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GraniteGrok

Update – Ray Burton (NH Exec. Councilor, District 1, Grafton County Comm.) is pulling a Governor Peterson in endorsing….a Democrat??

An update to the post where little birdies told me that Ray Burton, long time district 1 Exec. Councilor had decided to endorse a Democrat over a Republican (and NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald publicly took a walk on it) – someone finally sent me a copy of the news item: (“And Burton, a North Country force, made clear that he would back Cryans over Sharp, despite the party labels.“).

And look – Ray Burton is approving of the fact that the guy he’s endorsing voted his own non-profit monies from the county budget?

I think that is cronyism at best and a complete conflict of interest for both Cryans AND Burton.  And Burton wonders why Jerry Thibodeau is starting to get noticed in his attempt to unseat him?  Is this a case where it is just time for Burton to be retired for the sake of better government?

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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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GrokTV Event-Rumney home event for Ovide Lamontagne (Candidate, NH Gov.) – Question 9: Position on FRM being re-opened

Complete switch in topic – The FRM financial scandel that took a lot of people in NH to the cleaners.  We hear so much that Government has to regulate more and more and more; what seems to have happened is that the state failed to do anything in the way of regulation at all.   But should it be re-investigated with a bigger flashlight?

Question 9:

The FRM financial scandel – lots of people lost their life savings.  And it seems to me most of this stuff got swept under the carpet.  What would your postition be on this?  Would you reopen that or is it a sleeping dog?

Previous:

  • Ovide’s talk
  • Question 1:  The Speaker has announced that he wants to cut an additional 2% out of the budget. what are your feelings on that?
  • Question 2:  Last year, the health insurance at the bank increased by 7%.  We just got new numbers for this year:14%. You know, last time we talked you wanted to join the fight against Obamacare and now the Supreme Court has come out with their ruling. What can you do for the State of NH against Obamacare at this point?
  • Question 3:  Do any tort reform in the State in order to help us?
  • Question 4: Competition in the medical industry.  I want to have a test done and I have to pay for it myself.  I start to call around and I find the best place for me to have it done is Concord Hospital. But in order to go to Concord Hospital, I have to hire a physician at Concord Hospital because my physician cannot send me to Concord Hospital. There’s a problem with that system!

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GrokTV Special Interview – Rick Parent (Candidate, Congress (NHCD-1) – Question 8 – How fix Social Security / Medicare entitlements due to demographics?

The biggest expenses in the Federal budget that are driving the national debt (and will continue as the “rabbit in the snake” of Baby Boomers retire) are Social Security and Medicare.  With crashing demographics and the money “alternatively used” by Federal Agencies, how would you fix this problem that could bankrupt the nation?  Question 8: … Read more

EMail Doodlings – how about a definition for “Free Market”?

Free MarketsI think that both Steve’s and Mike’s posts on the ills of Socialism at spot on and as a counter point to what some feel are the overriding positives of Socialism, one of the email lists I’m on, a request came in to define “Free Market”:

I’m trying to write a short description of why the free market is good, why we should encourage it.
My problem is that I don’t have the skills of Friedman, Hayek, Rothbard, Hazlitt, Bastiat, Smith, etc. to be able to convincingly describe its virtues. What I hope is that through crowdsourcing, we can come up with a good description.

So please, everybody, give me a sentence or a paragraph explaining why a free market is a good thing that we should “cherish”.

To get things started I will start with a paraphrase of Milton Friedman [Nobel Prize winner]:

“The record of history is crystal-clear. The free market is the best way so far discovered of improving the lot of ordinary people.”

Now, it could be said that what Mitterand did (and rejected, as well as China, and the Soviet Union, and the rest of the Iron Curtain countries, plus Viet Nam and what even Sweden is moving away from and….well, you get the idea), and what Hollande is about to do,  just do the opposite.  So, a number of folks responded including moi:

 The Definition:

The free market (the TRUE free market) is the simplest of systems: you have something I would like to have, and visa versa.  For this transaction to happen, I am estimating the value of what I have versus the value *I* place on what you have to transact.  I will make the trade if it is in my self-interest and my perception is that I will become “richer” in value by giving you what I have, and you give me what I would like of yours.  This is a win-win situation as the other person is ALSO making the same calculation.  My self-interest is satisfied – and the other person’s is as well.  I want your dozen ears of corn more than the $3.00 in my pocket; you would rather have my $3.00 and we agree to swap.  That is the essence of free market capitalism – a price point is reached where the transaction happens, or not.  That price signal says my want is sufficient to pay the price that affords you to cover your costs, and a bit of extra (profit) to start your process all over again and is credited as possible “wealth to you”.

Note this – one ONLY succeeds when you offer something of value to ME.  It means that your good or service PLEASES me sufficiently to give you something for it.  You win ONLY by pleasing and serving others.  Yes, it is in your self-interest to serve others for when you do so, and do it well, you will “profit” by having more transactions come your way.

The Freedom:

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Internet Doodlings – GUESS WHAT! There’s a Timothy Horrigan that lives over at TreeHugger.

You know, I am glad that Timothy Horrigan does come over and read here at the ‘Grok – and comments as well.  He’s one of the few “Liberals” that does so, so I’ll give him kudos for trying hard.  I just wish that his comments were a bit more on topic and not just deflections that might be technically correct but not really making a point that is “tracking” the discussion.  However, it seems that “Luke” is a simulacrum over at my favorite haunt where Watermelon Environmentalists meet True Believer Environmentalists and fairly nary a Freedom that can’t be dismissed lives.

ClimateGate, where hackers obtained (stole?) hundreds of megabytes of emails, code and data – often showing that the code was GIGO, the data so mauled over for “homogenization” that it was all but worthless, and the main characters in promulgating Global Warming (now climate change, following the lead of Progressives / Liberals / Progressives / Pragmatists that learn they the make toxic every word they try to abscond from common parlance) participating in avoiding all kinds of FOIA and RTK demands.  It basically was the beginning of the end to the facade of GW / CC, regardless of the 50, 000 UN / NGO / VIP / Pandering Politicians junket goers that traipse around the Globe pontificating grand designs and documents (while really just enjoying the 5 Star hotels and incredible edibles and SWAG bags).

So, Brian Merchant wrote a post that ClimateGate was a “hack that was a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack”  whose point was not that it was an inside job as has been commonly thought but done by outsiders.  Fair enough – and he elicited comments from the readers: who?

Well, ‘Grok commenter C.Dog e.dog took up the challenge with a whack of “Do you know who I am in the Ivory Tower-ism” with the usual snark and hyperbole:

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Batman, culture, guns….freedom vs safety / security…..Second Amendment vs “Responsible” – Part 3: “You don’t need that” Doodling

Every Sunday I watch pretty much the all the talking heads / pundits Sunday morning shows (isn’t DVR a wonderful thing?) and easily the topic of the day was the horrific shooting in Aurora, Colorado at that midnight showing of the latest Batman movies (Part 1 on my thoughts, specifically on  irresponsibility of ABC here, Part 2 on my thoughts on responsible concealed carry here).  It was rather predictable in content and in slant – I knew that just about all of the Liberals would kvetch about getting more gun control into our laws.  Unfortunately, I was not disappointed as my low expectations were met.  In almost all cases, the concern (and rightly so) was about safety and security.  The problem for me (and I figure that some commenters are ready to pull the trigger on this) is they have placed safety and security above all else but refuse to acknowledge how much government would have to do in order to actually achieve it.

The line of thought, however, was especially clear on ABC’s This Week, hosted by one half of that dubious TEA Party smearer duo and Democrat rumpswab, George Stephanopolous (and I kept waiting to see if the apology would be offered again but to no avail).  It can be summed up by: “You don’t need that“.

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EMail Doodlings – Presidential warning still relevant

On one of the email lists I’m on, there was a discussion concerning the candidates just before the NH First In The Nation Primary – the typical thing of folks boasting of their candidates and who was better than the other guys.  I took a different tack in trying to point out what the end goal should back then in early January, but the warning is still relevant for those scared for our country:

Your daily dose of knuckle rapping and snark deliberately delivered by the dufus….

….AND, once again, we are back to the  conundrum of “there is NO single candidate without flaws”….yes, NO one.  Not a single one in the lot.  Even the guy I was backing, Herman, had flaws.  Even Ron Paul has flaws – maybe not to his supporters, but to the rest of us (and just as big as those pointed out earlier).

Remember one thing – OUR GOAL IS TO BEAT OBAMA.  Period.

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GrokTV Special Interview: Susan Olsen,NH House Candidate (Merrimack-7) – Question 11 – Live Free or Die – too harsh? Do we follow it? Are some trying to get rid of it?

This was our final question for Susan and once again, we thank her for taking valuable time in talking with GraniteGrok!  Progressives want us to pay for what they Government to do for (or to) us.  How does that square with our legacy of individualism and the idea that we have a government and not … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Bob Burns (Candidate for NH Exec. Council Dist. 4) – Question 8: Coming up to a primary – why “me” versus those I am running against?

And this is the final question we had for Bob Burns – the final pitch to those that could vote for him for NH Executive Council in District 4. Question 8: Coming up to a primary – why “me” versus those I am running against? Previous: Question 1: Why are you running? Question 2: You … Read more

GrokTV Event-Rumney home event for Ovide Lamontagne (Candidate, NH Gov.) – Question 8: Citizens dealing with State Agencies?

Speaking of Commissioners and department heads, how about the agencies themselves?  Given our foray into Right To Know Requests to the NH Depart. of IT and Depart. of Environmental Services, I figured that I would venture a question / comment for a response:

Question 8:

GraniteGrok issued RTK requests against DES and DoIT for taxpayer paid network data – and were refused. What is your methodology to make sure that not only is the Law of RTK followed but the Spirit obeyed as well?  Dealing with the head legal person at DES was like running into a stonewall.

Previous:

  • Ovide’s talk
  • Question 1:  The Speaker has announced that he wants to cut an additional 2% out of the budget. what are your feelings on that?
  • Question 2:  Last year, the health insurance at the bank increased by 7%.  We just got new numbers for this year:14%. You know, last time we talked you wanted to join the fight against Obamacare and now the Supreme Court has come out with their ruling. What can you do for the State of NH against Obamacare at this point?
  • Question 3:  Do any tort reform in the State in order to help us?
  • Question 4: Competition in the medical industry.  I want to have a test done and I have to pay for it myself.  I start to call around and I find the best place for me to have it done is Concord Hospital. But in order to go to Concord Hospital, I have to hire a physician at Concord Hospital because my physician cannot send me to Concord Hospital. There’s a problem with that system!

    Read more

Guest Post by Scott Morales- “Atrocity, Mass Murder, Mayhem? It’s the Tea Party!”

GraniteGrok is proud to introduce Scott Morales to our pages.  He is a regular contributor over at Merrimack Patch but we liked his work so much we’ve invited him to share some of it here at GraniteGrok.

-Steve

Atrocity, Mass Murder, Mayhem? It’s the Tea Party!

Is it really surprising that ABC jumped to Tea Party accusations, immediately tying them to the movie theater shooting in Colorado? Maybe to some. I mean, anyone not living in a left wing bubble can easily discern some characteristics of the pathetic psycho who opened fire during a Batman movie and place them on the political spectrum, but they do not do so. Most people do not and will not see this atrocity as a political statement or it being motivated by the crushing burden of Obamanomics, but the brilliant, perspicacious rogues that occupy the left will and do see this through the smudged, greasy lense of politics. This is because most don’t think in terms of politics, but the left does. So what is the motivation for those who do place all things on the political spectrum? What compelled ABC’s Brian Ross to insert the Tea Party into the story? Steve pointed to one possibility in this case, but I think it goes deeper.

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GrokTV Event-Rumney home event for Ovide Lamontagne (Candidate, NH Gov.) – Question 7: Why is the resigned Commissioner of Employment Security still on the payroll?

The next question that the attendees asked of Ovide (after asking if he’d keep Attorney General Delaney on) was a similar one concerning the Commissioner of Employment Security that resigned under a cloud of nepotism and a “bending” of the rules for unemployment insurance afterwards: Question 7: Why is the resigned Commissioner of Employment Security … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview – Rick Parent, candidate for US Congress in NH CD-1 – Question 6 – On a political line, where would you see yourself (Nancy Pelosi to Jim Demint)?

A question that I have not asked for a while can go along ways to help voters on the Right decide where someone stands on the issues and that is to figure out if there is a “known entity” out there that is well known with a track record that is established.  And is the … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Bob Burns (Candidate for NH Exec. Council Dist. 4) – Question 7 – What else does the Council do?

Contracts.  Judges.  Appointments.  The NH Executive Council does that – but we asked Bob Burns what else the Exec. Council does that he thinks needs to be changed? Question 7: You’ve mentioned contracts, you’ve mentioned judges / dept. heads; what else does the Council do that has a specific interest in your heart that you … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview: Susan Olsen,NH House Candidate (Merrimack-7) – Question 10 – He who makes the Rules gets the Gold??

In the last question, Progressive Democrats truly believe that the proper role of Government is to save us from ourselves because we, as individuals, are incapable to take care of ourselves or operate in our own self-interest as life is too hard and too complicated.  Thus, since Progressives have decided that, to force you to … Read more

GrokTV Event – Rumney home event for Ovide Lamontagne (Candidate, NH Governor) – Question 4: UN Arms treaty mean US gun control imposed on us?

The folks who attended the home event in Rumney, NH for Ovide Lamontagne (vying to be the Republican nominee for NH Governor) changed the topic to one that is near and dear to many (if not most) New Hampshire-ites: Guns and the ability to possess and use firearms.  Why?  In some cases, like moi, simply … Read more

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