And the Teachers’ unions can’t understand why we don’t believe them?

In my opinion, public education has gone down a path of disaster in many ways – too many teaching methodologies that are not much more than somebody’s fad idea instead of being verifiably certified effective, teachers who believe their mission is to indoctrinate students with “a worldview” instead of teaching subject basics well, and unions that want you to simply believe that higher salaries and perks are an instant panacea to what they’ve been doing the last 30 years.

So, DO watch this of a high school student asking other students some simple, basic American Civics and geography questions.  Watch the utter cluelessness (with the exception of one young lady) and the blank stares of these high schoolers when the mic is offered in their general direction.

(H/T: The Blaze)

Well prepared and taught by their teachers, eh?  The problem for parents and taxpayers is…

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If the Economy is Getting Better….

…then why are there 6 million less jobs in America today than there were before the recession started?Obama blowed up all the jobs

This is a serious problem.  The people inside the blue bubbles and left wing ghettos can shout whatever number they want, but people are still out of work and underemployed.   Their quality of life, and standard of living are in shambles.  People who did not lose their jobs are trying to make stagnant or declining wages go further as inflation rises.  Claiming the unemployment rate has dropped makes for a great sound bite, but it doesn’t pay the bills, and neither do government hand outs.

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Free market liquor stores coming

GOP Rep. John Hikel has sponsored a bill that will allow bottled spirits of all types to be sold in markets, grocery stores, convenience stores, and other outlets. This change in the law will obviously benefit the free market and consumers in New Hampshire, but it will also result in the creation of lots of jobs, and lots more work for truckers, delivery people, stockers, etc. A Commerce Committee hearing will be held this coming Tuesday, February 7th, at 2:15 p.m. in Room 302 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord. You should be there and testify in FAVOR of the bill. 

"The Feast of Spending Fools in Concord," by Bruegel

But wait! There’s a problem! To understand it, consider the famous picture above. You thought it was a raucous party of drunks in Concord, right? What might result if we allow expanded consumer choice and convenience in New Hampshire, and pass Rep. Hikel’s bill? No, you idiot. Read on to find out what the real problem will be….

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I See Dead People (Petition Edition)

We’ve begun the process of getting our hands on the ‘so-called’ 109,900 names and addresses from petitions ‘collected’ by the well funded out of state groups who dropped them on the New Hampshire Attorney General yesterday I have speculated on a few occasions that a super-majority of these will be from outside New Hampshire, but … Read more

Press Release from friends at the NH Conservative Future PAC: NH PLANNED PARENTHOOD HEALTH CENTERS DO NOT PROVIDE MAMMOGRAMS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEW HAMPSHIRE PLANNED PARENTHOOD HEALTH CENTERS DO NOT PROVIDE MAMMOGRAMS February, 2, 2012 – In the face of massive defunding and decreasing public opinion, Planned Parenthood and their allies have spent the past two weeks attacking the New Hampshire state legislature and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. They have falsely claimed that … Read more

If you drop 109,900 petitions and no one is there to hear them fall…

Granite State Progress drops petitions but no one is there to hear

[Updated Below]

That 9:30 press conference, the one at which Zandra Rice Crispy Treats Hawkins (ZRCTH) was supposed to unleash the fury of over 100,000 signed petitions, started a little late. Something to do with the lack of actual press. As of 10:00 Zandra was still there, as the typical day’s traffic wandered in and out of the Legislative office Building, paying little or no attention to the tiny knot of people behind the podium.

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Senator Jeanne Shaheen: Prioritizing political ideology on abortion over First Amendment Right of free expression of Religious Belief

“…it is not just a matter of “women’s health” and it makes no difference if “birth control is universal“.  From Left leaning Politico:

Jeanne Shaheen Wicked WitchSen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) confronted Obama during a trip to the Granite State before the GOP primary, urging him to provide contraceptive coverage. Obama told her that he was sympathetic but had made no final decision.

It wasn’t until Jan. 20 that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the administration’s decision, sparking the firestorm from the bishops and the GOP presidential field.

“It’s very disturbing to me that his decision has been distorted and misinterpreted,” Shaheen told POLITICO. “It’s an issue of women’s health. Birth control is nearly universal in the country. I don’t understand why this is such a big issue.”

No, you wouldn’t, nor does it seem, that you want to.  And not it is not an issue of women’s health.  It is all about a Progressive mindset that Government has can tell its citizens your religious beliefs are subordinate to our decrees.  It is all about Government telling its citizens that the Constitution does not matter on one of the issues that laid the foundation of our Country.  It is all about Government turning the relationship of American citizens to their Government.  It is all about losing the consent of the Governed…or actually, ignoring that it is a necessary component of American Exceptionalism, and making a crass political decision that beliefs of an unprotected minority are of no account.

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Biz folks? Has Uncle Sam have a backpack for you, as Senator Jim DeMint explains

“U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) explains how big government is making it harder for Americans to find jobs and more difficult for small businesses to succeed. When big government puts too many burdens on America’s economy, it forces jobs and investment overseas instead of here at home. It also makes it harder for middle … Read more

Should NH Give A Damn About Zandra Rice Hawkins?

Tomorrow, someone who relies entirely on out of state money, will present a pile of petitions, signed almost entirely with out of state signatures, to the New Hampshire Attorney General (AG), whom she will ask to investigate voter fraud in the Granite State.

Let me start out by thanking Zandra for the petition show she plans to put on tomorrow.   She thinks she is going to make a statement about the need to prosecute voter fraud, James O’Keefe and Project Veritas specifically, but that is not the statement she will be making.

Please allow me to set the table.

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OK, a bit off the regular ‘Grok fare…but with the Superbowl coming up

Wings.  Chicken wings.  Taste good, look good – create mess.  Wonderful for Superbowl fare.  Normally, great for napkin / paper towel manufacturers too! If you’re apt to combine the Superbowl and wings, well, this video is here for you: “this is how to eat a chicken wing with one hand with little to no mess. … Read more

Hilliary says Syria can’t do what the Democrat party does? Every day?

I really had to shake my head over this, I really can’t believe that Hillary Clinton actually said this: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused the Syrian regime of a “divide-and-conquer strategy” aimed at setting the country’s religious and ethnic groups against each other. Really?  The leading Democrat women in the nation actually … Read more

Romney Advocacy For The Welfare State

“I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” —Willard “Mittens” Romney

Romney not concerned about the poor.
Willard "Mitt" Romney: The Matthew Lesko of American Politics

That is what Mittens said…and the lefties will tear him to shreds over that very statement.  Especially the class warfare artisans in the political arena. While Romney is correct  about the poor having a social welfare safety net, It is that same “safety net” that creates government dependency and self-perpetuation of a system that its’ patrons become dependent on, rather than self-sufficient and self-supporting.

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Wardrobe Malfunction?

“A lot of women are turned off by the physical appearance of some of the first feminists.” —Helen Reddy How well did our esteemed Secretary of State think out her wardrobe, make-up and styling before making a very public U.N. appearance?  I am going to get skewered for this but am I the only one … Read more

Kate Miller needs a dictionary read to her to realize that “do nothing” is not a “further intrusion” (HB1659)

Both Steve and I had posts on HB1658, so when a local Democrat, Kate Miller (rather frustrated from having been tossed from the NH House in 2010 and has been writing very shrewish Letters to the Editor ever since) decided to decry even more “intrusion” into womens’ lives, I could not help myself:

“Laughter does the soul good”, or so the old adage goes. In that case, my soul is well indeed, especially after reading the latest dismalocumentary from Kate Miller (who seemingly is still smarting after being thrown out of the NH House for being a Democrat extremist by voters in 2010). Her personal jeremiad in attempting to paint the Republicans to where she’s already been cast borders on hysterical these last few months! One would think that she works in a plastics factory (the way she keeps grasping at straws)!

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So, Obamessiah is deciding he is the new King Nebuchadnezzar? All bow to King The One, as he tosses religious freedom under his chariot?

From RedState:  “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.”  (James Madison)

The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Are we Christians next to be tossed into Obama’s secular version of the Fiery Furnace simply for holding to religiously based beliefs other than what he is trying to establish with his latest Obamacare ruling? Certainly the Roman Catholic Church is square in his gunsights of the new Obamacare regulations set by Health and Human Services Sebelius.  Yet, does not Obama understand that religious freedom was a prime impetus for the establishment of our country?  Or just ignoring it to consolidate his power as he did in direct opposition to the Constitution when he has appointed unaccountable czars, has made “recess” appointments by unilaterally declaring the Senate in recess (even as it was not), and unilaterally changed large swaths of how Americans have to behave (shades of tin-plated despots everywhere).  And all he has to do is use his Executive levers of powers of an overlarge Federal Government that has grown from the laziness of a Congress that refuses to take up its own responsibilities under and to the Constitution?

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How About A Little Left Wing Charity?

In the virtual backrooms of GraniteGrok, we debate each other on the issues, candidates, and legislation of the day.  And we often disagree on the particulars or specifics, discussing at length their relationship to first principles that we in fact share.  In the midst of recent back and forth over HB 1658, which tries to disincentivize baby-makers from making any new ones while the state and taxpayers are paying the tab for the existing ones, something interesting occurred to me.

How  likely is it that the Christian Socialists and the lefts welfare-watercarriers will spend more trying to stop HB 1658 than it would cost them to just pick up the difference in the form of contributions to these same mothers as private charities?

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Uh oh. Will Romney’s big win in Florida doom his campaign?

This from Newsmax.com today, quoting a Florida Republican primary voter: “Bombarded by harsh television advertising, some Floridians said they had soured on both candidates. The dirty ads really turned me off on Mitt Romney,” said Dorothy Anderson, of Pinellas Park, adding she was voting for Gingrich. She said of Romney, “In fact if he gets the … Read more

HB 1711 Where’s The Fire?

Campfires still need permits - HB 1711 would not require themIf you want to rub two sticks together around here, you have to go get a burn permit. So I leave my house in a 4000 pound (ish) SUV, drive 5 miles to the nearest Fire Station, and then hand the Fire-Fighter my ID. (If I was just doing something as unimportant as, say voting, they could just check my name off a list.)

He fills out a form, hands it to me, and reminds me not to burn before 5pm.  I get back in my SUV, drive home and, at the appointed time, burn.  There are very few variables to this formula, and almost any fire requires  a permit.  But unless you lose control of it, no one ever stops by to check on you, even if you use the permit to start the fire.

HB 1711 makes the bold assertion that some camp and cook fires, that you start on your property, should be permissible without all the four-play.  And yet for some reason, it appears to have come out of committee as inexpedient to legislate?  Why?

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