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.

Dust off those makinaws…

Winter in NH, 2008 and beyond? As we get ready for yet more snow here in Central NH, and the woodpiles are nearly gone, are you still prepared to buy Al Gore & co’s bunk about global warming? I know– you’ve probably been told that all of this cold weather and snow is the result of… … Read more

President’s Radio Address: Israel and Palestine– living side by side in peace and security.

palestinian baby
.
Here is this week’s radio address from President Bush, discussing his current trip to the Middle East. I just don’t think the Palestians are capable of what Bush asks. Until they do nothing less than recognize Israel as a state, it won’t work. But, maybe Bush can succeed where others have failed. If he can get the other countries to join in preventing Iran and al Qaida from pouring monies and extremism into the area, maybe it could work…
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I’m speaking to you from the Middle East, where I have been meeting with friends and allies. We’re discussing how we can work together to confront the extremists who threaten our future. And I have encouraged them to take advantage of the historic opportunity we have before us to advance peace, freedom, and security in this vital part of the world.
.
My first stop was Israel and the Palestinian Territories. I had good meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian President Abbas. Both these men are committed to peace in the Holy Land. Both these men have been elected by their people. And both share a vision of two democratic states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace and security. 
. 

Read more

Education and knowledge of civics

Wooden School Desk

Didn’t get the chance to mention these items that all seemed to speak to a single issue.  The first was a letter by a Laura Grafton from Michigan in USA Today (yesterday).  While it’s message was about lowering the drinking age, I caught this:

* Although the United States grants all the other rights and responsibilities of citizenship to 18- to 20-year-olds, it denies them the right to drink. Should the government have a right to pick and choose citizens’ rights?

This lady just has not been given an adequate educational background.  By definition, a right cannot be either given or taken away by government.  Our Founding Fathers understood that, and created the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that enumerated basic, fundamental set of rights; emanating from God, they are not to be violated or abridged.

Once again, a citizen gets it wrong, confusing rights with privileges.  Free Speech is a right, Freedom of Assembly is a right; Driving is a privilege and so is drinking.  Last I knew, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is rather silent on the issues of either of the two.

Why do I bring up this nit-picking?  This is yet another case of poor civics training; trying to make a case of which is what amongst the general public does not make for good policy understakings.  Not understanding fundamentals of how our society is structured and ordered is a recipe for disaster.  Yet, early to mid-last century, this would not be much of an issue as Civics was taught. 

And we hear from the Dems that all kinds of things are a right – healthcare being the latest  national one in the news and college for all (if one is to believe Edwards) another.  One would have thought that if it were that important, wouldn’t the Founding Fathers have written about both?

And this doesn’t help much either in making me feel that our educational system is working all that well either:

U.S. students do worse in science and math

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. students are lagging behind their peers in other countries in science and math, test results out Tuesday show.

It gets worse…

Read more

Putting it in writing, in case law-enforcement continues to do wrong and actually ENFORCES a law…

Democrat illegal immigration plan in MA Did you happen to catch this piece of news about our liberal neighboring state to the south (“Oh Doug, like NH ISN’T liberal these days?”) regarding a change of policy for its state police? Saturday’s Boston Globe has the skinny: A new Massachusetts policy makes it clear that State Troopers should … Read more

The Skip and Chaz Debate – Round 1 – Counterpoint

Well, my turn!  Chaz has started the debate off with two points:

  • He’s not a socialist
  • Universal Healthcare is not socialistic

Well, I tend to be a "fisker", so let me go through his thesis and let the air gently out of his ballon.  So let’s dive in!

Formatting note:  indented and bold is the person who has presented the Point (in this case, Chaz).  The person doing the Counterpoint will have the full width, regular text (me for now). 

As you may have noticed I endorsed Hillary Clinton for President this week.

Well, that doesn’t bode well for your argument!  But hey, given your earlier posts on Universal Healthcare, it is not unexpected.

That has kept me occupied on the blogosphere. That plus building and preparing for winter is keeping me in "catch up" mode. I do think this is a great project though and one that I will commit to. So let me start with a short opening statement:

In my endorsement of Senator Clinton I called healthcare my number one domestic issue. No matter your vantage point, its a big one that isn’t going away. I think we all agree on that, correct me if I’m wrong.

Oh no – on this point we do agree (uh-oh, does this bode well?).  I agree that healthcare is one of the biggest domestic issues, but I think that illegal immigration is the number one domestic issue.

Given that, healthcare is my third issue for the Presidential race.  In fact, a twofer:

  • Healthcare and how it should be managed
  • Government and its perceived role in society.

The combination of the two, and how they are handled, have tremendous ramifications on how our society undergoes its next metamorphasis. In fact, in a way, it may have a tremendous impact on personal choice and self-responsibilities.

Health care is of course a huge economic issue.

Indeed.  The economic make up of our GDP is 16% and will only grow, and grow faster, as the Boomers age and pass into retirement.  Costs will spiral as more advanced technologies come into vogue in keeping the most narcissistic generation ever.

Healthcare has always been rationed – no matter what road America chooses, this will remain constant.  The question is by "how".  We have two diametrically opposing models:

  • Free market capitalism
  • Government control 

Far be it for us to decide which will win out – but let us argue, rant, and rave as if we did. 

Read more

John McCain rips the bark off of Romney!

Wow! As many of you might have figured out, I’m the kind of guy that LOVES the heat of political battle. I can’t get enough of those able to deliver the conservative message in such a way that it becomes for all intents and purposes indisputable to all those who hear it. Additionally, I appreciate … Read more

Obama Campaign Conference Call: Stoneyfield’s Hirshbergs Endorse Obama

A conference call hosted by the Obama campaign has just concluded. It featured the announcement that well-known NH Democrats Gary and Meg Hirshberg have officially thrown their support to Barack Obama. This comes over their second choice of John Edwards in the current field- originally being with Tom Vilsack, who dropped out early on in … Read more

Global warming. Fixing it’s as easy as… well, raising taxes.

This past Saturday during our radio program, “Meet the New Press” (podcasts here) I gave co-host Pat Hynes (AnkleBitingPundits) the needle about “his guy”, John McCain, the latest politician to climb aboard the “man is the cause of global warming” bandwagon. As someone who refuses to buy into that notion, I am becoming more distressed by the day … Read more

Bush on energy and how the Dems will help. Sure they will.

In his radio address this week, President Bush speaks about energy. It all sounds good, but I can’t help but think that all of the planning that’s aimed at curbing consumption of oil and its refined products is ultimately going to consume greater amounts of my shrinking take-home earnings. My apologies for sounding so cynical about this, but I think you’ll agree with my assesment. Read on…
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning.
.
Last Saturday, I addressed the annual retreat of Democrats from the House of Representatives. I thanked the Members of the new majority for their service in Congress. And we discussed our responsibility to work together on a wide range of issues — from fighting the global war on terror, to making health care more affordable, to balancing the Federal budget.
Of course, the Dems want to surrender instead of trying to win the war, nationalize 1/6 of the US economy, and "balance" the federal budget by raising taxes on "the rich", AKA anybody with a job. Other than that, though, I’m sure they’ll "work together" with President Bush to make things right. He continues: 
One area with great potential for bipartisan cooperation is energy policy. The need for action is clear. Our Nation’s reliance on oil leaves us vulnerable to hostile regimes and terrorists, who could damage our economy by disrupting the global oil supply. A spike in oil prices anywhere in the world could lead to higher prices at gas pumps here in America. And burning oil and gasoline creates air pollution and greenhouse gases.
Which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on whose scientific "evidence" one believes. I agree with being vulnerable by relying so heavily on oil that comes from bad places. That’s why, even though we don’t like it, we have to "fix" the bad places. Oh, and we should just drill for more oil in our own backyard, like in ANWR and offshore.
Republicans and Democrats both recognize these problems. We agree on the solution: We need to diversify our energy supply and make America less dependent on foreign oil. The best way to do that is by developing new energy technologies here at home. So the Federal government has provided more than $10 billion over five years for research into alternative sources of energy. Our scientists and engineers have made great progress, and our Nation is now on the threshold of dramatic breakthroughs in clean energy technology.
I’m not sure we "agree on the solution", as I’m pretty sure the Dems would have us riding bicycles or driving lawnmower-like cars (other than your Algore types who are just too darned important) while at the same time banning windmills and tearing down dams to save the fishes.
.

Read more

President Bush wishes a Merry Christmas and honors the troops and their families

In this week’s radio address, President Bush talks about Christmas, and in particular, reminds us not to forget our troops afield during the holiday season…
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. As families across our Nation gather to celebrate Christmas, Laura and I send our best wishes for the holidays. We hope that your Christmas will be blessed with family and fellowship.
.
At this special time of year, we give thanks for Christ’s message of love and hope. Christmas reminds us that we have a duty to others, and we see that sense of duty fulfilled in the men and women who wear our Nation’s uniform. America is blessed to have fine citizens who volunteer to defend us in distant lands. For many of them, this Christmas will be spent far from home, and on Christmas our Nation honors their sacrifice, and thanks them for all they do to defend our freedom.
.
At Christmas, we also recognize the sacrifice of our Nation’s military families. Staying behind when a family member goes to war is a heavy burden, and it is particularly hard during the holidays. To all our military families listening today, Laura and I thank you, and we ask the Almighty to bestow His protection and care on your loved ones as they protect our Nation.
.
This Christmas season comes at a time of change here in our Nation’s capital — with a new Congress set to arrive, a review of our Iraq strategy underway, and a new Secretary of Defense taking office. If you’re serving on the front lines halfway across the world, it is natural to wonder what all this means for you. I want our troops to know that while the coming year will bring change, one thing will not change, and that is our Nation’s support for you and the vital work you do to achieve a victory in Iraq. The American people are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers, and we will make sure you have the resources you need to accomplish your mission.
.
This Christmas, millions of Americans are coming together to show our deployed forces and wounded warriors love and support. Patriotic groups and charities all across America are sending gifts and care packages to our servicemen and women, visiting our troops recovering at military hospitals, reaching out to children whose moms and dads are serving abroad, and going to airports to welcome our troops home and to let them know they are appreciated by a grateful Nation.

Read more

Who is running foreign policy here….

Nations have no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.  Only permanent interests – Lord Palmerston I sometimes wonder if those that work in our beloved State Department know which is which.  From Little Green Footballs, I saw this: State Dept. Wants to Delay Arms to Israel According to the New York Times, State Department officials … Read more

Grasshopper bug insect Photo by Elegance Nairobi on Unsplash

Geek humor

From Computerworld: Poetry in Motion "There’s a bug in my monitor," executive smirks as he calls in IT pilot fish for help. Some sort of prankware? fish wonders. Or a virus? "A tiny eight-legged bug appeared to be walking rapidly across his LCD, like something out of an old-time video game," fish says. Fish grabs … Read more

Just Great! So much for business travel again…

Once again, the West has been attacked – even if not successful with the plot being aborted by the work of the US, Pakistani, and British intelligence agencies (and who else more?).  Maybe, just maybe, folks are starting to take notice.

It really has to be something to get the nerds up in arms (thank you very much!)   From Slashdot (News for Nerds. Stuff That Matters):

Charter Flight Websites / Services?

X86Daddy asks: "TSA’s latest announcement banning all fluids (toothpaste even) from carry-on luggage is the icing on a very sour cake. Many passengers are growing tired of the invasive security screenings, the increasing prices, lost and stolen luggage, and the decreasing quality of service with commercial flights in the United States. However, given the geographical size of this country and the lack of rail options, flight remains the only practical method of travel for most destinations. Can anyone suggest alternative flight services? Are there websites that connect Cessna or other small scale air charter services with interested passengers? I’ve found CharterX and CharterHub but they seem more geared toward executives looking for jets. Does anyone have experience traveling this way? Is the price point a lot higher, making this a dumb idea (just resign myself to buying toiletries at every destination and prepare for the mandatory anal probes in ’07)?"

For a moment, forget about the "why" of the new restrictions – I am just looking at this from the aspect of a frequent flier who just made plans for another business trip to San Diego.

I don’t carry a water bottle around or ingest my caffeine via coffee (I want my caffeine green! ->  Mountain Dew!), so I just wait for the "complementary beverage service" since United serves Pepsi products. Being a nerd (why ELSE would I surf Slashdot?), I don’t care about bringing perfumes, hair gels, deoderant gels, toothpaste and what not…besides, taking all that stuff on board means less techie stuff in the bag (laptops, hubs, Ethernet cable, headphones, cell phone, DVDs, yadda, yadda – I never know what I will need at the other end, so I bring it all with me). 

One does have to set the correct priorities, right?  Oops, hold that thought!  CNN is reporting that:

The British Airports Authority said no hand luggage would be allowed onto planes leaving British airports until further notice

Besides banning liquids, British police are also banning passengers from carrying electronic key fobs, which have the potential to trigger bombs.

I’ve also heard reports that cell phones, laptops, and iPods (or other MP3 devices) were not allowed to be carried on. 

Now, these last restrictions have not yet happened on this side of the pong, but let me ask you – WHO in their right mind is going to let their laptop or other electronics go into the cargo area?

Read more

Ruminations on 8/11/06

And quickly too….it’s late……been a long week already

NewsBusters reports:

 

Where Are We Going Wrong Helping Homegrown Terrorists Integrate Society?

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 10, 2006 – 15:45.

Made-in-the-UK Islamic radicals are trying to murder people – and it’s the UK’s fault for not doing a better job integrating them into society.

Of COURSE it’s the West’s fault, why else would they be trying to kill us? 

[SNIP]

Corpe: "It was a problem even before 7/7 happened last year. . . We are not facing foreign terrorists but people bred here in the UK. Something our politicians have been discussing today. Not only [must we] be more tolerant of the Muslim faith and realize these few do not speak for the Muslim faith. These people born here, brought up here, going to our schools and still feel the need to blow up planes to, to plot to explode buildings and tube stations.

Continued Corpe: "We have a real job to do here in the UK to try to reintegrate these people and find out where we are going wrong in helping these people realize that if they want to stay in this country they have to accept the freedoms we have here and respect human life in the same way we do."

Well, the concept is identified correction "they have to accept the freedoms….", but loses the concept on the "where are we going wrong" bit.  My sense of personal responsibility (applied to all who are not approaching room temperature) is that they’ve decided NOT to.  And it looks pretty lame that we are going to "help" them do anything.  They have to help themselves.  Our only option is to get them to leave – a better option than them trying to kill me.

****

LGF reports:

CAIR Goes Nuts Over Bush Remark

 

Read more

Something’s got to be done

Brent over at Weekend Pundit has a quick discussion about tax reform, citing Ed Feulner over at TownHall.  The money quote from Brent:

I like the story of one of NH’s senators Judd Gregg, who has special training beyond law school in tax law. Yet he can’t even do his own taxes, it’s just too complex

The original purpose of a tax is to  raise money for a given level of government.  With all of the additions and changes (with very few deletions) over the years, they are both right -> this is nothing more than a hodgepodge of rules to favor a given entity over another.  In short, it is the easiest and fastest way to manipulate the public into certain behaviors and to be used by companies against each other (or industries for that matter).  At the same time, it has provided braces and college educations to the offspring of those that benefit the most – tax accountants, lawyers, and lobbyists.

For the rest of us, it is either having to employ our own accountants and lawyers, sweating and uttering choice words before, on, and shortly after April 15th.  And given the rising cut of government taxes, perhaps fewer braces and lesser college education than if we were able to keep more of our hard earned money.

Here’s what should be done:

Read more

Family matters

I’ve been kinda busy lately with our other blog (GilfordGrok) in our blog family and getting ready for budget season for our town.  However, I did have a moment to do a little surfing and found this new NH based blog, NH State of Mind,  with a good Post on the more important part of … Read more

Excusing a child abuser

This could take place in a lot of places – it has now happened in our small village of Gilford, NH. 

Doug has addressed the case of Matt McGonagle here – now convicted, he plead guilty to abusing a 14 year old female student at his school when he was 30 years old – almost old enough to be her father. He has received, in my opinion, a relatively light sentence for someone who has abused his power of authority and standing as a teacher – but I will leave that in Doug’s hands to follow up on that aspect.

My problem?  What has drawn my ire is yet another circumstance when a bleeding heart liberal is upset ("troubled" is the word he used) with the way that the abuser was treated by the court system.  In one of the local papers (The Citizen) came this Letter to the Editor (8/5/06) from (Dr. William Zechhausen, a United Church of Christ Pastor and frequent writer in psychological and counseling journals.

On Friday, July 28, I attended the sentencing hearing of Matt McGonagle.

I found instances of insensitivity and even humiliation troubling. An official within the county legal system said what I perceived is what happens daily in court, and nothing can be done about it. A lawyer told me that what I observed is why he’s leaving the profession. He added, someone should write about this. I wish he were doing so. Though perhaps it takes someone outside the system, to speak up about what happened. I believe most insensitivity, mine and others, is through lack of awareness, and conversation about it can produce change in people of good will.

Taken in total, Dr. Zechhausen is setting the stage that we should be showing as much concern and compassion for Matt McGonagle as we should for the actual victim.  After all, Mr. Zeckhausen is troubled by the insensitivity and humiliation undergone by Mr. McGonagle – “troubling” is the word he used.

I, on the other hand, have a real hard time with this sentiment, and it is a lot harsher than "troubling". He continues on…

 

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXingYummly