Blog

Speaking of Global Warming, this is disconcerting

August 30, 2006

From JunkScience (which quotes a lot of scientific studies) – maybe Global Warming, over the really long haul, isn’t quite what we think: That’s interesting… "Facing the prospect of rapid warming" – "DURHAM – Fossil trees in Antarctica show us that climate has changed greatly in the past. Suppose the current warming is just part [ Read more ]

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Your time or your money – universal healthcare

August 29, 2006

One of the "perks" of business travel is that the hotels that I stay in often will provide free newspapers; generally USA Today comes to the room’s door or one can pick up the Wall Street Journal.  It was in the latter that I found this editorial (paid subscription needed) about healthcare in Canada. It [ Read more ]

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Let’s just make problems for the future…

August 29, 2006

TMEW and I ran a daycare center for a while, so when I saw this at TongueTied linking to this story from Australia, I just shook my head: CHILDCARE workers have been instructed not to use the words "no" and "don’t" because it is feared they will stunt a child’s development. The terms "good boy" [ Read more ]

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Dope of the week – Delores Davis

August 29, 2006

I’m just hearing about this now…remember the story of Rosa Parks?  Well, here we go again – what a dope!  This time, Ms. Davis (a white school bus driver in Shreveport, LA)  reportedly told some black kids that they had to sit in the back of the bus as the front was for the white [ Read more ]

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I’m feeling old again….

August 28, 2006

All I can say is that, along with many others, that I am in the shape physically I promised myself that I’d never be in, and that I am thankful to the Good Lord above (and my Mom’s genes) that my hair has turned grey and not loose.  But when I read this (H/T: GeekPress), [ Read more ]

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Don’t they know war is illegal?

August 27, 2006

On this date, August 28th, in 1928, the treaty making war "illegal" was signed: The Kellogg-Briand Pact. That’s right, that treaty, still considered to be in effect on this very day, officially outlaws war. The website www.u-s-history.com tells us Relations between the United States and France had cooled in the aftermath of World War I. [ Read more ]

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Questions, questions, questions…

August 26, 2006

I found LaShawn Barber‘s site a while ago and I appreciate what she has to say.  Today, it is some questions that she has posed that caught my eye.  Grrr, great timing.  TMEW and I are at the same crossroad that many boomers have just faced or will be facing soon.  The Eldest was discharged [ Read more ]

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One of those questions that make you go “Hmmmm”

August 25, 2006

Over at Gizmodo, they ask the question "Watch or cell phone: Which do you use to tell the time?" For me, it was an interesting question.  For a long number of years, I didn’t wear a watch as the one I loved that I had bought in Hawaii back in the early 80′s died and [ Read more ]

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Lawyers!

August 25, 2006

Soon, "personal responsibility" will be considered a quaint phrase, like "Sunday best" or "two-parent family."  How goes the old joke?  "What do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?"  Answer:  "A good start." From Fox News: Professor: BlackBerry Addiction Lawsuits Likely in Future Friday , August 25, 2006 TORONTO — Keeping employees [ Read more ]

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GraniteGrok contributor discusses upcoming book project

August 25, 2006

Regular visitors to this blog should be familiar with the "And that’s the way it was" series of posts by our fellow contributer to the Grok, Ken G. Ken’s distant cousin, Henry Tilton Gorrell, a United Press International "war correspondent" who served in Europe from 1936 – 1945, wrote a series of memoirs from this experience. [ Read more ]

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Yup, they don’t, do they?

August 24, 2006

Brent over at Weekend Pundit has a quick posting about Liberals thinking that taxes that are low. I like people that put their money where there mouths are. They may be wrong about the cause to which they are giving, but I have to give them credit for following up their rhetoric with cold hard [ Read more ]

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The question that stopped me dead in my tracks…

August 24, 2006

Yup, I’m on the road again…this time I’m in San Diego for a bit, so blogging may be a little bit light until….well, until I want to. Actually, I could consider myself almost a former road warrior based on empirical evidence – I barely made Premier on United last year, and it is starting to [ Read more ]

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Shamed and Ashamed – where has it gone?

August 21, 2006

Something seems to have gone missing in the public square – the notion of feeling shame or guilt by an individual who has done wrong and violated typical social mores of the community, and the local community’s lack of use of the valuable tool of shaming / shunning. A tool that used to fit in [ Read more ]

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Then what is the point of doing this?

August 20, 2006

From Little Green Footballs: Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown said countries needed to understand that the force wouldn’t be offensive. “It’s not going to go in there and attempt large-scale disarmament,” he said. Let’s see, the newest UN resolution calls for all militias to be disarmed (as well as previous resolutions – they were not [ Read more ]

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The French – way to reinforce that stereotype!

August 20, 2006

This story from Fox News:  Countries Pledge 3,500 Troops to U.N. for Lebanon Peacekeeping Force Friday, August 18, 2006 UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations got pledges Thursday of 3,500 troops for an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it was unclear whether the soldiers represented the right mix of countries and units and could deploy [ Read more ]

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Another take on Matt McGonagle

August 19, 2006

The following was added to a Comment to the Post about Matt McGonagle ( see also here and here). Both Doug and I have discussed this between us and in an email string with the actual author. We have had to do a bit a “re-jiggering” (as I explained it to the author) to make [ Read more ]

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Wasting money on public transit in the “sticks”

August 19, 2006

One of my long time pet peeves has been the gobs of gas-tax and other tax-funded monies wasted on certain public transportation systems. I certainly support and appreciate public transportation systems in urban areas- where they are cost-effective (for the most part) and heavily used. It is when attempts are made to bring widespread service to rural [ Read more ]

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Dope of the Week: Jimmah Cahtah

August 17, 2006

You knew it would only be a matter of time before the officials here at GraniteGrok would find reason to bestow the prestigious Dope of the Week award to former president Jimmy Carter. Pretty much any time he speaks, he qualifies. Additionally, he fits in rather well with past recipients. . This week, we find the [ Read more ]

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Two Fundamentalisms

August 16, 2006

Obviously, we are in a clash of cultures – the West and Islam (at least it seems to me – when there is a group of people who hold other beliefs that are different from mine and are so intolerant of mine that they wish to kill me and all those that believe as I [ Read more ]

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Amish – model conservatives?

August 16, 2006

As I mentioned in my previous post, TMEW and I are in the heart of the Amish country. In looking at their culture, it does make one think about how their lifestyle contrasts with our own. It has demanded of me that I review some of my own fundamental beliefs about how I live my [ Read more ]

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