Skip

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.

GrokWatch: So, has AutoServ of Tilton added a new line of cars: “Politicized”??? And what else are those cars being used for?

AutoServ of Tilton - Phone NumberThere are two folks running in NH State Senate District 7 in which I reside: Republican Josh Youssef  and Democrat Andrew Hosmer.  We did endorse Josh in the Primary and believe him to be a better candidate still than Hosmer – a Progressive big-taxer centralizing-power Democrat.

While Josh is an entrepreneur, Hosmer married into the family that owns AutoServ – and is the General Manager there.  Well, I got a call last night.  Actually and to be truthful, TMEW got the call – she beat me to the phone so she had the opportunity to be the confused one – her brow furrowed.

“Who?”, she said.  “Brittney Murphy?  Are you sure….no, there is no Brittney that live here…..yes, I will be voting in the upcoming election.  Um, no, I will not be voting for Andrew Hosmer…g’nite.”

“Skip, would you look at this number, please?”

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So, Dems in Belknap county, that would mean that you will spend a lot, ignore the Constitution, and grow Govt? AGAIN?

2012 House Belknap 2 Dems - Front‘Tis the season of political surveys coming in on the phone.  Today, I think I got five, and a whole bunch of hangups which I take to be auto-dials by such companies looking for folks to call later or that with “predictive dialing”, there wasn’t an agent ready when “it” thought there would be when it dialed the number.  It is also the time for “mailers”; candidates trying to sell their message like these four Democrat ProRegressives: Kate Miller, Bill Johnson, Sandy Mucci, and MY fav Lisa DiMartino (she of the “my house is in the flight path – there might be a crash” fame.  More on that later).

They are running as a team.  That’s fine – my pick are the four Conservatives (that happen to be running on the Republican ticket) Colette Worseman, Herb Vadney, Bob Greemore, and my personal friend Kevin Leandro.

Back to the Dems – remember, the electorate (that would be you, the voters) decided that the Democrats were the extremists in 2010 – and told them emphatically that their social issue voting and their absolutely crazy spending were no longer to be tolerated.  So, what did these qwazy quad send as a message?  That would be on the flip side of the card:

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You know its bad when Obama gets the virtual 2 X 4 from……

…Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad??? “How long can a government with a $16 trillion foreign debt remain a world power?” he asked at a press conference with Kuwaiti media personnel. “The Americans have injected their paper wealth into the world economy and today the aftermaths and negative effects of their pseudo-wealth have plagued them.” Look, he … Read more

I forgot! Happy Lady Ada Day to y’all!

Although the ‘Grok is mostly a political / culture blog, I really am a nerd in real life (having spent 30 odd years in the computer industry) and my-now-outdated degrees are in STEM. I stand guilty of not posting this earlier (H/T: to MAKE for reminding me!): Happy Lady Ada day (in honor of the … Read more

Prez Debate: Income Inequality; Obama chest puffs but his female staffers purses aren’t so big

It seems that the Left is all a-giggle that when Romney became MA Guv, he asked for “binders full of women” when he was in the process of fulfilling a campaign process to have a larger-then-normal-number of women in his Cabinet.  Is NOW screaming at the Obama campaign for making sport of Mitt for putting women at the same level as men when considering qualified employees?   Nope (like, you really thought that was going to happen??).  Look at their post – they’re all in for the Progressive in the campaign (er, that would be Obama).  In fact, this is what they said:

…When an audience member asked about equality in the workplace, President Obama rightly pointed to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as one of his signature achievements;

…In fact, many of Romney’s budget policies are job killers for women…

All that LLFPA does (its main component) is do a reset of the statute of limitation and gives the aggrieved a longer time in which to file a claim – which may well be happening in Obama’s own employ!  What Romney should have pointed out was this:

Female employees in the Obama White House make considerably less than their male colleagues, records show.

According to the 2011 annual report on White House staff, female employees earned a median annual salary of $60,000, which was about 18 percent less than the median salary for male employees ($71,000).

 That article also had this line in it:

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Notable Quote – Robert George

“The two greatest institutions ever devised for lifting people out of poverty and enabling them to live in dignity are the market economy and the institution of marriage.” – Robert George, Professor of Law, Princeton University

Debate Round 2: Romney / Obama – what’s the outcome to be?

Will be tweeting out observations and outraged comments as both the need and spirit strikes.  Join us over at our feed; we’ll be using #GROK as our hashtag! Lots of tweets – my fingers hurt.  So, who do you think did the best or best in the different topics?  

Email Doodlings – A rose by any other name

From my friend (and loyal reader) out in Chicago Dayton, Ohio land:

Skip – I realize things get a little fast and loose, but this has been bothering me.  Both the Benghazi incident, and the movie theater shooting in Colorado were acts-of-terror.What makes Benghazi a terrorist act was that is was planned out by a group of people.
To compare the two incidents shows a poor grasp of what actually happened.
I had another take on it:

Email Doodlings – “Ah yes, the generational redistribution plan!”

Again, from ‘Grok Loyal reader in Dayton: Social Security benefits increase

Skip – how is it that benefits increase when Middle America has lost 20% of their income over the last 4 yrs? I would have expected benefits to decrease, or at least freeze.

Why should grandma & grandpa get a raise when I got a paycut, my 401K tanked, and my property lost 1/3 of its value? And we won’t mention my GM stock getting wiped out, or the pending tax and healthcare premium increases waiting for me in 2013. Starting to boil over….

As well he should. My response: “Ah yes, the generational redistribution plan!”

Piffile! Tim, here’s a BETTER way!

To let speeding scofflaws learn the meaning of the phrase “long arm of the Law”, ya need one of these, Tim! That’s right – a Boeing 747 equipped with its very own Eye Of Sauron nose cone laser! Unlike that itty bitty whirlybird, folks screaming on the roads will never, ever see this coming (or … Read more

The obligatory “Biden – the 85 interruptions” video

Yeah, I thought it was 82 but here is video:

Since the debate it is clear that there are two camps of different minds:

  • Biden played to the Dem base – who have applauded much for “giving it to the Evil choir boy”
  • Ryan played it cool, calm, and collected.

The insta-polls right after the debate showed the edge Ryan but most of the pundits pretty much said a draw.  The question seems to be “battle or war”?  Ryan made no major gaffes or mistakes while the optics for Biden, other than for his base, seemed troubling to the undecided – the very people who are being “politically stalked” right now with three weeks to go to Show Time.  The polls are still going in the right direction for Romney/Ryan – tomorrow should start seeing the “rolling-averaged” polls showing their results.  Then Tuesday – what will Obama do?

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Preference Cascade in real time?

From InTrade: InTrade is where you can “bet” on events – this is the graph showing the participants guess that Obama will be re-elected.  The uptick corresponds with the Democrat Convention, the downtick corresponds with the first debate with Romney.     Mirror Images? (Blue is Obama, Red is Romney) Oh, the Preference Cascade definition?  … Read more

“Pew Research Center survey finds declining support for government safety nets” – Well, yes!

This article is kinda / mostly straight up and down…OK, it’s not if you think about it hard.  It tries hard to present an objective view but when I look at the examples given, the veil falls.  In fact, the examples that are inserted to try to arouse a sympathetic aire concerning the safety net simply either doesn’t begin to think of the important unasked questions, or sweeps them under the rug.  Like this one (reformatted):

Jasmine McIntyre is thankful for the social safety net supporting her and her unborn child at the Florence Crittenton home.  Without the residential program for at-risk teen moms, she would have scant money, little education and a bleak future.  Instead, she is pursuing a job and is ready to enroll in college courses…Living at Florence Crittenton in a sprawling, old house with a dozen other hormonal, pregnant teens is not how McIntyre imagined her life when her parents moved to South Carolina three years ago. She was a student at West Ashley High School when she was sexually assaulted and dropped out of school. However, she went on to earn her GED, and the man she alleges attacked her was arrested.  Then she learned she was pregnant (though not from the assault).

She decided to have her baby girl. McIntyre sent the baby to live with her own mother, who had since moved to Ohio, and made plans to move there herself. She was working two jobs when she learned she was pregnant again.  With little money and no higher education, McIntyre and her mother worried. What was her future? And what could she offer two small children?  Again, McIntyre decided to have the baby. But this time, now 19, she moved into Florence Crittenton, a home for at-risk, unwed young women….Its clients are more likely to stay in school, learn life skills and give birth to healthy babies. For every $1 the program spends, it saves $4 in tax dollars, Executive Director Lisa Belton said.

OK, let’s be blunt – real blunt, because if we shy away from saying the obvious, from asking the hard questions that now  are off limits (because of Political Correctness), we’re only dealing with results and not the root causes.

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Notable Quote – John Wallis

Any growth theory where government investment plays a crucial role in stimulating growth immediately runs afoul of the historical record, however.  The first countries to industrialize did not require extensive government involvement to make these investments.  In England, it was apparent that neither early capital accumulation nor social overhead investment depended heavily on the public … Read more

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