“SEUS VIGARISTAS!”

Godfrey Bloom, member of the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) and MEP (Member of the European Parliament), lays out a few simple truths at a recent MEP meeting discussing the European debt crisis. He is sooo right when he proclaims at the every end of the videos, “Seus vigaristas!” We need Mr. Bloom to come … Read more

EMail Doodlings – how about a definition for “Free Market”?

Free MarketsI think that both Steve’s and Mike’s posts on the ills of Socialism at spot on and as a counter point to what some feel are the overriding positives of Socialism, one of the email lists I’m on, a request came in to define “Free Market”:

I’m trying to write a short description of why the free market is good, why we should encourage it.
My problem is that I don’t have the skills of Friedman, Hayek, Rothbard, Hazlitt, Bastiat, Smith, etc. to be able to convincingly describe its virtues. What I hope is that through crowdsourcing, we can come up with a good description.

So please, everybody, give me a sentence or a paragraph explaining why a free market is a good thing that we should “cherish”.

To get things started I will start with a paraphrase of Milton Friedman [Nobel Prize winner]:

“The record of history is crystal-clear. The free market is the best way so far discovered of improving the lot of ordinary people.”

Now, it could be said that what Mitterand did (and rejected, as well as China, and the Soviet Union, and the rest of the Iron Curtain countries, plus Viet Nam and what even Sweden is moving away from and….well, you get the idea), and what Hollande is about to do,  just do the opposite.  So, a number of folks responded including moi:

 The Definition:

The free market (the TRUE free market) is the simplest of systems: you have something I would like to have, and visa versa.  For this transaction to happen, I am estimating the value of what I have versus the value *I* place on what you have to transact.  I will make the trade if it is in my self-interest and my perception is that I will become “richer” in value by giving you what I have, and you give me what I would like of yours.  This is a win-win situation as the other person is ALSO making the same calculation.  My self-interest is satisfied – and the other person’s is as well.  I want your dozen ears of corn more than the $3.00 in my pocket; you would rather have my $3.00 and we agree to swap.  That is the essence of free market capitalism – a price point is reached where the transaction happens, or not.  That price signal says my want is sufficient to pay the price that affords you to cover your costs, and a bit of extra (profit) to start your process all over again and is credited as possible “wealth to you”.

Note this – one ONLY succeeds when you offer something of value to ME.  It means that your good or service PLEASES me sufficiently to give you something for it.  You win ONLY by pleasing and serving others.  Yes, it is in your self-interest to serve others for when you do so, and do it well, you will “profit” by having more transactions come your way.

The Freedom:

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Internet Doodlings – GUESS WHAT! There’s a Timothy Horrigan that lives over at TreeHugger.

You know, I am glad that Timothy Horrigan does come over and read here at the ‘Grok – and comments as well.  He’s one of the few “Liberals” that does so, so I’ll give him kudos for trying hard.  I just wish that his comments were a bit more on topic and not just deflections that might be technically correct but not really making a point that is “tracking” the discussion.  However, it seems that “Luke” is a simulacrum over at my favorite haunt where Watermelon Environmentalists meet True Believer Environmentalists and fairly nary a Freedom that can’t be dismissed lives.

ClimateGate, where hackers obtained (stole?) hundreds of megabytes of emails, code and data – often showing that the code was GIGO, the data so mauled over for “homogenization” that it was all but worthless, and the main characters in promulgating Global Warming (now climate change, following the lead of Progressives / Liberals / Progressives / Pragmatists that learn they the make toxic every word they try to abscond from common parlance) participating in avoiding all kinds of FOIA and RTK demands.  It basically was the beginning of the end to the facade of GW / CC, regardless of the 50, 000 UN / NGO / VIP / Pandering Politicians junket goers that traipse around the Globe pontificating grand designs and documents (while really just enjoying the 5 Star hotels and incredible edibles and SWAG bags).

So, Brian Merchant wrote a post that ClimateGate was a “hack that was a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack”  whose point was not that it was an inside job as has been commonly thought but done by outsiders.  Fair enough – and he elicited comments from the readers: who?

Well, ‘Grok commenter C.Dog e.dog took up the challenge with a whack of “Do you know who I am in the Ivory Tower-ism” with the usual snark and hyperbole:

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Mark Fernald Needs New Material for His Income Tax Arguments

Mark Fernald Wants an Income taxMark Fernald wants New Hampshire to have an income tax before he dies.  It appears to be one of his deepest desires.  So desperate is this need that he is willing to reuse debunked rhetoric to ensure he is not prohibited from having the chance to get one.

Yesterday, over at Windham Patch, Fernald had the income tax equivalent of a recurring rash as “Fair Share class warfare” sores rose up from the page in his opposition to CACR 13.  CACR 13 is a Sttate constitutional amendment that would ban New Hampshire from taxing personal income.  But such a prohibition for Mr. Fernald would be akin to the death of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia to Dead Heads.  “Well now what do we do with all our free time.”  So Mr. Fernald has gone on the offensive (as in, to offend).

We have a tax system that is made by and for the top 1 percent. The households in New Hampshire with the highest incomes – the 1 percent with incomes $480,000 and up – on average pay just over 2 percent of their incomes in state and local tax. The folks in the middle, on average, pay about 6 percent. The lowest income people have the highest tax burden. They pay, on average, over 8 percent of their income in state and local tax.

I’ve been over this deception more than once, but I am more than happy to revisit it every time Mark wants to bring it up–which will be often between now and Noveber.

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Batman, culture, guns….freedom vs safety / security…..Second Amendment vs “Responsible” – Part 3: “You don’t need that” Doodling

Every Sunday I watch pretty much the all the talking heads / pundits Sunday morning shows (isn’t DVR a wonderful thing?) and easily the topic of the day was the horrific shooting in Aurora, Colorado at that midnight showing of the latest Batman movies (Part 1 on my thoughts, specifically on  irresponsibility of ABC here, Part 2 on my thoughts on responsible concealed carry here).  It was rather predictable in content and in slant – I knew that just about all of the Liberals would kvetch about getting more gun control into our laws.  Unfortunately, I was not disappointed as my low expectations were met.  In almost all cases, the concern (and rightly so) was about safety and security.  The problem for me (and I figure that some commenters are ready to pull the trigger on this) is they have placed safety and security above all else but refuse to acknowledge how much government would have to do in order to actually achieve it.

The line of thought, however, was especially clear on ABC’s This Week, hosted by one half of that dubious TEA Party smearer duo and Democrat rumpswab, George Stephanopolous (and I kept waiting to see if the apology would be offered again but to no avail).  It can be summed up by: “You don’t need that“.

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EMail Doodlings – Presidential warning still relevant

On one of the email lists I’m on, there was a discussion concerning the candidates just before the NH First In The Nation Primary – the typical thing of folks boasting of their candidates and who was better than the other guys.  I took a different tack in trying to point out what the end goal should back then in early January, but the warning is still relevant for those scared for our country:

Your daily dose of knuckle rapping and snark deliberately delivered by the dufus….

….AND, once again, we are back to the  conundrum of “there is NO single candidate without flaws”….yes, NO one.  Not a single one in the lot.  Even the guy I was backing, Herman, had flaws.  Even Ron Paul has flaws – maybe not to his supporters, but to the rest of us (and just as big as those pointed out earlier).

Remember one thing – OUR GOAL IS TO BEAT OBAMA.  Period.

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You have to build something else First…

How about those roads and bridges?  How did we get those? Tax dollars. Well where’d those tax dollars come from? Taxpayers Where’d the taxpayers get the money for the government to tax in the first place? Jobs and commerce Where’d those jobs and commerce come from? Someone started a business, exchanged their product or service … Read more

Batman, culture, guns….freedom vs safety / security…..Second Amendment vs “Responsible” – Part 1 on ABC News

OK, I’ve been REAL busy doing interviews and then taking care of the care, feeding, and placement of the videos

Sidenote: which means take the video, transfer to the PC, bring it into the editing software, start chopping it up, export each question (making sure to, you know, write the question down), upload to YouTube, make the post on GraniteGrok, and then filling in the “post” on YouTube – not a small amount of time and I just do it as a blogger and not taking the time that a REAL videographer would be taking (ouch!)

and since I’ve been running 4 threads per day for a while, that DOES take up a lot of time prepping.  But they’re almost all up and scheduled, so back to writing.  Finally.  Now to play lots of catchup here.

A horrendous event in Aurora, CO for the midnight screening of Batman.  Now, I’m not a movie person and there’s no way that I’m going to a midnight showing of pretty much anything except the “count the sheep” flick (I’m such a fuddy-duddy).  But now we have the one of “our national discussions” once again.  I have a bunch of things to say but a couple of things real quick.

First, why hasn’t ABC’s “Chief Investigative Reporter” (and using the scare quotes deliberately) been fired yet?  You know, bloggers get dumped on all the time by the lazy Mainstream Press all the time because we do not have the “layers of editors and fact checkers” that they do (well, when you have no income from what you do and still have to pay the hosting charges, there is no money for those “layers”).  Yet, to say that Brian Ross was irresponsible is to say that a tsunami will give you a bad hair day.  Years and years of being the “go to Journalist” allowed he and Democrat hack George Stephanopoulas (also posing as a tried and true journo) breathlessly coming up with fact they wanted “Hey, this guy, this James Holmes, HE’S A TEA PARTY GUY!”.  They thought they finally had the clincher to the meme they’ve being trying to make for the last three years – TEA Party folks are violent and gun crazy”.  Yet, a simple Google search showed up an entire network’s resources as being worse than being Lefty hacks – in fact, they were just incompetent, untrustworthy, and in the rush to “move the story”, showed their ideological spines under the bright TV lights (in fact, they guy they “found” was in his 50s and not like the shooter who was in his 20s).

Yet, how forthcoming was ABC on issuing an apology?  Not far at all, it seems – a “move along, nothing to see here”:

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Batman, culture, guns….freedom vs safety / security…..Second Amendment vs “Responsible” – Part 2 on concealed carry doodling

The Lakes Region Porcupines meet at the New Hong Kong Buffet in Belmont, NH every third Saturday of the month, and this Saturday ONE of the big topics was the despicable act by a brilliant but sick, demented, mentally ill person.  Now, these folks  are rather Libertarian to full bore Libertarians (heh!  I seem to be the token Conservative) and just about all of them fully support the Second Amendment – and some open carry all the time.  I have a concealed carry permit and I believe several others do as well so it was logical that the topic of the murders in the Aurora, Colorado would come up.

Some were insistent that if someone had been carrying (open or concealed) in that theater, some of those that died or were hurt could have been saved.  I was the only dissenter in that if you looked at the environment and looked at how the shooter, James Holmes, had equipped himself, it would be unclear.  A dark theater, a deranged shooter who was in rapid fire mode wearing complete body armor (ballistic helmet, body armor including throat and groin protection) who also had thrown two “grenades” that emitted a noxious gas that affected breathing and sight (not sure exactly what as I haven’t seen or heard the details, but it could have been tear gas or pepper spray cannisters – or something homebrewed).  Mass confusion – people screaming, moving to get out; unless someone was a trained SWAT or Spec Ops operator used to working and reacting PROPERLY in such a situation, I’m not convinced if a single person would have been able to make a difference.

Before I started shooting, I used to think “that can’t be THAT difficult, right?”  Aim it at a target couple hundred feet, pull the trigger.    Shooting a target with a handgun, if you have not done so, is HARD – and starting out, being consistent at 5 or 10 yards is much harder than I ever thought.  Further out, and you learn that just a wee bit of a tremble in your hands, your stance, your finger pulling the trigger ALSO putting a sideways “push or pull” on the handgun, anticipating the recoil ahead of the shot, having bad eyes (like me); well, let’s just say that this is a high skill technique to do it well over and over.

Now add in a Red Bull can of adrenaline when you realize the horror of what is going on, your eyes are tearing up from the chemical agent, trying to avoid getting shot yourself – this is not an easy shot just at a unprotected person trying kill you but with the body armor the spots that are vulnerable become exceedingly small.

And he’s moving.

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GrokTV Special Interview: Susan Olsen,NH House Candidate (Merrimack-7) – Question 11 – Live Free or Die – too harsh? Do we follow it? Are some trying to get rid of it?

This was our final question for Susan and once again, we thank her for taking valuable time in talking with GraniteGrok!  Progressives want us to pay for what they Government to do for (or to) us.  How does that square with our legacy of individualism and the idea that we have a government and not … Read more

Anatomy Of Gun Range Neighbors

“Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining.”  —Mason Cooley

Here we go again. Same old story. Same old lame complaints. The Monadnock Rod and Gun Club was established in 1947. This 65-year old club continues to do what it always has done: Operate shooting ranges. And, like any other Sporting Club, the amount and continuity of the sound of the shooting ambience, varies with time of season and number of events hosted at the club.In short, neighboring residents can reasonably expect to hear gunfire more during certain times of the year than other times of the year. And if they cannot live with that, then why on earth purchase a home in proximity to a shooting range?

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GrokTV Special Interview: Bob Burns (Candidate for NH Exec. Council Dist. 4) – Question 8: Coming up to a primary – why “me” versus those I am running against?

And this is the final question we had for Bob Burns – the final pitch to those that could vote for him for NH Executive Council in District 4. Question 8: Coming up to a primary – why “me” versus those I am running against? Previous: Question 1: Why are you running? Question 2: You … Read more

GrokTV Event-Rumney home event for Ovide Lamontagne (Candidate, NH Gov.) – Question 8: Citizens dealing with State Agencies?

Speaking of Commissioners and department heads, how about the agencies themselves?  Given our foray into Right To Know Requests to the NH Depart. of IT and Depart. of Environmental Services, I figured that I would venture a question / comment for a response:

Question 8:

GraniteGrok issued RTK requests against DES and DoIT for taxpayer paid network data – and were refused. What is your methodology to make sure that not only is the Law of RTK followed but the Spirit obeyed as well?  Dealing with the head legal person at DES was like running into a stonewall.

Previous:

  • Ovide’s talk
  • Question 1:  The Speaker has announced that he wants to cut an additional 2% out of the budget. what are your feelings on that?
  • Question 2:  Last year, the health insurance at the bank increased by 7%.  We just got new numbers for this year:14%. You know, last time we talked you wanted to join the fight against Obamacare and now the Supreme Court has come out with their ruling. What can you do for the State of NH against Obamacare at this point?
  • Question 3:  Do any tort reform in the State in order to help us?
  • Question 4: Competition in the medical industry.  I want to have a test done and I have to pay for it myself.  I start to call around and I find the best place for me to have it done is Concord Hospital. But in order to go to Concord Hospital, I have to hire a physician at Concord Hospital because my physician cannot send me to Concord Hospital. There’s a problem with that system!

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James E. Holmes Ties to Occupy San Diego? [Updated]

(Updated- Word has it this not a picture of Holmes being carried away as indicated.  We happily fall back on the “reported to be’s” and “ifs,” and are hurriedly filling out applications for employment opportunities at ABC news where the money and research are better funded but the reporting is not much better than this … Read more

Playing Catch-up on Winning The Future…or Whatever It’s Called This Month

Win The Future SputnikWe realize that some of you are just too busy to keep up with all the things going on in the political world and to be honest, so are we.   And when it comes to having a president named Obama every day is some kind of crisis and more often than not, it’s his mouth that has created it.  So it is often necessary, when the opportunity presents itself, too stop and take a quick look back, to see what was happening in the other rings of the circus that we missed.

Enter Ed Morrissey and Hot Air, where they take the time to  chronicle all the Obama-nonsense and let readers vote on which of the many choices is by far the dumbest thing that came out of DEar Leaders mouth that given week.

This weeks walk away winner with 93% of the vote so far is “If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Obama, having never built anything himself might not be the best judge, but then that is what makes this so precious.

So it this kind of wisdom that has been captured and while there are now 150 weeks worth of winners–and all the entrants in between–I’ve grabbed the ones from 2012 as a prime, with links, for your Sunday evening enjoyment.

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Armed People Present? More Safety for All.

Two pro-self-defense State Reps.: Jenn Coffey and...

In the wake of the mass murder tragedy at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater yesterday—and the immediate effort of the Mainstream Media to link it to the Tea Party movement—it is worth remembering that More Guns Means Less Crime.

For instance, when a would-be mass murderer shot his way into a packed church in Colorado during a Sunday service in 2007…

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Guest Post by Scott Morales- “Atrocity, Mass Murder, Mayhem? It’s the Tea Party!”

GraniteGrok is proud to introduce Scott Morales to our pages.  He is a regular contributor over at Merrimack Patch but we liked his work so much we’ve invited him to share some of it here at GraniteGrok.

-Steve

Atrocity, Mass Murder, Mayhem? It’s the Tea Party!

Is it really surprising that ABC jumped to Tea Party accusations, immediately tying them to the movie theater shooting in Colorado? Maybe to some. I mean, anyone not living in a left wing bubble can easily discern some characteristics of the pathetic psycho who opened fire during a Batman movie and place them on the political spectrum, but they do not do so. Most people do not and will not see this atrocity as a political statement or it being motivated by the crushing burden of Obamanomics, but the brilliant, perspicacious rogues that occupy the left will and do see this through the smudged, greasy lense of politics. This is because most don’t think in terms of politics, but the left does. So what is the motivation for those who do place all things on the political spectrum? What compelled ABC’s Brian Ross to insert the Tea Party into the story? Steve pointed to one possibility in this case, but I think it goes deeper.

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