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GraniteGrok

What Ancient Form Of Torture…

While following up on a story about the ridiculously stupid group No Labels,  which I nailed weeks before anyone else, (big pat on back) I discovered one of those polls you often find lingering near a Google ad, or between widgets in the right column.  You’ve seen them.  Do you support Health Care reform; Palin or Obama; What ancient form of execution would you least prefer?

Well isn’t that an interesting question.  What ancient form of execution would I least prefer?  It was actually harder than you think. (I found it here, right column about halfway down; and read the article while you are there, it’s worth your time.)  I assume it was created by the site (they are using pollhost.com) so kudos to them for such an original idea.

The choices are Buried alive, Crucifixion, Flayed alive, Scourged to death (I had to look that one up, it is a multi-thonged whip), Stung/bitten to death by insects, Slow disembowelment, Roasted on a grill (pass the BBQ sauce), Dragged from a Chariot, Torn apart by wild beasts, Rolled downhill inside a spiked barrel, or death by a thousand cuts.  No, listening to an I-pod full of Obama speeches was not a choice.  While torture, it is not ancient enough.

So what’s not to love. 

Remember, it’s the torture you prefer least so take another look at the buffet and ask yourself if passing on the mysterious "looks like some kind of macaroni and cheese like substance" was really all that hard now that you have to think about this one?

My initial choice was torn about by wild beasts, but after a moments consideration that might end quickly depending on the beasts and what they tear off first.  Flayed, Scourged and bitten, all look like they might take long enough to be bad, as might the barrel, the chariot, and the thousand cuts, but in the end, if I had to pick a least favorite from this list, I’d go with Roasted on a grill.

But that’s just me.  And it turns out 17% of the respondents so far agree making that choice the third least popular–which is to say most popular ‘least popular.’

So what were one and two (so far)?  The table is on the jump.  Then go vote yourself if you think you can decide what is worst, then let us know what you picked an why. 

 

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Separation From Power

Kathy Sullivan used her scheduled rant in the Union leader this week to warn us about the Republican controlled NH House and its anticipated legislative agenda.  The serpentine theme manufactured to tie her fear-mongering together is a sudden (and I’ll admit unexpected) adoration for the concept of "Separation of Powers."   This is the idea that by dividing authority the vessels of power would jealously guard each of their own and in the process prevent the others from advancing tyranny.

So I guess the Union Leader does publish left wing fantasy fiction in the opinion section.  It’s almost like a riddle.  "If an avid pro government socialist democrat pretends to be concerned with the abuse of government power what does it mean?" 

"It means they are not the ones in power."

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From The Harvard School Of Bud Light (Weare Campus)

The ongoing saga of Jon and Theonia Boyd seems to be coming to an end. The Boyd’s, both professors at Harvard, and residents of Massachusetts, were charged with facilitating an underage drinking party a a friends House in Weare when police arrived to discover the smartest people in the room had no idea there were 70 drunk minors celebrating the Bacchanalia under their slightly up turned noses.

The Illusion Of Zero Drop Outs

credit: ramblingrector.me

Governor Lynch is all about his success at reducing Drop Out rates in New Hampshire. That’s the number of high school age kids who leave school without graduation or achieving a recognized equivalent. He even has a goal. New Hampshire will have a zero percent drop out rate by 2012. And based on the available data, I think he will succeed, but not in reducing actual “drop outs” to zero.

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The Invertebrate Jeanne Shaheen?

So did Jeanne Shaheen vote for cloture on the Reid’s Frankenstein tax compromise and will she vote to pass it? I ask because it includes Billions for a one year extension of ethanol subsidies that Senator Shaheen just insisted we could not afford.

Sununu’s Successor “Chosen?”

James Pindell is reporting that Governor Sununu plans to endorse Cheshire County Republican Chair Juliana Bergeron as his replacement in what seems to be a power sharing deal that allows Governor Sununu to exercise the “You better choose the right person” clause from his formal letter to the party. (Which Skip went over here)

Good Cop – Bad Cop

iStock Photo ImageEveryone knows Good Cop, Bad Cop. 

You have gruff and uncompromising on one side, and then someone else shows up sweet as pie.  The goal is to get something you want that they do not want to give up. 

So is Mr. Obama’s compromise on stopping a tax increase part of the good cop bad-cop formula?

 

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Flesh Is For Zombies

The Walking Dead, which just ran its initial 6 episode release, could use a few zombies with PETA shirts when season two comes out next fall. “Flesh is for Zombies” PETA shirts on an actual zombie would be funny but not nearly as funny as regular PETA shirts on Zombatized Vegan wackos, bent over to chew on some some poor bastards slimy organs.

Show me the Tax cut

All those years of left wing class warfare about cuts for the rich but none for the rest of us we’re liberal lies. Plain and simple. You can’t extend something that does not exist.

There Is A God

The first batch of US currency with Tim Geithner’s name on it has been quarantined. About $110 billion in newly printed hundred dollar bills (loaded with new anti-counterfeiting features) were so hi-tech the printing process got screwed up, leaving blank spots on some of the bills. Rather than try to sort them, which an article at Yahoo! News claims would take at least 20 years to do by hand, they will have to set them aside for a year while they work up an automated method of sorting out the bad bills.

What’s Good For The Goose..

Tom Fahey quotes our confused friend Harrell Kirstein, Spokesperchild of the New Hampshire democrat party in regard to Bill O’Brien’s choices for leadership positions in the NH House. (I have to call Harrell the Spokesperchild from now on. Spokesperson has the word ‘son’ in it and we know how sensitive Harrell’s spleen is.)

Bad News For Jets fans…

I guess sports medicine has come a long way. This guy busted his tibia. Of course it never penetrated the skin. That’s encouraging. Seeing bones sticking out of flesh is reserved for serious injuries and great television shows like The Walking Dead.

GrokTALK! – 9am -11am, Saturday December 4th, 2010

Yes It’s GrokTALK!  120 minutes of Live Streaming local and National News with political insight you could ONLY get from GraniteGrok.com   On this week’s Program… Free State Project Founder Jason Sorens  will be on the air with us Well look at the effect that FSP has had on New Hampshire Tim Condon, GraniteGrok contributor … Read more

Drinking At Dartmouth

Image Credit: Dartmouth Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, agrees that Dartmouth has a drinking problem, but that prosecuting underage drinkers is not the answer, Melanie Plenda reports in today’s Union Leader.

This comes on the heels of yet another incident where someone served alcohol to minors.  So right away we can see the error of Dartmouth college President Jim Yong Kim.  The problem (in this case) is not so much that the police are punishing underage drinkers, but that they are trying to punish people on his campus who serve alcohol to a minor, in this case a seventeen year old high school student.

  Perhaps Dartmouth would like to follow Harvard’s lead? 

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Just Do It!

NHGOP LogoI am growing weary of this game.  We can no longer wait for the current NH State GOP chairman to tell us once and for all what his intentions are.  I’m not even sure why we are waiting. GraniteGrok has video of the announced retirement from the Cornerstone Dinner.

Governor Sununu announced that after this election he was retiring.  What happened on November second that does not constitute a complete political coup?  The only office the democrats hold is the governorship, but our victory was so complete that this no longer even matters.

So what is left for a seasoned New Hampshire politician to do?

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Unemployment Up

For people seeking jobs, that’s not a happy tale to tell. But it’s not the only tale. Texas is creating jobs. And New Hampshire has an opportunity to charge after Texas, even do them one better, and become the beacon of the Northeast. It’s something we need to do. There are people out there looking for work. We just need to give them a reason to come here to find it.

Things Are Looking Up

This is the picture that has replaced the mug shot of former House speaker Terie Norelli on the General Court Web Site.   I’m already pleased with the direction New Hampshire has taken since the election.

What’s Greene Shaheen Up To?

corn snake
corn snake

Senator Shaheen has signed onto a letter to Senate Majority leader Reid and Minority leader McConnell, suggesting that the corn based ethanol mandates, and all the tariffs and protections associated with it, not be extended.  Your initial reaction might be surprise, but this is not in and of itself surprising.  Shaheen is on the record being against them since at least 2008 when she ran for the US Senate but not because she is against ethanol.  Her problem is the kind of ethanol, and so we can assume her co-signers have similar issues.

On the surface they are claiming to be against the law (the mandate) that props up ethanol on three fronts and also gives 31 billion dollars to the oil companies to offset the cost of forcing them to add ethanol to fossil based motor fuels.  I’m against corporate welfare so I can’t object to repeal even with ulterior motives, but this starts off as a calculated, backhanded poke in the eye, not just to the stupidity of the subsidy regime that liberals normally love, but to big oil.  And we should expect oil to get screwed. We should simply accept that even with repeal of the ethanol mandate, we could still see the government use other means of legislative or bureaucratic force to keep ethanol in the fuel supply and pass those costs off to the oil companies.  If they can screw oil and get what they really want along the way, that’s a dream come true to Progressives.  But what do these signers really want?

As usual, nothing in Washington is quite what it seems.

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