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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.

BlogAdvice of the Day: Glenn Reynolds

“Since we’ve seen that the government can take a 2.3 percent cut without anybody noticing, why not go for a 5% across-the-board cut next year?” (H/T: Instapundit) Given the rise in spending by Government since Obama took office, yes, a 5% cut probably would show up as much as this sequestration did to the ordinary … Read more

Memorial Day – a different perspective from me

In years past for me, it has been about those who gave all, as Grokster Steve points out here.  That simple drawing shows the gratitude for all the sacrifices that millions have given to our country, to us, and to me personally.  I have, as I have explained here many times, never served, so I … Read more

I need to see the papers to see what I’ve done!

This from Obama’s comment that he did not know of the IRS scandal, happening on his watch, until he heard it in the Press.  “Leadership from behind” is so unbecoming from the most “inside the beltway” guy in the word – does he really think this is a dodge that would actually be acceptable to … Read more

So, how would you suggest that she Run Away, Deputy Dawg “HB135” Shurtleff?

No, she was not in public but thought she was securely in her home, was she Mr. “Let the Professionals take care of your security” Shurtleff.  Until, that is, there’s no one around.  Seconds and minutes (emphasis mine, reformatted):

JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Ore. (CBS Seattle) — An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts… Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.  “Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?”

The woman told the dispatcher that Bellah previously attacked her and left her hospitalized a few weeks prior to the latest incident. The dispatcher stayed on the phone with the woman for more than 10 minutes before the sexual assault took place. “Once again it’s unfortunate you guys don’t have any law enforcement out there,” the dispatcher said, according to Oregon Public Radio.  The woman responded: “Yeah, it doesn’t matter, if he gets in the house I’m done.”

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Blogline of the Day – Laura Ingraham

“Pete Wehner is missing the whole point of why the Tea Party is so furious with the GOP Establishment. Yes, we think that they are a bunch of squishes, hacks and sell-outs. That is true. But we also think despite all their advanced degrees, they’re stupid. We think that their ideas on immigration are crazier … Read more

May 25th. Start of the Memorial Day weekend. 7pm. Do you know where your temperature is?

Updated and bumped: My temperature ran away.  11:30pm  Let the dogs out.  Yeah.  32 degrees…it supposed to be summah! *************************************** Yeah.  Just returning from the grocery store.  Now, I really dreaded going out to get some butter for TMEW’s home made “just finished baking” bread but the smell and thought of that yummy bread overpowered … Read more

Boy Scouts of America have just sacrificed themselves on the alter of Cultural Marxism (aka P.C.)

BSA_Goad-and-CountryMorally Straight.   I don’t think that phrase has any meaning any more in a world where secular loudmouths are trumping people of faith, where the ever changing mores (swinging from what used to be Politically Correct and “good” then is now Politically Incorrect and ‘bad’ longer now – simply on some group’s say-so)  trump traditionally absolute values.

It used to, when right and wrong were absolutes but it seems nowadays everyone has their “own truth” and “what is right is what is I say it is” – some foundation for running an entire society, eh?  However, those incremental socialists from the Franklin School (progenitors of Cultural Marxism cum Political Correctness) knew, along with Gramarcie, that Americans would never accept Socialism (and then to Communism) if its backer were absolutely open and truthful about their aims, their goals, and what American would lose in the process (sounds like most Democrats nowadays, doesn’t it? ).  What was necessary was to keep nudging the culture to a tipping point that would sneak up all at once – and those that truly believed in God, traditional values, and the Constitution would, overnight, become a minority not because of the politics but because of the culture (which would then be expressed in politics).  So, like minded sojourners infiltrated the inflection point: the churches, the media, the music, the arts, governmental policies towards the traditional family; all those things that could move the culture to where secular socialism would be acceptable.  Media and newsrooms swung Left, in search of changing the world instead of reporting the news.  Music, theater, and the arts moved into the direction that the only way to succeed was to ‘push the boundaries’ – that is, going from going past cultural norms to attacking them.  Religious faith has been attacked both from within (turning from The Gospel of Individual Salvation and saving souls to some nebulous gospel of “social justice”) and without (by groups going “reverse judgementalism” to attack the pillars of faith as failing to rise to meet “current social needs of fairness, Political Correctness, and inclusion) with the attendant loss of faith in the younger generations (helped along, in no small part, by the radical Ivory Tower minions who are shielded by the tax dollars earned by those they actually attack – such work when you can get it).  The goal has been to cut the knees out of traditional American society – so as to replace it with foreign ones. And the Boy Scouts have certainly been a traditional American value for over 100 years; no longer.

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Notable Quote – Mark Levin

So why didn’t Chairman Issa hold an investigative hearing a year ago? Why didn’t Chairman Camp, all Republicans, hold an investigative hearing a year ago, and all the other tripping over themselves right now? I’ll tell you why. Because the establishment Republicans, the RINO Republicans, despise the Tea Party. They despise the conservative movement. We … Read more

So, how come this doesn’t work with Education?

“We should be working to make sure that high quality health care is provided to the uninsured to make sure the full range of health care services, including family planning services that are available to people with money are available to the poor and uninsured as well,” Nadler said. That would be Congressman Jerry Nadler … Read more

Internet Doodlings – Transport NH doesn’t like me much

I wonder if they know TreeHugger??

TransportNH seems to be yet another one of the “Sustainable Community Initiative” type websites  as in “let’s complain how rural New Hampshire is so unlike urban dominated Big States”.  For YEARS, I have been commenting about the local version of “Public Transportation” here locally in Central New Hampshire – two Winnipesaukee Transit System buses whose only purpose, it seems, is to keep a couple of bus drivers employed.  In fact, when I raised the issue a few years ago on how empty they were every time I passed one of them (1, maybe 2 people), they went and tinted the windows.  Given the fixed costs and the ridership (I got their budget, too), they might as well give a $20 voucher to the private cab services in town and end up spending taxpayer money more efficiently.

Stupid buses are still traveling the road – still mostly empty.  But I digress; back to a post I left a comment on – back on April 24:

What if you couldn’t drive?

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Rebecca Harris

Concerns about Public Transportation in New Hampshire:Transit:

  •  19% of New Hampshire residents are concerned about losing their ability to drive in the next few years.
  • 53% of New Hampshire adults would find getting things in the community difficult if they needed to use crutches or a wheelchair for at least 4 weeks.
  • No public transportation system exists for more than 80% of New Hampshire’s communities.

Data Source: Feb. 2006 Granite State Poll

From the Institute on Disability at UNH

So, I decided to try and start a conversation:

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IRS Scandal: TEA Party, Constitutionalists, 9/12ers, Romney donors – but they added this group to the audit list?

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen a litany of the groups that have been targeted by the IRS simply because they are opposed to:

  • Obama’s policies and Presidency
  • a large governmental bureaucracy that continues to insert itself into more and more simply by dint of regulation (in addition to “enabling” legislation)

The entrenched bureaucracy, with a heavy list to Left / Democrat ideology, has proven Conservatives right.  They have now admitted to it, kinda non-apologized apologized for it, and now realize, with the taking of the Fifth Amendment today, with criminal intent (possibly).  But at least there was a reason – these Government workers believed that they were defending the ramparts of their castle against the barbarians that just can’t get it through their Neaderthalic heads that we all NEED Government – the more the better for all.  And make no mistake, this is a on-going, almost hot, war going between we who believe that least government is best government so as to allow for the greatest amount of personal Liberty and those that believe Government knows best for us all in how to order Society efficiently for safety and security.

They decided to “harass” those that differed from them politically – to support Obama and to support themselves.  Their version of political war (with all due respect to von Clausewitz).  But to pick on those who merely wish to adopt little babies and children; these are considered to “political battlefield combatants by Progressives?

As we get word that the IRS has harassed a number of pro-life groups, including at least one alleged demand that a pro-life group not picket Planned Parenthood, check out this statistic: In 2012, the IRS requested additional information from 90 percent of returns claiming the adoption tax credit and went on to actually audit 69 percent. More details from the Taxpayer Advocate Service:

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The tolerance of cultural Marxism in the Academy? Does not go far, it seems

Institutions of higher learning, at least when I was there 30 40 years ago, they were hotbeds of discourse, ideas, and ideologies.  You had a stand – you took it, you said it, and you defended it.  Others did the same.  At the time, even if they didn’t listen, they at least gave you the time. Nowadays, Political Correctness (aka Cultural Marxism) has taken over the Academy.  How DARE you be a Conservative AND believe in God – you are a traitor to the Movement (and an evil person too!).  It is no longer enough to no longer give the opposite side time – in fact, press the pedal to the metal: there is a zero tolerance for The Other among those on campus. The Classic Western Liberalism that drove the Academy for centuries has turned into the same intolerable Illiberalism that Progressivism has brought to America (emphasis mine):

America’s great universities continue to be bastions of intolerance. They profess to prize “diversity,” which in practice means that everybody must believe the same things. The campusreform.org blog has the story of how the Northwestern University Student Senate refused to allow student Stephen Piotrkowski to become vice president of diversity and inclusion because he admits to being a white heterosexual male.

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Well, given the performance of the former NH Congressmen, can’t say I blame him

By that, we supposedly put two Republican mens’ butts into US House Representatives chairs with one and only one main major mission – cut the spending.  Each time a Continuing Resolution showed up that could have stopped the national madness that has been adding to the National debt, they folded on their promises and folded on the courageous vote to stand athwart the gunnels of our sinking financial ship and scream “No further!”.

True, the Senate never passed a budget – but now they are crafting one.  Yet, have Republicans learned their lesson about the debt ceiling?   McCain is trotting out the “Trust us, we’re Republicans!” and being emphatic that Republicans will deal honestly with Democrats over the Budget.  Been there, done that, see above. Maybe Establishment Republicans believe that no R can do no wrong (after all, Gene Chandler set the policy here in NH “Any Republican that helps us regain power is a good Republican“).  We cannot agree with McCain.  We at the ‘Grok believe that Trust is first earned – it HAS to be earned for if it is merely given, it will be first be taken advantage of and then abused.  It takes very little to lose earned Trust – to maintain Trust demands Consistency within Principles – not an attitude that “something must be or has to be done”.  It is that latter ‘tude that has given us our $16 Trillion deficit.  How’s that gonna work out for our kids’ children, eh?

US Senator Ted Cruz (R-AZ) has it exactly right (emphasis mine):

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TEA Party starting to return to protesting? Here in NH, a re-start. DHS Police take notice?

With the recent news that the IRS was using its bureaucratic muscle to muzzle TEA Party groups ahead of the last Presidential election (hmm, the Press kept harping that the TEA Party disappeared – now we know, in part, why), is this now going to be a Rick Santelli type moment, Version 2.0?  They started small, all over the country.  A call went out for the TEA Party to start showing up at IRS offices all over country in protest.  Instapundit has pix from around the country (here, here, and here for some examples).

NH too!  Loyal reader Chuck sent these in:

NH TEA Party Protesting IRS - 1

NH TEA Party Protesting IRS - 2NH TEA Party Protesting IRS - 3

 

 

 

Not evident here in NH, there were some protests that did get the attention of Obama’s own security force (“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”) just in SUVs without any of the 2,700 MRAPS that DHS has reto’d lately:

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Part of the NH Advantage is local control. SB11? Not so much

  1. Does it allow Exeter and Stratham actually do that?
  2. Does it give others a “platform” on which to do other things – unintended consequences?

My background is as a software developer – not a lawyer.  However, as any one that has done any programming, the object is to first write the code that actually does what is needed (design, code, debug).  The next pass is to sit and try to think of all of the ways and permutations that users will use that programming to do their work – and how to subvert their efforts on insisting on “being stuck on stupid”.  For lack of training, unsure of the job requirements, cases of “let’s just try THIS and see what happens” to those that rub their hands in glee and exclaim “LET’S PLAY GAMES!” – one can be sure that your code will stop some of the inanities that users believe your code should otherwise handle.

Emphasis on some.  Many silly things it won’t simply because I don’t think like they do so I can’t write the software to keep them from using it “wrongly”.   To be sure, more will see what works, what doesn’t, and then will try to exploit it because 1) it is a challenge to do so, but for some idea of fun, or 2) they have an ulterior reason to exploit the system from some sort of personal gain. Get the wrong logic operator in the wrong spot (AND instead of OR, EXACTLY instead of CONTAINS) or assuming data is returned from a call in a certain format and type, and things can fizzle pretty quick.  GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) deliberately done can really hack out a system – the environment in which a program is run also effects what it can / can’t do and the results (valid / invalid) are spit out.

Laws work the same way.  Although not being a lawyer, reviewing laws can be just like reviewing a large program.  Instead of CPUs and networks, the political atmosphere into which the law is enacted is its operating environment.  And make no mistake, just as in computer systems where programs compete for scarce resources, the equivalence is all of the special interest groups hoping to gain some advantage (rent-seeking, be it for commercial gain or ideological success) in either how the law was written (re: hidden back doors, zero day exploits) or the how it can be interpreted to out-chess folks not as aware by those that seek to use it in unintended fashions.

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Guest Post by Ken Eyring – a conversation on SB11

[Emphasis mine – Skip]

I wanted to share the conversation that I had with Rep. Abrami via email over the past few days regarding SB-11. I am concerned about some of the unintended consequences in the language of the Bill. These concerns are listed below.  If you agree with me, please share your concerns with your representatives.

———————————————————————————————-

From: Ken Eyring
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 7:08 PM
To: Abrami, Patrick
Cc: ~All Representatives
Subject: Re: Senate Bill 11 — Please consider these concerns/potential unintended consequences

Dear Honorable Representative Abrami,

Thank you for taking the time to read my concerns and share your thoughts.  Per your advice, I read Mr. Johnston’s summary of the bill (which you sent to me).  With sincere respect, I believe that both you and Mr. Johnson misunderstand the concerns that I and others have raised.  I am concerned that SB-11’s language may not be interpreted in the manner which you (as a sponsor) intended.  Please give me a moment to explain.

In my previous letter, I referred to some of the text in SB-11 as amended (e.g. “waters of New Hampshire”) that I felt could be broadly interpreted to mean ALL waters of New Hampshire, regardless of source or location.  I appreciate that you agree with me that the Bill’s current statement of purpose does not focus on the true purpose — and I want to thank you in advance for amending this section on Wednesday on the House floor.

There are other areas of the Bill that I am also concerned about, and perhaps it is due to a lack of understanding on my part.  I would appreciate if you would help clarify the following concerns related to this excerpt from 31:141:

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