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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.

Getting outside the echo chamber: “The Right opposes Social Security because…every person has worth….” Part 2

The Right opposes Social Security because it is based on the social democratic idea that every person has worth, even if they are too old to work, and that no one should live in poverty.

And so we debate!  I received Professor Joseph Schwartz’s opening remarks on the defense of this line written by Maria Svart, National Director of the Democrat Socialists of America.  Tomorrow I will post my response:

3/11/13:  Prof. Schwartz

The democratic left has always supported collective means of social insurance, such as publicly-funded (through equitable taxation) universal health care, old-age pensions, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance. We support all citizens being covered because both the rich and poor, young and old get sick or disabled and they often don’t have jobs or the purchasing power to cover themselves thru individual insurance. The right has always resisted the implementation of social insurance and always fights to “privatize” it as much as possible, arguing that individuals should have the foresight (and “the freedom”) to insure themselves (or those who pay in more should get better coverage).

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Email Doodlings: NH GOP – Bang! There goes one foot

BackStory: Since the national election, much has been made of the Obama Data Machine – hundreds of millions of dollars spent, hundreds of people employed, and a use of advanced IT married with Big Data and Behavioral Engineering / Science for the singular purpose of keeping Obama in the Oval Office seat.  Certainly, the GOP, the NH GOP, needs to learn that lesson (one among many) that the terms, conditions, and actions of campaigning have been forever changed.  The ability to find, persuade, motivate, and get new and low information voters to go and vote was a model of technology – far beyond what has been yet defined, spec’d out, implemented, and used.

Agreement all around: the GOP, heck – the NH GOP, has to get with it and soon.  Or either be relegated to minority status for a long time -or come out with another kind of disruptive technique (perhaps totally orthagonal to even the “new normal” of Big Data / Behavioral Science / Campaigning. If the latter happens, great but in the mean time, it is pretty much agreed that Tech must be upgraded.  Pretty much, it is a must – anything to better connect with voters.  One email that came in over the transom:

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Well, NH Constitution Article 10 does provide for a Revolution, doesn’t it? Was HB617 the flashpoint? Part 1

[Art.] 10. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

June 2, 1784

Well, Article 10 is meant to be used by the Citizens when Government is judged to be oppresive and tyrannical – but it seems like it is fitting what is going on in the NH House.  We’ve written extensively about HB617 which will raise the gas tax on NH Citizens big time.  Our beef is not that Democrats initiated this but that Republicans, from the Party of Low Taxes / Limited Government, voted to support Higher Taxes that will support Bigger Government.  And TWO of the Republican Leadership team in the NH House voted for it: David Hess and Shawn Jasper.

Rightfully so, both have been taking heat – especially Shawn Jasper.  The grassroots House members are LIVID – and Jasper just keeps pouring gas on himself in fanning the flames.  How do I know?  Man, have I gotten emails.  Let’s review a few of them, shall we (warning – this may get longish):

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Sustainable Communities Initiative (the Federalization of local zoning codes): Lakes Region Planning Commission Meeting

Yes, the unelected, unaccountable and mostly self-funding (multiple taxpayer teats at the ready) group of Commissions that started off doing road planning between neighboring towns – and suddenly, are experts in such varied things as Economic Development to Broadband Deployment in just a few short millions of dollars grants-writing.  And now that THAT information is getting out (much to the dismay of paid shills like NHListens (here, here, here, here, sorta here, here) who “facilitate” meetings (and their outcomes) and their propagandists like Action Media (“to neutralize the opposition“)), they are not grooving at ALL that they are no longer being allowed to do their work out of the light of Citizen Flashlights…

…like here, where one of the taxpayer funded presenters, trying to sugercoat the “wassup!”, decided to diss ‘Grok friend Ed from GovernmentOversite (who wields a big Citizen Flashlight indeed).  Diss?  Er, well, object to the camera being present AND rolling – watch for yourself:

Lesson to the yet-to-be-PR-wise: holding up the yellow lined notepad makes you a bigger target and a more interesting subject to watch.  And, as my 1 year old granddaughter will soon learn, blocking the camera lens with said notepad will not automatically make you invisible (something that the 1 year old is already learning, except she just uses her forearm to cover her eyes to make herself invisible to everyone else).

But I digress – here are some of the notes Ed took (emphasis mine, a bit of reformatting, and commenting on the notes on what these Planners really want to do [er, the Ed’s Notes are great and are NOT the target of the snark – the reason why the Notes had to be done is):

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Data Point – Unemployment rate EVEN with Obama’s Stimulus

(Image H/T: AEIdeas) Drop outs from the Labor force at all time high: 89,304,000 The Corner:   Were the unemployment rate today measured against the same workforce participation as when President Obama took office four years ago, the unemployment rate today would be 10.7 percent.

Notable Quote – Edmund Burke

“Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,—in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety and understanding is above their vanity and presumption — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen … Read more

Progressives: giving breaks to the lawless, declaring the guilt of the lawful

Lawful Gun Owners Will Be Punished

Hmmm.  When I first saw this, I went “yup”!  A warning to the lawless, the criminal class: “Now, now children, you need to behave.  Please follow the rules, please obey the law.  After all, it’s for the children.’  That seems to be the message – a slap on the wrist AND the expectation that it is all that it will take.  After all, this is just “guidance” to criminals to “perfect them” (after all, killing innocent children in a gun free zone is not a nice thing”.

And then Progressives are all happy to trust the criminal class to then behave themselves – cut them a break, as it were.  After all, it is the fault of Society that they are the way they are – we ALL are to blame for their actions.  And then go all agog when their expectations go awry again.  Rinse, repeat.  Always the “eternal second chances” as they are not responsible for their actions – they are implicitly part of the vast “identity victim class” that must be protected (again, it.just.isn’t.their.fault).

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Biden:”If it only saves one life!” Grandfather saves granddaughter

From Powerline: When a 79-year-old man heard arguing outside his home, he went outside to investigate. In the front yard, the man discovered his 17-year-old granddaughter being beaten by a 19-year-old male. When the grandfather confronted the suspect, he was threatened with a “stun gun.” The suspect approached the elderly man. The grandfather warned him … Read more

The Value Proposition of K-12 Education: a failing proposition. New York City shows why

Recent news: “Officials: Most NYC High School Grads Need Remedial Help Before Entering CUNY Community Colleges” (reformatted, emphasis mine)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It’s an education bombshell.

Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before they can enter the City University’s community college system. The number of kids behind the 8-ball is the highest in years, CBS 2?s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday. When they graduated from city high schools, students in a special remedial program at the Borough of Manhattan Community College couldn’t make the grade.

They had to re-learn basic skills — reading, writing and math — first before they could begin college courses.  They are part of a disturbing statistic.

Officials told CBS 2?s Kramer that nearly 80 percent of those who graduate from city high schools arrived at City University’s community college system without having mastered the skills to do college-level work.

Hmm – not much value there, is there?  More like Public Education has a “dereliction of duty problem” on the order of “Do they even know what they are doing”?  And those of us that went through primary school through high school before the mid-70s (when the hippie / draft dodging / New Left schooled radical” teachers gave us limitless opportunities to make sport of cashiers that can’t make change in their heads or cannot string three complex sentences to save their lives.  Grokster Steve’s recent post on how homeschooling is illegal in Germany and how NH Dems have worked hard to do the same here too (either de jure or de facto): Do NH Democrats Want To Pass A Law Like This One In Germany?  It has accumulated a fair number of comments.  Hunter Dan – a government teacher that comments here (and to whom, we have been trying to better educate) – left us a comment here in response to a comment by Susan on a monopolistic stranglehold on “public education” by the teachers unions:

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Guest post by NH State Rep Jane Cormier – Sanborton Republican Dennis Fields Votes Against 2nd Amendment (among other things…)

[Note: a compendium of “Dennis-isms” from the just completed Belknap County budget process at the end  -Skip]

Boy, this being a “representative” is pretty difficult stuff. I have to admit, even though I take our Wednesday meeting/voting sessions at the State House pretty seriously, sitting through some of these difficult County Budget meetings has really been eye opening. I am happy to say, our conservative majority in the delegation have level funded the county budget for our Belknap County taxpayers. No tax increase this year much to the chagrin of our County Commissioners, County Administrator, Deb Shackett, and the Democrats on our county delegation. However, the most surreal experience of all, has been working with Republican Representative Dennis Fields. Not only did Rep. Fields vote with the Democrats to RAISE the county portion of our property taxes, Rep. Fields has also voted with the Democrats at the State House against our 2nd Amendment rights. And, I have to wonder if Sanbornton voters truly understood what they were getting in their Republican candidate, Dennis Fields when they voted for him. If so, then you need not read any further. If not, then you need to recognize his anti-Second Amendment votes and actions at our county budget meeting prove Rep.Fields is not supporting the proposed Republican Party platform or our Constitutional rights to bear arms. He ran as a Republican and was voted him in as such. Hmmm…..

During the process of county budget talks (the 9% proposed increase on the county portion of our property taxes was beyond egregious, in my opinion), Fields continually sided with the Commissioners and Democrats, often attacking his own Republican Chair, Rep. Colette Worsman, with unprofessional diatribes and hyperbole. His quarrelsome statements on Worsman holding “secret meetings”, (they are called CAUCUSES, Rep. Field. ALL political parties hold them. There is nothing “secretive” about them

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Belknap County Commissions – acting like Monty Python (“Run Away!”)

Yes, this is part of this post, where the emphasis was on how they left the County Attorney in a lurch – yes, she is an elected official but reports to the Commissioners (yet, the County Convention sets her budget). Yeah, playing politics.  It both rather amusing to watch this childish stunt (“Oh look, we’ll … Read more

Trust

Just surfing around a few days ago and I came across this over at RedState: Why Should a Lady Own a Gun … ?  Now, most of it was interesting (kinda, to a point) but what caught my eye was this at the end: Finally, owning a gun exercises an Amendment Right. It is a … Read more

This is THE Question confronting the Establishment Republicans: What DO you stand for (besides mere winning)?

This exemplifies the divide in the Republican Party today; it is especially true given the events in the NH House with Republicans voting for a $1 Billion gas tax (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Club for Growth President Chris Chocola charged that Republican establishment figure Karl Rove cares more about the Republican brand than Republican “core beliefs.”   “What Karl Rove and some of the establishment groups only care about is the brand,” he said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face to Face.”

 “They only care if someone’s a Republican or not. They don’t really care what their core beliefs are. I think voters actually care what their core beliefs are.“…

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