Skip

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.

Thanksgiving – a re-acquainting and a reality check

Yes, as those in the mental health field say, I am still processing Mom’s passing – it may take a while and I’m sure that there will be some rough edges that will catch me when I’m least likely to think so – it will continue to hurt until it subsides into a low-level throb.  But I can still be thankful that she was MY mom and for all the times this former teenager and full-of-himself early-twenties something said and did things, I realized that in the end, she knew “he’ll come to his senses (mostly)” (yeah, she still had doubts – but what parent doesn’t that truly wants their offspring to be the best they can be and wants to correct what they see wrong?).

But while I say goodbye on one hand, I am still having the opportunity of my life in becoming re-acquainted with the Youngest.  My time with him as a “full-of-himself” teenager and early-twenties was no fun at all and there were a lot of times I wondered what the heck I was raising.  These last two weeks, however, have revealed a more laid-back son, more willing to smile and showing the signs of our relationship moving from Dad-the-Father to Dad-the-Advisor.  Now out of the Army, he has a bewildering number of options as he deals with some after effects of his hitch and service.  Before it used to be “leave me alone – *I* can figure it out!”; now it is more often than not ‘Hey Dad, what do you think about…”.  It was also fun as he kept TMEW and I in stitches with some stories from his service during our Thanksgiving dinner.  Dunno why they came out today, but mirthful doesn’t even come close.

It’s unreal how smart I got in 4 years.  It’s also humbling that some things that I wanted to pass on (“You will always be a parent.”) actually seem to have taken root.  For that,  I am thankful to God for giving me the patience in dealing with is “idiosyncrasies”.  The reality check, The reality check, for those that still have young or middling kids at home…

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A good-bye and a reality check

“Doris  Johnson, daughter of David and Elizabeth Abrahamson and formerly of Brockton and Gilford, NH, passed away at the age of 90 on October 31, 2012. She was born to Swedish immigrants in New Sweden, ME and moved with her family to the Campello (“Little Sweden”) section of Brockton, MA. A long time member of the Swedish Baptist Church (now, Trinity Baptist), she attended business school in Boston and worked in the shoe industry there. She met and married Richard Murphy of Boston with whom she bore three sons (the eldest passing shortly after birth) and assisted with his small businesses over the next two decades. Upon Richard’s untimely death, she continued to live in Brockton working as a single mom providing for her children. A few years later, she married Eldon Johnson, also of Brockton and a long time supervisor at Polaroid Corporation. Upon his retirement, they moved to Gilford, NH to be closer to her son Skip Murphy, his wife Debbie and their two sons Dan and Ian. During the last few years of her life after Eldon’s passing, she lived in Oklahoma City to be near her youngest son, Rick Murphy, his wife Susie and their son Preston; she was well cared for and loved during that time.

A private family burial service is planned for the family plot in Coweeset Cemetary in Brockton, MA. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund ( a 4 star Charity Navigator rating).”

A friend emailed me upon hearing of the news – I thanked him for reaching out and offered this in return:

Thanks – much appreciated.  She lived a long life – 90 years old so she had seen a lot of changes during her life.  Along that path, she taught me a few simple life lessons that have never failed me when I have listened to her voice in my head and  applied them correctly:

  • Always show up
  • Persistence pays off.  Perhaps not in the way you originally wanted, but there will be a reward nonetheless.
  • Stand up for yourself – I will for you, but there will come a time when you won’t want me to and then a time when I will be unable to.  So, learn to be self-responsible.
  • You will always be a parent.

 I am sure that as memories bubble up, there will be others, but these were the biggies.

The reality check was not one I really expected – and I lay it out here as I was taken by surprise by the Newspaper industry during this whole process:

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I believe this can describe the Feds a lot: Ineptocracy

Bumped and updated: In the same vein of Jim Bender’s lovely phrase of “self-assured incompetency“;  I saw this over at Boortz’s and I thought I had remembered putting it up.  Given the SNAFU that FEMA has created (yet again) in the aftermath of hurricane / superstorm Sandy, it is appropriate that we bring it up … Read more

A disheartened question from a reader – why?

Skip – why is it union members can go on strike, and then collect unemployment, medicaid, etc. Not only did the union members loose, but so did all their non-union co-workers. I might be tempted to pay a few union leaders a visit – for dinner of course.  Whatever happened to – you work, you … Read more

Facebook Doodlings – So, Greg Carson, Secretary of the NH GOP is demanding “unity” – Part I?

And yes, once again, I decide to weigh in.  His opening remark – well, I can’t quote it from FB because he decided to take himself out of the thread and erased all traces of himself, but it started with someone asking the simple question of “Who for Republican Minority Leader in the NH House?”. Fortunately, I keep all my emails which now provides a nice little trail of breadcrumbs from the NH GOP Secretary on “Party Unity” and other sundry bon mots:

 …I’m not a House member any more so its none of my business as to who Rep’s vote for but …

…If anyone wants my opinion about selecting a Minority Leader I would be glad to give it…off-line. This is an issue for House members, not the peanut gallery, the State Committee or anyone else.

And took a slap at a Libertarian leaning guy on that thread as well:

this is a conversation regarding Republican Leader not Libertarian Leader or do you have a recommendation for the Dem’s too. LoL!

And continued to state that one is “either a Republican or is a Libertarian…not both.”

Ah-hemm.  Nobody else’s business as to who our “elected employees / representatives” vote for? And my impression about the “LoL!” was not so much the “Laugh”. My response ( translated from FB to be more bloggish and correctly some typo / grammer stupidities):

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Wanna be miserable? RingWingNews has the recipe fer ya!

John Hawkins of RightWingNews is known for “lists”.  Lists of what not to do, lists of what to do, interesting stuff lists, advice lists….this one is a good read.  A seven-step process to keep you in the bottom quarter of the misery index (success at being sad?):

1) Don’t pursue your ideal self

Abraham Maslow once said, “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”

2) Isolate yourself.

People are flighty, they go away, they let you down…

3) Make other people responsible for your happiness.

Do you know who cares as much as you do about your happiness?…

4) Spend a lot of time focused on things you can’t control.

Worrying will wear you down under the best of circumstances, but if you really want to ramp your frustration level up to 11, spend your time worrying about things you can’t control…

5) Think short term all the time.

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Guest Post by Ken Eyring – Why the Henniker Zoning Board believes it owns your property

“If someone else controls your private property, you do not own it.”  – Skip Murphy.  Six days ago, Steve had this post concerning the trouble that Stephen Forster (Forster’s Christmas Tree Farm) is in with the local zoning members concerning the way he wishes to use his own property (to hold weddings as “Agro-Tourism”, a perfectly legal use of his private property with respect to State law).  He asked, in that post, that you go support Stephen keep his innate freedom to use his own land for his own purposes.  Well, a bunch of people showed up with their virtual flashlights to show their support – and made the Henniker Zoning Board rather uncomfortable.  You see, when we, the citizens, hold elected and unelected officials to account, they become very uncomfortable – they hate being held to account for things that they are not allowed to do.  Here is the  message from Ken concerning that meeting (emphasis mine):

Dear Friends,

Here is a link (at GovernmentOversite) to the Henniker Zoning Board meeting on Nov. 15th — and I urge you to watch and pass it onto others.

[Note from Skip – watch the closeups very carefully;  see how uncomfortable they are, knowing that they are being watched because of their actions?]

Why? Because it represents the type of attack on our property rights that will be coming from elected people that don’t respect our Constitution — but have unfortunately been empowered to make decisions as to what we can and can’t do on our property.

As you view this video, you will find that it is painful to listen to the Zoning Board search for a reason to justify how they can place a restriction on Steve Forster regarding the usage of his farm property. The board’s struggle occurs after it is clear they agree that holding weddings on a farm (the issue at hand) is considered to be agri-tourism… and that agri-tourism is included in the definition of agriculture. The board also agreed that the practice of agriculture is allowed on a farm under state statute.

So where is the problem you ask? They wanted to overturn the citation that was issued — which threatened fines if Mr. Forster held any events, but at the same time… they wanted to attach restrictions even though the activity in question has been occurring on Mr. Forster’s farm since the early 80’s.

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Notable Quote – Thomas Jefferson via Noble Cunningham

He [Jefferson] then considered the general phrase of the Constitution that identified the purpose of the taxing power as “to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.”* Congress, he said, was to levy taxes only for these purposes, not for any purpose they pleased. ”In like … Read more

Notable Quote – George Will

On yesterday “This Week”, George Will had this to say in a retort to Dem stratgist Donna Brazile concerning the “Fiscal Cliff” that our “elected employees” have created for all of us with automatic spending cuts across the board, especially on the military, and Obama tax hikes (after all, if 10 year old tax cuts … Read more

Facebook Doodlings – really, Christian Shariah?

There’s a whole lot of yakking going on in the Right side of politics – what went wrong and “what went wrong” but really different.  And of course, the various nostrums of what to fix and what to leave alone will be as numerous (at the least) as the number of folks yakking (EVERYbody’s got to get their two cents in, dontcha know?).  For me, the standard of “never less speech but MORE speech always applies.  Especially when this popped up from a Libertarian:

There also needs to be a question of “which conservative”? Conservatism as in “God hates Gays” and Christian Shiara law, or Conservatism as in small government and leaving the people alone. There is a huge difference between Westboro Conservatism and actual Conservatism.

Now, did you really think I’d leave that hanging in mid-metaphysical space?  Hah!

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Quick riff off Scott: Secession By Atrophy

He is right – we are seeing patches of America that are degenerating into some kind of ThunderDome dystopia.  We do have places, especially in our urban areas, that rival any banana republic or third world nation landscape.  Victor Davis Hanson, a professor of the Classics and military history in the California university system, has been chronicling how the parts of California ignored by the elites have been degenerating into geography indistinguishable from parts of Mexico, where a lot of the illegal aliens are coming from.  Assimiliation? Not even a concept to these Johnnie-come-latelies; what’s worse, many of the American citizens there don’t have a clue as to their history and the underpinnings of what made America great – they wait only on the monthly check and hope that the roving bands leave them alone.

Democrats are like Feminists in believing that they can have it all – all it takes is a bit more money from those, as Obama has famously declared “who don’t need it”.  Really, Mr. President – you win election to be our head employee and that gives you the right to say who needs what just on your say so?  How unAmerican is that? Yet, we see from many on the Left that same message; from the rafters, they scream “America is a wealthy nation – why should the poor suffer when these few have more than they should have”?

Problem is, Democrats / Progressives have made three fundamental errors:

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Who killed the Twinkies??

Yep, Twinkies are about join the dodo birds and the woolly mammoths in the great waste can of history – and we have greedy union bosses to blame for all of the panic looks that the stoners are about to start getting when they realize that Twinkies are gone (not to mention a staple and major food group of State farm attendees everywhere – deep fried Twinkies!).

Yup, that favorite of kids everywhere and an adult guilty pleasure, has met its match.  The Left’s boots on the ground have decided that they will stick with the principle that they are owed the whole loaf and won’t settle for the half loaf (yeah, intentional, as Wonder bread will never get sliced again either).

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When you put the cross-hairs on yourself, Alida….

From the Laconia Daily Sun:

Millham declines nomination to GOP committee amid criticism of her endorsements of Dems

Yep.  This headline pretty much sums it up, eh?  This could have fit as well: “Milham finally dropkicks herself out of bounds“.

…However, later she recalled that conservatives targeted moderates in GOP primaries and, describing herself as “one of the targeted people,” urged her listeners “to take a look at how people in the partite [sic] are treated. ” Quoting economist Paul Romer, she remarked “a crisis s a terrible thing to waste” before taking her seat to scattered applause.

And I chose not to waste it, Alida. Regular readers of the ‘Grok know that she has graced (disgraced?) the pages of the ‘Grok multiple times – I have followed her votes and made sure that she (along with others in my formerly larger district like Peter Bolster and Doc Pilliod) were well recognized for their votes that enlarged (and never lessened) the size and scope Government, and showed the arrogance of the State making decisions where individuals should be making them instead.  Her philosophy is not that of govt as umpire…but as ruler.

Sure she was targeted – but she was far from being the innocent victim that she wants people to believe she was.  She wanted to be able to vote the way she wanted (pretty much against party principles and platform) without having that dreaded word “accountable” dragged out of the dictionary.  Sorry, Alida, but decisions (and votes) have consequences and you manufactured this one all by your lonesome – I merely shined a flashlight on it.

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Notable Quote – Thomas Paine

Another thought worth remembering; Thomas Paine wrote in his Revolutionary pamphlet, The American Crisis: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” … Read more

Notable Quote – T.S. Eliot

“If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself … Read more

Notable Quote – President George Washington

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” – George Washington, first President of the United States (who stepped down … Read more

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