“Bad Luck” – starting to catch up with us?

I have seen the words that some of our Industrial Barons have said – their “business lightening” wouldn’t even flicker today if they had to do it all over again.  But, given a mention of the author who help give rise to our name, I decided to use it all:

FEDEX FOUNDER: I Couldn’t Start Company with Today’s Economy, Regulations.

Last month, a CNBC headlined noted, “Subway ‘Wouldn’t Exist’ If Started Today Due to Regulations: Founder Deluca.”

In 2011, Bernie Marcus said the same about Home Depot, which he founded.

Or to put it another way:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

“Or as some would say: ‘You didn’t build that,’” Glenn added last year when he quoted Robert Heinlein.

(H/T: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit”

Three different industries, three different biz models – all doomed to failure if attempted today?  Do I blame Obama directly?  No.  But we all should examine the Jungle of Regulations that has grown up since those times – the bad luck that will plague, not those of us reaching the end of our careers, our children and theirs.  We are in the middle of the birthing of a government spawned sclerosis that has taken two generations to achieve the current state of growth we see now; 0.1% growth, 0.4% growth in the last two quarters.  Hardly a gift to our offspring, eh?

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So, David Gregory, host of Meet The Press, will be on a reality TV show?

Just what ALL Conservatives have been waiting for – a Meghan McCain reality show!  Does it really show, that I’m not thrilled about her?  If not, now you know.  Simply put, I put her in the same category as the Kardashians: “er, WHY are they famous?”. Well, Gregory brings the “Meet The Press” chops, which … Read more

Obamacare claims more victims: Juicy Couture. Clueless employees, though

Capitalism is easy to understand; here are Skip’s Rules:

  • Rule Number 1: The company owns the job.  Not you.  While good employers care about their employees, the Company comes first, long term.
  • Rule Number 2: Companies exist to make a profit. You have their job until you no longer help them make a profit.
  • Rule Number 3: This really should not exist but does because Socialists / Progressives / Fascists are trying to turn Companies into mere extensions of Government
  • Rule Number 4:  Given that Rule #3 now exists, Companies will react to it in ways that will ensure Rule #2 is fulfilled.

Corollary for Statists everywhere: TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch) – and those that support them.  This post uses them all.  Here, Rule #3 is coming into the forefront of C-level execs, more and more, because several Obamacare cliffs are rushing at them. And now, some clueless retail employees at Juicy Couture are rather upset that their hours are being cut, and as the post says, they are demanding “just hours.”  And if they are “hip” shop, you can believe that oldy /moldies like me would probably not be out there on the retail floor – these would be the young  hipsters (and as it turns out, stupid and clueless for not being able to string  moves together and see where it ends) who voted for Obama:

You see, according to the campaign, the hip and trendy Juicy is doing what other companies are doing in an effort to cope with the burdensome regulations and costs of the “Affordable Health Care Act” (aka ObamaCare)–the company is downsizing its full-time payroll to (mostly) part-time workers.

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Money for nuthin….

So let me get this straight, some 250 folks were trusting (nay, let’s be honest, greedy and stupid) enough to loan money to a Ponzi scheme in the hopes of making astonishing returns on those loans and when the scumbag operating it finally ran out of suckers and money and the game collapsed, these 250 … Read more

The Waste List

Courtesy of Twitter and the NRCC, we have a list of government spending defined as waste.  There is wasted regulatory spending, and then the plain old “why is the government paying for that” waste. Examples? Video game programs and studies.  Audit programs that cost more than they save. Sculpture gardens.  How about cash innovation awards … Read more

Confessions of an Unrepentant Realist – Part 1

Credit: anomalousmaterial.com

It’s the precedent of the seizing of Cypriot assets that alarms me.  I’m hearing from news anchors that, “it can’t happen here”, from pundits that, “it can’t happen here” and that, “America is too strong, it’ll never happen. We’re different.”

But, unfortunately for me, I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe Americans are immune from the plagued darkness history can drape over a civilization.  I’m sure the Greeks, Romans, and other elite states believed their status among the world they knew would remain an ever expanding fielded plateau never to drop off.  It didn’t dawn on them that they were simply resting at history’s pleasure on the tip of an acutely receding pinnacle.  Some were more of a relaxed, obtuse slope gently, but surely, declining. Regardless, in time the Romans et al. breathed the sour air of a barren valley and so I fear will America.

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A Bolder Kind of RINO

It is the coward who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares be so.  —Junius

Freedom_hating RINOHouse Bill 135 passed out of the House this week. The bill repeals the stand your ground bill that was passed over the governor’s veto last year. The vote was very close on this bill and would have failed had it not been for some Republicans that, “jumped ship.”

RINO’s have such a checkered evolution. They were first, “Moderates…” Those Rockefeller Republicans…Republicans in Name Only,” commonly referred to as “RINO’s”… Now

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The Curiosity rover on Mars

That’s an old picture sent back by Viking or Pathfinder or one of the previous visitors to Mars. The Curiosity rover is a whole new ball game. And it’s really interesting. Go HERE to see why. (Hit the FULLSCREEN button in the upper left and use the magnifiers to get the full effect. Yikes! Cool!)

The Eleven Levels of Bacon

All that talk about New Hampshire School Boards banning dodge-ball and public servants plagiarizing the New Hampshire Municipal Association has made me hungry.  Hungry for Bacon.  But I don’t have any bacon on me so I’ll have to settle for this…as I ponder whether Spinal Tap would run right out and buy the eleventh level of bacon just because it … Read more

A documentary about “printing guns” with 3-D printer technology

Cody Wilson, age 24, is a law student in Texas. He’s also one of the founders of Defense Distributed, Inc., a company dedicated to developing and distributing open-source software that can be used to “print guns” with the emerging technology of 3D printing. As I watched this documentary, I thought, “What would have happened if … Read more

NH Ranked in Top 5 in Overall Freedom, That’s Good Right? Well…

New Hampshire is doing pretty well as we start 2013.  First it was revealed that, “NH Ranked 10th Best State for Gun Owners by Guns & Ammo Magazine”.  That’s good news.  Especially when one considers we might need it with all of the leftists that can no longer afford to live in the surrounding states or other Big Gov states because of the policies for which they voted, so they decided to uplift their considerable derrieres (at least this literally true in one case of a transplant from RI) and come here to infect us with the same contagion that drove them from their former dwellings.

Today comes news that New Hampshire is ranked in the top 5 for “Freedom in the 50 States 2013.” by the Mercatus Center and George Mason University.  This ranking, “… is a combination of personal and economic freedoms.”  Nice!

Wait, not so fast.  There’s a pattern here, from the analysis…

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WMUR demonstrates bias in Journalism – covers sparse National Day to Demand Action anti-gun rally, ignores .223 Day of Resistance pro-gun rally

WMURSparsely attended indeed for a day where the “kick the Second Amendment lovers” folks decided to have a “National Day to Demand Action”.  WMUR decided to cover it, with a quick spot at 5pm by reporter, Jennifer Gannon, sweeping her hand towards the middle of the Portsmouth’s Market Square announcing the soon-to-start rally – showing a completely empty area.  Don’t worry, she adds, they will be coming!  They sure did!

At 6pm, it was one of WMUR lead-off stories, with anchor Jennifer Vaughn doing the throw-over to Gannon for this rally sponsored by Project for Safer Communities NH.  Given that WMUR was covering this, it just HAD to be a big deal, right?  Well, as Gannon started her patter, I started to frame-by-frame to count noses.  Again, lots of people for this NATIONAL day of protest for one set of folks to take away Constitutional rights from another?

Er, not so much.

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Just too good not to share!

Over at The Blaze is a post that hunters that would normally go Colorado are venting their ire over the gun restrictions that have been enacted there.  Instead, they will be going elsewhere – along with their $$.  Why not?  Why put yourself at risk:

Opponents say the laws will make criminals of previously-legal gun owners, and hunters lending each other weapons for hunting trips.

And yes, Colorado citizens will suffer for the ideology of the Progressives that took over the Colorado Legislature and Governership:

“There’s a united front of sportsmen that are tired of having their freedoms and liberties and fundamental rights taken away from them,” said Jurney, vice president of the Colorado Outfitters Association. “That kind of unity among sportsmen is going to be big, and unfortunately for those of us who live here, we’re going to suffer the consequences of this misguided legislation.”

But I thought that one of the comments, by nonofmybiznez, was priceless:

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally…you might live in a country run by idiots…

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Lying to Parents to have “power” over the child / Student? Head Teacher in Chicago is “all in” on this tactic

Sickening.  And make no mistake, if it is happening there, it is happening in your child’s school too.  Go ahead, watch the video and then ask yourself “Can I really trust my child’s teacher?”

After all Karen Lewis is the head of the teachers union in Chicago – this is just a tactic of Chicago politics except the target is not other adults but someone’s child.  Progressive / Socialists / Democrats are always talking about “power inequality” in terms that Conservatives are always the bad guys in Society (we must be eliminated).  Yet, here is a “leader” (openly Socialist) that is all too willing to take advantage of that “power inequality” to silence a child as in “look, I gave you cover in front of your parents”.  Now, the kid is scared to say a word crosswise, and she is LAUGHING that she now has, not a student, but a hostage.  Isn’t that nice?

Really, is she all that willing and HAPPY to have, in her classroom, a HOSTAGE and not a student?  And is jocular to the max in being open about lying to the parents – LYING!  Is this what we want from the Leader of Teachers?  It’s not about the educating but the Power!

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“It’s that when you give too many people help, they start to atrophy…. “

Atrophy – a weakening.   Either of muscle or of will.

OK, I admit it – I set the timer on the bedroom TV and put on Fox News most nites.  Thus, I heard new (relatively, now) contributor to The Factor, Adam Carolla, when he first said this.  Being what I thought was a Hollywood Liv, my jaw would have dropped to the floor had I not already been horizontal.  While I do know that there are some Conservatives out there in the land of TV / Movie La-la’s, I did not expect such a strong statement against what Liberals believe to be the ultimate in Compassion – Govt handouts:

Here’s really what I object to: It’s not that certain people don’t need help from us, and the government. It’s that when you give too many people help, they start to atrophy….

My mother got food stamps, and we used food stamps, and she waited for her food stamps to come twice a month instead of go out and look for a job….

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Buffalo Wild Wings Refuses Service to Police Officers…Because They were Armed

Nonsense is so good only because common sense is so limited. —George Santayana

Not_visiting Bufalo Wild WingsWelcome to the UK! no, just kidding…actually, one might have thought this joint was in the UK. This food chain would not serve armed Police Officers.

MANASSAS, VA — Eight police officers were refused service at Buffalo Wild Wings on Wednesday, apparently because they had their weapons displayed. As Reported in the Thin Blue line, Eight Prince William County Police officers on duty, but  in plain clothes,  walked into the Buffalo Wild Wings located near Wellington Road and Market Street, but were refused service by an employee who

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Where Todd I. Selig Admits to Some Heavy Lifting…But Not All.

Book of Bad Habiits-Cheating
Image credit – boysguidebooks.blogspot.com

Several of us writing here at GraniteGrok have taken to task Durham Town Administrator Todd I. Selig for both his position on the issue of raising the gas tax and how he went about showing his support for it.  Literally.  The letter he submitted to various publications around New Hampshire, explaining his support for the tax, included direct quotes from other sources–in some cases lifted in their entirety–without attribution.

In a recent comment to one of those posts Mr. Selig reiterates his position and admits the following.

In addition, I did quote heavily from TRIP in the paragraphs noted, in particular in the second to last paragraph without attribution. I view the TRIP overview of the deficiencies in NH roadways to be factual and accurate and fully consistent with my own understanding of the issue. The words used represent my perspective. I take full responsibility for them. Further, I did subsequently write to TRIP and the organization had no objection to the use of the material as utilized.

Subsequently?

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