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GraniteGrok

Where Burt Cohen makes a fool of himself on NH TV

Colt AR 15As I have posted before, I generally DVR the regular Sunday morning talking head shows to listen to what the Progressive Libs have to say.  Most of the times, except for the Fox show, the Conservatives are out numbered.  So I was rather surprised at last week’s Closeup (WMUR 9, hosted by Josh McElveen – yes, first chance I’ve had to transcribe the audio).

The topic, naturally was about gun control.  Ralph Domico of Reilly’s Gun Shop and  GoNH, and attorney Penny Dean represented gun owners.  Former NH State Senator Burt Cohen showed up to represent the typical gun hater that is clueless about why he wants to ban guns.

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Friday Humor – a Doctor, a Lawyer, and a Mathematician…

A doctor, a lawyer, and a mathematician were having a conversation about the relative benefits of wives and mistresses.

  • The doctor insisted that, from a health perspective, it was far better to have a wife. He talked about stress, relaxation, routine, and other factors.
  • The lawyer contended that it was better to have a mistress, because that way you retain more of your legal rights, she doesn’t own half your property, and so forth.
  • The mathematician said that he could see both sides of that argument, but really he thought it was best to have both.

“Both?”, the doctor and the lawyer exclaimed. “Why?”

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Notable Quote – Dr. Larry Arrn

Imprimis: In a discussion with Hugh Hewitt, on the weakness / tyranny of Progressivism: No, and I don’t mean that. What I mean is that the principles of Progressivism that animate our government today, which are antithetical to the principles of the American Founding, lead to policies that cannot work, will not work, and result … Read more

Notable Quote – Matthew J. Franck

From Imprimis: But—fifth—short of such cases, the state should respect, honor, and even foster the role of religious communities and institutions as essential contributors to civil society. In crucial respects they are expressions of something still more basic to the flourishing of the human personality than is the political order itself. The modern secular state … Read more

A sad commentary: Having to ask Santa for a “Dad”?

Civil Society – that “space” that the Founders cherished that was to be between a limited Government and Individuals.  An important foundational part of that future was to be the nuclear family: Mother, Father, children (again, like Capitalism, under attack by Progressives / Socialists / Marxists / Communists for their own greedy political power grab to redefine American Exceptionalism).  Certainly in Britain, the Political Elites have been redefining British Society since WW II when the Fabian Socialists took control – their present may well be our future (culturally speaking).

Great results there, old boy – jolly good bad (emphasis and reformatting mine):

When it comes to Christmas, it might be safe to assume children will ask Santa for an extensive list of toys, games and treats.  But a survey of their typical lists for Father Christmas has shown many have more serious concerns, requesting “a dad” instead. A study of 2,000 British parents found most children will put a new baby brother or sister at the top of their Christmas list, closely followed by a request for a real-life reindeer. A “pet horse” was the third most popular choice, with a “car” making a bizarre entry at number four.  Despite their material requests, the tenth most popular Christmas wish on the list was a “Dad“.

…A request for a “mum” reached number 23 on the list.

Tenth?  Doesn’t that scream out at you – TENTH??  That ranking tells me that the broken families abound – and if the illegitimacy rate is anything like here in the US, there are millions of kids who only have a single parent.  Every child should have the right to both a father and mother – and I know from personal experience.

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But who needs a Dad when Government gives you permission to literally screw up!

Ugh.  Like I said,in order to have their political jones satisfied, Progressives / Socialists / Marxists / Communists have understood for decades that they have to unmoor the American public from their traditional values in order – and in this case, a most important – Parents authority and responsibility.  Here’s a quick story that chops at a number of those anchor points all at the same time.  From Philly.com via  The College Fix:

Students as young as 14 in Philadelphia will soon have access to unlimited free condoms, courtesy of the city government. And while parents will be able to “opt-out” by sending a letter to their child’s school, administrators have made it clear that they will not monitor or restrict access to the condoms, even for those students whose parents have signed “opt-out” letters.

In other words, if your child attends high school in Philadelphia, then the government has taken control of your 14-year-old’s access to birth control, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

And this is why I have said that Conservatives have got to get back into the schools – it is there that the cultural tide that is wrecking our nation and which we saw this last election has its fount.  So here is a policy, set by a democratically elected administration, that thinks it is just great to lie to the parents of the kid in their care. WHY bother to send the ‘opt-out’ form is it is only going to be thrown out and out-right ignored?

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Unable to get elected to the NH Republican State Committee is no impediment for Fergus!

There was an article in the NYT that caught my eye:

Clout Diminished, Tea Party Turns to Narrower Issues

The Tea Party might not be over, but it is increasingly clear that the election last month significantly weakened the once-surging movement, which nearly captured control of the Republican Party through a potent combination of populism and fury.

Now, this kind of article has been spewed out pretty often pretty much since six months after the TEA Party movement started.  With a Leftward swing in most newsrooms (indicated by polls and by political contributions), I think we’ve become inured to this trying-to-make-it-true journalism.  Yes, I will admit that here in NH, local races didn’t quite turn out as well as  we’d hoped.  Nor at the national level either, as a number of TEA Party backed folks lost their races, and we did fail, in part, to drag Mitt across the line.  However, in the larger picture, Republicans (aided and “nudged” by TEA Party activists) are in control of more states than ever.

Remember, it took the Progressives over a 100 years to be where we are at with respect to Constitutional obedience – the TEA Party has only been around for 4 years.  This will be a long slog and there is no doubt that to some adherents to the limited Government, free markets, and fiscal frugality, a few battles were lost in “this theater” – but the war is not over even if some Journalists want us to believe otherwise.

And add to that, some Republicans as well – enter, stage Left: Fergus “The Fringe” Cullen.  How long is he going to try to trade in on his failed Chairmanship?

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Another, more descriptive term for Capitalism?

Innovationism:

Deirdre McCloskey says somewhere that a better name for capitalism is “innovationism” – innovationism unleashed only in societies in which private property rights are at least reasonably secure, freedom of contract is at least reasonably the norm, markets are at least reasonably free, and (importantly) the multitude of bourgeois merchants and accountants and actuaries and laborers and financial experts and… and… and… innovators are accorded at least a reasonable quantum of dignity by society at large.

Capitalism, the voluntary exchange of one product or service for another (with money as a flexible intermediary) is certainly under attack by Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Marxists as being “evil”.  Their claim is that it is not “moral” and that “the little people” get hurt when the markets go sour).

Sidenote: Notice that they never talk about about the 100s of millions of “little people” that died at the hands of those leading the Progressive / Socialist / Marxist / Communist regimes in the Soviet Union, China, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, et al.

What needs to be stated, over and over again, that we are losing the ability to have that voluntary exchange as Government (and those that “know better for us” – actually, the Progressives / Socialists / Marxists / Communists that work for an in Obama’s administration) outlines how ‘free markets’ are to behave by fiat.

After all, Capitalism only succeeds when someone “serves another’s interest” –

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A thought from watching Meet The Press’s host, liberal David Gregory

  • I normally DVR the Sunday talking head shows to watch them when it is convenient for me
  • Today was the “convenient for me” as I had other things to do in the morning and then met with some of the Groksters in the evening as we got together for a “shoot & yak” time

Sidenote:  Hey, ‘Grok readers!  If we were to do this again, would you want to come and join in the range time and the politics / cultural / misc. discussion (er, the latter lasted much longer than what I originally told TMEW – her response as I headed north to home on the phone was “and you thought I thought it would be otherwise??” (with a wee smile in her voice)

So I am just watching them now.  A couple of takeaways from watching David Gregory:

  • True to form, he definitely fits Glenn Reynold’s (Instapundit) description of almost all of the media pundits nowadays: Democrat operatives that have media bylines.

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So now the White House HAS to say something about Piers Morgan!

Grokster Tom had put this up about Piers Morgan – a British subject who is also a CNN evening anchor – who has been using his TV show and the US Constitution’s First Amendment to bash the US Constitution’s Second Amendment: Send a Wanker home for Christmas… Piers Morgan is a degenerate, rude, America-hater (even … Read more

Now if this was a Republican saying this…

But just as Booker [Corey Booker, Democrat Mayor of Newark, NJ] announced he would seek the Senate seat, Harry Reid came out to sabotage the effort. Reid told Politico: I always support incumbent senators. I would always support Lautenberg or anyone else that’s running for reelection. He’s (Booker) a very good man, he would be … Read more

Sticks and stones?

Via the Washington Examiner (Philip Klein): Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were … Read more

Now if this was a Republican saying this…Part II

CNSNews:

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday that she is planning to introduce two bills to protect students at schools – the school safety enhancement act, which expands the existing COPS program (Community Oriented Policing Services), and SOS or Save Our Students, which would expand the National Guard program.

SOS “would expand a successful National Guard program in place since 1989 that allows governors to use the guard to assist with law enforcement efforts related to drug interdiction and counter-drug activities. So we take a successful program, and we say we’re gonna add a new purpose, and that’s what we do in our legislation,” she said.

“National Guard troops could be used to support local law enforcement agencies in protecting our children at schools. This could take the form of additional guards at school as well as capital improvements such as strengthening the perimeters of the school and safety procedures,” Boxer added.

…“Right now, the program is a 50-50 match. My bill allows the Justice Department to reduce the local sheriff to just 20 percent for those schools who make the case for more generous federal cost-share,” Boxer said.

And the media and Lefty groups went wild over such a stupid inane idea putting armed guards into kids’s schools…  Oh never mind – I missed that she’s a Democrat

<cricket, cricket, cricket>

Oh wait!  A Republican did!

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“Are you guys incompetent, or what?”

I hardly ever watch anything on CNBC – although after this, perhaps I should watch MarisaBartiromo more often.  After all, how cool is that for a media person to call a sitting US Senator incompetent to his face on national TV (all ratings aside, it STILL is a national TV show)?  Them be words that … Read more

And we wonder why we have $16 Trillion in debt to give to our kids…

The Feds have that Crack Money and local government just HAVE to get it. How many   Spend in the moment and justify to yourself – Nashua is doing it:

According to Lozeau, up to 60 percent of the funding used to operate the Nashua Transit System is federal money. Furthermore, the nearly $140,000 for the software upgrades will be paid with a federal grant leftover from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, she said.

“If we don’t use it, some other community will,” Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly said of the stimulus money, adding she is very supportive of the project.

One has to wonder as ALL Fed money comes with strings attached; not one word as to what Nashua is on the stick for?  What are the long term costs that Nashua taxpayers will be on the hook  now that the money has been taken?  What are the legal ramifications if Nashua finds out “this ain’t workin’ as advertised”?  And anytime one puts money into government, does it evah gets smaller?  And what is the individual passenger mile cost of this system anyways?  What would be cheaper: running this or giving out vouchers for the private taxis in town?  Hard questions unasked.

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