Skip, Author at Granite Grok

Cancer cell with killer scaffolding structures

Well, as Glenn Reynolds says, this IS the 21st Century? Novel way to kill cancer cells

September 20, 2020September 20, 2020 Skip

Actually, a way to have the cells kill themselves, sorta, sideways. By taking advantage of the changes in the environment inside ONLY cancer cells, a new mechanism hits the “Big Death Button”. Every cells has a mechanism by which it kills itself off – but this is certainly new in how scientists are turning it … Read more

Free Trade vs National Defense

September 20, 2020September 20, 2020 Skip

As even recent readers of GraniteGrok know, I like short (er, mostly short) snippets of what someone has said or written that make what I think is an important idea that I label as “Notable Quote”. Many are just a couple of sentences – a few have multiple paragraphs but in either format, express ideas … Read more

Dem Majority Leader Doug Ley sans mandatory mask

Is That Manner of “Mask Wearing” Democrat Party Approved (Majority Leader Ley)?

September 21, 2020September 20, 2020 Skip

For all of the yammering by the Democrat Party and its NH House leaders over the 50 or so Republican Representatives that went without masks in the “Freedom” section, you’d think that they would have thought about the blowback: glasshouses, throwing stones, and all that.

Quick Thought – Republican “packing” or Democrat “packing” – which is worse?

September 20, 2020 Skip

With the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Democrats have threatened, like FDR did, to “pack the Court” by adding new Justices if Trump and the Republicans ram through a replacement for RBG as soon as possible. Governor Sununu, as Grokster Doris pointed out (In Emergency Order #69, Sununu Packs the Public Health … Read more

Notable Quote – what kind of life do you desire? A variant of “Who Chooses?”

September 20, 2020 Skip

The issue, of course, was that there have always been two kinds of people: those who agree with Chris Sununu that merely prolonging life trumps every other consideration; and those who agree with General John Stark that there’s little point in prolonging life if it means giving up the freedom to live that life the … Read more

CHAZ City 206 Wikicommons - The Seattle Autonomous Zone

As if the Seattle “CHAZ” autonomous zone was such a rousing success??

September 19, 2020 Skip

Here they go again! Elected Representatives on the Minneapolis City Council are already yammering that with their “Defund the Police” initiative, crime is rising. Now, they’re allowing what Seattle allowed – protesting anarchist and BLM activists setting up their own version of Seattle’s lawless “country within a city”. The idea of having the various States … Read more

Palate Cleanser – “Confused” Should Have Been at the Top of the List

September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 Skip

Was this going to a wordsmith specialty store? Or just someone that decided to liberate one from the clueless others…

My first reaction was “Or WHAT? Demands means you’ve got something to back them up with. You don’t”.

September 19, 2020 Skip

Over at NH Journal, Michael Graham asks the actual question I answered: “Will NH Pols Meet BLM Demands?” My answer is “only if they are scared of their own shadows“. This is yet another ploy by an extremely small group of people trying to shove their way forward on the political surfboard based on the … Read more

Notable Quote – one important basis of Freedom is the Right to Private Property

September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 Skip

The essential teaching of liberalism is that social coöperation and the division of labor can be achieved only in a system of private ownership of the means of production, i.e., within a market society, or capitalism. All the other principles of liberalism – democracy, personal freedom of the individual, freedom of speech and of the … Read more

Data Point – At what point does the rest of the financial world go “no mas”?

September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 Skip

The US Dollar is the currency of the world and has been for quite some time. Thus far, it has maintained that status even as our rivals (the EU to a degree; Russia and especially China) have tried a number of schemes to usurp that status. But as the US continues to borrow more and … Read more

Black Lives Matter – BLM Leaders Saying what they Really Are

September 18, 2020 Skip

When the real “peaceful protests” started to not be peaceful at all, and when you couldn’t tell the BLM rioters from the Antifa ones, we shouldn’t have been surprised. I try to take people at their word when they are saying something “important” (as opposed to noticeably just joking around).

Breaking: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg has passed at 87

September 18, 2020 Skip

We pass our condolences to Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s family at this announcement of her death from her latest bout of pancreatic cancer. She had said that she would serve for as long as she was productive and then and ONLY then, retire.

DISQUS Doodlings – Just Putting Republicans into Those Seats is Insufficient

September 18, 2020 Skip

Sigh. Once again, we see an instance of what I call the Republican Republicans’ for the Sake of the Republican Party (“RRftSofRP”). I don’t consider myself the brightest bulb in the lot; just an ordinary schlub from Central New Hampsha.

NH GOP Amos Tuck Reception – South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem

September 17, 2020 Skip

Gov. Noem used to be US Representative Kristi Noem but returned home and won election as Governor. She became famous in Conservative Republican circles for her handling of this COVID-19 pandemic for doing EXACTLY opposite what most other Governors were doing – basing her governance on Constitutional values:

Notable Quote – “You’re Negotiating a Surrender.”

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 Skip

On the idea that if our elected representatives are negotiating contracts with groups of government employees, they should be public.

DISQUS Doodlings – Kudos to the 47 Republican Reps that Refused to be Assimilated by the Democrats

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 Skip

Once again, New Hampshire Democrats try their hand at “Freedom Shaming” against those resolutely refusing to be assimilated by the Ray Buckley Borg (a Star Trek reference for the uninitiated).

The Collective Pushes NH Republican Dan Innis Out Over Opposition to Portsmouth Mask Mandate

September 17, 2020 Skip

Many towns and cities in New Hampshire are passing mandatory mask ordinances. Some include soul-crushing penalties of up to $1,000. This is a modern equivalent of “Ver are your papers, please?” where the question mark is really an exclamation point over a mask.