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Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom and how the Government is taking that away. As an evangelical Christian and Conservative with small "L" libertarian leanings, my fight is with Progressives forcing a collectivized, secular humanistic future upon us. As a TEA Party activist, citizen journalist, and pundit!, my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture.

Disqus Doodlings – Treehugger is so upset we buy clothes for ourselves….Part 2

And sometimes, one has to keep stating the obvious.  One of the commenters on Treehuggers’ H&M’s fast fashion is too slow for today’s shoppers post just had to wade in on the consumerist rage that these people show. I’d explain it but Chris Howard makes it abundantly clear how he feels about “shopping just because I can” outlooks.

Masturshopping.

Shopping for self pleasure, not want or need.

(Yes, I was mindful of Rule #1 here – a bit behind the line, thankfully!)

As I have said before, these kinds of folks could suck the joy out of finding a bar of gold! Put on the sackcloth and roll around in ashes is seemingly the message.  Thou Shalt Not Be Happy – the environmentalist version of the dour, cannot be happy” Puritans whose legalistic ways made my home church as I was growing up look like a Pentecostal rally.  That is followed by Thou Shalt Not Buy Something Just Because You Can – You’re Killing GAIA.  Yes folks, it is a religious outlook.  I tried to puncture the despair a bit by piling on just a tad (am I wrong in using pixel and bits in my guilty little pleasure here?).

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FB Doodlings – “Scott Metzger: Some of property-tax burden should be shifted to vehicle registrations” – Part 1

Calvin Coolidge on taxesYeah, sure thing.  Once again, a lack of thought about a taxing system as a whole versus just wanting a myriad of taxes to replace NH’s property tax system.  Sadly, Scott Metzger fails to understand the driver(s) for this and is simply stated by a famous phrase by a former NH Governor. Emphasis mine, reformatted:

Year after year I am saddened to see my town continually divided over the ability or inability of its citizens to afford an increase in our property taxes.

At every town meeting, a group of residents approaches the microphone to explain how they are living on a fixed income and will be forced to move from the town they’ve lived in all their lives if taxes increase. Another group approaches the mic and talks about how we cannot afford not to increase the school budget or town budget to pay for vital building expansions or services. And both groups are right. What’s wrong is the way we are asked to share the burden.

He’s wrong.  If decisions are to be made

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“Sniveling Brats” – but are they listening?

Ah, no.  Instead, given the uplift by his Progressive handlers and supporters, this sniveling drama student has allowed all this drama go to his head and believes that absolute moral authority (and Constitutional awareness and the ability to dismiss adults at will and the total lack of understanding the concept of “earned wisdom” has fallen … Read more

Once again, Tucker Carlson shows that the Left CAN’T answer a straight forward question: what will happen when you confiscate guns from law abiding citizens?”

So this Georgia lawmaker,  State Rep. Erica Thomas, went on Tucker Carlson in defense right after the first March for Our Lesser Rights Lives rallies and rightfully took the kids to task for not understanding that complex problem do not have simple answers. He had a simple question: what would happen in Georgia if a law she supported went into effect?  That law, supported by Thomas, mandated that Georgia State Police were to go and seize all “assault weapons” (obligatory reminder: there is no such thing as its a made up Progressive political term) and “high” capacity magazines.

She proves, once again, that you cannot trust what politicians say but what they do.  She spends the entire time avoiding Carlson’s rather simple and straightforward question: what would happen and aren’t people going to get killed over this. She would not admit to the “seize” part means mandatory confiscation and would not admit that anything wrong would happen.  She kept sidestepping and could not be honest about what she wanted to do. This Progressive was all set in declaring, without any due process, that law abiding citizens were to be declared criminals with the signing of a piece of paper just like Deerfield, Illinois (here and here) has done with Boulder, Colorado now looking to do the same.

I’m going to apply this rule to Steve Marchand, too; he’s

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It’s April. I just got 1.5 inches of snow. The sign may be right?

I was just remarking that I remember having varsity tennis matches canceled when I was in high school because of snow like this – back in the 70s (yes, I’m getting to be that old).  Back then, the scientists and media were all up in arms that we were headed into global cooling and that … Read more

Drug Addiction Recovery – a source of government rent-seeking?

MIDPOINT recover center logoWhat does it say about the marketplace when startups turn directly to government for launching? And then get P.O’d when they get a “no”?

Nonprofit startup scraps plans for recovery center in Concord

A startup Manchester nonprofit has abandoned plans to open a recovery center in Concord after a discouraging meeting with state officials, the founder of the group said on Thursday.

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Such a FINE County Sheriff in Georgia!

Every morning the children of Harris County gather around the welcome sign to recite the county pledge: pic.twitter.com/29c4SVB0hf — We Love Columbus! (@welovecolumbus) April 5, 2018

It was written for a reason and it ain’t for plinking or hunting

Yep, this should scare us all now that Progressives are openly saying this (and Milquetoast Republicans going along with their other tactic of “Death by a 1,000 cuts”) as in “Politics is all about compromising”). There should be no compromise at all by those of us that believe in what the original text of the … Read more

Quick Thought: Treehugger is at it again

Watermelon EnvironmentalismLloyd Alter, head honcho over at said site, is a New Urbanism – hates suburbia, seemingly hates rural areas, loves the city and wants us all to live there “sustainably” and in a “walkable serenity”.  No cars, only public transit; enforce “neighborliness” in which a “community” will flourish (if you’re an introvert, yer outta luck) and lots of conversations bloom!  Small fridges and small kitchens (and small apartments in high density area – think “rack’em and stack’em”) mean you WILL spend your time shopping pretty much every day – you WILL love your fresh food from the neighborhood grocery (think small – and expensive).  Yep, lots of the Progressive tell of “you don’t need that” with this one.

His latest rant is the width of sidewalks in his hometown of Toronto, Canada – they are small and the butt of his rant is are telephone / electrical poles built into the sidewalks – they disturb his sense of “wa” and promotes an inability to walk two by two.  Go read it if you want but what caught my eye was this description of Toronto’s government structure that’s supposed to keep this from happening:

“inter-divisional and inter-agency Walking Strategy Team chaired by the Director of the Public Realm Section [must] ensure city-wide coordination of Strategy projects.”

Well…

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“…churning out plug-in cars at an incredible rate” – only to the Die-Hards (get it?) crew

Yeah, I keep seeing this a lot that EVs (electric cars) are taking over.  Sure, percentages may be up but when you’re starting from zero, anything is a plus.  Yep – Treehugger again (abridged):

Between Tesla finally getting Model 3s out, and the new Nissan Leaf hitting forecourts, it seems plug-in cars are moving fast.

  • a whopping 26,373 plug-ins delivered. Compare that to 18,542 the year before, and it starts to feel like something big is going on.
  • Tesla, for example, may finally be turning a corner on its production hell, and delivered 3,820 Model 3s, 3,375 Model Ss, and 2,825 Model Xs.
  • new Nissan Leaf saw 1,500 deliveries in March, compared to just 895 in February. That’s not surprising given these are so fresh off the factory floor, but it will be interesting to see whether sales grow from here—or if they plateau as people wait for longer range options to become available.
  • estimated Chrysler Pacifica eHybrid sales have been rising steadily this year from 375 in January, through 450 in February to 480 in March.

I suspect that this is only the beginning. Plug-in car sales have been growing steadily for some time to come, but at some point they will really take off.

Yeah, I’ve been hearing this for the last 10 years.  So 19K EVs and they’re taking over the world.  Meanwhile, reality show how lame EV sales really are in toto:

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Data Point – Favorable / Non-Favorable Views on the NRA

Given the full court press by the media / Progressive / anti-gun groups, one would have thought that the NRA would be around the rating of Congress (15%).  I guess the “Narrative” we keep hearing pushed by the Parkland Kiddies (“child killers!”, “murderers” – just like the Lefty hippies screamed at Viet Nam vets as … Read more

Yeah, sure – they don’t want to take our guns….until they do

Liberal Guide to an AR-15

“You don’t need that” is the Progressive drive to wall you into their world – and disallow your’s. Just like the Kabuki Safety Theater we see in airports (where because of one lout trying to blow up a plane we all have to expose our smelly / holey socks to the world) (emphasis mine, reformatted):

The Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois voted on Monday to ban the possession, sale, and manufacture of assault weapons and large capacity magazines to “increase the public’s sense of safety.” What’s more, CBS Chicago reports, anyone refusing to give up their banned firearm will be fined $1,000 a day until the weapon is handed over or removed from the town’s limits.  The ordinance states, “The possession, manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the Village of Deerfield is not reasonably necessary to protect an individual’s right of self-defense or the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.”

They show they can’t properly diagram a sentence. They also won’t live / govern by the “shall not infringe” part of the command, either. And they’ve fallen for that fake political term “assault weapon”.

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GraniteGrok: Conservative? Check! ‘Grok: TEA Party? Check! Bill O’Brien supporters? Check! Mark Hounsell seeking out the ‘Grok as a platform? Hypocrite!

Mark HounsellDuring the Womens’ Defense League of NH‘s annual Gun Rally, Mark Housell ( now FORMER candidate for US Congress in NH’s CD-1) actively sought me out (not hard to miss – ‘Grok hat on, camera in tow) almost as soon as a “late arrived) to have me do an interview.  We tried to do it right then but the volume of the PA system was too loud so he waited until after the event had concluded – which took quite some time.  Then he waited as I interviewed several other people first so it was clear that he craved the publicity this Conservative, TEA Party, Bill O’Brien, multiple AFP award winning site could provide him.  Yet, this is what he told the Laconia Daily Sun as he exited the race (reformatted, emphasis mine:

Hounsell did say that those pushing a liberal agenda are making “blatant and unabashed attempts to buy New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District with out-of-state money,” while the state’s Republican party “is hog-tied by right-wing extremists passing as conservatives.”

Hounsell disagreed with the “big tent” analogy [of NH GOP Forrester’s big tent analogy -Skip]. “The people who are in that big tent are doing all they can to change it from a big tent to a pup tent,” he said, naming Bill O’Brien and Americans for Prosperity. “If you don’t pass their so-called purity test, you’re not really part of it. I don’t fit their definition of what a conservative is; that is, neo-con, Tea [sic] Party.

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Notable Quote – David Cole

David Hogg 1“The bullies never go after people they can’t break, because to do so would make them look weak and impotent.”

On the outlook and actions of the Left:

But in the real world, there are times when one simply should not beg. And you’ll know those times by the character of your foe. If you’re up against the kind of monster who derives pleasure from hearing people plead for mercy, that’s when you cannot, must not, beg.

Today’s social justice leftists operate very much like that fictional serial killer. Their intended victims are people, sometimes in the public eye, sometimes average folks, who have written or said things that leftists find offensive. And if they mark you as an enemy, they will use every tool in their arsenal to destroy your life. If you have a job, they’ll try to get you fired. If you have a reputation, they’ll try to tarnish it. If you have a business venture, they’ll try to bankrupt it. If you have an online presence, they’ll try to get you banned from all platforms.

And certainly we (collectively and in some cases, individually) at the ‘Grok over the years have been subjected to this virtual “killing” simply for one and only one reason: we simply speak our minds and the Left hates it and looks for any opportunity for “a silencing”.

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Notable Quote – David Cole

David Hogg 1“The bullies never go after people they can’t break, because to do so would make them look weak and impotent.”

On the outlook and actions of the Left:

But in the real world, there are times when one simply should not beg. And you’ll know those times by the character of your foe. If you’re up against the kind of monster who derives pleasure from hearing people plead for mercy, that’s when you cannot, must not, beg.

Today’s social justice leftists operate very much like that fictional serial killer. Their intended victims are people, sometimes in the public eye, sometimes average folks, who have written or said things that leftists find offensive. And if they mark you as an enemy, they will use every tool in their arsenal to destroy your life. If you have a job, they’ll try to get you fired. If you have a reputation, they’ll try to tarnish it. If you have a business venture, they’ll try to bankrupt it. If you have an online presence, they’ll try to get you banned from all platforms.

And certainly we (collectively and in some cases, individually) at the ‘Grok over the years have been subjected to this virtual “killing” simply for one and only one reason: we simply speak our minds and the Left hates it and looks for any opportunity for “a silencing”.

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Democrat saying that the electorate is “too stupid to vote”

Maggie Toulouse NM Sec of State
Once again we see the Democrats showing their “bigotry of low expectations” – y’all are STUPID! What is in the water that these Progressives are drinking that makes them believe such stuff? Oh, yeah, their over-stuffed sense of elitism that drives them to believe “we must ‘evolve’ everyone else (we’re already woke and evolved) – they can’t live their lives without us telling them how to live it” (emphasis mine, reformatted):

It appears that New Mexico’s Secretary of State believe voters are “too stupid to fill out ballots.” I kid you not.

[Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse] Oliver argues picking the candidates voters want is “long and complicated,” and therefore they need to be told who to vote for based on party (emphasis mine). She said having voters choose every candidate they are voting for is “voter suppression.” “Simply put: the decision to end straight ticket voting in New Mexico was a cynical partisan attempt to make it more difficult for New Mexicans to vote,” Oliver said. Oliver also claims voting is too difficult, unless voters can just check the “Democrat” box.

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Data Point – Trump is more popular now than Obama

…at the same time in their Presidencies. 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove. 33% who Strongly Approve of the way the president is performing and 39% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -6. Trump’s overall job approval rating is now … Read more

Notable Quote – Don Surber

Once again we see liberalism as a religion. The liberals’ high opinion of themselves is amusing. I forget who said it first, but when you lose a sense your other senses become more intense; thus when you lose your sense of humor, your sense of self-importance grows. –Don Surber Talking about a sense of humor … Read more

I oft said that Liberals can only win when they redefine the language. Merriam-Webster just did exactly that. For the Left.

My AR-15 identifies as a single shot bolt actionSo now we know where one of the premier English language dictionaries, Merriam-Webster, lies on the political spectrum – full Progressive. As the post notes, here is the “definition” for “assault rifle”

noun: any of various automatic or semiautomatic rifles with large capacity magazines designed for military use.

I have big problems with this – it’s still wrong, of course. The quick “gunsplainin'” is that 30 round mags are Standard capacity, not 10, not 7, nor 5. The proper term is “selective fire” which doesn’t even appear in their definition: full automatic (pull trigger once, rounds keep firing), burst mode (standard US is one trigger pull, three rounds fired), or semiautomatic (1 trigger pull, 1 round fired). “Or” is a red-herring in the above. Let me add that an AR-15 is NOT designed for military use.

Now, “after Parkland” (in fact, redefined March 31, 2018), we see that Merriam-Webster has decided to choose political sides:

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