Tag: Blogging

Laptop original Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

The State of the Union is Far From Good

May 26, 2022

by Ray Cardello

My blog started its journey on January 25, 2021. Donald Trump had left Washington the week before his new home at Mar-a-Lago, and except for the Pandemic, he turned over a country that was in good shape and ready to come out of hibernation and grow. The Border was secure, inflation at 2%, the stock … Read more

I’ve Been Poking around the Internet, as I Always Do, and Nothing Amuses Me

June 28, 2021

by Steve MacDonald

This has been a very odd day for me. Rare, even exceptional – as in an exception. I’ve been poking around the internet, as I always do, time permitting, and nothing amuses me.

I’m Almost Always Blogging, But When I’m not…

June 25, 2020

by Steve MacDonald

I’m almost always blogging, but when I’m not…I support independent local brewers. And plastic Adirondack chairs. And small contained fires (yes, I have a frikkin permit). And relaxing outdoor environments, and liberty, and freedom, and…wait, I’m blogging again.

Prior to 9/11 I Did Not Give a Damn About Politics – What the Hell Happened?

September 11, 2019

by Steve MacDonald

September 11th, 2001, was one of those days when people ask you where you were. I know where I was, but that is less important than where my mind was and where it went. I had questions. The pursuit of answers led me to where I am today.

Hello September! Wait, Where’d August Go?

September 1, 2019September 1, 2019

by Steve MacDonald

Summer slips away quickly when you’re busy — blogging, for example. Soon we’ll be forced to look across our laptops at autumn leaves that need raking. Wondering to ourselves, if we have them, where’d my kids go?

The GraniteGrok Top Ten for July 2019

August 1, 2019

by Steve MacDonald

July is behind us and with it a new record. GraniteGrok has passed the Union Leader to become the number one Alexa Ranked print media internet presence in New Hampshire. Why?

A Heart Attack Couldn’t Keep Me From Blogging…(Yeah, It’s Been a Year)

April 9, 2019

by Steve MacDonald

One year ago today I had a heart attack. And the only reason I wasn’t blogging on April 9th instead of April 10th is my laptop wasn’t with me at the hospital yet.

Nine Years Ago Today I Published My First Post for GraniteGrok.com

February 20, 2019

by Steve MacDonald

Nine years ago today, on February 20th, 2010, I published my first post at GraniteGrok.com. It was about Dan Itse’s bill to create a House committee whose purpose would be to consider the constitutionality of things. Government things. Later that same week I would write about taxes, commuter rail, Carol Shea-Porter, Paul Hodes, and Jeanne … Read more

Busy Day…

September 26, 2018January 18, 2013

by Steve MacDonald

Just a shout out to the busy day. I am having one, and will not be available to post until perhaps this evening. As you were.

Extremist Circumstances

September 26, 2018January 2, 2013

by Steve MacDonald

Being a part time ‘hobby blogger’ who REALLY LIKES their hobby, I try to do more than is humanly possible. (Yes, despite being a Conservative, I am also human). One of the inhumanly impossible things I like to try to do but often fail (see also only ever did once last year that I can recall) is to visit the pages of other bloggers for content with the intent of linking and sharing it with our readers at GraniteGrok.

The ‘Other Bloggers’ in this instnce are folks I met at RightOnline 2012 or have since corresponded with–at least once to get their contact info–but have probably really been in contact with since then. This is no reflection on any of us because we’re all busy rhetorically burning fossile fuels at both ends, so time is in short supply. Everyone is busy working on their stories for their readers and that is as it should be. But that does not mean we (or in this case me) do not mean well when we express a desire to share content.

So this morning (as my vacation winds down) I stepped out into the sphere to look for something to share but having forgotten to leave behind a trail of digital bread crumbs I got distracted and lost track of time. The end result isn’t even a T-shirt that reads I went to GraiteGrok and all I got was More Right Wing Extremism. Instead you get this.

Granite Grok’s Top Twenty Posts For 2012

September 26, 2018December 31, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

Hot Air does this every year, so I figured I’d give it a shot. It is a compilation of the posts that got the most comments in 2012. That’s right, this is comment based.

And I can tell you, since I have a few posts on this list, that how well you write, or how clever you are, is not nearly as important as hitting the right note at just the right time. That or some much more interesting tangents pop up in comments and then take on a life of their own.

However they got there, here are the twenty most commented on Grok posts of 2012 whether the comments are related to the post or not!

20.) So, gay activists, where do you think this will end up? We’ve all asked the question…if two men getting married is a right, why not three? Skip provides a cartoon and some comments, and attracts all the right kind of attention for his effort.

19.) Oh, so THAT’s what they look like! Susan Olsen shares with us the ‘Journalists Guide to Firearms identification. Proof that a picture is worth a thousand words, or at least a bunch of comments.

18.) Meet Another State Employee Wasting Taxpayer Time Online Dick de Seve wasn’t the only state employee with way too much free time on their hands, and open access to the Internet. In this post we meet Gaia, who made deSeve look like an armature.

It’s alive….ALIVE! (Sort of)

September 26, 2018October 12, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

My conspicuous absence has been noted. I felt lousy yesterday. That evolved into a full blow ‘bed-ridden’ 16-hour marathon nap. I’m not done feeling lousy so I won’t be blogging much until I feel better–or at least a little better. I just wanted my liberal “friends” to know so they wouldn’t worry about me. They … Read more

RightOnline 2012 – Breitbart is Here

September 26, 2018June 21, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

Plenty of things happened at the RightOnline conference in Las Vegas last weekend but not one of them occurred without the understanding that there was something we all had to do. Something more important than anything we had done previously. Wherever we were as bloggers or new media journalists we had to step up our game.

Andrew Breitbart was no longer there to give us a rhetorical kick in the backside or more importantly to simply lead by doing. Breitbart would no longer be strolling amidst union protesters or walking into NetRoots to challenge the left or their ideas to their faces. Andrew Breitbart was no longer there to challenge us to do those things. Or was he?

In reality, Breitbart was everywhere at RightOline, telling us to get off our asses and expose the left for what they are, not just yesterday, or today, but tomorrow and every day after that. Imploring us to get out of our comfort zones and challenge everything. Reminding us that all we had to do was show up and they would expose themselves.

It reminded me of the moment when I decided that I was done with my years of lurking on blogs and posting or commenting anonymously.

Weekend Round-Up

September 26, 2018September 26, 2011

by Steve MacDonald

Steve’s Blog post Round up from the Weekend. Posts you may have missed that are worth a few minutes of your time.

I Tried It At Home

September 26, 2018December 31, 2010

by Steve MacDonald

I%20tried%20it%20at%20home.jpg Fergus Cullen has some advice in his Union Leader column this morning.(print or e-edition) Resolutions that do not include exercise or dieting, to quote the author. They are all of course political, the most entertaining of which is a suggestion that Carol Shea-Porter run for President.

But my favorite was this one.

For bloggers and online posters, man up and identify yourselves when you comment. There are too many anonymous cowards in the online world. Civility is more persuasive than angry rant. If you don’t have the courage to say who you are when taking a shot at someone, you probably shouldn’t say it.

I agree, mostly.

Little Footprints In The Digital Snow

September 26, 2018December 22, 2010

by Steve MacDonald

Some of the establishment ‘insiders’ in the New Hampshire political news firmament are clinging to their status as the connected resource for information, defending their political crack house like some kind of punditry-pusher for the news junkies in the Granite state.

One of their weapons is the exclusive. They need them to feel relevant.

Case in point, James Pindell, who unknown to most, had posted the news of Jack Kimball’s announcement to seek the state GOP chairmanship as a WMUR/Political Scoop exclusive. But he did it after it had been posted by GraniteGrok, on GarniteGrok.com, the Grok’s facebook page, each of the Groksters facebook pages, at NH Insider.com, at the NHRVC web page, at my Live Free or Die WordPress page, and on several email lists like those of the NHRVC and RLCNH.

After a conversation with one of the Grok’s contributors, the word "exclusive" was reportedly removed from the Political Scoop post, but the act of trying to claim exclusivity still remains, embedded in the original web address to the article as posted.

http://politicalscoop.wmur.com/exclusive-kimball-to-run-for-nhgop-chair

[Emphasis mine]

It’s just like little foot prints in the digital snow, staggering away from the scene of a crime.

Making The Sausage

September 26, 2018November 15, 2010

by Steve MacDonald

One of my readers did me the honor of pointing out a grammatical error I had made in a post, not once, but four times. He politely explained the issue, while pointing out that he still appreciates my work. For my part I knew the rule, but sometimes it’s not quite that simple.