Well, we have two “gentlemen” from the southern part of the state who obviously do not understand Free Speech and how blogs work.  They have also decided to raise a fuss given actions in the last election.  What is “The Streisand Effect” you ask?  Well, as these two are about to find out, it is a blogger’s delight:

The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.

It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, California, inadvertently drew further public attention to it. Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters to suppress numbers, files, and websites. Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity and media extensions such as videos and spoof songs, often being widely mirrored across the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks.^[1][2]

So, I received a phone call from one this afternoon demanding I take down posts from one of my authors.  I subsequently found out that at another site (which shall remain linkless for now) did accede to their demands and did the takedowns.  Then I started to receive a series of emails from another “gentleman” absolutely demanding I do such – and has threatened legal action.

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There are times I bookmark a post and then promptly forget about it because lots of other stuff is going on.  I ran across this post last year and never got around to it – but it still rings true. If Government mandates higher taxes through one means or another, why shouldn’t a business let its customers know that the higher price they have to pay is NOT due to the business but because of the politicians that decided to raise their cost of living all the while trying to make someone else (i.e., the biz) the heavy?  Reformatted, emphasis mine:

Oasis Cafe in Stillwater, Minnesota, has started putting three words on the bottom of every customer’s receipt — and once word got out earlier this week, the restaurant’s move ignited a decidedly nasty war of words online, placing the tiny establishment in the center of a statewide debate. The three words? “MIN WAGE FEE.” That’s right. And the fee? A 35-cent surcharge to all bills.

The 35 cents per tab is offsetting what the restaurant said it has to pay as part of an increased minimum wage for tipped employees, reported WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Oasis management said they estimate the wage increase is costing the establishment more than $10,000 annually, WCCO added.  And many are angry about the way Oasis handled its added expenditure.

Ah yes, we will see the confusion and politico-economic illiteracy right after the jump

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Betsy McCaughey was on our show recently and mentioned that she had this column coming on Hillary Clinton and give us permission to host it here:

HILLARY CLINTON’S expected presidential run is being hailed as a chance to shatter the glass ceiling. That’s nonsense. Hillary rose to power solely on her husband’s sleazy coattails. She’s not self-made. And it shows. The recent email scandal is the latest in a life-long pattern of entitlement and hubris, traits successful women know can torpedo a career.

Strangely, feminists ignore the damning facts about how Hillary got where she is. Recently, Hillary addressed 5,000 Silicon Valley business women: real career women. Vowing to “crack every last glass ceiling,” a hint at her White House ambitions, she urged them to demand equal pay and promotions. She invoked her own supposed early struggles to become the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas while a new mother.

But in truth, even then she was riding on Bill’s coattails.

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On March 11th, HB 673 made it’s way to the floor of the New Hampshire House.  The legislation has one sponsor, Rep Gilman Shattuck, (D-Hillsborough 1).

It would impose a sales tax, a use tax, most certainly require DRA to expand at taxpayer cost to manage it all, and add costs to business owners who would be required to keep records of everything for which they are required to collect or pay taxes.

HB 673 …

…imposes a 2.25 percent retail sales tax. The bill also imposes a 2.25 percent use tax on the use or storage of property in New Hampshire when no sales tax has been paid. Use tax is imposed, for example, when a New Hampshire business buys property out of state tax-free and uses it in New Hampshire. It also applies when a business makes personal use of property that it has purchased for resale or has manufactured for sale.

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So yesterday, the Republican Leadership trick of stripping out most of a bill (HB 357) and make it a DOT funding bill / Gas Tax increase was severely shamed – the NH House Republicans trounced the attempt of foisting twice the level of the gas tax passed last year (yes, by Republicans, first started in the NH Senate).  For all the talk of helping the Middle Class, raising a regressive tax is totally screwing over that talking point.  And it seems that the Republican Leadership in the House may be ready to take another run at it, if we are to read a little into the words of a rueful (but unbowed?) Gene Chandler (with an R after his name, denoting in his own words, that he is a good Republican (even if he failed in raising taxes)); today’s Laconia Daily Sun 3/26:

“It was a non-starter today,” said Deputy House Speaker Gene Chandler. “This early in the process, at least, it was clear that Republicans weren’t ready to vote for a gas tax increase”.

What, you expect them to be ready – later? 

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From The Corner:

Much more serious than Bergdahl’s desertion is our commander-in-chief’s decision to hand the enemy a victory to retrieve a likely deserter, compounded by a decision to celebrate this serious defeat at the White House, and then to clumsily attempt to cover their political tracks by trotting out Susan Rice to deceive the public about Bergdahl’s service record. This is dishonor, from the highest levels of American leadership. And that kind of dishonor is much more grave, much more difficult to absorb and overcome than any given soldier’s decision to desert. Our culture — especially our military culture — is remarkably strong. It can (and has) withstood incompetent and corrupt leadership. It can (and has) faced and overcome dishonor at every level of leadership. It can and will withstand and survive the Obama administration’s grotesque incompetence, dishonesty, and political opportunism. However, if the Obama administration is in fact setting an enduring precedent for American leadership, where leaders hand our enemies military victories to score political points at home, where leaders lie to the public to conceal those mistakes and confuse the public about the facts, and then wax indignant when called on those actions, then our culture — including our military culture — will fray and crack at a fundamental level.

– David French, a US Military Combat vet

One of the reasons, I believe, that the Left hates the military is EXACTLY

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Just call it a Nanny Car – from Engadget:

Much as we’d like to emulate our NASCAR heroes, breaking the speed limit often comes at a price. Ford is hoping to prevent accidents and speeding tickets by introducing cars that can see what the speed limit is and preventing heavy-footed motorists from driving any faster. Ford’s Intelligent Speed Limiter tech will first appear on the new Ford S-Max that’s launching in Europe that could just change the way that we drive.

A camera mounted on the windshield scans the road signs on the sides of the highway and, when the vehicle enters a 20mph zone, the system reduces the top speed to match. Rather than controlling the speed with automatic braking, the car limits its own velocity by adjusting the amount of fuel being pushed to the engine.

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Kathy Dunton | GrokWatch News Desk

I had been hoping that you and your people would have figured it out by now, but I guess it needs to be explained to you, and others that have lost their way. Recently, Presidential Candidate Rand Paul made the comment that NH cannot seem to get a Republican Governor elected. It is true, the last GOP Governor, left office 10 years ago. I did get to explain to Senator Paul that the reason is that the GOP continues to give us Democrat Lite candidates.

After the 2012 election, you wrote an opinion piece in the Union Leader. You said that you hoped that NH Republicans learned their lessons because many seats were lost. You concluded that the party must “modernize and adapt principles…” Can you please say that out loud Because I am pretty sure that if you ‘adapt principles’, you have none. Adapt means to assimilate, comply, and conform. Principles are fundamental truths. You don’t change them. They are finite.

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The good news of the day is that the scheme to amend HB 357 into the NH DOT budget plus gas-tax-increase has failed.  The full House rejected the amendments 365-3.

Spec Bowers c/o Facebook

The vote was closer than expected: 3 in favor, 365 opposed. BTW, Kurk spoke against his own bill. The gas tax amendment was not even brought to the floor.

…

To clarify, there was a Finance committee amendment to make drastic cuts to the DOT, and a second amendment to raise the gas tax to undo their proposed cuts. The drastic cuts were rejected, the gas tax amendment was withdrawn.

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It has begun.  Presidential candidates are flooding our state in hopes of bringing their message forth for 2016.  Vetting these candidates can be a daunting task.  It is true that politics can be a trying thing.

I myself awoke to the political world here in New Hampshire about four years ago.  When I saw the level of subterfuge and out-right political falsehoods being perpetrated in my community, I decided to jump into the proverbial game.  Having won a seat in the 2012 NH State House after a primary and general election in Belknap District 8, I learned being a “Conservative” can be a tricky thing.

Lesson One.

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Honestly, these days incompetent beings who require protection is a pretty good description of feminists

(Image H/T: Liberal Logic 101)

Frankly, I grow weary of people who can find darkness 360 all around them all the time.  These are people who just can’t get over the fact that, by definition, life isn’t fair.  And when you take away manners (the grease of civilization) and any semblance of roles, you get this horse pucky: of mistaking chivalry and manners for a newly identified form of sexism:

Why chivalry may not always be what it seems: Men who hold doors open and smile may actually be sexist, study claims

Boston researchers carried out a study into types of sexism in men   They say there are two types of sexists, identifiable by their smile  ‘Hostile sexist men’ were less approachable and less friendly  Those who displayed ‘benevolent sexism’ were nicer and smiled more. If you’re the sort of gentleman who holds the door open for a lady – or the sort of woman who expects him to – then be warned. Such acts of chivalry may actually be ‘benevolent sexism‘ in disguise, according to researchers. Experts say this type of sexism is harder to spot than the ‘hostile sexism’ we are more familiar with – because it often masquerades as gallantry. It is typified by paternal and protective behaviour, from encouraging smiles to holding doors open.

This is like climate change between the sexism; global warming causes higher temperatures – except for when the temperatures fall.  It causes more extreme weather events – except when it doesn’t. So it is with this sexism; it is anti-woman behavior until it isn’t.

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Bob Costas is one of those celebrities (in his case, a sports broadcaster) who has used his position to lecture we little people on different topics (on guns here, here, and here).  Well, he’s continuing to ride that bicycle by totally misinterpreting the Second Amendment (or, based on his previous outbursts), shows his Progressive nature and sneers at the Second Amendment while on the Bill Maher show:

Is this what the Founding Fathers had in mind? That Greg Hardy should be armed to the teeth? That private citizens should be able to purchase cop-killer, armor piercing bullets? That you should be able to have a AK-47?

The answer is yes, they DID expect citizens to be armed – to come to the defense of their new nation if needed:

 A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

“Regulated” back then meant “in good working order” – an effective fighting force made up of ordinary citizens (and not an overbearing government bureaucracy defining every jot and tittle about how something or somebody is to function).  And being a militia, citizens were, in many cases, to bring their personal arms to such an assemblage (as government supplied arms were often non-existent).  And if that militia was to fight against another army, you bet that its arms should at least be equal to the arms the opposing force would have.  Which means that the citizens, bringing their own arms to the fray, needed to own just that (if financially possible).

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Today the New Hampshire House Criminal Justice Committee hearing on SB 116 aka the ‘Constitutional Carry’ bill was heard. As usual it was filled with a majority of 2nd Amendment supporters and activists. There were also the lobbyists paid to speak against Granite Staters’ rights as well as Mike Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action groupies. And what a show they gave.

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