Skip, Author at Granite Grok

Chance of peace in the Middle East?

September 26, 2018June 9, 2011 Skip

Null. Frankly, it will never happen, as Hamas (stemming from the Muslim Brotherhood) has in its charter that their purpose is to wipe Israel off the map. And even if Fatah is seen as the more "moderate" (akin to comparing a panther to a tiger), when the head of Fatah / Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas … Read more

SWAT Team? They have a SWAT TEAM? They seem to be as good as our High Schoolers do math, reading, and writing…

September 26, 2018June 8, 2011 Skip

A LOT of people wondered "Why the heck is the US Department of Education buying 27 short barrel shotguns??" – me too. Now, we know, but I’m not convinced that this is a good thing. One of the stories that has gone viral today – that of a Federal SWAT Team (yet aGAIN!) breaking down … Read more

Ah yes, an instance where Government tells charity to butt out

September 26, 2018June 7, 2011 Skip

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified." – President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09 Er, can we get a "No!" on that? What … Read more

Rent-seeking is generally companies sucking up to Govt; what do you call it when our Govt goes rent-seeking to OTHER countries’ Govts?

September 26, 2018June 7, 2011 Skip

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified." – President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09 I know that lots of companies use their … Read more

Is our society that close of losing the idea of self-responsible “internal governor” for the Progressive “external governor”?

September 26, 2018June 7, 2011 Skip

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. ”

– Ben Franklin, Constitutional Congress

"No controlling legal authority."

– Al Gore, 1996 Presidential campaign

The country is all a Twitter by Uber-Progressive Congressman Weiner (D-NY) acting as a sales dude for "tidy whities" and working out at the gym all the time – but for someone other than his new bride. I’m not going to post the pic – our main blogging rule is "Adult themes but kid friendly", and in this, I have no intention of putting up one that would cause a "Hey Mom, what is this?" moment.

Rather, I’d rather (as you can tell from the top quotes) bring up the idea of the differences (again) between a society that is made up of people with internal governors (self-responsible and self-governing) and one that has to have external governors (laws and regulations) surrounding its people. In essence, either we can literally control ourselves ("virtuous") by internal rules (our hearts, our minds, our moral compasses) or we are forced to be controlled by external rules (decrees from others). Which camp do you think Anthony Weiner falls into? More importantly, which camp do you think our country is falling into?

As to the first – Hint: "I have…

And if this is an example of the external governors…

September 26, 2018June 7, 2011 Skip

I briefly talked about internal vs external governors (a la Weiner) here. However, we do have to wonder what games are being played with examples like this: Language granting HHS that power was never in the original law. Instead, through new rules and regulations, HHS gave itself the power last summer using a broad interpretation … Read more

“many on the Left really do think black Americans are not equally capable of excellence”

September 26, 2018June 7, 2011 Skip

Dennis Prager unleashes a corker on the Dems – even as they look down their noses with their faux protectionalism towards blacks: …It is, however, effective. Calling Republicans racist has worked for half a century and will not be abandoned until it is universally recognized as the libel that it is. What we have in … Read more

Data Point – And you’re wondering why 5 of Obama’s top economists decided to “pursue other areas of interest”?

September 26, 2018June 7, 2011 Skip

Consider this as a promise "unkept": (H/T: Economic Policies for the 21st Centure) Which leads to this graph: (H/T: Clusterstock )

Didn’t they learn the first time?

September 26, 2018June 6, 2011 Skip

From Townhall (emphasis mine):

One of the administration’s programs helps distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure by providing permanent loan modifications.

Yeah, this is going to work out well. Doesn’t the Administration remember Rick Santelli’s rant on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade where he and the traders railed against the idea that they (and us) should be responsible for paying other peoples’ mortgages? The TEA Party movement it helped to spawn has become the biggest political movement in recent history – and no friend of the ever-expanding-government policies of Obama!

Another program, now ramping up, gives states that have been the hardest hit by falling home prices funding to help reduce the principal of a borrower’s loan, among other things.

Heck, why can’t *I* get my principal reduced? After all, I’m current on my loan – why should I be discriminated against? I’ve played by the rules – not buying more house than I could afford (in fact, bought far less), haven’t remortgaged a whole bunch of times, and blown the cash on toys and vacations, or redone the house well above my pay grade. Heck, who WOULDN’T want to chop off 10%, 20%, or even more from their mortgage? Hey, MY house has fallen in market price too (and selling is about 196 days in my town to boot!).

"I think those will make a big difference in terms of the problems of unemployed homeowners and falling house prices," said Massad. But he added the process was tricky.

"There are issues of how you do it, making sure it’s fair, making sure you don’t create the wrong incentives," Massad said.

Fair? Are you kidding? NOTHING about taking taxpayer monies and just giving it…

Notable Quote – Walter Russell Mead

September 26, 2018June 6, 2011 Skip

One way to summarize the kind of change we need. During the farm era the focus of American domestic policy was to create the most favorable possible environment for millions of ordinary Americans to launch flourishing small businesses. Rather that focusing on home ownership, American social policy should probably be looking at small business formation … Read more

Data Point – Job Market

September 26, 2018June 6, 2011 Skip

(H/T: ClusterStock) A "normalized" version of the above, from Powerline, that better shows the recessions compared to each other (albeit from March). Obama’s recession IS number one!