Articles tagged as

Freedom

Notable Quote – Thomas Paine

Another thought worth remembering; Thomas Paine wrote in his Revolutionary pamphlet, The American Crisis: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” … Read more

Noted Dem pundit Kirsten Powers – you can’t have it both ways, dear, on Govt as Husband

More on “dear” after the jump.  In keeping with the screams of “War on Women”, Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers tried to have it both ways to Sunday in her post about the Conservatives being wrong as to the reason for the female voting gap but also proving the Conservative allegations about Democrats transforming Government into being a proxy Husband and Daddy that has been promoting dependency.  We conservatives have complained for years that Government is creating dependency – I have heard her on Fox News refute this reasoning.  Yet, here it is in black and white:

…Fast forward to Nov. 6, 2012: unmarried women showed up, and they went for Obama 67 to 31 percent; women with children preferred the president by 56 to 43 percent.

…The media treated the “War on Women” as being primarily about reproductive issues, but not so the Obama campaign. Team Obama knew that the issue that women cared about the most was the economy, and reminded women constantly that the hostility the GOP shows toward the government could leave single women in a perilous situation. Republicans ridiculed “The Life of Julia,” but it was a brilliant campaign outreach tactic that showed how a Romney administration would affect women in a way that left nothing to the imagination.

See where this is going?  She’s not being truthful – this is not about “the economy” but just one of the artificial economies kept alive by government spending and subsidies for special interest voting group (along with the constant redefinition of commonly defined words for political purposes).  Look at what has happened in “green energy”;  as Governments world-wideover pull their subsidies – bankruptcies and layoffs in the “great next thing” as defined by Government hacks (and not by demand from the real marketplace).  But I digress.  This is not about an economy, this is about a “propping up” because Progressives have achieved one of their main philosophical aims – doing to everyone else what they have achieved in the black urban families.  There is no mention of any other viable solutions.

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Notable Quote – Sir Winston Churchill

“All men are created equal,” says the American Declaration of Independence. “All man shall be kept equal,” say the British Socialist Party. – Sir Winston Churchill, Lord of the Admiralty, Prime Minister of Britain during WW II It seems that the American electorate has forgotten history, and has chosen to align itself with the British … Read more

It’s That Simple

I am still without power so content from me will be thin at best until further notice.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to start a row with 16 seconds of video. Yes, It’s that simple. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enC0eFJgmpA&feature=player_embedded Hot Air

Notable Quote: Max Eastman (Socialism Doesn’t Jibe with Human Nature)

“It seems obvious to me now–though I have been slow, I must say, in coming to the conclusion–that the institution of private property is one of the main things that have given man that limited amount of free-and-equalness that Marx hoped to render infinite by abolishing this institution.  Strangely enough, Marx was the first to … Read more

View this from the phrase: “The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen”; Democrats gunning for a Limited Government Warrior

It looks that ‘Grok friend, Mark Warden, has been put under the gun sights of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (from Blue Hampshire, emphasis mine), an out of state Democrat organization whose only purpose is to get BIG Govt Democrats elected to State Houses (gee, and I keep hearing that Democrats are forever railing against “outside money” – until it suits their purpose like all the gay money that came in to first get civil unions passed in NH and then had that replaced by gay marriage) :

New Hampshire House District 39 (Hillsborough)
Aaron Gill (Grassroots pick)
Status: Republican Incumbent

Why this Race Matters: Unlike the New Hampshire House’s many multi-member House races, Hillsborough District 39 is a one-on-one matchup featuring Democratic community banker and Deering Conservation Commission officer Aaron Gill, who faces an incumbent Republican who moved to the state as part of the so-called Free State Project, which encourages Libertarians to move to New Hampshire in order to remake that state’s government in the image of Libertarian Party ideology. (The project targets New Hampshire, specifically, because of its relatively small electorate.) The outcome of this race could show whether conservative-leaning districts like this one are “in play” for New Hampshire Democrats, as well as whether the Free State Project’s unique brand of conservatism has staying power among normal New Hampshire voters.

Well, well, well .  For all of the fulminations by the Democrats the last few years, railing against “the banksters” (remember, the Dems were all in for Occupy Wall Street bashing the banking 1% and have always blamed the banks for causing the financial crisis).

So, the DLCC (as well as the NH Dem Party) is setting this up as a Progressive / BIG Government candidate vs a Limited Govt / BIGGER Citizen legislator.  We continue to see the redefinition of the Proper Role of Government:

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A reply to a commenter on Steve’s “About All that Ron Paul business…”

which can be found here concerning the RNC, delegates, Ron Paul speaking / not speaking, nomination, and the like.  His problem was not with Ron Paul but with his supporters.  I concur (having had to deal with nastiness of some even back in 2008).  So he (and I) expected some commenters in opposition and our expectations were met.

Given the set up here at the ‘Grok, I also get notification (and have to approve / disapprove) of comments inbound on all the posts.  Given that Steve’s post was almost a month old, when a comment by RageFury came in today, I spent the time reading that long comment in which much time had to have been spent.  But one line:

“I previously thought you guys were better than this…”

caught my eye and of course I had to answer:

“nor will I vote for Obama who only gets a potential 4 more years of horrible country crushing policy” and ” I previously thought you guys were better than this.”

To the former – to use that old phrase: “You ain’t see nothing yet!”  Obama has figured out that with the Senate locked up by Reid, and the House Rs cowering behind the idea that they’d be responsible for a shutdown if they even thought about growing a spine, Obama has become enamored with doing what he wants without Congress – an FDR on steroids by issuing declaration upon decree.  He has become addicted to being a dictator – he knows that he can do what ever he wants NOW and when the Courts nullify a Dept decree, the Secretary of the Dept just uses another way to do it all again (e.g., Salazar in stopping drilling in the Gulf, the NLRB’s actions, and the FCC at doing Net Neutrality by other means, just to name three).  Recent History is very much predictive of what he will do the next four – only much faster, much bigger and FAR more Liberty destroying than this first term.  You think he’s packed on the Debt thus far?  His next target, already under attack, is Liberty and Freedom and he is well on the way to destroying that.

And you, RageFury, among others that will not pull the lever for Obama’s enemy…

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Blogline of the Day – on Charity

Steve has the info on Romney’s tax returns – consistently outgiving, percentage-wise those that have been yammering for his returns to be made public.  From Instapundit, reflecting on the ReProgressive definition of Charitable giving: “If you really care, you don’t give money yourself. You get the government to force other people to give. That’s what … Read more

Nanny Staters / Progressives really do believe this – you ARE incapable of making rational decisions!

And they are happy to fix that situation….and in fact, demand that they be allowed to meddle in our lives.  After all:

Democrat NH House Rep. Kris Roberts of Keene uttered on the floor of Representative Hall these fine words concerning Government and his fellow citizens:

“Government has to protect us from our own stupidity.”

Many of the delegates at the recently completed Democrat National Convention agreed with this – they have no problem believing that people have the freedom to choose for themselves but only if they make the right decisions:

(H/T: Reason TV )

“I’m pro-intervention.”

Q: So people should only be allowed to make “good” choices?

A: No, people should make choices that have good results

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Lakes Region Porcupines, Free State Project, Liberty, Freedom, and self – responsibility

A while ago, a now former NH State Representative Seth Cohn urged me to come to a meeting at the New Hong Kong restaurant to, as he said, “talk some politics with folks that are involved”.  Little did I know what I’d be getting into – and that was fine!  Many of the folks that attend are Free State Project “members” in that they came to NH because compared to other states, it had a low overall level of taxation and better yet, small government.  I have interviewed Dr. Jason Sorens before, so I knew the overall mindset – we tolerate a limited government, let it do a few things very well, and then leave us alone – we can be responsible for ourselves (the absolute antithesis of Democrats, who all but worship bigger government with the mindset, as we are seeing, that no one can be successful without out).

Sidenote: with that mindset, aren’t all Democrats then assuming that we are all LOSERS from the get-go? And boy, don’t the Dems go absolutely bat-crazy as more of the FSPers get involved in local and state politics – because the Dems just cannot understand that most of us don’t WANT the larger government they do.

Anyways, after this Saturday’s meeting, some of them went out to go clean the highway.  You often see those signs along the highways saying that such and such is doing the litter cleanup?  While some of them actually do the work themselves, most hire firms that specialize in doing just that.  The LR Porcs, on the other hand, believe in that self-responsibility and doing it themselves.  If one is going to be in Society, then one cannot outsource that responsibility.  So, out they went to show, in this small way, that they are not the anarchists that Ray Buckley (NH Dem Chair) claims they are and out to kill off government completely.  A very quickly done video:

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“There may yet come a day when you will have no choice.”

Steve beat me to it in using the Second Amendment support from Ice-T (“The right to bear arms is because that’s the last form of defense against tyranny.”); it was going to be my lead in for this post I found over at Hot-Air where the money line, THE important line, is the title to this post:

That was the moment when it hit me. The combination of that premise taken by anti-gun groups with the previous historical perspective on our country reminded me of what may be the most important piece of the puzzle. When having this conversation, it’s far too easy to say, “Oh! Of course we don’t want to kill people! So let’s discuss your proposition.”

It’s time to come out with it and speak the plain truth which was born and bred into the very soul of the United States from day one:

There may yet come a day when you will have no choice.

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For the accident by a few, there will be those that will seek to punish us all

OK, Steve beat me to it here, but I had my own thoughts of the accident in Pelham that I started on last night but as you will read, similar.

There will be those out there that will react in horror to what I am about to write ( “BUT CHILDREN GOT HURT – BADLY!”).  The news is coming out from Pelham that 11 people were hurt when a years long homeowner’s fireworks tradition went awry.  The latest from both NECN (New Englan Cable News) and WMUR says that two children were severely burnt and medflighted to Boston.  Of COURSE this is a tragedy, but I grimaced when I heard the Fire Chief’s pronouncement:

I’m not a fan of fireworks.  This is a perfect example [of] what can go wrong.  Well meaning people trying to have fun and an accident happened and caused a great deal of injuries to children and adults.”

The NECN newscaster said what I expected about Chief Midgley of the Pelham Fire Department:

He wants to work with lawmakers to make sure this never happens again.

Of course he does.  Again, this has been a long standing tradition of this homeowner, and thus far, no news accounts have brought up any earlier accidents.  No one else in Pelham had any reported serious injuries anywhere else in town (not that I’ve looked, but on the idea of “IF 1, then the news will report it as “AND! over here”).  But here it seems, the Chief has decided that it is his business to force all others to comply with his viewpoint and morality, and no longer let people decide for themselves.  Is that the role of an Government employee (no matter how good he is in performing that role)?  Is the purpose of an appointed employee to lobby the Legislature against what many voters want to be able to do?  And do it on TAXPAYER funding (isn’t there a law against that)?

Freedom.    Versus the Safety & Security (the first Commandment of the Nanny-Progressive State)

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A Fourth of July message to my fellow Groksters – and to our readers. And especially to those that just might be stopping by.

“I also wanted to mention the strange feeling that I awoke with today….and I share your sense of – not unease necessarily, but maybe  – resolve..?“

Words from my fellow Groksters that stirred me to write a message back:

My fellow Groksters,

There was a reason why each and everyone of you was chosen and asked to write for GraniteGrok.  I also believe that there was a reason why each and everyone of you said yes – you all realized that we ARE in a Cold Civil War, that “the strange feeling that I awoke with today” one that is “instinctive” and “palpable” are real.  I started this blogging schtick with Doug back in 2005 when it was just a novel way to get our rather opinionated opinions out there.  Now, I see that there was a Higher Purpose that yanked us into this place, and what we do now as the ‘Grok is probably far more important than what I ever thought.  Liberty and Freedom.

This July Fourth, we realize we are at a tipping point – a very important one.  We are in a fight for our Country’s future; the line has been drawn, and we either are those that just drift along or we respond that that “instinctive” and internal sense that something is awry.  If not us, then who?  Who will run to the ramparts to defend our Shining City on a Hill?  Who will stir themselves from the easy life and the easy way?  Who will say “I will put away the couch, the tv, the toys, and my family” and look deeper into their core to say “There is more; I am a descendent of our Minutemen – if not by blood but by that same love of country and Ideals”.  I will stand, not for the Old World based failed reasons that motivated my ancestors to leave the Old Country, but for the Rights given to me by my Creator.  I am that new Minuteman that refuses to give in to the Progressives that not only defend the Statism of that Old World but wish to entrench it here.  Millions have died to defend the philosophy expressed in the Declaration of Independence – yet, Progressives are fighting to redefine those words and ideas, turn them upside down, and say that they are the Patriots and we are the extremists.   They are the Fifth Column, the Trojan Horse, spreading rot within all of our institutions and Society.

But all of you Groksters and others that join with us in spirit (TEA Party, 9-12, constitutionally aware), are now are saying “You have gone far enough – and we will stop you”.  Some of you have already done your part; you took the oath, did the training, did the hard work, and literally fought for us.  We who stayed home did other things, vaguely aware that you were on the parapets standing guard and keeping us safe.  Yet, even with your tours long over, have come back to the fight once more.  Not with a gun (though you have such at the ready, with the spirit to lift it) but with keyboards, voices, and heart.  We who did not wear the uniform now join you in this different fight, side by side with you, ready to now do our part.

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I just couldn’t stop coming back to this headline:

Over at Fox:

Supreme Court upholds ObamaCare and Americans have lost the right to be left alone

Regardless of what I wrote here concerning the Commerce Clause (it is now longer unlimited) and that Federalism has been strengthened (roping in Federal coercion of the States by  ransoming monies that came from the States in exchange for meeting certain mandates), the above hit home – hard.  When I heard that inactivity cannot be regulated via the Commerce Clause, I went YES!  When I heard no more coercion by the Feds, I went YES!  And then what Roberts said about taxation and individual choice, my heart dropped.  The headline had it right – they just won’t leave me alone.

One of my regular Internet Doodlings come from TreeHugger.  It’s a great site for a Conservative to visit (as loyal ‘Grok commenter C. dog e. dog now frequents those haunts, howling at the entrenched denizens, has learned).  They now combine an absolute faith that there is a future of  “no future” for any of us unless their Green vision is realized in how we all should live in their Utopia of a pre-modern civilization / Gaia dystopia of a low energy world (and a low level of life to boot).  There is that loud stream of “all in for one vision” and we all should have no choice in it. “You cannot live your life your way because if we let you, the planet will die.”  Thus, they will do and support anything that will force the rest of us to change our behavior – for them, keeping the planet alive trumps the Rights and philosophy of the Constitution.  They will not stop until we live the way they want and as you have seen with some of my recent posts (here and here), they are on the march to make that happen, forcibly if necessary.

From the political side, Obama and his fellow Progressives are also convinced they can create a Utopia here on Earth – and as Obama has said:

“my individual salvation is not going to come about without a collective salvation for the country.”

Translation:

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Okay everybody, let’s just “give peace a chance….”

“Those who cling to the untrue doctrine that ‘violence never settles anything’ would be advised to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. … Read more

Obama Immigration Policy, Sans Consequences?

“Amnesty is a big billboard, a flashing billboard, to the rest of the world that we don’t really mean our immigration law.”  —Richard Lamm

One of the realities of life is having consequences  arising from the choices of others. Sad, but true. Except of course if you are an “illegal alien.” “Undocumented Immigrants” as liberals like to call them, is a misnomer. Fact is, it is “illegal” to enter the United States without submitting to a process to do so. So I prefer the term, “Crim-aliens”  If “undocumented immigrant is a logically correct term, than so is “unlicensed pharmacist” for a drug dealer. In that aversion to consequence,  it would appear that liberals like to massage terminology that aides them in fooling the sheeple.

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Internet Doodlings – Another taste of Enviros using “We know what is best for you” to mask totalitarianism

Heh!  But again, not so heh!  We laugh, but they mean it.  Over at TreeHugger (they have become such a source of sport!), they were discussing the righteousness of NYC-Nanny-Chieftain Mayor Bloomberg’s (whose own dietary predilections do not match his public policy for the rest of his “citizens”) declaration that he would solve the obesity problem of his haunts be making certain sizes of soda sold by NYC establishments off limits.  In a post entitled “More than Reasonable:

Last week, New York City showed the nation once again what it means to be on the cutting edge of public health policy. The city announced a bold plan to limit the size of sugary beverages sold at restaurants and other food establishments. Predictably, much of the media went crazy, and numerous outlets have already proclaimed that this time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has just gone too far. Banning trans fats was fine, but don’t take away my right to guzzle a gallon of Coke is the lazy reaction of some pundits.

But let’s take a more rational look at what New York is proposing. From both a policy-making and political strategy standpoint, it makes perfect sense. No one is banning anything or restricting anyone’s freedoms. The city is simply placing a reasonable limit on how much soda (or other sugary beverage) can be served in a single container.

Cutting edge?  Bloomberg already went after salt (which he himself uses with wild abandon in a “fine for me but not for thee fashion”). Now, there is a study out that says cutting salt intake to such a level promulgated by the Feds could actually be dangerous.  There also is no definitive study on soda usage either.

The post also tried to slyly slip in what Goverment is doing is just what private business has done with serving sizes in the past (thus, trying to rationalize Bloomy’s actions):

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Internet Doodlings – Once again, back at Treehugger…this time, Mayor Bloomberg soda ban

Ah yes, the Nanniest of them all, Mayor “Do as I say, not as I do” Bloomberg wants to ban large capacity soda servings.  One more thing that “It’s good for you to NOT drink all that” as if sugary water is the worst thing EVAH!   Hey Bloomberg – how about concentrating on stuff that Mayors are supposed to concentrate on that would be more important – like murders and crime?  Potholes?  What about your failing public school system – what was your graduation rate again? Oh yeah, a rate of 65% but not ready for college:

Sixty-one percent of city students who started high school in 2006 graduated on time in 2010, compared with 59 percent of those who started in 2005 and graduated in 2009.

But only 21.4 percent of those students earned high enough scores on their math and English state tests to be deemed prepared for college and well-paying careers.

That’s the [success] ticket!  If 78% of your grads can’t go directly to college, that’s not properly educating your students (a MAJOR part of your responsibility).  Yet, that is of lesser importance than grabbing big cups of soda out of the hands of folks in your city?

Anyways, back to the Treehugger post (which isn’t as bad as some of the pro-ban pandering I’ve read):

When if comes down to it, the ban would only be an inconvenience for the die-hard soda drinkers. If you really want to drink 32 ounces of Coke, no one is going to stop you from ordering two.

Your ability to choose what YOU want?  Not so much.  They don’t see it as individual freedom issue – rather, an infringement on the collective having to pay for the bad habits of all us fat people.  My response:

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