Thus far shalt thou go and no further

Revolution

On this day, a congress of desperate men drew a line in the sand; a line upon which they squarely placed their assets, reputations, lives, and the lives of their families.

What caused them to take such a risk? We all know what happened on July 4th, but what was at the heart of such a gamble for a group of educated and relatively comfortable men with plenty to lose?

“Self-determination”

These men already knew that in the colonies, men had the ability, within their class, to be successful by waging business, farming, or providing services.  Resources and opportunity were plentiful and, after a handful of generations had settled in, they began to see themselves as a sovereign people; yet Britain chose to treat them as a revenue-generating satellite of their massive empire, rather than brethren Englishmen.

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Notable Quote – Frank Chodorov

On this day where we celebrate Freedom, a warning on those that would take it away: Perhaps it is an inner need that impels the socialist to his ideology, for I have never met an advocate of government intervention who did not admit, inadvertently, his own capacity for commissariat functions.  He always has a plan, … Read more

Obamacare – Unleash the IRS – Now it gets personal

Conservatives have often said that Obamacare will fundamentally change the relationship between citizens and their Government.  With it being now declared as Constitutional, we may well no longer be citizens that have a Federal Government; we are now subjects as the Feds with the new regulations decreed by the Progressives and the IRS deemed to be the cop (as I posted here).

And it just bit me in the butt.  And it will change not just the relationship between the Govt and me, but also between me and my son.  And you all had better read this – it may well affect you as well.  In that previous post there were a number of things that individuals will have to cough up and “share”.

Sidenote: yeah, “share”.  Brings up the insinuation that you get to decide to share or not – you know, voluntary.  Just like when Democrats talk about the rich and “asking” them to pay their fair share.  They already are, and there is no “asking” – asking means the willingness to take “no” for an answer.  For the naive, there is no way that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are “asking” – they are demanding.

I left out some really important information from that post concerning how the IRS would determine if YOU had to pay a penalty, as I thought it really needed it’s own post and an extremely personal touch on my life that it will now place.  From the Fox Biz post (reformatted and emphasis mine):

And it’s the intrusiveness of the health reform law that has raised eyebrows. What does the IRS base your mandate penalty on? This is where it gets nutty.

… that the “IRS will need to determine a taxpayer’s compliance with the individual [insurance] mandate and assess a penalty if coverage is inadequate.”  However, the penalty isn’t based on just your personal net income. The penalty will be based on an entirely different number that is more than just your paycheck earnings — your ‘household income.’  “This determination is based on a concept of ‘household income,’” TAO has said, adding, “this may differ from the income reported on the taxpayer’s return, because it is a composite of all of the income reported by members of a taxpayer’s household — information that may not be readily accessible to the IRS.”

Or me.  Again, the concept of “household income” absolutely turns the former relationship between me and the IRS.  My info was the IRS’s info – they’d look at it, see if I did all the right things, if I paid the right amount of tax,and would let me know if they had decided if I was right or if they were right.  But it was just me and just them – a singly based relationship.

No more:

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Obama: Charging A Penalty For Not Buying Insurance Bad…

The Web is brimming with the bitter bile of Obamhypocrsiy today.  (As it is most days).  But today seems particularly special.  First unpatriotic debt, and now The Divine Mr. O reminds us (Circa 2008) that charging people for not buying insurance is mean.  And he’s not mean like that. Except that he is.  (Are you … Read more

Where’d All The CO2 Go?

This is curious.  Just when the Global Warming Monkeys we’re complaining about how its totally hot, like…as if we were experiencing, like, Global warming, Ok?  OMG! So why is it so damn hot if US CO2 emissions from energy are nearing their lowest since 1991…without cap and trade?   Could it just be the weather?   … Read more

You know, if you’re gonna hold a protest sign…

…you ought to: Know what it says Know what it means Know how to explain it And when a guy with a camera asks you about all three, Know that keeping quiet makes you look stupid. My friend Tony Katz, from AllPatriotsMedia, was riding with the Americans for Prosperity bus tour called “Real Facts. Real … Read more

Fourth of July – celebrate the day that we declared our Independence from a King

Listen to our national anthem by Madison Rising:

We at the ‘Grok are thankful for the blessings that God have given us – indeed, without our Creator who has watched over this nation ’til now, we’d just be yet another country.  But He inspired, I believe, our Founders who laid the foundations of this great nation – and they freely acknowledged that Gift from Him: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  Inalienable Rights.  The radical idea that we were individuals, sovereign citizens, and not subjects.

We also thank those that have served our country in uniform, willing to put their lives on the line for hard work,  no fame and little money.  As a non-veteran (but double Blue Star Dad) I appreciate our veterans here at the ‘Grok more and more for not only their uniformed service:

  • Tim Condon (US Marines)
  • Rick Olsen (US Marines)
  • Mike Rogers (Royal Marines)
  • Don Ewing (Army)

But also for their continued allegiance to their oaths and their continued fight for the sake of Individual Liberty and Freedom.  See a Vet?  Give them a heartful “Thank You” – they have earned it.

We also remember on this Day in those that believed in that Founders Vision and in the principles on which it was grounded enough to give up their all on order to give us this day.

 

A rock version of the music video after the jump

(H/T: The Blaze)

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Fear and loathing by the federal government: Free people are dangerous and undesirable….

The DHS says: If you're thinking about speaking out against government tyranny...think twice.

Do you advocate for individual liberty, publicly or privately? Do you revere the U.S. Constitution as a barricade against a federal government metastacized into an enemy of freedom instead of its protector? Do you store food for emergencies? Do you own a gun? Are you a military veteran returned from a war zone assignment? Do you drive a van? Do you pay cash for some purchases? Are you “suspicious of federal government authority”?

According to a new study paid for by the federal Dept. of Homeland Security (“DHS”)…

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It is One Thing to Declare Independence…It is Another Thing Entirely to Have it.

New Hampshire with American FlagIt is a well reported truism that Independence day, the 4th of July, the day selected as the one on which we told our oppressors we’d take no more, that Republican’s and Conservatives, Libertarians as well, reap more significant social and political benefits than our Liberal and Democrat/Progressive opponents.  The people who support the left are just not as in to it.  Telling.

So this is not much different than the way many Democrats who run for elected office pander to their still-majority religious nation of ‘God-fearing’ peasants.  The patriotism is an act.  They pretend to admire the documents and ideas that, at their core, stand between them and the kind of government they prefer.  They rearrange the words, and change the meanings to justify acts that reduce us to little more than slaves; either to finance their ambitions or as the impoverished recipients of them.  Reduced to subsistence defined by a distant tyrant whose swarms of Officers harass our people, and eat out their substance.

What the left espouses as patriotism would more accurately be defined as Nationalism.  The state and the party before all else.  Not much different than having a king, something we said we didn’t want 236 years ago.

Which reminds us.  It is one thing to declare Independence.  It is another thing entirely to have it.

We live in a Republic.  Your states are sovereign.  Unshackle yourself from the distant tyrant.  Just say No to Obama.  And if we say no together, there is not much he or any progressive tyrant can do about it.  Without us, they are nothing.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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Obamacare – Unleash the IRS!

(H/T: cartoon from Lucianne)

Well, does Nancy P. remind you of the Wicked Witch?  Well, now that Obamacare has been judged constitutional, we all are going to be meeting up real closer now with our friendly neighborhood IRS dudes (reformatted and emphasis mine):

  •  The IRS now gets to know about a small business’s:
  • entire payroll
  • the level of their insurance coverage
  • Whether small businesses provide “affordable” coverage to workers as determined by Big Govt.
  • A “shared responsibility requirement” fines up to $2,000 per worker after the 50th person if insurance is deemed inadequate (which means you may have to tell your employer a lot of  personal / family info you never had to before
  • It gets to know information about you and your family:
  • the income of the primary breadwinner in your house
  • and your entire family’s income
  • Determining whether individuals buy “adequate” health coverage
  • Insurance plan information, including who is covered under the plan and the dates of coverage
  • The costs of your family’s health insurance plans
  • Whether a taxpayer had an offer of employer-sponsored health insurance;
  • The cost of employer-sponsored insurance
  • Whether you have received a premium tax credit
  • Whether you have an exemption from the individual responsibility requirement.
  • Whether or not you are subject to the Mandate / Tax penalty is based not on your income, but your household income.

Obama on Unpatriotic Debt – Rut-Roh…

Bwahahahahahaha!   I love Liberals.  Honestly.  They don’t even make it difficult. H/T Hot Air And why not post the RNC’s response… http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VbJ9ICG3Z_I

How is the NH Union Leader Like FEMA…?

How is the Union Leader Like FEMA…?   Slow to respond and not very satisfying results.  (Ok, maybe they are not that bad, just maybe this once.) Five days ago the Union Leader reported that Salem NH House Rep. Marilinda Garcia was against the veto override of HB 1679- the partial birth abortion ban bill.  They … Read more

GrokTV Event: GSPLPAC presents Rosa Koire on Agenda 21 – Parts 6 and 7

I’ll tell you, the more I hear about the subject, the thoughts of “are you serious”?  Yet, when I look at the example in Portland, Oregon where “sustainable development” is the end-all-be-all of urban planning, I start to think “mmmm, maybe there is something to this” (here, here, here, and here).  Skyrocketing housing costs have … Read more

Book Review – Rebuild the Dream by Van Jones – Part 1: Lie 1

Rebuild The Dream by Van JonesAs I posted here, I purchased a copy of Van Jones’ new book and had it signed by Van himself.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a shot to start reading it.  Until today.

There’s been a lot of stuff going on, both in my blogging life as well as in the life outside of the laptop (little as it might be) and I just needed to switch gears for a bit.  So, I started to read some of the books that have been sitting on the shelf for a while – and realized how much I’ve missed holding a book in my hands!  So I as said earlier, it was time to read this book by one of the biggest cheerleaders for a “government centered life” for us all – and basically, someone who has no problem in slagging folks like TEA Partier me.  After all, I’m not someone who studied Marx as a political way to follow and have little truck with Communitarianism – a word that you’ll be seeing more often here on the ‘Grok.  Essentially, the emphasis is on “the community” and while the Wiki definition makes it seem benign, read the section on Positive Rights:

Central to the communitarian philosophy is the concept of positive rights, which are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include state subsidized education, state subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one. To this end, communitarians generally support social security programs, public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution.

A common objection is that by providing such rights, communitarians violate the negative rights of the citizens; rights to not have something done for you. For example, taxation to pay for such programs as described above dispossesses individuals of property. Proponents of positive rights, by attributing the protection of negative rights to the society rather than the government, respond that individuals would not have any rights in the absence of societies—a central tenet of communitarianism—and thus have a personal responsibility to give something back to it.

I digress in a small part -but make no mistake in that in many cases, the emphasis is always that the individual Rights must be subsumed to the need of the Collective.  With these watermelon environmentalists, there will be more and more emphasis that we need to give up stuff and Rights “for the common good” – at and by their command.  The problem is that ” the needs for the Common Good”, just like the vaunted “social contract” that Leftists accuse Conservatives of violating, there is never a sheet of paper that lay out what the “Common Good”‘s needs are, or the boundaries vis-a-vis our Individual rights.  All there is seems to be a never ending, vaporous commentary of “we more, you less”.  How do you defend yourself against what is basically vaporware?  (er, easy: start asking them the hard questions of “what?”, starting writing them down, and don’t take “no” when they say “er, later – we have to go over this other stuff” or “I’ll get back to you”.

Thus, this fits in both with Van Jones as an environmentalist and with the Granite State Future Plan / Sustainable Communities Initiative posts I’ve been putting up lately. So, back to the review – I haven’t even made it to Chapter 1 yet – the Prologue is 35 pages long.  In it, two things struck me:

  • He shoulda listen harder to his Dad; he comes around to believe him but missed the most important point
  • He lies

About what?  “Of course, President Obma had no intention of closing America’s coal mines.” (page xxvii).  Just one big lie through that nice big smile he has!

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Did Chief Justice Roberts “pull a Souter”?

Chief Justice John Roberts

Someone over on the wholly excellent and extraordinary RLCNH email list has just opined that in ruling as he did on Obamacare, Chief Justice John Roberts “pulled a Souter.” That is, the feeling is that Roberts—like so many “conservative” judges nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court in the past, has “matured” and gained “strange new respect” as the political classes worked on them—has once again betrayed the values and ideas that lead him to be put on the Supreme Court.

Wrong. So wrong, in fact, that I need to Explain All, once again, to those who doubt. Here’s the way it is….

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The Hunger Games

I read all three of these in record time.  Two this past weekend.  And while there are some curious stabs at environmentalism, and the can’t we all just get along meme, the most power full themes are the terror of absolute tyranny and the fact that we are all damaged goods. I highly recommend them. … Read more

You’re Just Not Smart Enough For Free Speech

All things being equal, the only reason Democrats might have to complain about the affect of FEC vs. Citizens United on paid political speech is if it somehow removed some pre-existing advantage they had.  Why else cause such a fuss?  The left clearly has just as much right to take advantage of the current state of political discourse as anyone, right?

So that’s not the problem, is it?

The real problem has nothing to do with money.  Democrats have tons of that and always have.  And they never complained when they could afford more “speech” than anyone else.  So spending money on speech is not the issue.

And it has nothing to do with ‘transparency, not the way they have framed it.  They want “transparency” because without it they can’t use their media advantage to intimidate opponents into keeping their opinions, ideas, and money to themsleves.  Democrats can’t silence groups of donors they cannot specifically identify (see also Obama/FEC trying to force Right wing groups to release donor lists).

So Democrats are not worried about money in political speech.  They are worried about money and speech they can’t control.  They are worried about people hearing any message that is not their message.

Democrats are afraid of free speech because they simply do not think you are smart enough to know what you are supposed to believe.

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Running in Rockingham 17 – A Democrat Socialist From Tennessee?

William Hudson Connery III is running for the New Hampshire House.  He is a Democrat.  He is running in Rockinham 17.   And with the registration deadline just past, he’s already got problems.

William-Hudson Connery III cant stand church goersLet’s start with that picture of the anti-religious bumper sticker he had posted on facebook that he abruptly took down…just after he signed up to run for the New Hampshire House I’d guess.  The one that says, “I’ve got Nothing Against God, It’s his fan club I can’t stand.”  He is certainly welcome to his opinion but not being able to stand most of the population seems like a strange condition for someone seeking public office.  If he “can’t stand” 8 out of 10 constituents who exactly is he hoping to represent?

He’s also rather partial to another bumper sticker (if you read the updates next to the picture) that says “I’m sorry I missed Church I was too busy practicing witchcraft and being a lesbian.”

Well where’s the left wing outrage about that?

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