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During our second segment of GrokTALK! this morning, we talked with Robin Eubanks:  “author of  Credentialed to Destroy — Robin S. Eubanks — calls in to update us on state and globally directed education”reform,” what they call competency based education.”   We discussed how the impending curriculum of Common Core and newest iteration of CBE really stems from the philosophy of Progressive John Dewey back around 1890s/1900s.  That people existed to be “cogs in the machine of society” and education was should to be designed to turn out compliant worker-bees.

Robin, and Grokster Mike, emphasized that such “education” will cut out the heart of the American economy – that “creative destruction” via innovation by those relative few that have the “bright ideas” that drive new products and industries (which history has shown has created a vastly higher standard of living than ever contemplated under planned economies).  The question that must be faced from the “new education” is this: if people are trained to be “compliant,” where will the striving be that is such a large component of innovation?  What happens to the “few strivers” when striving and risk taking is bred out of us?  The discussion of “the few” immediately brought this Robert Heinlein quote to mind (as GraniteGrok is, in part, named from a word from Heinlein best seller “Stranger in a Strange Land” – Grok):

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Steve has a most important post up today where he brings up that Jeanne Shaheen, regardless of her campaign ads or sound bytes, is not really interested in the people of NH (but gets it very slightly wrong).  Emphasis mine, a bit of reformatting:

I can’t say it often enough.  We need to elect Senators and congress-people who are less interested in taking credit for getting some fraction of our money back and more interested in making sure it never leaves New Hampshire in the first place.  We send them to DC to ensure that we, as a state, have the most opportunity to decide our own destiny, be it roads and bridges, health care, education, property rights, or the defense of our natural rights.  But Democrats go to DC to do exactly the opposite.  They consistently vote to bring more money through DC, to make more decisions in the US capitol, and to keep our tax dollar running through that offshore-bankrupt District of Columbia instead of in Concord or your home town.

This vote is just one more example of who Democrats like Jeanne Shaheen really represent; lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats.  Preferably, as far away from us as possible.

Steve is EXACTLY right – the money that is made in NH (which IS earned private property), the wealth that created, should stay in NH and not taken from us.  The Founders, with their sense of Federalism that put the States first, would approve of his outlook – me, too.  The best control is when local people have it – and not when it is translated to far away.    He is right in that Democrats get elected “to make more decisions in the US capitol” than at the State level if elected to the national level.  They also do it at the State level – to paraphrase Steve, “to make more decisions in the State capitol, Concord” than at local level if elected to the State level.  Correspondingly, it also works at the City or town level than by individual or families make their own decisions.

Where I slightly disagree with him is

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Well, that went fairly well – or badly, depending on your point of view.  It seems that my posts on the subject…

• July 25:  3,000 REFUGEES BEING RELOCATED TO DOVER
• July 27:  Dover and a link from Refugee Settlement Watch
• July 27:  Congolese Americans: Finding a Home in New England” – Congolese Refugees
• July 27: Congolese Refugee Resettlement & Dover City Council “…where…citizens demand answers…”

…got quite a lot of attention, especially in Foster’s Daily Democrat (reformatted, emphasis mine): which was brought to my attention by one of the ‘Grok commenters.

Congolese refugees to resettle in region: Mayor says cities have no say in the matter

DOVER — Misinformation has surfaced this week regarding the relocation and settlement of Congolese refugees to Tri-City communities; however, one aspect of the program through the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success is true — the communities of Dover, Somersworth and Rochester will have no say in the matter.  Dover Mayor Karen Weston said Friday that the notion of 3,000 refugees being resettled in the Garrison City is not accurate and also the GraniteGrok.com report by Skip Murphy that a meeting scheduled with ORIS Aug. 13 will not allow for residents to ask questions is a total fabrication.

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Well, maybe.  Right now, the White House / President Obama is making noise that all of these illegal alien kids that have been violating our border aren’t “illegal immigrants”, they’re not even “migrants.”  Based on his say so, they are ALL deemed to be “refugees from crime, violence, and drugs” even as they face the same pressures and ills of, oh say, two thirds of the planet’s populations.  Not to add fire to the pile, but that seems to also describe Chicago under his sidekick’s reign as Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel.

Not waiting for our “national discussion on immigration” to happen (especially as it pertains to Congress and, you know, creating actual LAW!), as he is wont to say (or stealing from his other minion, the impeached head of Obama’s DOJ, AG Eric Holder, who called us all cowards when it came to talking about race – nice way to set THAT discussion), it looks like Obama has already put another set of wheels in motion in pre-deciding how that “national discussion” is going to end up…

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I’ve been blogging about Dover, NH and the concerns and eventual outcomes that injecting (either by resettlement or the later chain migration that will happen) up to 3,000 Congolese refugees into a city with merely 30,000 residents.  An Obama “fundamental transformation” to be sure.  I caught this over at Instapundit who quoted Eugene Volokh (law professor and blogger) on the nature of open borders / and a “no constraints” immigration:

I think, though, that the “Pilgrims = Illegal Aliens” equation illustrates the exact opposite. The whites immigrated to America — and took over the place. (I’m glad they did, but I can surely understand why the Indians might have disagreed.) Likewise, Jews immigrated to Palestine (adding vastly to the numbers already present), sometimes illegally — and eventually there were more Jews in some parts than Arabs, so Jews started running the place. Now Israelis are sensibly objecting to Palestinians’ asserted “right of return” to their and their parents’ homes, because if enough Palestinians are allowed to immigrate into Israel, they’ll start running the place.

The bottom line is that for all the good that immigration can do (and I’m an immigrant to the U.S., who is very glad that America let me in, and who generally supports immigration), unregulated immigration can dramatically change the nature of the target society.

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From Glen Reynolds, a pithy observation:

2014: GOP Counting on ‘Motivated Base,’ Courting ‘Low-Propensity Voters’ to Win This Fall. They’ll do better if the Republican apparat — I’m looking at you, NRSC — doesn’t piss off the base with racial attacks on Tea Party candidates. You know?

Indeed.  So I followed the link:

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NH State Rep Leigh Webb (D): “The role of government is to legislate behavior“

And that is not the expression of one that values or cherishes Freedom; instead, it is THE  seedling of Totalitarianism.  Obamacare, ObamaZoning – different facets of the same evil – those that have the hubris of incomplete knowledge that feel they have the right to demand how others should live their lives.   This, from RedState talks how Obamacare is incompatible with one of our Constitutional Republic’s main Pillars…

Sidenote: Sorry to keep sounding like Johnny One-Note lately, but I don’t think that our Republic’s philosophical underpinnings get enough conversations.  Progressives prefer it that way – they can use emotion to win at the surface level of a debate – but ONLY at the surface level.  They are, generally speaking, unable to debate vigorously and in depth, because once the centralized totalitarian nature of their philosophy is exposed, they cannot defend it.  That said, if anyone on the Left side of the aisle wants to come on GrokTALK!, we’ll treat you fairly – we ARE about the debate!

…that of The Rule of Law (emphasis mine):

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In response to our post on Dover having to receive 3000 “refugees” being plopped here courtesy of our kind, caring Federal Government (that Democrats said that “Government is the only thing we all belong to” (no choice at’all)), a new blog to me sent a link:  Refugee Settlement Watch and they did a commentary on our post – so we are far from being alone on this:

Forget what you hear about local communities having no say, whether tiny historic Dover or surrounding towns will become new resettlement sites for Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners will all depend on the turnout and the questions asked (and answers given!) at an upcoming public meeting scheduled for Dover city hall August 13th, 7 p.m.

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Well, it seems that the notice of the Federal government, probably via some “Social Services Organization” (formerly a charity that has lost its way and has been “captured” by the lure of taxpayer money) trying to move up to 3, 000 refugees into Dover (10% of the population – you think that amount of folks would not “fundamentally transform” that city?) has caught a bit of the viral stuff.  From an interested reader, an link on some stories.  I found this one, sent along as well, to be more informational:  January 2014: Cultural Orientation Resource Center, The Congolese Caseload (begin page 3): http://www.resettlement.eu/sites/icmc.tttp.eu/files/CAL_CongoleseBackgrounder_013014_highres.pdf (I have downloaded the doc):

DEMAGRAPHIC — The Congolese caseload is relatively young, with nearly 55% under the age of 18 and an additional 18% between the ages of 18–25. Only slightly more than a quarter of the caseload is over the age of 25, and only 3% of the population is 50 years of age or older, a stark indicator of the hardships this population has suffered. There are slightly more females (51%) than males (49%) in the caseload. …

UNACCOMPANIED MINORS — The Congolese minor caseload includes unaccompanied and separated minors of all ages (below 18 years of age). 

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“…but they won’t move them to new communities where its citizens demand answers to the all important questions“

BREAKING – I got a little birdie singing in my ear that the planned meeting with the Dover City Council has been called off: “…GraniteGrok has moved the needle again“.  From my earlier post comes the above line from Refugee Resettlement Watch – now we know it is true.  Which also means that, once again, when ordinary citizens shine big powerful Flashlights on a concern that they feel is wrong, they can accomplish EXTRAordinary results.  Flip that around – isn’t rather sad that our Elites, our own Government, feels that they must sneak around in the dark corners and hallways of our country to do things.

Sidenote: Wasn’t it President Obama who proclaimed that HIS Administration would be the most open and transparent EVAH??  Guess that got “fundamentally transformed” as well, huh?

Anyways, this is just BREAKING – we are awaiting more confirmation on this news.  It also seems that I was right about “formerly called a charity now a mere Social Services Organization” being involved with this.  According to the birdie, it may well be the Lutheran Social Services bunch out of MA – I call them a “Seagull

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As I have stated before, I rarely put up the entire posts of others but there are times that it is hard to abstract snippets without destroying some of the meaning.  This post by David French over at The Corner,  is such a post.

We have posted much on how Federal Agencies, especially during this Obama Administration, have shown that the Party of Government has become the Government for the Party of Government.

David is sounding the caution alarm that even if a Republican is elected President this next go round is no guarantee that we will have a Conservative government because what used to be mere political spoils by a winning Party has calcified into a “Government for the Government and by the Government”; his two main points:

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From the Union Leader comes this Editorial on Andrew Hemingway who is competing with Walt “No Apology for Teabagger” Havenstein for the NH GOP nomination for NH Governor – couple of snippets (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Republican candidate for governor Andrew Hemingway will have to read this column online. On Wednesday afternoon he flew to San Francisco to participate in the Coin Congress, a gathering of Bitcoin advocates. Its slogan: “A culture of individuals ready to break the mold.” Hemingway presents his campaign the same way.  Gov. Maggie Hassan, whom he hopes to unseat, “has no plan, no agenda,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “Her State of the State speeches are all Skittles and rainbows.”

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