overall volume mix of the two tracks to make sure they’re close, and render out as a mixed 16-bit stereo 44.1k stereo WAV file. Then I do this with the other two sections.

Before normalizing in SoundForge

Normalizing in SoundForge

After normalizing in SoundForge

Next I import each section into Sony SoundForge 9 and apply a “Normalize” filter (set to “speech”), to raise and even out the volumes a bit more.

Selecting an “um” to edit in SoundForge

After an edit in SoundForge

Then I listen to the file and edit out more coughs, burps, false starts, dead air and repetitions. This removes up to ten percent off the length of each section, and makes it sound a lot more snappy. This involves a lot of skill and experience to make it sound natural, especially with intuitively editing at the zero crossings to avoid glitches, and not over-editing which would make it sound unnatural. This is a very important part of how we make these episodes sound great.

During this process, I also add in any music, censor beeps (an A-440 sine wave generated from the “Synthesis” menu in SoundForge), and intros, like for our “Tyranny Today” and “Freedom Fix” segments. I save the file often, about once for every minute of program time….

Neema adds: “This is my music gear, used in the making of the Freedom Fix jingle and any other Neema hip-hop played in the cast or produced for the movie: Two Stanton C304 CDJs (basically CD players that act like Vinyl Turntables and a sampler/FX pad all in one), Numark DXM06 Mixer, Akai MPC500 Sampler/Drum Machine/Sequencer, and a Korg microKorg Synthesizer/Vocoder.”

Michael’s gear for DJ’s voiceover for the podcast and the movie (and for paid jobs we do on the side):

I use a Rode NT2A condenser microphone with a shock mount and pop filter. It’s housed permanently in a vocal booth I built out of an unused closet in the basement, using blankets and pillows as sound conditioning. There is a door on the booth. It’s the thing on the right covered with green fabric (the fabric is on the inside of the door when closed). We record in the basement because there is no external street noise down there.

The illumination I have in the vocal booth is an LED light, because an incandescent light would add both signal noise as well as slight actual audible humming that would be picked up by this highly sensitive microphone.

The microphone is powered by an SM Audio TB-202 rack-mount phantom-power two-channel tube-preamp, EQ and compressor, a unit that isn’t made anymore. (Here’s the single-channel equivalent, which still is made.) I replaced the stock 12AX7 tube with this Tungsol variant, which is made to sound exactly like the 1950s models.

I use a VERY small amount of compression with this unit, you can see my settings in that photo. Not enough to be noticeable and sound unnatural, but enough to make the recordings smoother.

Mic cables, you’ll need at least three. These are cheap and good. XLR male to XLR female Microphone Cable. Here’s a good microphone stand for 25 bucks: On Stage Spotlight Tripod Microphone Boom Stand.

The TB-202 goes into an ALESIS MultiMix 8USB Audio Mixer/computer interface.

The Alesis mixer connects via USB to a Toshiba Satellite laptop which is not online and is dedicated to audio recording and editing. The headphones I use are Sony MDR-7506, the best you can find for under 100 dollars.

I record into SoundForge and edit & normalize as above. If I’m producing a multi-track project with music and sound effects, I edit in Vegas, as above.

I power all of this gear with a Furman H-8D rack-mount power conditioner to minimize hum in the signal. This unit is no longer made, but here is a comparable model, albeit without the nifty LED voltage readout. I have only two pieces of rack-mount gear, so I don’t bother mounting them in a rack. Fuzzy likes sitting on this unit because it’s warm.

For recording audio while filming video, I use a large condenser mic, the MXL M-3B silicon valve microphone. This is a prototype that was never put into production. It was given to me by the company. But they have a comparable model, here.

…I repeat my editing and chopping process for the other two sections. Then I add the podcast intro and outro and save as a single 16-bit stereo 44.1k WAV file. The reason I make an intermediate WAV file rather than just saving directly as an MP3 is so I can archive the WAV files, in case I ever have to edit anything and re-upload later. Editing an MP3 and re-saving again as another MP3 would degrade the fidelity.

I convert the WAV file to a 128k 16-bit joint-stereo 44.1k MP3 file. (For our very short bits, like our commercials, I convert to a 320k 16-bit joint-stereo 44.1k MP3 file for better fidelity. 320k would make too large a file for the full-length episodes.)

Many podcasters only encode at 64k rather than 128k to save file size, but this makes for a crappy sounding file, more like AM radio, whereas 128k Mp3s sound more like FM radio. The standard of 64k came about years ago when bandwidth was at a premium. But now that throughput is much cheaper, and almost everyone has DSL, I think it’s silly to compromise sound quality that much. Some podcasters claim “the average person can’t tell the difference”, but Neema and I are not “the average person”, and neither are our fans!

AudioCatalyst

For MP3 conversion, I use an old freeware utility that isn’t made anymore, called AudioCatalyst. Again, I use it because I’m used to it, but mainly because it’s good. I see no reason to discard old good tools just because something newer comes out.

TagScanner

I tag the MP3 files with meta info and add the Freedom Feens logo image using a freeware utility called TagScanner.

Next, I upload (using WS_FTP) the tagged MP3 to our website (hosted on the wonderful and inexpensive DreamHost), add the show notes, photos and video links, and release.

We run the Freedom Feens blog on the free publishing system WordPress with the free PodPress plugin (and for stats we use the WordPress plugin WassUp).

PodPress automatically updates the RSS file and then pings iTunes and Google. Then the episode goes swimming out automatically to your iPod or computer for your dancing and dining pleasure.

All of this is a hell of a lot of work for something that doesn’t really make any money. But we love using our skills and time to make something great for liberty.

Feel free to make a donation if you’d like, and please rate & review on iTunes and TELL TWO FRIENDS!

Oath Keeper Sheriff Richard Mack – interview for the movie “Guns and Weed: The Road to Freedom.” Filmed at Wyoming Liberty Fest in Lander, August 21, 2010.

http://www.sheriffmack.com/

http://oathkeepers.org/

THIS FOOTAGE NOT YET COLOR CORRECTED OR AUDIO FLUFFED.

“Guns and Weed: The Road to Freedom”

http://www.gunsandweed.com/

A film by Michael W. Dean and Neema Vedadi. Drops Spring 2011.

View the pre-trailer (be sure to watch in hi-def mode!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo2a1QQDgOk

Keywords:

Sheriff Mack, Richard Mack, Oath Keepers, Oathkeepers, Graham County, Arizona, Libertarian, 10th amendment, constitutionalist, gun rights, Wyoming liberty fest, Sheppard Humphries, Neema Vedadi, Michael w. dean, nullification, guns, weed, legalize marijuana, liberty, Ron Paul, freedom, states’ rights, US Constitution, saving America, Bill of Rights, Richard Mack vs SPLC, Southern Poverty Law Center, tyranny, gun control, gun grabbers, Brady campaign, war on drugs, obamacare, war on guns

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
From: Michael W. Dean
Wyoming contact, Republican Liberty Caucus

Dear Republican Party,

In the next presidential election, and in all state and local elections, you need to support candidates who are true Republicans and genuine lovers of liberty. The party will not succeed if it does not run candidates who truly understand and respect the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights.

America was once a constitutionally limited republic, and it needs to be returned to that. In the past 100 years, and especially in the past 20 years, America has been reduced to a so-called “democracy”, where 51% of the people can rob and over-regulate 49% of the people.

A true constitutional republic could last in perpetuity; whereas democracies historically survive for 200 to 300 years. After that, they devolve into socialism or oligarchies, as the people who do not want to work vote into office people who will let them not work, and can pay them to do so by stealing from those who do work.

We are at a tipping point. America is in her 235th year. The next presidential election can determine if we regain our constitutional republic, or slide into a permanent “progressive” majority helmed by a deluded far-left who do not listen to the people, and are chomping at the bit to bankrupt us into a socialist oligarchy. Those folks see Republicans not as a force to work with in a bipartisan capacity, but as an impediment to robbing from the productive so they can “give” to those who have no desire or ability to produce.

If Washington followed the Constitution, it would barely matter who was president. The checks and balances would work. But ours has been co-opted into a popularity contest wherein people vote for the candidate with the slickest tongue and the shortest slogan….especially slogans like “HOPE” and “CHANGE.” As we’ve seen, these basically mean “Get me in, and you’ll find out my actual core beliefs later, when it’s too late.”

If the President and Congress followed the Constitution, DC would not be permitted to arbitrarily dictate most of what a citizen does in a given state. We need candidates who stand up for the Constitution, including the true meaning the Interstate Commerce Clause, and the original intent of all parts of the Bill of Rights, especially the First, Second and Tenth Amendments.

If the Republican Party establishment supports a spend-o-crat RINO (Republican in Name Only) in the next presidential election, you will guarantee a victory for the Democratic Party.

The Democrat Party used to have some principles, but has lately been taken over by a few dozen extreme leftist “progressives” with radical ideas and ties. They think they know what’s best for everyone, consider the Constitution a detriment, and consider Republicans a speed bump to be routed around behind closed doors.

America has woken up to the waste, “legal” stealing and “legal” bribes that can only lead to the destruction of America. The Democrats are largely responsible, but some Republicans have helped along the way. If you run a RINO for president, you will guarantee AINO (America in Name Only) in the near future, and forever.

The American people have finally woken up. Americans who have never been active in politics have taken to the streets by the millions. This is just the beginning.

The Democrats have been exposed for their gross spending of other people’s money at all levels, but in doing so have also shown that the Democrats aren’t the only ones. Some Republicans have contributed to this as well.

If you run a constitutional candidate like Gary Johnson or Paul (Ron or Rand, take your pick) in the next presidential election, you’ll have a chance. I’ll vote Republican, and help out. So will millions of libertarians, tea partiers, swing voters, independents and even some of the smarter disgruntled Democrats. All combined, this will be enough to make the difference in the outcome of that election.

But 2012 is likely the very last year where even this will be possible. The leftists are working 24/7 to stack the deck against the possibility of retaining any America in America.

The Republican Party needs to run constitutional candidates, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it will keep the party from being perceived as “irrelevant naysayers” without any of their own ideas on how to make the country better. Running constitutional candidates will keep you from becoming a footnote in history. And even that footnote will likely be erased with time when a permanent socialist majority takes control of all media and education.

This road to serfdom can possibly be avoided, but it’s up to the Republican Party. You must run Barry Goldwater candidates, not George W. Bush, John McCain, or Rudy Giuliani candidates. Otherwise you’re going to end up with an America you don’t recognize, while you cling to your “Don’t blame me, I voted Republican” buttons.

Politics has become far too complicated. Lawmakers don’t think they’re doing their jobs if they don’t enact dozens of new laws and endless pork-barrel projects to “bring home the bacon” every day. This leads to honest folks becoming criminals, and the federal government having a stranglehold over every single aspect of our lives. We need candidates who will simplify, not complicate. We need candidates who will leash the beast, not feed the beast.

The Republican Party must run candidates who follow the Constitution and understand natural law… people who believe in their heart of hearts that government does not grant rights, does not restrict rights, but has only one legitimate role: protecting rights.

Our Founders are likely rolling in their graves at what the Democrats are doing now. But the Founders surely wouldn’t be pleased with what some in the Republican Party have done, either.

Why make us pick from the lesser of two evils? Here’s a novel idea: how about running someone who’s NOT evil!

Try it, you’ll like it. And America will be better for it.

–Michael W. Dean
http://www.libertarianpunk.com