Is Anything Off Limits?

I doubt that it’s just Catholics who are outraged by this story! Those of you who still think the civil union/gay marriage agenda is not a slippery slope issue may need to re-think what’s going on in our culture! Is America better today or was it better before when public schools still taught Godly principals and the Ten Commandments … Read more

Is it possible to heal homosexuality?

In Iran homosexuals are put to death…here’s the latest from Fox News…I’m sure we can all agree, no matter what side of the issue we’re on, that we all condemn the death penalty just because someone is a practicing homosexual.

 

If you’ve read any of my posts from the past, you know that I am opposed to civil unions and gay marriage for a multitude of reasons. But there’s a significant difference between being opposed to  CUs for homosexuals and believing someone should be put to death.

 

This leads to exploring a new study about whether or not homosexuals can be healed and become heterosexuals.

 

Here’s the recent research on the possibility of changing sexual orientation.

 

Okay, yeah, I already know that the chimps won’t like it, and more than likely I’ll be called more bad and creative names. That’s okay.

 

However, since my husband and I spent many years in ministry counseling homosexuals, I can personally attest to the fact that they can be “healed” of homosexuality. As in any other complex issue people deal with; e.g., sexual abuse, alcoholism, pedophilia, etc., because God created us with free will, a person must first be willing to change.

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How do we compete with this?

This video, shot in a factory somewhere in China, shows a multiple- ton press making what appears to be metal pan-inserts one might find in a buffet-chafing dish. What you are watching is workers sitting in the press itself, in between the form punches & dies, moving the parts by hand in progression from start to finish. The press appears to be the type with the big counterweight wheel as opposed to hydraulic.
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Anyone even remotely familiar with industrial settings here in America knows that what you see– people sitting within a machine such as a press– isn’t in the least bit safe, nor legal. And, rightfully so. A press with the counterweight wheel cannot be quickly stopped, nor can it be retracted in the event of an emergency, like if the worker’s hand got caught in the pan. Hydraulic machines, the chosen method here, can be easily reversed and withdrawn. Additionally, most shops found here and in other free countries use very expensive automated progression type die machines that eliminate the need for people to move stuff through dangerous portions of the works.
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If the Youtube above had been shot at a factory here in the United States, you can be sure that the owner’s face would quickly appear on wanted posters in Post Offices all around the country. Geraldo would report in front of the offending place, tears flowing, on the cruel treatment of such hapless examples of downtrodden humanity. Public outrage would be the order of the day– again, rightfully so. In today’s world, there is no reason for people to have to work in such conditions. Safety for workers is the top order of the day throughout today’s business world, excepting places like China, of course.

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Liveblogging from the Palace Theater in Manchester: “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall Meeting.

John Ratzenberger….Keep It Made in America….Granite Grok
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The GraniteGrok crew is here at the Palace Theater in Manchester, New Hampshire tonight where television and film star John Ratzenberger and the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) are hosting the ‘Keep it Made in America’ Town Hall Meeting.  This is the first in a series of events, which will travel to seven cities in twelve weeks to highlight the growing demand among voters that the presidential candidates address the challenges facing American workers and manufacturers.
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What I find intriguing about the AAM is that it is made up of both manufacturers AND labor union elements– working in concert with each other in common purpose as opposed to the more traditional stances in opposition to each other. Judging by the tee shirts, there is a good number of union related people here this evening. I’ve also spotted prez candidate Vern Wuensche in the crowd, along with some McCain people. Mayor Giunta is welcoming the crowd and making introductions. Scott Paul, the executive director of the AAM is now speaking. BAA Systems. Steelworkers of Manchester are represented. Bringing together Dems, Repubs, union, management,etc. in common cause for US manufacturing. Sen. Ted Gatsas & Sen.Betsy Devries are here also. Gatsas is recalling the history of the mills here in NH. "Made in USA" is still an important slogan. There is much excitement and enthusiasm here in the room.

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PART I ** NHDOT –“Cut one in four jobs starting in 2009” Could that be the answer?

NH DOT workers
One in four?   (9/21/07)
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[NOTE: This is a repost of a piece, originally up Friday, titled, Change is good… Especially if there’s any left in our pockets after NH’s "leaders" are done with us. That way, we can pay the tolls! This story is one we believe everybody MUST know about. See PART II here.]
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In the August 31 Laconia Daily Sun (unavailable online) story about the ongoing money woes of the NH DOT, it was reported that
The state needs to examine how it is spending its existing highway construction money before talking about raising more revenue, Gov. John Lynch says.
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"We have to be more disciplined," Lynch said Wednesday. "We can’t do everything, nor should we do everything."
Additionally, he said,

"Before we consider the need for additional revenue- which I don’t think is there- we need to manage the funds today, which we are not doing well."

WOW! I thought– after some three years as Governor, I finally found something I could agree with him about! At the end of August I was finally happy with the thought that for once, when it came to the NH DOT funding "crisis", we would do the right thing. We would finally "fix" government overspending by reducing it, instead of simply taking more money from the hapless citizens of the state. Despite the fact that some prominent Republican "leaders" like my Executive Councilor Ray Burton (who has long overseen the squandering of the road dough) and others who’ve been saying we need to raise gas taxes and tolls claiming it’s been too long since we last increased them, I thought Gov. Lynch would hang tough.
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Guess what? I was wrong about Gov. Lynch. Apparently, he didn’t mean what he said. Or, is the state already done "examining how it is spending its existing highway construction money?" We must be, right? The Governor said that would be done before "talking about raising more revenue." And we must have figured out how to "manage the funds" much better in the three weeks since the Governor made the above statements, right?
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The Governor said we would do all those things before seeking additional revenue, and well, as you’ve probably heard by now, he’s gone and approved a toll hike on our highways. I’m pretty sure he means to seek additional revenue by doing that… This was the headline from yesterday’s Daily Sun:

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More on Iranian President’s Visit

Click here for more and don’t forget to make comments on my previous posting…let your voice be heard.

Should Our Tax Dollars Protect Iranian President?

Click here to read the latest from Fox News regarding the President of Iran. Unless you’ve been living in a cave with Osama, you know that he is coming to visit the USA. Click here for some reaction by the Jewish community. Click here to read about his request to visit ground zero. This evil … Read more

Not paying a mortgage, but paying the price.

As readers of the ‘Grok are aware, we have been selected to receive and forward reader questions for candidate Fred Thompson to answer at some point. While we are still awaiting something from the campaign, the questions continue to trickle in. We got an email yesterday that happened to overlap with my prior posting about a possible … Read more

Tax Payers Against a Wall Street and Mortgage Bailout

. A new group, "Tax Payers Against a Wall Street and Mortgage Bailout", has started an online petition drive asking Congress NOT to bailout the financially ailing mortgage industry. I am fully supportive of this action. To take MY money to give to unscrupulous (or uncaring, knowing the "fix" would come at the right time) money lenders who made … Read more

A warning about houseplants…

DO NOT BRING PLANTS IN THE HOUSE DURING COLD WEATHER!!! Never bring outdoor plants into the house.  Garden Grass Snakes also known as Garter Snakes (Thamnophissirtalis) can be dangerous.  Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. . Here’s why……… . A couple in Baltimore, Maryland had a lot of potted plants.  During a recent cold spell, the … Read more

Issue Advocacy Awareness– Campaign season is a great time to get the message out. This week, it was Chronic Disease.

Hallie rallies to promote chronic disease prevention before Wednesday’s GOP presidential primary debate. . As I’ve noted before, presidential campaigns create a nice opportunity to discuss a wide variety of issues. Many important causes, things that matter to ordinary people, get to compete for the attention of those who are involved– both candidates and the … Read more

Announcing the GraniteGrok reader survey results: NH’s Power Players

The long-anticipated day has arrived. Surely everybody who’s anybody is already looking at the results, wondering if they were fortunate enough to make our list. Our sincere apologies to those of you who have fallen short on your sleep, nervous in the anxiety of whether or not you’ve made the list. Worry no more, for the … Read more

August GOP Primary Online Straw Poll

. Matt Margolis of GOPBloggers has his latest online poll up. While we have the ability to do our own here at the Grok, we are placing Matt’s here for our readers to participate in because, of all the online polls one sees, his is a little more extensive and will hopefully provide, for whatever … Read more

National Gay-Rights Group is Right!

Ray Buckley

NH Dem Chair Ray Buckley (GG file photo)

 

Click here first to read my post: Is Civil Union Legislation Based on Lies? Then click here and read “Gay-Rights Group Pushed for State Democrats in ’06.” More disturbing is this article from the Boston Globe. Yep, that’s right, they were the single biggest donor to the democrats. But, of course the dems weren’t influenced by the money, geez, ya gotta explain everything. da mi il soldi!

 

Spending almost $150,000 on New Hampshire state races by the Human Rights Campaign…I wonder why they just don’t call it what it is; i.e., Gay Rights Campaign?…paid off for them. They switched their focus from national politics to influence state politics, particularly NH, Iowa and Oregon. Smart move, I’d say.

 

I recently read an opinion published in one of the papers that said there was no out-of-state influence regarding pushing civil unions in NH. Well, the Human Rights Campaign donation would prove that person’s theory wrong. Not only did they contribute money, according to the editorial, but an employee traveled to NH to assist with get-out-the-vote efforts and phone-banks. Do you think he was encouraging Republicans to vote?

 

The President of the Human Rights Campaign states:

 

“We understood that in order to change things at the federal level, we had to play a role in changing things locally.”

 

Of course they were successful in changing things here locally. They don’t live in NH and NH citizens didn’t get a chance to vote on the issue of civil unions, but I guess many NH citizens simply are too apathetic to care that NH was being influenced by “outsiders.”

 

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Something else to drive the “Chimps” nuts…

. Apparently the ‘Grok has been adopted as the poster child for everything that drives the lefties at Dr. Joan Bushwell’s Chimpanzee Refuge blog completely bonkers. Using big fancy words in some apparent attempt at demonstrating their superior intelligence, interspread with salty language mostly heard in biker bars and drunken sailor enclaves, the "Chimps" cannot say … Read more

“Adequate Education”… Slowly I turned…step by step…inch by inch…

Tax Monster
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The Wikipedia tells us that the phrase starting with the words
"Slowly I Turned" is the most common name associated with a popular vaudeville sketch that has also been performed in cinema and on television…
It is a familiar comedic routine that
has two performers pretending to meet for the first time, with one of them becoming highly agitated over the utterance of particular words. Names and cities (such as Niagara Falls) have been used as the trigger, which then send the unbalanced person into a state of mania; the implication is that the words have an unpleasant association in the character’s past. While the other performer merely acts bewildered, the crazed actor relives the incident, uttering the words, "Slowly I turned…step by step…inch by inch…," as he approaches the stunned onlooker.
The most famous users of this vignette are, of course, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and the Three Stooges. In what seems to be a fitting tribute to moronic troupes such as them and others, I am writing today about NH’s tax and spend legislature.
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Like the aforementioned description of certain trigger words that cause an unbalanced person to become highly agitated accompanied by a state of mania, along comes the broad-based tax crowd. You know who I mean: the usual suspects that, upon hearing the words "adequate education funding" immediately lapse into their default mode of new taxation.
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Consider the reporting in today’s Laconia (NH) Daily Sun (unavailable online) written by Chris Dornin of Golden Dome News entitled Let the struggles over school funding start in earnest. He notes that the 19 towns and school districts that are involved in the latest version of the annual "adequate education funding" lawsuits filed against the state in the years since the so-called "Claremont Rulings"
agreed last week to drop their claims against the state without prejudice…
Good news, right? Not really. As a matter of fact, the news is not good at all.

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Dope of the Week: He just wants to be a star, I guess…

. . I could not find this story anywhere online. The Laconia Daily Sun is reporting in today’s edition that "A convicted robbery getaway driver is in trouble for allegedly showing off weapons on MySpace.com and bragging on the social networking site about drinking and using drugs, prosecutors say." It further notes that Brice Chase, 19, … Read more

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