Skip

Like I said:  DCE’s (Weekend Pundit)  “Thoughts on a Sunday” is a mandatory read for me every week; this week was one of his best.  Next – he does a riff on what Tom Perkins said that today’s 1% are the new Jews facing a Kristallnact, given all of the class warfare that Obama, Occupy Wall Street, and others attacking them for their success – as if they had stolen it from the “less fortunate”.  DCE picks up on THE defining word (emphasis mine):

Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its “one percent,” namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the “rich.”

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent “progressive” radicalism unthinkable now?

I have come to redefine the term “Progressive” to mean “totalitarian”. After all, so many of them are pushing for a totalitarian state where everyone except them will have to submit to the will of The State. Oh, they won’t come right out and say it, but when you take all of the programs, propaganda, and push towards ever more restrictive laws that make everyone a criminal, it all leads to one outcome: destruction of freedom and a complete takeover of everyone’s lives by a self-proclaimed elite.

Indeed – we hear the calls that OUR choice of energy is wrong,

Read more

You know, it’s been while since being on Twitter – good tool for times like this.  And a good workout for the fingers (which are pooped!).  A couple I need to follow up on for fun and adventure:  #GROK #SOTU #NHPOLITICS

• Yes, I am ready to rumbleeeeeee!
• What’s the over / under on the number of “me”, “my”, or “I” words in SOTU?
• Anyone wanna take a bet that if Obama mentions “Choice”, it’s in terms of abortion or his Choices for rest of us
• I may not tweet much, but when I do, I always have snark for Obama SOTU

@nhdogmom: What was GWB record?? RT @GraniteGrok: What’s over / under on the # of “me”, “my”, or “I” words

WOOF! RT @nhdogmom: What was GWB record?? RT @GraniteGrok: What’s over / under on the # of “me”, “my”, or “I” words

Read more

DCE’s (Weekend Pundit)  “Thoughts on a Sunday” is a mandatory read for me every week.  This week, this gem:

I saw this in a comment to a piece I linked to yesterday and I knew I had to work it into another post. I think it amply demonstrates that even if all wealth was distributed equally, the outcome would not be equal, something the Left still refuses to recognize.

If you took all the wealth in America, converted it all to cash, and gave everyone an equal amount, within a few years the ones who had nothing before will have nothing again while those rich before would be again. Look at how many lottery winners go broke while so many wealthy had been bankrupt. Some people are just good at generating wealth, and it’s not something that you can learn in school.

Indeed. Having a lot of money is not the same thing as being wealthy as it is more a state of mind and action than having someone just dump a lot of money into your bank account. Remaining wealthy takes work, something which many of the chronic poor have no experience. Too many of them have had things handed to them by the government their entire lives.

This  is the nub of the actual problem – literally, “what are you going to do“?  Seriously, that is THE question to ask: how do you life your life and is it conducive to be successful? 

Read more

It is clear that the Editors have not really read the bill on which they are trying to opine: HB 1589.  But that is not the bigger weakness of their editorial.  Their words (emphasis mine, reformatted):

…Other bills such as House Bill 1589 seem to overreach but raise issues worth legislative discussions. This bill would extend the reach of background checks to online gun sales and those by private individuals.

Seem to overreach?  Well now, buckos, you show your ignorance well before throwing the stones of that ignorance.

• Have you folks bought a gun online?  Sure, you may pay for it, but all the reputable gun stores on the web will not send it to you.  Instead, they will only send it to an authorized FFL dealer who will then run that background check before the transaction is completed.  Fail the test?  No gun for you!  They seem to not wish to discuss this.
• They diminish the Right of Private Property by blithely saying “by private individuals’ without the “journalistic discussion” of the ramifications going forward.  If it is my property, why should I not be able to sell a firearm to a decades long friend that I know to be responsible?  Why is it that Fosters, along with all of those of the gun-grabber mentality, believes that only the “Mommy Government, may I?” is to be used?  Is Fosters that willing to help move the needle of traditional American jurisprudence to declare that normal, law-abiding citizens are to be immediately declared to be guilty, not when they sell a piece of Private Property such as gardening equipment or an underused piece of electronics, but when they sell a piece of Property Property that happens to be a firearm?

Foster’s continue: 

Read more

Big Peace -“out of step” (and out of touch):

While UKIP hasn’t yet mustered up any elected members of the UK Parliament, the party this week registered as Britain’s most favoured political organisation, scoring 27 percentage points ahead of the left-wing Labour Party’s 26 and the Conservative Party’s 25 percent.

UKIP is also expected to take a huge chunk of seats at the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in May, promising more Eurosceptic Members (MEPs) who will no doubt argue for a return of sovereignty to national governments across the continent, away from the bureaucratic talons of the European Union.

I guess that the phrase “State Sovereignty” works both across the pond as well as here.  In both cases, we are seeing the war going on between those that want even MORE Government (in the ill believed notion that “Govt CAN heal all problems”) and those that believe they can solve their own problem (but aren’t allow to)

Recently, The Economist referred to UKIP as Britain’s Tea Party, a nod towards the party’s libertarian leanings. Nigel Farage once again upset the UK establishment this week by calling for a repeal of the UK’s ban on handguns, initially introduced in 1996 after the mass shooting in Dunblane, Scotland.

The Independent reported Sunday that the finding of their favourability poll was a “surprise,” further proof of the fact that much like the United States, Britain’s political and media establishments are increasingly out of step with public opinion.

I’ve been on this mudball for a few decades now, and in each and everyone of them, 

Read more

Pure Selfishness. And yes, I do get upset over this kind of person and that my Government, via its policies, encourages it.

(H/T: Independent Journal Review)

Video Auto plays on the jump!

Read more

From the Washington Post (no conservative rag, that; emphasis mine):

Just 37 percent say they have either a good amount or a great deal of confidence in the president to make the right decisions for the country’s future, while 63 percent say they do not. Those numbers are the mirror image of what they were when he was sworn into office in 2009 and lower than at any other time the question was asked by The Washington Post and ABC News.

That’s not good at all – and I can’t figure out why his overall approval is at 46% other than it may be the “nice guy” meme he’s had since being elected.  This next part, I totally believe:

Confidence in Democrats and Republicans in Congress, however, is even lower than for President Obama. Twenty-seven percent say they have confidence in Democrats to make the right decisions for the country, while 72 percent do not, and just 19 percent have confidence in Republicans, while 80 percent do not. Almost half lack confidence in all three.

For the GOP, the lack of faith in their decision-making includes their own followers. Just 36 percent of self-identified Republicans say they believe their party’s lawmakers will make good decisions. 

Read more

This morning, I was talking with a Conservative activist and it jogged my memory that I had missed putting up a post.  You see, on the way down to the AFP/NH new office Grand Opening this past Wednesday nite, I noticed this license plate that passed me on 93 South just after climbing the big hill coming out of Concord:

Yes, TMEW’s iPad didn’t get a great shot but it says “3-21” and marked as a NH House Legislator plate.  It didn’t come out well at all, but it is a dark colored (deep blue) Subaru swathed in stickers (of COURSE, the requisite Obama was on the back).  I am a “sticker reader” and was curious as to that the others said, but when I tried to inch closer to read them (cognizant of the 65 mph speed limit), it kept speeding away.  In fact, it was going well in excess of the “speed limit + 5” de facto limit.

Now 3-21 is short hand for the seat assigned to that particular legislator (Image H/T – Project Smart Vote):

Representative Ruth Heden (d)
Hillsborough- District 23
Seat #:3021 

Read more

Glenn Reynold’s (of Instapundit)  USA Today’s column spoke of both individual and State level nullification telling the Federal Government “Screw you!” (emphasis mine):

Meanwhile, on the marijuana front, the people of states like Colorado are engaging in an odd, 21st century variety of nullification. Unlike the 19th century John Calhoun version, state laws legalizing marijuana don’t purport to neutralize the still-extant federal laws banning cannabis. But the state, and millions of Coloradans, are simply ignoring the federal law and, in essence, daring the feds to do something about it.

State laws, of course, can’t neutralize federal law, as the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause makes clear. But, bloated as it is, the federal law enforcement apparatus isn’t up to the task of prosecuting all the marijuana users in Colorado. And if it tried, it would have to bring them to trial before juries in Colorado, who would probably acquit most of them. There would also be massive political backlash, amplified in the coming 2014 and 2016 elections because Colorado is a swing state. And in response to Colorado’s example, other states look likely to follow suit, making the feds’ problem much bigger.

So, despite all the federal laws on the books, Colorado has de facto nullified them, and started a process that may very well snowball, all without directly attacking the federal laws, or the federal government, at all. Meanwhile, millions of Americans may be in the process of effectively killing Obamacare simply by staying home. 

Read more

Over at the Anti-Planner is a continuation of the display of communitarianism that I’ve written about concerning the Hathaway House in Laconia (here and here).  His story is not about a building but a tree that his neighbors seem to believe that they should have more say about the disposition of that tree than the owner has (reformatted, emphasis mine)…and, oh yeah, the blogger he references merely rents and is not an owner in the neighborhood:

That’s right, trees. Specifically, I want to talk about the decision made by a Somerville neighbor of mine to fell an old, beautiful, and perfectly healthy tree because it was “in the way” of his backyard improvement project — in the process adversely affecting the quality of life for me and several of my neighbors. Is it crazy or un-American to suggest that, at a certain point, a tree is no longer one person’s private property per se, and belongs to the community? And at that point, should the property owner be restricted as to what he or she may do with said tree?

No, it is not crazy to suggest it – merely that you are trying to rationalize that, deep down, you have no problem in being a thief without admitting it. 

Read more