Quotes worthy of note….

“Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute calculates that Greece owes 875 percent of GDP for unfunded liabilities; the United States owes 911 percent, or almost twice as much as France at 549 percent.”  —Mark Steyn Are we broke?

Vicious Dogs

“Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.”  —Francis Bacon  

“Vicious” Little Dog “Jackson”

In New Hampshire if you are even slightly “nipped” by a dog, you can make a pile of cash! We are not talking about a Pit Bull Terrier or a Rottweiler or a German Shepherd Dog. Nope. We are talking about a 15-pound Jack Russell Terrier. It is of no consequence the injury was only minor….or, non-existent. If a nasty little ankle-biter dog breaks your personal space that is worth thousands of dollars.

It is of no consequence that you entered onto the

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Friday Humor – a Doctor, a Lawyer, and a Mathematician…

A doctor, a lawyer, and a mathematician were having a conversation about the relative benefits of wives and mistresses.

  • The doctor insisted that, from a health perspective, it was far better to have a wife. He talked about stress, relaxation, routine, and other factors.
  • The lawyer contended that it was better to have a mistress, because that way you retain more of your legal rights, she doesn’t own half your property, and so forth.
  • The mathematician said that he could see both sides of that argument, but really he thought it was best to have both.

“Both?”, the doctor and the lawyer exclaimed. “Why?”

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Notable Quote – Dr. Larry Arrn

Imprimis: In a discussion with Hugh Hewitt, on the weakness / tyranny of Progressivism: No, and I don’t mean that. What I mean is that the principles of Progressivism that animate our government today, which are antithetical to the principles of the American Founding, lead to policies that cannot work, will not work, and result … Read more

US Progressive Senator Diane Feinstein – Yup, she’s got confiscation in her bill. Gun removal by regulation.

At the Corner, a snippet of an interview with Samuel L. Jackson

 Q: This movie has a fair amount of gun violence and can be a bit flippant about it. Does that give you pause in the wake of what happened in Connecticut?

 A: I don’t think movies or video games have anything to do with it. I don’t think [stopping gun violence] is about more gun control. I grew up in the South with guns everywhere, and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is about people who aren’t taught the value of life.”

 It seems that Progressives like Diane Feinstein have not understood that simple phrase.  The problems that we see in mass murders (or single murders, or any other crime committed against another) is either one of a mental illness (who shoots their Mom or defenseless little kids as in Newtown?), or the latest where that previously incarcerated oldster (for killing his mom with a hammer) proclaimed “do what I do best – kill people – just plain black as night Evil.  Or those that simply wish what others have for either the reasons of “I want what they have” and justify it with “they don’t need it” (just like Progressives / Liberals / Democrats) – its about control.

Diane Feinstein combines that latter part, control, with another.  That is, Progressives so untrust their fellow citizens, they feel that they have the mandate to take away “all the toys” because we, the “unprogressed”, “uncivilized”, “uneducated”, stubborn, selfish, should-be-demonized ungrown-up child-citizen should not be allowed to have guns simply because those things either 1) insult their sensibilities (as guns do) or 2) have a longer range motive in mind.

As to #1, if “we” won’t cooperate and compromise with the Progressives as they head us from being the Land of the Free to that of the Land of We Submitted to Despotism, they will keep at changing the laws and changing the regulations to enforce their way to their Utopian version of Freedom (“you are free to do what we allow you to do – it’s not just for the common good but it’s good for you too – you’ll see!).   Yes, it was enable citizens to protect themselves and their families at a personal level.

And more; from Soldier Systems comes this retweet:

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YOU sir, as a Cabinet Secretary, are BOUND to Constitutional strictures!

Once again, we see yet another Progressive downplay the values by which the government is to act by and to be held against.  Education Secretary Arne Duncan:

“I want to talk to gun owners and hunters and sport shooters and ask them, what should we do? I want to talk about community and responsibility, and I want to talk about values — because we have common values that go far beyond the constitutional right to bear arms.

A number of things come immediately to mind:

  • First, your responsibility IS to the Constitution.  Period.  First.  Last.  You are the Government – stick to what the Government must obey (be it ever so hard for the Obama Administration to do that)
  • Second, an oh so soft slither around the fact that the Second Amendment is not about hunting and it is not about sport shooters.
  • Third, this IS about you trying to not have to talk about the Constitution – because it limits you.
  • Fourth, you don’t WANT that limitation – so you all (Obama Administration) are trying get people to emote instead of think, to think in the moment instead of long term and “what brung us to this place in the dance” -the sense of Federalism and a limit on what Government can do in manipulating Society.
  • Fifth, it is because, in large part, that you Progressives have swapped out traditional values for Progressives ones that we are in this pickle.

Yes, I just said it.  I lay it all on the Progressives with the denigration of hard work and the traditional work ethic that made a lot of people no longer ashamed to be on the dole.  I blame them for the substitution of absolute values for a secular humanism whose values can change from day to day – situational ethics run amok.  I blame them that Progressives believe that the rest of us cannot function in Society (ever closed to the irony, these “self-assured incompetents” of the poor and worse job that Big Government is delivering) without the guiding hand of themselves.  I blame them for the spiritual emptiness that they are wreaking in the country.  I blame them for the financial disgrace (with many helping hands of Republicans who merely wish “to get things done” without counting the cost).

I will answer “what should we do?”

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Gun Confiscation, “Could Be An Option”

“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”  —George Orwell 

In my last post just only hours ago, I posited the notion that Gun Guntrol advocates are, in fact “Coming for our Guns.”

“Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun, but permit it.” —NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo

During a radio interview New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated, “Confiscation could be an option,” referencing semi-automatic rifles, liberals like to call, “Assault Weapons.” Cuomo told WGDJ-AM of his  gun control proposals that he will outline at his State of the State Address on January 9.

Gov. Cuomo said:

“I don’t think legitimate sportsmen are going to say, ‘I need an assault weapon to go hunting.’ There is a balance here, I understand the rights of gun owners.”

“Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun, but permit it.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo is a liar. Saying he understands

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Stupidity, Civility, And The Continued Assault on Free Staters

This was originally part of my previous post on pull quotes I found amusing but turned into something else that would have distracted from the previous post being purposefully short and the other quotes getting a shot a some discussion.

…

In the Union Leader article,  “Free State Movement Not Embraced by All Granite Stater’s” once you get past the “No Sh**” moment presented by the title of the article,  or the fact that this is written like some kind of hit-piece on Republican Mark Warden, and the Second amendment, and Liberty, we can focus on a quote from Democrat Aaron Gill, who having lost to “Free Stater” Mark Warden in an election where state Democrats were winning seats as if Obama could just give them away…

“I’m gay, and I didn’t want the government telling me I couldn’t get married,” Gill said. “But after a while I learned that the world doesn’t function that way. I guess I was really a Democrat all along but just didn’t realize it.”

There are Free Stater’s who are Democrats, or didn’t you know that?

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Notable Quote – Dr. Matthew J. Franck

I have been getting Imprimis (a monthly commentary from Hillsdale College) for a while now.  I had kept this one, entitled “Individual, Community, and State: How to Think About Religious Freedom” as it has a number of things to reflect upon: Fourth, the power of government, necessary as it is to maintaining a shared moral … Read more

Notable Quote – Matthew J. Franck

From Imprimis: But—fifth—short of such cases, the state should respect, honor, and even foster the role of religious communities and institutions as essential contributors to civil society. In crucial respects they are expressions of something still more basic to the flourishing of the human personality than is the political order itself. The modern secular state … Read more

No Firearms Ban Coming? Think Again.

“If I could have banned them all – ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ – I would have!” —California Senator Diane Feinstein, appearing on NBC News’ 60 Minutes, February  5, 1995

When reading the above quote, which time was Senator Feinstein being sincere? When she said this in 1995? Or, when she said recently,

(This legislation) will be carefully focused on the most dangerous guns that have killed so many people over the years while protecting the rights of gun owners…”

“While protecting the rights of gun owners” says Senator Feinstein. Which is it?

Yes! The Anti-gun left in America is speaking out and their talking points go something like this:

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Why “Green” Energy?

If you wanted to bring western civilization down, give it a good beating for all its so-called malfeasance, what better way than to make it near impossible to sustain the things that made being a western civilization all it was cracked up to be?

Consider that which makes us or any of our allies any sort of global power?  Wealth and energy.  Commerce, industrialization, transportation, and militarization to protect it or project it.

We can mince the finer points about what makes all this possible but they all share one thing in common.  Cheap, abundant energy.

So if you had a mind to take the average Western Civilization down a notch or two, or even all of them, to make an example of a country like, say America, the fastest way to do that would be to cry wolf about something that would be difficult to dispute and easy to frighten people with; something that would make cheap abundant energy so threatening that no one would pay much attention to the real threats that not having it might present; you’d put forward a theory of global catastrophe that demanded we redirect massive amounts of wealth into expensive forms of energy incapable of sustaining the level of commerce, industrialization, transportation, or defense that we’ve come to enjoy.

You’d invent Global Warming and then blame the people who make the cheap abundant energy for causing it.

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Legal open carrying of firearms by citizens…

…became the law in Oklahoma on November 1, 2012. World doesn’t end. (Note: Open carry has always been legal in New Hampshire; it is guaranteed by the New Hampshire State Constitution. You can read about that from 2nd Amendment hero Sam Cohen of Pro-Gun New Hampshire HERE.)

Trust and Safety in New Hampshire

Here are two pull quotes from the New Hampshire Union Leader that I wanted to share.  One is about trust, the other about safety.  I think you’ll find them…interesting.

In an article on 2013 LSR H-0451 regarding a proposed change to the right to know law, New Hampshire House Democrat Majority Leader Steve Shurtleff, D-Penacook, said of local elected officials having more opportunities for private executive sessions meeting out of public view…

“At some point, you have to trust these officials not to abuse it,.”

Now that is funny, right there, I don’t care who you are.

and…

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Unable to get elected to the NH Republican State Committee is no impediment for Fergus!

There was an article in the NYT that caught my eye:

Clout Diminished, Tea Party Turns to Narrower Issues

The Tea Party might not be over, but it is increasingly clear that the election last month significantly weakened the once-surging movement, which nearly captured control of the Republican Party through a potent combination of populism and fury.

Now, this kind of article has been spewed out pretty often pretty much since six months after the TEA Party movement started.  With a Leftward swing in most newsrooms (indicated by polls and by political contributions), I think we’ve become inured to this trying-to-make-it-true journalism.  Yes, I will admit that here in NH, local races didn’t quite turn out as well as  we’d hoped.  Nor at the national level either, as a number of TEA Party backed folks lost their races, and we did fail, in part, to drag Mitt across the line.  However, in the larger picture, Republicans (aided and “nudged” by TEA Party activists) are in control of more states than ever.

Remember, it took the Progressives over a 100 years to be where we are at with respect to Constitutional obedience – the TEA Party has only been around for 4 years.  This will be a long slog and there is no doubt that to some adherents to the limited Government, free markets, and fiscal frugality, a few battles were lost in “this theater” – but the war is not over even if some Journalists want us to believe otherwise.

And add to that, some Republicans as well – enter, stage Left: Fergus “The Fringe” Cullen.  How long is he going to try to trade in on his failed Chairmanship?

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Taxpayer Funded Blog Commenting?

Taxpayer funded blog commenting? Maybe. If the loquacious Ray Guarino that mercilessly comments on the Nashua Patch, is the same Ray Guarino that’s a Transportation Planner at the Old Colony Planning Council in Brockton, MA, a government entity, then it appears so. It may not be. They may not be the same person, or he’s retired, on leave, or on break. But from what I gathered, I have a strong suspicion that taxes might have been used to fund political comments for the Patch; at the very least, if my suspicion is correct, there’s the appearance of it. I wonder if taxpayers in Abington, Avon, Bridgewater, Brockton, East Bridgewater, Easton, Halifax, Hanson, Kingston, Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton, Stoughton, West Bridgewater and Whitman, Massachusetts know they may have funded content for the Patch. Not their local Patch, mind you, but Nashua’s Patch. Alas, I should include that this planning council also gets funds from various State and Federal departments, so you might have paid, too.

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Another, more descriptive term for Capitalism?

Innovationism:

Deirdre McCloskey says somewhere that a better name for capitalism is “innovationism” – innovationism unleashed only in societies in which private property rights are at least reasonably secure, freedom of contract is at least reasonably the norm, markets are at least reasonably free, and (importantly) the multitude of bourgeois merchants and accountants and actuaries and laborers and financial experts and… and… and… innovators are accorded at least a reasonable quantum of dignity by society at large.

Capitalism, the voluntary exchange of one product or service for another (with money as a flexible intermediary) is certainly under attack by Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Marxists as being “evil”.  Their claim is that it is not “moral” and that “the little people” get hurt when the markets go sour).

Sidenote: Notice that they never talk about about the 100s of millions of “little people” that died at the hands of those leading the Progressive / Socialist / Marxist / Communist regimes in the Soviet Union, China, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, et al.

What needs to be stated, over and over again, that we are losing the ability to have that voluntary exchange as Government (and those that “know better for us” – actually, the Progressives / Socialists / Marxists / Communists that work for an in Obama’s administration) outlines how ‘free markets’ are to behave by fiat.

After all, Capitalism only succeeds when someone “serves another’s interest” –

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