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GraniteGrok

Irony – do you see it?

Aw, cry me a river of tears!  I got this from a friend (wink, wink) from the National Director for Socialist Youths division of the Democrat Socialists of America.  Does anyone else see the irony in the plea ( reformatted, emphasis mine) Invest Your Socialist Cash in the Future: Youth Scholarship Fund Running Low If … Read more

More on Obama’s ” If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen” – Progessive collective need

I’ve been wanting to put this post up, but it just keeps being one of those that just slips away each evening.  Certainly it is clear that there is a divide, nay, a chasm between those of the Left and those on the Right.  That chasm is for the future direction of the United States.

  • Liberal / Statists / Progressives / Socialists want the country to move forward – to a utopia that holds the Collective as the highest ideal
  • They also want self annointed experts to make the major decisions for everyone else.
  • Conservatives / Constitutionalists / Libertarians wish to move the country forward – but know that to do so, we must first go back to Constitutional values as elucidated by the Founders.
  • We want you to be able to make your own decisions.

Obama famously said that “we are five days from fundamentally transforming the United States”.  His vision is clear:  unlike all of US History, he wishes to completely subsume all of Society under the thumb of Government.  Why is this a fundamental transformation?  Remember your history – the Declaration and the Constitution were all about protecting Individual Rights against an encroaching Government.  Society was to have a Government that served it and not the other way  around.

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Grok Special Interview: Jane Cormier,Candidate for NH House-Question 1 – Why are you running? 2-Why is “where’re we going” dangerous?

A little while ago, we were directed to a video that was taken when the “Values Bus” rolled into NH (sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the Family Research Council).  While I recognized Karen Testerman and Phyllis Woods in the video, the person that was behind the podium at the time was someone that I had never seen before.  As I listened to her, I realized a couple of things:

  • This person speaks well
  • This person knows her mind and what she believes
  • She’s a first time candidate – this could be a good thing!
  • My gosh – she’s a female version of Jack Kimball!

Why that comparison? Forceful, a take no prisoner style of speaking, and you’d be hard pressed to not understand what she is for.  So, we got in contact with her and did an interview with her.

  • Question 1: From the Values Bus talk, you seemed well at ease behind the podium and in front of the camera; where does that come from and how will that translate in answering the question of “Why are you running”?
  • Question 2: “A Change of Course”: Where did we start from and where are we heading to, and why is where we are going, dangerous?

  

Why Running?                                 Why is “where we are heading” dangerous?

Jane’s campaign website is here: Jane4NewHampshire.com

The “Value Bus” video is after the jump:

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Death Penalty and the cult of Fame and Celebrityhood – and James Holmes

James Holmes in CourtMake no mistake – our pop culture is wrapped up in the thrall and cult of celebrityhood.  The quote “”In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” by Andy Warhol can be very true for little or no reason at all for the person who has been thrust into the limelight by circumstances beyond their control.

However, with the advent of media outlets like US and  People magazines, the normal assortment of tabloids newspapers, and TV shows of dribble like Entertainment Tonite and the Insider, people like the Kardashians can be famous for, well, being famous.  Sex tape-tress Paris Hilton has made her moment in the sun last way longer than the tape that first made her infamous; being an heiress to the Hilton fortune did not hinder but she has made some accurate business decision that have given her a standalone career.

However, there are those that will be “stupid”and do much to gain and retain that spotlight – even if it means being remembered for acute evilness:  think Charlie Manson.  All these years after the Tate Murders and he still is famous.  No, he’s still in jail and having been denied parole so often, he will most likely die in prison.  But he will draw his dying breath knowing that he is (about to be “was”) famous and that his name and actions were famous during his lifetime.  Sometimes, that is all that is needed for a loser.

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Mental Doodlings – Really? In celebrating Britian’s vast history, the National Health Service (NHS) is a cultural pearl for the Olympics opening?

NHS Dancing Nurses Bed jumping kidsFor whatever reason, I am just not “into” the Olympics this year – but TMEW is.  In fact, the cable box DVR is getting an upgrade to a multi-room simply for being able to store more HD content AND the ability to record more than two channels at once (as multiple outlets are reporting on different sports).

She made a big deal of having to watch all of the currently recorded content to clear the disk for the Olympic shows, especially last night’s opening of the Games.  For me, it was a waste of time – a mishmashed jumbled of ideas that just didn’t flow well together – this from an Academy Award winning director?  Dennis Boyle had to have been on some strange stuff to dream up this disaster.  Worse, TMEW agreed with me.

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Where’s the Freedom in all this “perfectible union”?

Obama:

“And I confess the progress didn’t come quickly, and it did not come easily,” President Obama said about his time as a community organizer in Chicago. “Sometimes it didn’t come at all. There were times where I thought about giving up and moving on. But what kept me going day in and day out was the same thing that has sustained the Urban League all these years. The same thing that sustains all of you. And that is the belief that in America, change is always possible. That our union may not be perfect, but it is perfectible.”

“That we can strive over time, through effort and sweat and blood and tears until it is the place we imagine. It may come in fits and starts, at a pace that can be slow and frustrating, but if we are willing to push through all the doubt and the cynicism and the weariness, then yes, we can form that more perfect union,” Obama said.

A more perfect union.  The problem is that this lies at the heart of Progressivism – they keep believing that THEY have the ability, that THEY should have the power, to form that more perfect union. A more perfect union – and what would that be?  In a nutshell, it is a collective utopia – that everyone shares the same values, that all share goals, and that all share an equality of outcomes.

In essence, it is the antithesis of  why and how our Founders wanted or designed for our Republic.  Equality for them was for equality before the law and opportunity; Progressives want equality in all areas along with a libertine culture.  Yes, circumstances can prevent the Founders vision from happening but a Law is a law – judges and juries should be slicing a case according to meeting or violating that law.  Unfortunately, it has becomes a “win at any cost” – it seemingly has lost sight of “the truth and nothing but the truth”.  Still, the State was to be a neutral observer in all this and its primary role was to protect our individual freedoms, liberties, and Rights.  Sadly, we seemingly have lost sight of this as Progressives have morphed government from being an umpire to that of being one that determines what behaviors are correct and which are wrong.

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GrokTV Special Interview-NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (District 9) – Question 4: Administrative based taxes: have all taxes, fees, and fines set by the Legislature?

Increasingly, we see NH State Agencies setting their own level of taxation (fees, fines, et al) outside of authorization of the Legislature.  It is the Executive Branch to self-fund and making itself independent of the taxation authority of the Legislature.  And of course, it goes without saying that while Legislators are accountable to the voters, … Read more

EMail Doodlings – Presidential warning still relevant, part 3

Yeah, I may be getting repetitive, but remember – when education actually accomplished something, you memorized the facts and THEN started the “critical thinking” part of the education.  Consider class in session for those that don’t want to vote for Romney because “their guy” lost in the Repub Prez Primary: It was said, halfway through … Read more

Batman, culture, guns….freedom vs safety / security…..Second Amendment vs “Responsible” – Part 2-B on updating concealed carry doodling

Update: On my previous post, I had written that even if I had been in that crowd with a concealed pistol that I would not be sure if I would have made a definitive difference in stopping James Holmes:

Some were insistent that if someone had been carrying (open or concealed) in that theater, some of those that died or were hurt could have been saved.  I was the only dissenter in that if you looked at the environment and looked at how the shooter, James Holmes, had equipped himself, it would be unclear.  A dark theater, a deranged shooter who was in rapid fire mode wearing complete body armor (ballistic helmet, body armor including throat and groin protection) who also had thrown two “grenades” that emitted a noxious gas that affected breathing and sight (not sure exactly what as I haven’t seen or heard the details, but it could have been tear gas or pepper spray cannisters – or something homebrewed).  Mass confusion – people screaming, moving to get out; unless someone was a trained SWAT or Spec Ops operator used to working and reacting PROPERLY in such a situation, I’m not convinced if a single person would have been able to make a difference.

Oh sure, as a distraction I might have made a bit of a difference: somebody firing back would have given him something to think about, allowing others to escape.  But to stop him?  At the time I wrote that, I didn’t think so.  But then I read this from Clayton Cramer‘s blog:

TacticalGear.com filled an order received on July 2 from Holmes, who allegedly opened fire inside an Aurora, Colo., theater on Friday, killing 12 people. Holmes paid $306.79 for an urban assault vest, two magazine pouches and a tactical knife.

Chief Executive Officer Chad Weinman said despite its name, the urban assault vest is not bulletproof, but is simply a vest made for carrying accessories.

Get that?  James Holmes was not wearing full body armor – initial reports seem to be wrong (as always). Here’s a link to the tactical vests they have to offer – they HOLD things, not block rounds.  This means that IF the theater was NOT a self-proclaimed “gun-free” zone, IF some CCW holders had been carrying their firearms, they very well could have made a difference in the result.

Heck, I could have made a difference.  You never know, however, how one would react given actually being in such a scenario.  I hope that I would be counted as one of the Sheepdogs.  Sheepdog?  Yes.  From Eject, Eject, Eject (the blog that Bill Whittle did before joining PJ Media et al), here is part of one of my all time favorite posts that forever made me cognizant of being self-responsible and being responsible for others :

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So, is NH GOP Platform Chair Jennifer Horn going to take the Platform towards being Democrat-lite?

The present NH GOP Platform is a rather conservative document.  When it comes to spending (something that Government does rather too well unless brakes are applied to it), it works fairly well as a philosophical foundation.  Well, the NH GOP Platorm Committee is now meeting to review the Platform and to make changes to it.  A little birdie let me (and a couple others) know that the following is under discussion:

Simple question about the NHGOP platform: Should it say:
1) We will limit the growth of spending; or
2) We will reduce spending

It now says “Work to limit the growth of state spending”.  Well, for me, THIS is easy: REDUCE!  After all the Repubs in the House and Senate HAD to REDUCE the spending as the Democrats had deliberately left an $800 million deficit to be used as a club for cutting the services that they had put in using the “excessive” Fed stimulus money flowed in via Obama’s “slush funding”.  To go further, I suggest to the Birdie:

 “not only will we seek to reduce the State budget, but we will seek to reduce all of the unfunded mandates that the State requires of towns and cities which will result in reduced local property taxes as well.“

A two-fer!  Given that the Republican Party is supposed to be for limited government and not just  “well, we’ll settle for a slightly smaller (and slightly less expensive and taxing) government than the Democrats”, my answer back to the Birdie actually addresses two components of the Platform, so I thought “there, done!”.

And then the Birdie relayed more info, and I went – Here comes the cowards that can’t stand up to the heat!

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So, has the Trillions Spent on the War on Poverty worked?

failed war on poverty

From economist Dan Mitchell, a chart showing the poverty rate since 1950.  It shows that before Federal Government insertion of itself radically into Society, Society was solving the poverty problem on its own.  Since then, the percentage in poverty has not really changed much.  You can also see (as Dan points out) that during the Presidencies of Reagan and Clinton, poverty rates started to decline once again.

Is it that Govt intervention stopped getting rid of poverty?  I am not able to say that, but I can state that with the spending of Trillions of dollars since LBJ began his Great Society, there has been precious little change of the plight of the poor – or has there been?  In fact, back in 2009 I posted this:

…“One in seven in total federal and state dollars now goes to welfare. But this is a completely unknown story,” Rector said. “This is not being reported. No one knows Obama is spending $10 trillion on welfare.”

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GrokTV Special Interview-NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (District 9) – Question 2: Where did the idea of using scooters for door-to-door campaigning; why not Segways?

I HAD to ask this question, based on his Presser showing the cute little scooters that he is using in meeting the folks (“residents tell me that I am the first politician to ever stand at their door step and introduce myself,”) in Bedford that is the new NH Senate District 9.  Why would he … Read more

That’s right, Andy has some experience with taxes

As this post points out, the ‘Grok started an interview series with NH State Senator Andy Sanborn which stimulated the hidden parts of the memory banks that brought up that Andy had been captured in a YouTube talking about all of the ways that the State of NH taxed him.  Here’s the link to that … Read more

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