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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.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: no Live Free or Die for her!

“When you’re part of a society, you can’t separate yourself from the obligations that citizens have”

Keep Calm and Carry on And Leave Me AloneIndependent; rugged individualism; self-responsibility.  The old maxim (quick, good, or cheap) is to pick two and call me back.  Ginsburg can’t as it is obvious, just as the Left believes, those attributes are just archaic.  Sure, they worked when our country was formed and the Constitution was written, but that’s just so old and well, people can’t make it on their own anymore without the help of others.  But the Left goes further than that – to a forced communitariansm in which the Government dragoons you into “helping” or being “charitable” towards others. Doubt me?  This is what she said concerning the Hobby Lobby decision:

“The decision that an employer could refuse to cover contraceptives meant that women would have to take care of that for themselves or the men who cared,” Ginsburg replied. “Contraceptive protection is something that every woman must have access to to control her own destiny,” she added.

What a concept, that “that women would have to take care of…themselves“! For thousands of years, that is the way it was.  But you see,

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“2,500 rounds of ammunition”? In some circles, he’d be called a piker

Cleveland judge accused of beating wife had 2,500 rounds of ammunition, semi-automatic rifles, sword and smoke grenades in home

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Police confiscated smoke grenades, semi-automatic rifles, a sword, a bulletproof vest and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition from the home of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Lance Mason’s home, according to a police report.

nothingburgerI.E., lazy.  This Is Supposed To Be A Big Deal – and the headline writer is sure to let us know that.  Not that the judge punched his wife with a closed fist, but that he had what GOD KNOWS is a veritable arms warehouse!   Seriously, must have been an eye opener for the reporter – only drug dealers and other nefarious folks are supposed to have that much!  Thankfully, I can say that while I do know some reporters (that I would also call journalists) that shoot, I’m quite sure that most MSM reporters haven’t a clue.  To a lot of my friends, that might be 4 or 5 trips to the range – on slow days.   I also do know folks that have FAR more than that – especially those that practice a lot for competitions (in fact, WAY, WAY more that other shooters would go “really”???).  But here, this is supposed to be A Big Deal.  No – most of the folks I know that shoot on a regular basis will just shake their heads at this “breathless headline”.  But admittedly, the rest of this is not a good thing (to be complete):

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Yes, Reince Priebus, that’s just about right….let’s talk price

Reince PriebusWatching FoxNews “Special Report” is a staple for me – while it seems that they do try to report the news fairly straight up (yes, sometimes shaded a bit or bit more to the Right – let’s be honest here, as do the others shade (or in the case of MSNBC, leap) to the Left), it is the roundtables in the latter part of the show that I really do enjoy.  That said, the news part had a snippet of GOP Chair Reince Priebus begging for unity on the Right.  In doing so, he said  a sentence that I thought was quite oddly constructed:

“If we work together – Conservatives, Republicans, Independents, local TEA Party activists – we can fire Reid and get this country working.”

I would have thought that “wings of the Republican Party” might have been sufficient or even just “Republicans”.  However, it actually is rather truthful.  A lot of Conservatives have and are leaving the Party because elected Republicans aren’t voting the way they talk.  Then there are the Republicans – mostly known as

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EPA Regulation Supporters – never thinking of the ramifications on others

The new CO2 emissions regulations now being put forth by the EPA is going to have a huge impact on the American economy and people.  Here, Dan Joseph of MRC TV went to interview (yeah, in DC he gets to do interviews with all kinds of folks) some folks that were demonstrating FOR the EPA to implement them (as opposed to say “Who the heck is the EPA to put itself up higher than the Congress in making this huge impact on America”?

I think the supporters were a bit, shall we say, lacking:

You know, if these folks want to reshape and restructure their own lives to use less energy in every aspect of their lives, go for it.  It is this “forced communitarianism” by

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Data Point – Small Business Friendliness (or is that friendless?)

“…Thumbtack, a website that matches customers to businesses, and the Kauffman Foundation, a think-tank, asks thousands of small businesses annually about local requirements for hiring, regulations, zoning, licenses, health insurance and training. They have enough data to compile (somewhat subjective) “business climate” grades for 38 states and 82 cities. One surprising finding is how little … Read more

Notable Quote – Capt. Keith Colburn

“Work harder than the next guy. Make sure that what you’re going into, that you’ve done your research, and you know what you’re doing, and you’ve got a good handle on the job or the business you’re trying to open. “I didn’t go up to [Alaska] and say, “I’m going to buy a boat in … Read more

A paen to Bubbles’ future

Don’t ask about the title – inside joke.  That person will “get” it. (H/T: Liberal Logic 101)

Still, Progressives don’t understand why we don’t accept their “brilliance”?

Africa is now a country!

Yeah, such a show of brilliance!  For their underlying philosophy is that Government is FULL of smarter people than the rest of us “little people” who not only need but WANT them to lead us.  And that these folks are totally non-partisan to boot. Snort!  First we get our esteemed gaffe-a-matic Vice President Biden wonderfully making a whole continent smaller.  Get the rewrite of the geography books, globes, and charts ready:

“…But gaffe he did, in front of 50 world leaders and their entourages at the event held on the sidelines of President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.

…Africa is a continent made up of 54 separate countries, including island nations off its coastlines.

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Shades of Ian Underwood – especially when the police start saying it

of the Constitution?During the NH anti-gun bills debates, a gentleman by the name of Ian Underwood gave his testimony  to the NH Legislature on what he saw as a large problem in the legislators’ behavior in ignoring their oaths of fidelity to the NH Constitution:

The first is that a bill like this undermines respect for the very rule of law itself. After all, if the legislature isn’t going to respect the limits placed on it by the NH Constitution, then why should individuals respect the limits placed on them by that legislature — whether regarding guns, or schools, or traffic laws, or anything else?  

If we’re going to disregard the big rules, why pay any attention to the smaller ones?

The meme is spreading, especially with Obama’s ongoing examples contra the Constitution (“I will act alone”). I have seen and heard it many times now – mostly from those that DO believe that The Rule of Law (once absolute measure of “social justice” as ALL Americans were subject to the same Laws and in the same ways) is a founding Pillar of this Republic that now are frightened.  They are scared that it is being pushed out of the way so as “to make Progress” (as defined by the Left); Progressivism demands that The Rule of Law be ignored, that The Rule of Law must give way to the “pragmatism of the moment” (or crisis, as it might be) – principles be damned.  They know that once ignored,

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Notable Quote – Jonah Goldberg on the ravages of Progressive Woodrow Wilson on America

“I believe it is no exaggeration,” wrote sociologist Robert Nisbet, “to say that the West’s first real experience with totalitarianism — political absolutism extended into every possible area of culture and society, education, religion, industry, the arts, local community and family included, with a kind of terror always waiting in the wings — came with … Read more

Blogline of the Day – Resolve vs Snotty

“His [Obama’s] greatest rhetorical skill turns out to be mockery. The man who once promised to transcend political divisions is an expert at the stinging partisan jab. What Churchill was to thundering statements of resolve, he is to snotty put-downs.” – Rich Lowry (syndicated columnist, National Review editor, TV pundit)  

GIGO Gecko-more proof that Obama’s EPA is killing coal & making electricity prices rise

Laser Beam on Coal JobsGIGO Gecko, a new commenter, decided to challenge my post on rising electricity prices (now at an all time average high) which I peg, in no small part, to the EPA’s new regulations on CO2 emissions that carry out Obama’s promise in closing coal fired electrical generating plants – or cause the to go into bankruptcy.  So much so, several States are banding together in suing the EPA to put a halt do it.  The operational questions are these:

Does, OR SHOULD, a solitary regulatory agency be able to kill off an entire industry?  Should the Administrative State have this power – or is this a usurpation of the responsibilities of Congress?

Which, as we know, decided to NOT take action to this Cap N Trade kill-a-like as it could not agree on the issue.  Which should NEVER been seen, as Obama and other Progressives would have us believe, as a signal to the Executive Branch to do it on its own. – that is not how our political system works.  But GIGO Gecko is aghast that I think that is exactly what is happening, so Lizardly Obama Apologist, this is for you:

“I have never asked for handouts from the people around me or from the government.  I want to pay my own way. I want to work.  I want to feel pride in my work.”

Here, we see a coal miner seeing his government 

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Blogline of the Day – Israel vs Hamas

If Hamas got its way in Gaza, it would look a lot like the Islamic State in Iraq. If Israel got its way, Gaza would look a lot like Santa Monica. Just sayin’ . . . – Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit

Indeed – Has our Government stripped away the value of American Citizenship?

Certainly as this trucker goes through a Border Patrol checkpoint, one can hear the dishearted question and answer:

Sadly, they both may be right.  Ask yourself – what advantage does the ordinary middle-class American have over an illegal alien?  What part of American Citizenship is valuable anymore than just being here?  Used to be that:

  • I get to live in the #1 country in the Developed World – but so do they (welcomed in by Obama and watching this illegal kids invasion, an army of taxpayer workers to make their “transition” to living here easier)
  • They need to show papers showing citizen  (and now I can be challenged at a border checkpoint, even being a Citizen that should be able to travel anywhere without “papers”)

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And herein is why I hate the dumb idea of so-called smart guns

I really don’t care for the arguments that those that wish to neuter the Second Amendment with a Trojan Horse: Armatix_iP1_is_a_smart_gun_pistol

The only “smart gun” that exists in even a semi-viable form is the $1,800 iP1/iW1 Armatix combination. It is an electronically neutered 10-shot semi-automatic pistol in .22LR mated to a bulky watch. For the system to work, the watch requires a PIN code to be entered every few hours, and it must be worn on the firing hand at all times for the firearm to work with any sort of reliability at all. Armatix also owns a patent which appears to be a software “backdoor” which allows government agencies to turn off their firearms remotely.

What American shooter wants to spend $1,800 on a gun/watch combination that cannot be shot with the off-hand at all without failing 100% of the time, which requires a PIN code to function, is time-limited before it locks again, which is only chambered in the anemic .22LR caliber, and which may be disabled remotely by the government or anyone else who learns to hack the technology?

No one who is buying a pistol for viable self-defense, that’s for sure.

I hate wearing jewelry – have since forever so about the only piece I wear is my wedding band.  No extra 

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