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A bubble that is BEGGING for a pin (any pin, any size, from anywhere, to pop these windbag harpies).

SHOT (heh!):

“When somebody says a (good) guy with a gun can stop a (bad) guy with a gun, we remind them that’s there’s absolutely no evidence that supports that theory and that all of the evidence is actually contrary to that.” – Moms Demand Action Florida director Michelle Gajda, in Group fights gun proposals with two opposing sides in documentary [via wtsp.com]

CHASER: Really?

I know that I, as well as other Groksters have posts speaking exactly to that lie.  However, to be fair, here’s what I picked up in a just a few minutes elsewhere:

Defensive Gun Use of the Day: Chicago CCW Holder Stops Robbery With His Equalizer

Three armed robbers (above) stormed into a store in the 7400 block of North Western Street in Chicago Sunday. One employee, with a valid Illinois concealed carry license, drew his equalizer and dispensed some ballistic deterrence toward the offending trio. Two of the three bad guys sprung leaks. All of the offenders made a hasty retreat, leaving a trail of blood that came in handy for police to follow.

Ashley Mundy is Every Gun Hater’s Nightmare

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Given that NH has one of the worst outbreaks of this in the country, this “Morning Jolt” from National Review caught my eye.  Reproduced here in its entirety with emphasis mine:

How You Helped Pay for America’s Opioid Addiction Crisis

A stunning detail from Nicholas Eberstadt’s opus in Commentary, revealing how the national opioid addiction crisis was largely fueled by Medicaid:

How did so many millions of un-working men, whose incomes are limited, manage en masse to afford a constant supply of pain medication? Oxycontin is not cheap. As Dreamland carefully explains, one main mechanism today has been the welfare state: more specifically, Medicaid, Uncle Sam’s means-tested health-benefits program. Here is how it works (we are with Quinones in Portsmouth, Ohio):

[The Medicaid card] pays for medicine—whatever pills a doctor deems that the insured patient needs. Among those who receive Medicaid cards are people on state welfare or on a federal disability program known as SSI.?.?.?.?If you could get a prescription from a willing doctor—and Portsmouth had plenty of them—Medicaid health-insurance cards paid for that prescription every month. For a three-dollar Medicaid co-pay, therefore, addicts got pills priced at thousands of dollars, with the difference paid for by U.S. and state taxpayers. A user could turn around and sell those pills, obtained for that three-dollar co-pay, for as much as ten thousand dollars on the street.

Retirement money?

In 21st-century America, “dependence on government” has thus come to take on an entirely new meaning.

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It just seems that for this issue, if you aren’t willing to look for it, you’re not going to find it.  Methinks that this story out of Texas mirrors that what we’ve seen here in NH (re: how many affidavits are piled up in boxes in the NH AG’s office, just sitting there?).  As a software engineer, I have learned that 20% of my time is spent writing code to actually make “it work” and the rest of it is often spent “moron/idiot-proofing” it. Yeah, I said it because dollars to donuts, somebody is going to hit the wrong thing or enter a “nonsense” value at the wrong time.  And that isn’t even those that have a malicious intent.  Pretty much, NO system is not hackable be it automated or manual.  And here from Texas is yet another example of a voting system that is being gamed (re: fraud) from Fox News (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Officials in Texas acknowledge that hundreds of people were able to bypass voter ID laws and improperly cast ballots in the presidential election. Voters were able to sign a sworn statement instead of showing ID. The chief election officers in two of Texas’ largest counties are considering whether to refer cases to prosecutors for possible charges.

Which is how it should be.  Then, however, we have the flip side (sorta analagous to our “NH Not Working”):

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The Environmental Protection Agency still exists—though House Republicans have introduced a bill that would seek to change that, and President Trump is reportedly ready to sign executive orders to hamstring the agency’s climate change-related efforts—and it just released its annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions report. The published information only runs through 2015, owing to the lag associated with such large data sets, but what we do know is, well, encouraging. . . .

A 2.2 percent annual decrease in overall GHG emissions is no small feat, and it will obviously be received as good news by environmentalists around the country. But before those greens despair that now, without Obama, those emissions are going to spike again, let’s consider that it was a shift in fossil fuels—not renewables—that was responsible for the majority of these reductions. Specifically, it was the ongoing displacement of coal-fired power plants by natural gas-fired ones that did the heavy lifting for American climate change mitigation in 2015.

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This is just great!  I saw this earlier that the National Organization for Nags Women decided that Wegmans (a grocery store chain) had to be taught a lesson because (horrors!) they gave consumers choices when it came to wines – including Trump Wine (reformatted emphasis mine):

Wegmans grocery stores in Virginia selling Trump Winery products became the site of the latest anti-Trump boycotts this week — but the protest seems to have only bolstered the wines’ sales. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, five different wines have sold out at two Wegmans in the Richmond area. And in the other eight grocery stores across the state, the wines have either sold out entirely or almost sold out.

…The Prince William County’s National Organization for Women chapter called for a boycott of the popular grocery store chain because it sold a variety of Trump Winery wines in its Virginia stores. “Certainly if Wegmans is carrying Trump wines, I personally will not shop there,” National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill said.

Ah, where do you live, again?

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That’s all we’ve heard since Obamacare started the wind up to become legislation: “look at Canada’s medical system – it’s socialized!”.  Nitwits all – they kept on ignoring the more than anecdotal evidence that many Canadians came here for care (including a government Minister who took advantage of our cardiac expertise).  Thus, I’m not surprised by this (reformatted, emphasis mine):

A new survey of 11 developed countries shows that Canada was in last place for wait times (tied with Norway) and also scored quite poorly on the availability of doctors during nights and weekends. This means that Canadians have the highest rate of emergency room usage out of the 11 countries surveyed.

As it turns out, these numbers are actually an improvement since the last time the survey was conducted.

The survey found that only 43 per cent of Canadians were able to secure same-day or next-day appointments with their primary-care physicians, a tie for last place. Still, that figure was an improvement over the last time the Commonwealth Fund asked the question in 2013, when only 38 per cent of Canadian patients said they could see their doctors right away.

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disinformation plot to find leakers?

BREAKING: Trump administration considers mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants.

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2017

Who the heck knows but certainly the Associated Press looks like a fool: AP Exclusive: DHS weighed Nat Guard for immigration roundups

Sidenote: it is obvious that the AP has rewritten their story as it clashes with the scrape that RedState has, so I’ll go with that:

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana.

You know something, this doesn’t even pass the smell test:

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“One of them showed him a Roman coin, and he asked them whose head and inscription were on it. They answered, “Caesar’s,” and he responded: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s”.  Matt 22:20

[Jeanette] Vizguerra pleaded guilty to using a fake ID in order to work in 2009. ICE officials say they’ve already granted her six stays of removal, and declined to issue another. That’s when Vizguerra sought refuge in the church rather than face deportation to Mexico.

“It is our position as a people of faith that this is sacred, and faithful work,” said the Rev. Mike Morran during the news conference at his church. “We know Jeanette. We know her to be an honorable human being.”

But critics say the church is violating law.

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Frankly, it didn’t affect me at all.  In fact, if I hadn’t read about it, I wouldn’t have known about it.

Today was supposed to be the “Day of No Immigrants” – the usual assortment of illegal immigrant marches and rallies, businesses closing in “solidarity”.  Yep, once again, Progressives and the Left just snotting all over the Law (reformatted, emphasis mine):

As workers strike and restaurants shutter Thursday in support of immigrants, organizers of Washington, D.C.’s “Day Without Immigrants” protest are demanding much more than an end to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Stores and restaurants nationwide remained closed Thursday or sold only limited food and products to show support for immigrants and showcase how migrants are integral in the U.S. economy and everyday life.

And in the nation’s capital, strikers — which are “predominantly immigrant,” according to organizers — plan to march to the White House around noon following a morning gathering of food, music and information about immigrant rights.

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SHOT:

The Arizona State Board of Cosmetology is investigating Juan Carlos Montesdeoca after receiving complaints that he was cutting hair without a license, Tucson News Now reported Monday. According to the complaint, which Montesdeoca shared with the TV station, the board received an anonymous complaint alleging that Montesdeoca was “requesting local businesses and local stylists to help out with free haircuts (unlicensed individuals) to the homeless.”

Montesdeoca gave the free haircuts on January 28 at the library in downtown Tucson. He organized the event through a Facebook group and solicited help from volunteers. He did it “out of the kindness of my heart,” and in memory of his mother, who loved her hair, he told Tucson News Now.

But he forgot to get permission from the state—or, rather, from the cosmetologists who apparently view his act of charity as a form of unwanted competition.

CHASER: LET ME KNOW IF YOU’D LIKE TO SERVE ON A STATE BOARD OR COMMISSION

In the coming weeks, the governor of New Hampshire will nominate various New Hampshire citizens to serve on any of the 300-plus state boards or commissions. As your executive councilor I would like to hear from you if you would like to serve on some of these state boards or commissions. Having North Country and Lakes Region citizens serving on these state boards or commissions are critical to having your voices heard on many important topics in state government.

A list of these state boards and commissions can be found at http://sos.nh.gov/GC2.aspx. The type of openings can range from the Board of Licensed Dietitians to a Water Treatment Plant Advisory Committee. If interested, please send a letter of interest along with a resume, to Meagan Rose in the Governor’s Office (271-8787) and a copy to Executive Councilor Kenney, State House, Room 207, 107 North Main Street, Concord, NH 03301 (271-3632).

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Here’s a startling fact: There have been eight leaders of the British Labour Party in the past 40 years. Seven of them failed to win a single general election. The exception, Tony Blair, was a Labour politician only in the most technical sense. Leftists saw him as a disguised conservative, a cuckoo in the nest. To this day, Labour activists use “Blairite” as the worst of insults, viler even than “Tory.”

Let’s widen the camera shot a little. All over Europe, traditional parties of the Center-Left have been losing badly. As I write, opinion polls show the French Socialists in fourth place, the Dutch Labour Party in seventh. Greece’s PASOK, the leading party since the early 1980s, is now polling at 7 percent. Spain’s PSOE, which had a comfortable majority as recently as 10 years ago, has been displaced by the more radical Podemos. Social Democrats in former communist countries, such as Poland and Hungary, have, if anything, fared even worse. . . .

It is in this context, perhaps, that we should consider American politics.

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