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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.

Data Point: “The ‘imaginary hobgoblin’ of rising income inequality”

It seems that the only thing that is stagnant is that there has been little change in income share: “We hear all the time about “rising income inequality” in America (there are more than 200,000 Google search results for that term), about “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” the “stagnant or disappearing middle class,” … Read more

Speaking of the Administrative State…Part (How many? Too many!)

bureaucracyWe had the EPA and the VA in a recent post – no one in the Obama Administration facing punishment for malfeasance.  You? Me? If we did that here in the private sector, just see how swift our”correction” would happen.  And so, in that same vein, here’s the same thing, IRS version, of “every bureaucrat is sacred” (emphasis mine, reformatted):

SILLY SENATOR. CONSEQUENCES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE. Hatch wonders about IRS discipline over political scrutiny.

The Senate’s top tax writer asked Tuesday why the IRS has cleared most employees referred for potential improper political scrutiny since the agency’s Tea Party controversy erupted in 2013. Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) noted that Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration had referred 47 employees to the IRS in recent years for potentially breaking the rules for reviewing tax-exempt applications.

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US Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) helps Dems to keep in killing the unborn

KellyAyotteSittingYup, Kelly Ayotte voted with NH’s Senior Senator Jeanne Shaheen (you know, the one that Scott Brown tried to “out-abortion – and failed? I just don’t understand why he lost  ;^)  ) in keeping funding for Planned Parenthood in the budget.  I really want to hear the spin on how this “advances the Republican agenda” – does “bipartisanship” cover this?

Senators voted 47-52 on ending debate on the short-term continuing resolution, well short of the 60 votes needed. The legislation would have funded the government through Dec. 11. The vote divided Republicans, with eight of them breaking ranks. Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Dean Heller (Nev.) Mark Kirk (Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ben Sasse (Neb.) all voted against moving forward.

And the actual result on not obtaining cloture (ending the debate to get to the actual vote? Yeah -> another spelunking session:

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And they say that “Atlas Shrugged” is just a book, too

From Instapundit in its entirety:

THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS WAS JUST A NOVEL, RIGHT GUYS? RIGHT? GUYS? ‘Camp of The Saints’ Seen Mirrored In Pope’s Message.

The novel, which has been translated into English, is entitled Camp of the Saints, and posits that the liberalism of the West would cause Western nations to throw open their doors to so many migrants that it would spell the doom of liberal society itself. Raspail’s thesis, quite simply, is that liberalism is inadequate to defend liberalism.

All around the world, events seem to be lining up with the predictions of the book. The novel features a new pope, born in Latin American, who is “in tune with the times, congenial to the press” who preaches “universal love” and calls on the Western world to open its borders to the world’s migrants. Now, as in the novel, prominent political officials are urging on ever larger waves; secular and religious leaders hold hands to pressure blue collar citizens to drop their resistance; media elites and celebrities zealously cheer the opportunity that the migrants provide to atone for the alleged sins of the West— for the chance to rebalance the wealth and power of the world by allowing poor migrants from failed states to rush in to claim its treasures.

Raspail argues that the inability of the Western conscience to erect walls, to “put her foot down,” to turn people away, will lead to the undoing of Western civilization itself.

As the world’s eyes turn to the U.S. arrival of the pope, many conservatives are arguing that Jean Raspail’s book has perhaps come to life.

That’s silly. It’s like suggesting that Fallen Angels was prophetic.

It’s all about assimilation – as Rush said,

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NHCCS Constitution Day – 603 Alliance and the “Ask the Speakers” panel

Time was running short so Diane Bitter only had a few minutes to make the case for the 603 Alliance and its mission to try to split the moderate vote with a good conservative candidate coming out of their caucus.  That was followed by a Q & A session with the evenings’ Speakers taking questions from the audience – especially on an Article V Constitutional convention.

  

             603 Alliance                                          Part 1, Speakers’ Panel

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Data Point – Republicans hate their Party

IMG_0271That is an astounding number: 6 in 10 Republicans feel “betrayed” by their Party.  Now betrayed is a very strong, emotionally laden word.  I know, I’ve used it before – years before – here on the ‘Grok.  And its cause is rather simple: they see that the elected Republican officials won’t act according to what they say they believe.  Let me put that another way: they say one thing and then do another.  Frank Guinta, Kelly Ayotte, Shawn Jasper – have they done EXACTLY what they campaigned on (ok, take the first two as Jasper is all in to his Democrat masters that handed the NH Speakership to him, but you can see that the Republicans under his leadership all but caved to what the Democrats wanted in the budget.  And oh yeah, let me not forget the NH State Senate Republicans Chuck Morse and Jeb Bradley for the biggest expansion of NH government evah by installing Obama’s Medicare Expansion)?

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Data Point – Americas are starting to fear their government

Almost half of Americans, 49%, say the federal government poses “an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens,” similar to what was found in previous surveys conducted over the last five years. When this question was first asked in 2003, less than a third of Americans held this attitude.  (H/T: Gallup)

Notable Quote – Professor Thomas Sowell

Pope Francis’ own native Argentina was once among the leading economies of the world, before it was ruined by the kind of ideological notions he is now promoting around the world. In 1900, only 3 percent of American homes had electric lights but more than 99 percent had them before the end of the century. … Read more

I think this observation is stunningly accurate about Progressives

From the Anti-Planner: Progressives believe that commonly owned resources are a good thing because they value the tragedy of the commons. Without the tragedy, there is no need for government intervention. Without a need for government intervention, the role of progressives is greatly diminished. And they continue to make more and more subject to “the … Read more

NHCCS Constitution Day – Keynote Speaker: former Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes

who spoke on the topic: “Restoring Unalienable Right – the meaning of the 9th Amendment”.  I had never seen Dr. Keyes in person when he gave a speech – a cross between an academic lecturer and a fiery Gospel preacher tied together with a passionate defense of Constitutional principles:

  

Part 1                                                             Part 2

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NHCCS Constitution Day – Ed Naile, Chair of CNHT: The Left’s Assault on American Freedom: Voter Fraud

Before the main Ballroom events at the Portsmouth Harborside Sheraton started, there were four breakout sessions held in other rooms.  One of the speakers was Ed Naile, Chair of the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers, and his topic was an update on Voter Fraud.

  

Part 1                                    Part 2

Part 3:                                    Part 4:

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NHCCS Constitution Day – Rich Girard / Jane Cormier “Chester”

After the dinner time (ok, before it ended), Rich Girard bounded back onto the stage and set the schedule for the rest of the evening.  Then he introduced former NH State Rep Jane Cormier to give her rendition of our first national anthem: “Chester”.  After that, Pete Hinkle had some time to talk about general announcements for the NHCCS as well as to give the Loyalty award to Bill McNally.

  

Dr. Jehle followed that with his talk in “Interpositional Oration”:

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NHCCS Constitution Day – Diane Gilbert, Chair NHCCS, welcoming remarks

As well as intro ceremonies with the National Anthem sung by former NH State Rep. Jane Cormier (of Piccolo Opera) and with Master of Ceremonies, Rich Girard of “Girard at Large“!    Intro Ceremonies                                   Diane Gilbert Previous Video: NHCCS – Interview with Rich Girard of “Girard at Large” NHCCS – Interview with Diane Bitter of the 603 … Read more

NHCCS Constitution Day – Ben Krim: Defending the First Amendment

Ben is a senior at the New Testament Christian School in Plymouth, Massachusetts and was judged to be the best in NHCCS’s program for high schoolers.  His topic of his speech was “Defending the First Amendment”: Previous Videos: NHCCS – Interview with Rich Girard of “Girard at Large” NHCCS – Interview with Diane Bitter of … Read more

NHCCS Constitution Day – Dr. Edwin Vieira: “The Administrative State: Blueprint for Tyranny”

Following Ben Krim’s address, Dr. Vieira took the stage to talk about the changing of our representative Republic into that which I have written about for years (trust me, he makes the FAR more scholarly argument than I could EVAH hope to do): the warning about Progressivism’ Administrative State why by we no longer rule ourselves but by government bureaucrats that are both unelected and unaccountable.  And with the Obama Administration’s years, increasingly they are also unassailable by we ordinary folks.  Again, who is supposed to be the Public Master and the public servant?  His address is broken into 4 parts of about 15 minutes apiece.

  

Part 1                                                             Part 2

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Data Point – Climate models versus Reality

michaels-102-ipcc-models-vs-reality“…The fourth IPCC report [para 9.1.3] says : “Results from forward calculations are used for formal detection and attribution analyses. In such studies, a climate model is used to calculate response patterns (‘fingerprints’) for individual forcings or sets of forcings, which are then combined linearly to provide the best fit to the observations.”

And then the author talks about a number of “parameters” to which we know have impacts on climate, some small and some quite large, that because they are not fully understood, get left out of a lot of those models.  Yet, it is these models that are being used to determine major policy decision, taxation levels, spending allocations – and of course, redistribution from the wealthy “guilty” to the “innocent oppressed” (e.g., just don’t follow the money but watch those that want to be the ones that direct those money flows).

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