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“So God made a Liberal”
I do have to put up the RAM truck ad from the Super Bowl – while people figured out it was a Dodge Ram ad, the star that every one has talked about since was the monologue on farmers that the late Paul Harvey gave and served as the narrative for the ad. Very well … Read more
Liberals: treating adults as children; treating children as if they were adults
(H/T: Liberal Logic 101)
Humor with a lesson: Where would you rather be: California or Texas?
CALIFORNIA: The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.
1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.
2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.
4. The Governor goes to a hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and getting his bite wound bandaged.
5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while the Fish & Game Commission conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.
More uncertainty brought to you by Obama!
(H/T: Mac)
On the dole: “A hand up or a hammock?” Let’s get back to basics
Welfare, that is. Used to be called “charity” from private sources, and sometimes, folks stayed at the county “poor house”. Nowadays, the dole (heck, even “welfare”) is dressed up in smooth bureaucratise so as not to “cause undue stigmatism towards those that need assistance”. Payments go directly from Government “dole-er outers” to those that supply the services or goods like Section 8 housing or EBT cards.
Ah yes, EBT cards – groceries, drug stores,….vacation hot spots, casinos, and strip clubs! Money is money and fungible if you are a well-flushed non-profit (Planned Parenthood moving abortion money as well as any crafty hedge fund operator), well-connected politician, or welfare “client”. From an efficiency standpoint, an EBT card is just as easy as technology can make it inexpensive for Government to allocate taxpayer monies – and for those on the dole to purchase a lot of things that they normally can’t. Oh, not necessarily directly with the card, but how often have you been behind someone in the grocery store buying groceries that are sometimes more expensive than what you can afford – even as you are dinged for higher taxes for these “most vulnerable”? Well, it has been my mindset that while a safety-net does need to be provided, why does it have to purchase filet mignon (and yes, I did see that purchased with an EBT card)? It shouldn’t – and given technology, it should easily be possible, using a longer term benefit / cost ratio, to limit EBT transactions to less variety and less costly food products (and locations).
One California legislature is willing to make a first swipes:
The money California taxpayers pay that funds CalFresh, the food stamps program, may be earmarked so that the recipients of government largesse cannot use the food stamps to buy sugary sodas and other beverages that have more than 10 calories per cup.
Guest post by NH State Rep Jane Cormier – “Bad Bill of the Month”
Bad Bill of the Month
HB 135 Bill Sponsored by Rep. Stephen Shurtleff, Merrimack 11
HB 135 STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE….
1. Eliminates the provision allowing a person to use deadly force anywhere he or she has a right to be. (If you are in a dark parking lot, just be ready to run, I guess…)
2. Amends the definition of non-deadly force. (The bill amends by removing, “The act of producing or displaying a weapon shall constitute non deadly force.”)
3. Repeals the provision granting civil immunity for the use of force in certain circumstances. (Be careful about showing your gun in a possibly dangerous situation or you could be in serious trouble…?)
The sponsor of this bill, Rep. Steven Shurtleff, is a retired U. S. Marshall and law enforcement officer. As a “qualified retired law enforcement officer”, he is covered under (LEOSA) the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, to carry a concealed firearm in any jurisdiction in the United States. This means Rep. Shurtleff is immune from the provisions of his own bill! This bill seeks to restrain law abiding citizens from carrying under their Second Amendment rights. However, Rep. Shurtleff will have the right to carry anywhere – anytime. Hypocrisy at its finest? You bet it is. But, our story continues…
At the public hearing of the bill, on Jan. 22, according to Andrew Hemingway (recent candidate for Chairman of the NHGOP),
The White House is out with its Sequester Doom & Gloom – but what does the chart really say?
Ah yes, Obama hoisted on his own petard. How “smooth” is it for the White House to start hauling out these “the Sequester is going to hurt children and old people” stats, but fail to note “Oh yeah, our boss was the one that first suggested this with his last self-serving hissy fit on the last debt ceiling fight”:
- Some 600,000 poor women and children will no longer get free milk and cheese
- 2,100 fewer food inspections will take place if federal budget cuts expected to kick in March 1 actually take place.
- federal agencies notified hundreds of thousands of federal workers that furloughs could be around the corner
- 70,000 children would get kicked out of early childhood intervention programs that help poorer children catch up to middle-class peers, heading into kindergarten.
- 1,000 fewer criminals would be prosecuted due to furloughed federal prosecutors.
- 4 million fewer “Meals on Wheels” would be delivered to the elderly.
- 1,000 fewer research grants would be awarded, cutting research and laboratories for some 12,000 scientists and students.
Oh, the horror of it all – this PROGRESSIVE policy of “try to trick the Republicans” – Obama set this up to take a hard toll on the Military, believing that the Republicans would cave before letting that happen. Seems, however…
Notable Quote – Prof. Israel Kirzner
A free society is one in which individuals are free to discover for themselves the available range of alternatives. In his masterly critiques of the theory of central planning, Hayek directed attention to the circumstance that the information available in an economy is always scattered among countless individuals, never concentrated in the mind of a … Read more
A Friday Night’s Palate Cleanser – time to break some eggs
(H/T: Instapundit)
Tyranny #3 – Minimum wage isn’t about economics – it’s about “Community”, dontcha know?
“All one community…“
Of all the reasons to raise a minimum wage (leaving aside for the moment, the utter crassness of know-it-all politicians who believe they know what’s best for the health of a company, especially a small biz in this economy, than the owners do), this has GOT to be one of the stupidest:
CONCORD – The state’s business community, large and small, turned out in force Tuesday to attack two bills that would raise the minimum wage while allies with organized labor and anti-poverty programs said reinstating a state minimum and raising it above the federal standard would have an economic stimulus effect.
Both Rep. Peter Sullivan, D-Manchester, and Rep. Timothy Robertson, D-Durham, said the new Legislature should undo the work of the last one, which got rid of a state minimum wage that had been on the books since 1949.
Sure, why not – they are actively working to undo everything that the Republican supermajorities did last session. Hey, monkey-DC, monkey-Concord as far as the Democrats are concerned. Is this now the “new normal” – whip sawing the State simply “we’re not Republicans”? Instead of governing well (which used to mean “do the least harm, or even better, emulating Cal Coolidge), do the Dems really want to descend to tit-for-tat eternally? Or, again as what is happening in DC led by Obama, trying hard to erase the GOP? Either way, that is not governance, that is elementary school playground.
The real differences between Republicans and Democrats – Tyranny #2
I stumbled on this post over at PowerLine – where they had abstracted an entire post by David Horowitz: “How Republicans can win” that talks about the severe differences in how Conservatives / Republicans view life vs how Progressive / Democrats do. Since Horowitz was heavily involved in the New Left in the sixties, he knows intimately how they think and how they act – and why they are starting to take the rest of us to the political cleaners in their religious zealotry in marching with Obama to “fundamentely transforming America.” For this is no “this way is better / no, that way is” battle we face – as Progressives truly believe that they are in a political Civil War to beat and overthrow the Founders / Constitution vision of Liberty and Freedom in which WE get to decide for ourselves and replace it with the Progressive brand of socialism / “social justice” in which Government will provide for all our needs (er, but never mention the “strings chains attached” to allow that to happen). I have abstracted a few paragraphs that point the major differences (emphasis mine):
…The Democratic Party has been moving steadily to the left since the McGovern campaign of 1972. It is now a party led by socialists and progressives who are convinced that their policies are paving the way to a “better world.”
This vision of moral and social progress has profound consequences for the way Democrats conduct their political battles. Unlike Republicans, Democrats are not in politics just to fix government and solve problems. They are secular missionaries who want to “change society.” Their goal is a new order of society— “social justice.” They think of themselves as social redeemers, people who are going to change the world. It is the belief in a redemptive future that accounts for their passion, and their furious personal assaults on those who stand in their way. When he was president, Bill Clinton once told Dick Morris he had “to understand that Bob Dole” – a moderate Republican – “is evil.” It is the same missionary zeal that allows Democrats to justify a campaign ad accusing a decent man like Mitt Romney of causing the death of a female cancer victim.
This should set the table. Take Zandra Rice-Hawkins, Exec Dir. for Granite State Progress for instance (yes, a major Progressive parachuted in with the Colorado Model supported by major Progressive $$ – no native Live Free or Die in her!).
Biden:”If it only saves one life!” Does Joe want the Elderly just to take a knee and die?
Imagine what would have happened if the Progressives are successful in effectively neutering the Second Amendment: A 72-year-old homeowner immediately retrieved his handgun when he heard several home intruders attempting to gain entry to his Las Vegas residence early Monday morning. And when the criminals entered his bedroom, he opened fire, killing one of the … Read more
Data Point – Future Entitlement Spending
When you look at future Federal budgets and wonder why you can’t feed YOUR kids because the Progressive programs (and the debt for funding them) are sucking it away from you, you can blame ourselves for putting these chuckleheads at the helm. (H/T: Heritage)
Data Point: Homeschooled students place higher than the government schooled
Just cruising around and ran across this over at Breitbart: In a study published in 2009, 12,000 homeschooled students from across the 50 states were tested on national measures of reading, language, math, science, and social studies. In the core studies of reading, language, and math, the average homeschooler scored at the 88th percentile, while … Read more
Ted Nugent? Piers Morgan? Gun control? Slapdown!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkjIMxf0VyU “Why does anyone need…” Always, the Progressive not understanding that Freedom does not require a need to obvious to anyone other than the person who wishes to possess or do someting.” Uncle Ted’s line of the interview: “Would you leave us the hell alone!” I really do wish that Progressives would stop trying to … Read more
SB 0120 – Let’s name the names, shall we? Jeb Bradley (R), Sharon Carson (R), Bob Odell (R), Shawn Jasper (R), Gary Richardson (D)
Let me get this off my chest: I am now ashamed that GraniteGrok, Meet the New Press (our former radio show), and I, did all we could to help Jeb Bradley, the prime sponsor of this Act, beat “Bathroom Bud” Martin in that special election that seems so long ago. I was told he was a moderate Congressman – boardering on “squish”; I heard it but thought “well, that was ‘before my active time” and he’s sounding a whole lot more conservative now” and beat the drum. Stupid me – he’s drifted Leftward ever since that first year. And no, not happy with the results of the NH Senate last session either.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
One of my pet peeves lately is why is it that normal people can read the plain language of the Constitution and can understand it literally as written – and yet lawyers and politicians cannot? How simple are the words “… no law….abridging the freedom of speech” – what is there to not understand? Five single syllable words, one with two, and one with three; this is elementary school level English. Yes, while the Constitution is supposed to be binding on the US Congress, it is the Law of the Land, the foundational philosophy of our Constitutional Republic. The ordinary person who is NOT a lawyer keeps thinking “isn’t it about time to get rid of the lawyers, get rid of the prancing around with “case law” and nuances and penumbras that seem to emanate from black robed creatures when looking upon these words – and just read the words as written?
“Line in the Granite” – Defend Your Gun Rights – The Patriot Pastor, Garrett Lear
The Gentleman from the Black Robed Regiment speaks to the Liberty & Freedom oriented crowd (that knows this is not about guns at all).
Previous Videos:
Pull! – version 2: President Tutu
Ah yes, the White House actually dared folks to ‘shop the picture; Grokster Susan has one here that speaks to the serious side of what Obama is trying to do (and it isn’t just the Second Amendment). *I* think, given his absolute personal disdain for guns and those that own them, this does a better … Read more
Yes, we MUST be critical of their thinking (or what passes for it)
Political correctness, CYA, a lack of blame-shifting / “not my fault and not my responsibility” and a total lack of “critical judgment” – what a combination we see. And the Educational-Industrial at work (School Board Associations, Administrator Associations, and Public Teachers Unions at these Government schools purport to be all about “public education” and how DARE you criticize us? (emphasis mine)
This incident is the latest in a growing line of extraordinarily strong reactions by school officials to things students have brought to school — or talked about bringing to school — that are not anything like real guns.
At D. Newlin Fell School in Philadelphia, school officials reportedly yelled at a student and then searched her in front of her class after she was found with a paper gun her grandfather had made for her. (RELATED: Paper gun causes panic)
In rural Pennsylvania, a kindergarten girl was suspended for making a “terroristic threat” after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles.
At Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Maryland, a six-year-old boy was suspended for making the universal kid sign for a gun, pointing at another student and saying “pow.” That boy’s suspension was later lifted and his name cleared. (RELATED: Pow! You’re suspended, kid)
In Sumter, South Carolina, a six-year-old girl was expelled for bringing a clear plastic Airsoft gun that shoots plastic pellet to class for show-and-tell. The expulsion was later revoked.
Remember, these are the people who claim that they teach critical thinking.