Question of the day…

Let me just get this out of the way?  “Question of the Day…” will not be a daily feature unless someone else on the Grok payroll (which is a lofty sum of $0.00 dollars) bails me out…almost every day.  My follow through is simply not that reliable.  But I liked the sound of it so … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview-NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (District 9) – Question 2: Where did the idea of using scooters for door-to-door campaigning; why not Segways?

I HAD to ask this question, based on his Presser showing the cute little scooters that he is using in meeting the folks (“residents tell me that I am the first politician to ever stand at their door step and introduce myself,”) in Bedford that is the new NH Senate District 9.  Why would he … Read more

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

Update: On my previous post, I had written that even if I had been in that crowd with a concealed pistol that I would not be sure if I would have made a definitive difference in stopping James Holmes:

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.

Oh sure, as a distraction I might have made a bit of a difference: somebody firing back would have given him something to think about, allowing others to escape.  But to stop him?  At the time I wrote that, I didn’t think so.  But then I read this from Clayton Cramer‘s blog:

TacticalGear.com filled an order received on July 2 from Holmes, who allegedly opened fire inside an Aurora, Colo., theater on Friday, killing 12 people. Holmes paid $306.79 for an urban assault vest, two magazine pouches and a tactical knife.

Chief Executive Officer Chad Weinman said despite its name, the urban assault vest is not bulletproof, but is simply a vest made for carrying accessories.

Get that?  James Holmes was not wearing full body armor – initial reports seem to be wrong (as always). Here’s a link to the tactical vests they have to offer – they HOLD things, not block rounds.  This means that IF the theater was NOT a self-proclaimed “gun-free” zone, IF some CCW holders had been carrying their firearms, they very well could have made a difference in the result.

Heck, I could have made a difference.  You never know, however, how one would react given actually being in such a scenario.  I hope that I would be counted as one of the Sheepdogs.  Sheepdog?  Yes.  From Eject, Eject, Eject (the blog that Bill Whittle did before joining PJ Media et al), here is part of one of my all time favorite posts that forever made me cognizant of being self-responsible and being responsible for others :

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So, is NH GOP Platform Chair Jennifer Horn going to take the Platform towards being Democrat-lite?

The present NH GOP Platform is a rather conservative document.  When it comes to spending (something that Government does rather too well unless brakes are applied to it), it works fairly well as a philosophical foundation.  Well, the NH GOP Platorm Committee is now meeting to review the Platform and to make changes to it.  A little birdie let me (and a couple others) know that the following is under discussion:

Simple question about the NHGOP platform: Should it say:
1) We will limit the growth of spending; or
2) We will reduce spending

It now says “Work to limit the growth of state spending”.  Well, for me, THIS is easy: REDUCE!  After all the Repubs in the House and Senate HAD to REDUCE the spending as the Democrats had deliberately left an $800 million deficit to be used as a club for cutting the services that they had put in using the “excessive” Fed stimulus money flowed in via Obama’s “slush funding”.  To go further, I suggest to the Birdie:

 “not only will we seek to reduce the State budget, but we will seek to reduce all of the unfunded mandates that the State requires of towns and cities which will result in reduced local property taxes as well.“

A two-fer!  Given that the Republican Party is supposed to be for limited government and not just  “well, we’ll settle for a slightly smaller (and slightly less expensive and taxing) government than the Democrats”, my answer back to the Birdie actually addresses two components of the Platform, so I thought “there, done!”.

And then the Birdie relayed more info, and I went – Here comes the cowards that can’t stand up to the heat!

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Bill Clinton Endorses Maggie Hazz…um….Hasss….uh..Who Are You Again?

Bill Clinton in Nashua, No Reports of Sexual HarassmentThere have been no reports of sexual harassment (that’s Her-Ass-Meant) during President Bill Clinton’s recent drive-by endorsement of New Hampshire Democrat Margret ‘Louisville Slugger’ Hassan.  But Clinton did have enough time to say some stuff.

“There’s a great plan for the future of the state of New Hampshire: Smoke more, learn less,” Clinton said.

You’d think reducing tobacco taxes would be a plus for a guy with Bill Clinton’s ‘appreciation” for  cigars.  But hey, honestly you are right Mr. Bill.  Taxpayers should pay for someone elses kids to get drunk and earn a degree in the History of Gender Philosophy Studies .  Making them pay for their own education is so self -responsible and free market.  No one would want people like that.  And when they ‘graduate’ with a major in “The Catharsis of Economic Freedom And Opportunity Under Democrat Rule” they can stand in line for a job at Staples or Burger King and use their degree to keep the rain off their $500.00 iPhone.

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Democrat Hypocrites And Union Hacks

“Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” —Francois de La Rochefoucauld It was an eventful week for city Democrats. This past Sunday, State rep Garrity plead not guilty to assault charges (D) Hillsborough District 14, alleging he assaulted his ex-wife and another at the East Manchester Fish & Game Club (which, I might add, is … Read more

Democrat Lee Nyquist’s Campaign Manager Kevin ‘Awesome-Cool’ Hodges Identified as Maggie Hassan’s ‘Bat-Boy.’

Lee Nyquist- Says he's for Civility but his Campaign manger wants to beat Republicans With a batGoffstown, New Hampshire Democrat Kevin Hodges, former House Rep from (D-Awesome Cool), has been identified as the Democrat in this video who wants to “Beat  Republicans with a bat.”  This isn’t all that surprising.  Hodges has a history of disrespecting Republican opponents…

“You should vote for me because I’m awesome and cool. The House is filled with stingy old people who are stupid. I’m younger and smarter, and that’s a fact.”

Hodges fed the “Beat Republicans with a bat” line to Democrat goober-natorial candidate Maggie ‘Louisville Slugger’ Hassan, who responded, “That’s a good answer.”

When Hodges isn’t playing Bat-boy, he is also the campaign manager for New Hampshire Democrat Lee Nyquist, who is running as the Democrat State Parties best choice to represent the people of  New Hampshire State Senate District #9.

Here’s a question.  Was NH Democrat Lee Nyquist in the room?  Was he smiling and laughing?  Not sure.  But regardless of that what does he think about his campaign manager’s announcement that they can “beat Republicans with a bat?”  I only ask because the boldface lead to the first item on Lee Nyquist’s ‘Issues’ page reads like this.

“Restoring Civility, Collaboration and Common Sense to Concord”

Rut-Roh!

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4RG Chairman Hemingway: “Hassan Should Withdraw From Gov Race”

4RG PAC Logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 26, 2012
Media Contact: Andrew Hemingway, 603-203-4063, info@4RG.org

4RG CHAIRMAN HEMINGWAY SAYS HASSAN SHOULD WITHDRAW FROM GOV RACE AFTER INCITING VIOLENCE 
Republican Governor Candidates Smith/Lamontagne Share Ideas For Boosting New Hampshire’s Economy
While Democrat Maggie Hassan Is Talking About Beating Republicans ‘With a Bat’

CONCORD, N.H.—4RG Chairman Andrew Hemingway is calling for Democratic Gov. Candidate Maggie Hassan to drop out of her race for governor after she agreed that it was “a good answer” for Democrats to literally beat Republicans “with a bat … with your hands … [and] with your feet.”

Hassan, the former Majority Leader for the N.H. Senate, was asked at a Goffstown meeting “How do you plan to beat a Republican?” Democratic operative and Rep. Kevin Hodges, who introduced the candidate at the event, yelled out in reply, “You can beat ‘em with a bat, you can beat ‘em with your hands, you can beat ‘em with your feet.” Hassan was caught on video tape immediately responding, “That’s a good answer.” Please review the video here: http://youtu.be/V8zjC8NHlgI.

Later, when asked by the press about the comment, Hassan’s campaign manager Matthew Burgess replied that she was just “kidding” about beating other human beings with a bat as if the comment was just a joke.

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So, has the Trillions Spent on the War on Poverty worked?

failed war on poverty

From economist Dan Mitchell, a chart showing the poverty rate since 1950.  It shows that before Federal Government insertion of itself radically into Society, Society was solving the poverty problem on its own.  Since then, the percentage in poverty has not really changed much.  You can also see (as Dan points out) that during the Presidencies of Reagan and Clinton, poverty rates started to decline once again.

Is it that Govt intervention stopped getting rid of poverty?  I am not able to say that, but I can state that with the spending of Trillions of dollars since LBJ began his Great Society, there has been precious little change of the plight of the poor – or has there been?  In fact, back in 2009 I posted this:

…“One in seven in total federal and state dollars now goes to welfare. But this is a completely unknown story,” Rector said. “This is not being reported. No one knows Obama is spending $10 trillion on welfare.”

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GrokTV Special Interview-NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (District 9) – Question 1: With everything thrown your way, why are you running again?

The ‘Grok was welcomed to The Draft (Concord, NH) when we interviewed NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (owner) as to why he was running for “virtual” re-election in a newly constructed district (“virtual”, as his original district was drawn out of existence).  We had all kinds of questions but did not get the chance to … Read more

Making Racists As Needed

MSDNC talking head Toure (Toure’ Too-Rah!) is  a race pimp, or at the very least a race-baiter.    If there was any room for debate about that, he has recently removed all doubt.

Waxing leftist-philosophic on the Aurora Massacre…

I would hope that it would be something like a Trayvon Martin situation that would make people think, ‘Wow. wrongful death, even though it’s a legal gun owner. How do we move forward from this situation?’ But so much of this issue, I think comes down to, ‘Let’s make sure law abiding white people are able to have access to guns and make sure that black criminals are not and that becomes part of the locus of the problem.

How about, let us make sure law abiding people have access to guns and criminals do not?  The law protects the rights of self defense for everyone, not that Toure’ would care.  He is too busy in this instance making racist hay and being racist himself, all at the same time.

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EMail Doodlings – Presidential warning still relevant, Part 2

I have previously posted the warning about leaving Obama at the levers of power in the general election from one of the email lists I’m on here.  It bothered me then, and it bothered me to do a similar warning a couple of months later:

Alright, I’ll say it – with all of the levers of the Executive Branch at his command, and his willingness to use them regardless of whether he has Constitutional or even legal authorization to have them do the actions he wants, how much of this Country will be left?  In the news and in the blogosphere, I see agency and department in the Executive Branch doing what bureaucracies have always done – push their authorizations to do more and more.  And lately, there is a very disturbing trend that, under Obama (knowing that there will NEVER be retribution from him from doing so), they are making rules and regulations that totally disregard their authorizing legislation.

Heck, Obama’s own policy of “We Can’t Wait” has publicly said that he will go around and disregard Congress pretty much any time he wants.  Robert, what will be the end result of 4 more years of what is rapidly becoming Obama’s reign as Monarch (vs a Constitutional Presidency)?

Look, I am not one of the Conservatives that dislikes Libertarianism – in fact, there is a lot that I embrace from a smaller govt standpoint as well as fiscal sanity.  There are also a lot of Conservatives like me that have reached out to make common cause with Libertarians regardless of what the Republican Party thinks of us as a result. While I am an official Delegate to the NH GOP, I doubt ANY one would ever categorize me as part of the “GOP Establishment”:

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That’s right, Andy has some experience with taxes

As this post points out, the ‘Grok started an interview series with NH State Senator Andy Sanborn which stimulated the hidden parts of the memory banks that brought up that Andy had been captured in a YouTube talking about all of the ways that the State of NH taxed him.  Here’s the link to that … Read more

Someone Ask Hassan-Endorsing UN Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton – What Happened to “Building Back Better?”

Bill Clinton will be handing a steaming pile of an endorsement to New Hampshire Democrat candidate (for governor) Maggie Hassan, so while he’s here, can someone ask him what the hell happened in Haiti?

Not that long ago the left was suggesting that Clinton’s ‘Earthquake relief efforts there might be his lasting legacy.  (As opposed to the DNA on the Interns Blue Dress, perjury and impeachment?)  OK.  Well how’s that working out?

About as well as anyone could expect of any global UN relief effort “spearheaded” by a skirt chasing publicity hound like William Jefferson Clinton.

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You Can Force A Public School Student to Pay for a ‘Healthy Lunch’ But You Can’t Make Them Eat It.

school lunch- that no one is eating?Would you be at all surprised to learn that public school students who buy lunch in Public School cafeterias are–after a fashion–getting around the USDA Federal requirement that they consume certain foods with their meal?

Would you be more or less surprised to learn that the federal mandated will cost you as parents and taxpayers more, for no measurable good?

Examples?

Most public school cafeterias used to provide regular mashed potatoes weekly, and by all accounts, most of the kids were eating them.  But the USDA forced a switch from regular mashed to mashed sweet Potato. (I wouldn’t touch a sweet potato before I was thirty.) Guess what? Most of those Sweet potatoes end up in the trash.

Subversives!  How dare they not eat what we have decided is best for them.

So how about all the mandatory fresh vegetables?  How did they fare?

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Notable Quotes – Mark Penningtonn

[P]rivate property institutions are more robust because they enable people to cope with uncertainty by reducing the prospect of systemic error.  Compared to regimes where decisions are taken at the centre, the dispersal of ownership in a market tends to confine the effects of any errors to a relatively smaller sphere and provides decision-makers with … Read more

Guest Post by Scott Morales – An Origin of Nonsense and Monsters

William GodwinThere have been a number of posts, columns, and interviews regarding Obama’s “you didn’t build that, somebody else did” admission last week, but none that I have seen touch on the origin of such nonsense.  From what I can tell, the earliest work that outlines this belief in depth is William Godwin’s “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice,” published in 1796.  (I must give props to Doctor/Philosopher/Economist Thomas Sowell whose invaluable book “A Conflict of Visions” delves into the origins of political ideologies and has helped me, time and again, regain understanding of the dark side as much as I am able.)

Before I continue, and considering this is a blog, I think I need to draw the distinction between this Godwin (William) and the author of “Godwin’s Rule”, Mike Godwin, so as not to cause any confusion.  Mike’s rule is that, given enough time, invariably an online conversation will invoke Hitler or Nazis.  It’s an interesting little rule, but, alas, I’ve only seen it abused and substituted as an actual argument by the unthinking left when they’re confronted with the reality of where Stateism leads.  It’s like an online version of squeezing your eyelids shut, cupping your ears, stamping your feet, and repeating, “Blah, blah, blah, blah,” as loudly as you can, over and over again, followed by a speedy exit and, once far enough away, downshift into a strut like you just out-debated Daniel Webster.  It’s cute, just not edifying and completely different from William Godwin’s writing.

Anyway, here are a few of good ol’ Bill’s quotes. See if you can glean a few similarities with His Majesty’s latest reductio ad absurdum.  (You may need to read it with a stilted, halting inner dialog to get the full Barry):

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Where environmentalists explicitly wish no access AT ALL to anyone – and are willing to kill people to enforce it.

I’m not sure if the proper metaphor is “enough rope to hang themselves with” or “let them babble long enough to find out what they really believe.  Once again, from that crazy hothouse of Environmentalism meets Totalitarian Murder, TreeHugger.  This post’s author is absolutely aghast that our civilization has found just SCADS of high amounts of usable energy and that we’d actually use it:

Consider this: If we’re going to keep temperature rise below 2°C (a figure it increasingly appears is still too high to avoid some serious climate impacts, but it is internationally agreed to), then we have about 565 gigatons more CO2 we can send into the atmosphere over the next four decades or so.

Then consider: The amount of carbon contained in the proven coal, oil and gas reserves of national oil companies and private corporations is about five times higher than this, 2795 gigatons.

In other words, we simply cannot allow that fuel to be extracted and used, if we’re going to preserve the climate in anything like a state we’ve grown accustomed over the recorded history of human civilization.

Notice the hubis that he REALLY thinks that:

  • Humans can actually stabilize global temperature.
  • Sufficiently number of like minded folks are willing to live stone age lifestyles to make that a reality
  • What’s this WE bit on the pronouncement, kimosabe??  I see no crown tipped on your forehead

But that wasn’t even the worst.  This guy just just wants us to live poorly; this next guy wants something FAR worse!

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