Articles tagged as

GraniteGrok

GrokTV Special Interview-NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (District 9) – Question 1: With everything thrown your way, why are you running again?

The ‘Grok was welcomed to The Draft (Concord, NH) when we interviewed NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (owner) as to why he was running for “virtual” re-election in a newly constructed district (“virtual”, as his original district was drawn out of existence).  We had all kinds of questions but did not get the chance to … Read more

Where environmentalists explicitly wish no access AT ALL to anyone – and are willing to kill people to enforce it.

I’m not sure if the proper metaphor is “enough rope to hang themselves with” or “let them babble long enough to find out what they really believe.  Once again, from that crazy hothouse of Environmentalism meets Totalitarian Murder, TreeHugger.  This post’s author is absolutely aghast that our civilization has found just SCADS of high amounts of usable energy and that we’d actually use it:

Consider this: If we’re going to keep temperature rise below 2°C (a figure it increasingly appears is still too high to avoid some serious climate impacts, but it is internationally agreed to), then we have about 565 gigatons more CO2 we can send into the atmosphere over the next four decades or so.

Then consider: The amount of carbon contained in the proven coal, oil and gas reserves of national oil companies and private corporations is about five times higher than this, 2795 gigatons.

In other words, we simply cannot allow that fuel to be extracted and used, if we’re going to preserve the climate in anything like a state we’ve grown accustomed over the recorded history of human civilization.

Notice the hubis that he REALLY thinks that:

  • Humans can actually stabilize global temperature.
  • Sufficiently number of like minded folks are willing to live stone age lifestyles to make that a reality
  • What’s this WE bit on the pronouncement, kimosabe??  I see no crown tipped on your forehead

But that wasn’t even the worst.  This guy just just wants us to live poorly; this next guy wants something FAR worse!

Read more

Guest Post by Mac Kittredge – Endorsement for Sam Cataldo

Mac has been a good friend to the ‘Grok as well as a long time advocate for individual Liberty and Freedom.  When he asked if we would post this, the answer was “absolutely!”

Sam’s the Man for NH State Senate (District 6)

Representative Sam Cataldo is running for NH State Senate. He brings the same focus and dedication that he brought to the NH House, because these jobs are critical to the welfare of New Hampshire! Tasks requiring far more than just good intentions, they require an extensive, diversified background and education; leadership and communication skills; hard work and dedication; and lots and lots of time.  The time requirements are very much greater in the Senate; it’s a full time job, and then some. Sam has a proven work ethic in the NH House, where he serves as Clerk for the Science, Technology and Energy Committee. He has the upbeat, collegial attitude of a cheerful warrior. He should, he’s a pilot and a Vietnam Era USAF veteran. He’s running because his oath to “Preserve and Protect” our nation and its Constitution didn’t come with an expiration date.

With wise and frugal spending, NH can balance its budget, but this alone is not enough to create a positive climate for free enterprise and job creation. Over-regulation, bureaucratic delays and massive red tape can discourage dynamic growth just as much as ruinous taxation. In view of this, Sam brings a wealth of practical, real-life experience; including six years in the legislature and over 50 years as a leader in business, engineering and technology. He wants to streamline state government, to continue lowering taxes and fees, to make NH future friendly and enhance the NH Advantage so that ours is the best state in which to live, get an education, find a job, raise a family or start a business.

To insure a bright future for our children, Sam will strive to return sovereign control of schools to the localities whenever practical. He recognizes that parents are the first and primary teachers of their own children, and that the job of the state legislature is to support this role. We must also empower local jurisdictions to provide for, fund and administer public schools; and that this must be decided by local voters, parents and their duly elected representatives; not by distant, unelected judges, however well intentioned.

Read more

Is this a “Er, does the weatherman evah look out his windows before saying that the weather actually is” moment?

Oh dear, what are the gloom and doomers gonna do now?  Empirical data is just such a pain….it’s just not melting! According to a statement from the American Geophysical Union, announcing the new research: It turns out that past studies, which were based on computer models without any direct data for comparison or guidance, overestimate … Read more

Are we all about to start losing our private property rights? A parting gift from Gov. Lynch? Guest Post by Ken Eyring

Did you know that there is an executive commission that was set by Gov. Lynch to talk about water?  No big deal you say – yes it is.  Many homes in NH, if not most, depend on the water on their land for wells – or to be more technically correct, under your land.  Common law has been that what resides under your land belongs to you.  Period.  How do you think all those “shale millionaires” are now rich?  Wildcatters and energy companies are paying big bucks to explore and to frack the natural gas that lays under their land – and because they own it.

This “Lynch’s Last Gift” (“LLG”) wishes to administratively change this.  No House debate.  No Senate debate.  Just poorly noticed “listening session” (mostly during the day when ordinary people are working – but certainly attended by those that have NO problem in determining that your water belongs to them, er, all of us – the Collective.  THEY may not own the water, but they, sure as shootin’, are going to be the ones that will make the rules on how you can (or cannot) use that water.

That is under your property.  That you paid for when you bought your property (know it or not).  Ken Eyring has been tracking this situation for a little while and saw that they are looking for comments, so this is what he wrote (emphasis mine):

My Reply to the NH Water Sustainability Commission’s Request For Public Comment

The Water Sustainability Commission is seeking input from the public regarding management of NH’s water over the next 25 years — but unfortunately, they are not consistent with their collection methods.  They have published an online survey using Survey Monkey, and the questions are written in a way that can be easily skewed to support almost any conclusion.  There is no way to ensure the integrity of the results, since anyone can log on and take the survey multiple times.  In addition, from the beginning of July until July 19th, they accepted Public Comments without requiring identification.

Because of the importance of water to so many aspects of our lives, including life itself, my concerns were elevated as it became clear that the commission perceives all NH water as property of the state — disregarding our riparian water rights to the water in the wells on our personal property.

With all that in mind, I wanted to make sure I provided my concerns to the misguided direction the commission has taken since its inception — and to encourage everyone else to do the same by using this email address: watersustainabilitycommission@gmail.com, or via US Mail to the address below.  The deadline to provide feedback is July 31st.

Here is the letter that I sent to them:

Water Sustainability Commission
c/o Synchrony Advisors, LLC
10 Myrtle Street
Exeter, NH 03833

July 18, 2012

Dear Commissioners,

You have asked for public comment regarding “managing the water challenges faced by New Hampshire over the next 25 years.”

I’ll begin by expressing my belief that everything you eventually propose to the Governor should be based upon respect for our Constitutional Rights.  In one of your recent meetings, one of your commissioners raised a concern for Constitutionality… and I was stunned to hear another commissioner dismiss those concerns by stating they will let the courts decide.  That is a reckless disregard of the responsibilities that you have been entrusted with.

Your commissioners have also made statements that disregard our riparian rights to the well water on our personal property.  Some examples include:

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

GrokTV Event-Rumney home event for Ovide Lamontagne (Candidate, NH Gov.) – Question 10 – Come to NH but vote like still in MA?

And the last question for Ovide Lamontagne who is running to be the Republican nominee for NH Governor, and the person who asked it was genuinely concerned that the traditional lifestyle and outlook of New Hampshire is changing due to folks moving into NH because of that attracton, but continue to vote as if they were still “back home”.

Question 10:

A lot of people moved across the border  and they came to NH because they wanted the NH way of life yet they still vote the way they did in Massachusetts

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!
  • Question 5:  Ovide, one of the issues going on at the Federal level right now is this arms treaty at the UN and everyone is predicting that that’s probably going to go through and what its going to end up being is gun control. How do we protect ourselves here in NH other than Jerry shooting everyone?  How do we protect ourselves from them coming in and taking our guns?

    Read more

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?

Read more

“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.

Read more

GrokTV Special Interview – Rick Parent (Candidate, Congress (NHCD-1) – Question 9 – too big, too small, or just right?

The last question for Rick Parent is the same as a lot of folks get from the ‘Grok – a simple question which immediately give us a clue as to how they view the relationship of Government and sovereign citizens – The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen.  A bigger Government is a more intrusive, more expensive, and a more meddling one while purporting to be a more “caring” one by Progressives.  A smaller government means more individual freedom and liberty, but also requires more responsibility from citizens for their own lives and to those around them.  So, we ask it:

Question 9:

What are your governing principles with respect to: government too big, too small, or just right?

Previous:

  • Question 1:  Why are you one of the sponsors [of the Smart Girl Politics / NH First Annual Armed and Fabulous gun shoot]? What possessed you to say, in this hot and heavy political race, “I’m going to help sponsor a gun shoot”?
  • Question 2:  Why are you running for Congress in NH-CD1?
  • Question 3:  What are your top three things? What do you bring to the table, besides being a working man and not in politics, that Frank Guinta that Frank Guinta didn’t or has failed to do?
  • Question 4: You were talking about the debt resolutions, the continuing resolutions, that your opponent in the primary voted for and raised the debt ceiling. If you see a bill that is going to spend more than it did last year (outside of the military because it is one of primary Constitutional duties of the Federal Government), how would you vote?
  • Question 5: Does Congressman Rick Parent introduce bills to respond to these kinds of issues you’re talking about or defund them?

    Read more

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“.

Read more

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.

Read more

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!

    Read more

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:

Read more

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:

Read more

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

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXing