Wednesday • March 29 • 2023
Vol.XV • No.XIII
Manchester, N.H.
Now that we know that some New Hampshire schools are sharing mental health data on students with outside organizations like Keene State BHII, parents are beginning to remove their children from SEL. (Social and Emotional Learning) SEL is in Tier 1 of the Multi-Tiered System of Support.
MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS and THIS.
New Hampshire law requires all school districts to include a policy that allows parents to replace objectionable material assigned to their children. Some of the SEL programs might look ok, but since we know that many schools in New Hampshire are sharing this personal mental health information without parental knowledge or consent, parents don’t want any part of this.
Here is what one parent in Londonderry recently posted:
This attempt to avoid informing parents of what is going on in their child’s school will not be tolerated by many parents. If what you are doing to children is valuable to them, parents will agree and consent. If you have to hide what you are doing, expect more parents to refuse this kind of mental health treatment.
The post Parents in NH Now Opting Out of SEL in Their Schools (Data Mining their Children’s Mental Health) appeared first on Granite Grok.
WOW, just WOW. That is my initial response to Karen Testerman’s article (hit piece) titled “Dilemma for Whom?” This article makes me immensely sad, and the fact it was written in the first place is absolutely mind-blowing to a group of patriots (me being a huge one) who supported her.
We want to thank Terese Bastarache for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
I and thousands of others campaigned hard for Karen, from sign waves to being outside during her debate, from sample ballots to social media, from videos to standing at the polls, and so much more. All the precious time and people’s hard-earned money were sacrificed for Karen because she was The Resolve’s pick for Governor.
This article, THIS rhetoric, is just one prime example of why the party is standing on quicksand.
Let’s take the article’s allegations and break them down…
Did I violate the party bylaws? If I did, then didn’t Karen Testerman as well?
1. I was not a NHGOP voting committee member when we did The Resolve in 2022; I was voted in as a committee member long after the November election was done. The Resolve was born because I was a working mom trying to find the best individuals to vote for… people who would legislate with integrity and represent my family and our conservative values.
2. Didn’t the person writing these allegations support The Resolve initiative? I can recall seeing this same person promote The Resolve all summer long, and she even had a sign on her car. How soon do we forget that this author asked me to be at the state house in the SOS office when she declared her candidacy for NH Governor?
3. Is Karen saying she did not support Lily Tang Williams while she was a committee member? Did Lily not pop in to say hello to the entire NHGOP toward the end of the annual meeting in January? She is a Republican, right?
4. We know many elected/non-elected “Republicans” that are Libertarians (many were free staters, too)… our current House Majority Leader and the Merrimack Area Vice Chair are/were, but that is not an issue for anyone, right? How far should we take this line of thinking? Should all those who affiliate with the Libertarian party and run as Republicans be removed and/or get pushed out too? How is that unifying those against this globalist, woke, destructive progressive agenda?
I do not understand your rationale for this article, but I am thankful for the clarity and wisdom that it brings.
Comparing me to Thad Riley (I heard he apologized to the Executive Committee) or, even worse, Kevin Smith, who are promoting progressives? Come on, Karen, really? I can’t even believe you could write that garbage. How about you address Thad Riley and Kevin Smith, for endorsing progressive liberals instead of kicking a rock-solid conservative in the head who will not settle for anything but candidates with integrity?
I will always do what is right and just for my boys and work to elect people who will keep this globalist communist “China as a role model” agenda out of our towns, cities, state, and country. That means I will NEVER be the go-along to get-along “Republican.” That distorted mindset is one of many reasons we are in this mess in the first place.
I am as real of a Republican as it gets. If you want to disparage me because I may sometimes support an individual unwilling to rubber stamp and shepherd in communism over someone with an R next to their name, which has proven otherwise, that’s on you! That, Karen, is the definition of a true “Karen.”
Many in the NH grassroots and part of We the People NH have voiced their desire out of the dysfunction of the NHGOP. I have not given up on the party yet, but your less-than-warm and fuzzy article does not give your former supporters or me much hope for the future. Those people referenced above have taken it upon themselves to lay the groundwork for something different, and who am I to tell them no?
I will close with this; we, the voters, are done with this destructive behavior dismantling the foundation of our country. The NHGOP needs to embrace anyone who does not want to become communist China right now. Articles like this are not building a winning slate for 2024; it is not building the unity everyone desperately wants and needs. It creates the opposite, a spirit of division, and wastes time and energy. Hence why Democrats eat our lunch; they love this; it adds fuel to their fire.
We the People NH, are productively staying focused. If you are tired of the uni-party crap and the infighting, find us on Facebook, join our weekly strategy calls every Sunday night, or visit the website at WeThePeopleNH.org
Stay free, NH. Together, we have strength and safety in numbers. You are not alone in wanting something you can trust!
The post Hypocrisy Exposed… Dilemma for Whom? appeared first on Granite Grok.
An oxymoron could be a toothless hillbilly high on painkillers. For our purposes today, we will cling to the standard dictionary definition: one or two words in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side.
Typical examples are “alone together,” “awful good,” “conspicuous absence,” and even “civil war.” Crash landing, definite maybe, and found missing also fit the bill: student teacher, soft rock, or silent scream. Military intelligence?
How about Liberal Historian?
As a rule, doing that liberal thing you do requires a look forward—no looking back except to change it. History is your enemy. The true purpose of a Liberal Historian is to rewrite it in your forward-looking image to hide past misdeeds or whatever it takes to suit your current narrative, as opposed to exploring it for objective truths or lessons we carry with us.
Liberal Historian Rachel Hope Cleves wrote a book in which she refused “to use words such as “survivors” or “abuse” when discussing the rape of a 10-year-old boy.” The non-fictional rape of a 10-year-old boy.
In the video, Cleves said, “In writing this book I didn’t want to use pedophilia discourse because I felt like it would fail to capture this other historical organizing system, for intergenerational sex, which was the topic I wanted to address.” Cleves then went on to say, “I don’t use the discourse of survivors or necessarily abuse to make sense of sources.”
Adults raping children is intergenerational sex. That’s the new “new” (new!) term for child molesting perverts for those keeping notes at home.
In a talk on her biography on pedophile writer Norman Douglas, @uvic professor Rachel Hope Cleves described pederasty as “intergenerational sex” and says she won’t use the discourse of “survivors or necessarily abuse.”
Douglas was charged with raping 10-year-old children pic.twitter.com/MSu6siE3rm
— Cosmin Dzsurdzsa (@cosminDZS) March 21, 2023
Behavior that is being normalized with your tax dollars in the local public schools (probably).
The post The Term ‘Liberal Historian’ is an Oxymoron and This One is a Moron. appeared first on Granite Grok.
On Thursday, March 16th, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted on HCR4, an Article V convention application limited to proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to limit the number of terms that members of the U.S. House and Senate can serve—Term Limits for Congress.
We want to thank Kenn Quinn for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
This popular reform polls at 82% nationally, with tri-partisan support at 87% Republicans, 83% Democrats, and 78% Independents. In New Hampshire, over three-fourths of the voters support term limits for Congress with an average of 77% which breaks out at 74% Republicans, 78% Democrats, and 78% Independents.
Voters in New Hampshire were also asked the following question regarding this resolution;
“The U.S. Constitution authorizes state legislatures to call for a convention to recommend Constitutional amendments. Two-thirds of states would have to agree before any action could be taken. Would you favor or oppose having New Hampshire call for an amendment proposing convention to enact congressional terms limits?”
Over two-thirds of the respondents, 69%, were in favor, with 66% Republicans, 68% Democrats, and 72% Independents!
First, we learned that 145 New Hampshire State Representatives stood with New Hampshire voters by voting to pass HCR4 to TERM LIMIT CONGRESS! Additionally, over 50 representatives committed to voting for this resolution by signing the Term Limits Pledge. THANK YOU!
Secondly, we learned that 224 House Representatives chose not to listen to the voters by voting against it. Yes, that is correct, New Hampshire voters, Term Limits for Congress, a common-sense reform that 82% of the voters nationally support, was defeated because your opinion does not matter to them.
In his parliamentary inquiry, Rep. Steve Shurtleff (D) asked members to join him in voting against HCR4 because JBS and special interest groups opposed it. Let that sink in. Rep. Shurtleff agreed with JBS and special interest groups instead of the 69% of New Hampshirites that favor HCR4 to propose a Term Limits Amendment for Congress!
This is the same JBS that claimed the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s was a communist plot.
The same JBS that tried to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren because the Court ruled state laws separating children based on race were unconstitutional in Brown v Board of Education.
The same JBS whose founder, Robert Welch, stated that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” in his book The Politician, whose leader, John McManus, claimed that Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter were communist lackeys, and whose CEO, Art Thompson, claimed that Thomas Jefferson was a traitor to the United States.
Conspiratorial fear was on sale, and the members were buying. I’m sure some members voted against HCR4 because they prefer to keep things as they are in Congress and don’t believe we need term limits. So, take your pick; Fear of using the Constitution or maintaining the Status Quo. Regardless of the reason, the outcome is the same; the people lose again while special interest groups and entrenched politicians in Congress win.
Something we are all getting very accustomed to these days.
Congratulations.
Kenn Quinn is the Regional Director, U.S. Term Limits
The post So Voters, What Did We Learn From Last Week’s House Vote on Term Limits for Congress (HCR4)? appeared first on Granite Grok.
I am old enough to remember when the environmental tree-huggers of the 70s were all about saving the whales. Save the Whales was founded in 1977 but celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2020. Math was not the strong suit of the early climate watchers and saviors of Mother Earth.
These folks are at a fork in the road for their lifelong cause, and John Kerry and Al Gore are not taking their calls for guidance. All and John are still wondering why the polar ice caps did not melt away in 2014 as they had guaranteed. The green movement wanted the fossil fuel industry destroyed and replaced with solar panels and windmills. They have watched in delight as beautiful ocean views in New York and New Jersey was eradicated by the massive fins of windmill farms that now crowd the horizon. They were so proud of their accomplishment until they looked to the beach as the waves came crashing in. Those waves carried the dead carcasses of whales and dolphins, victims of the beautiful windmills. Oops! Such a beautiful plan. Even Greta Thunberg smiled and approved. Where did we go wrong? Let’s review. These folks are the same who could not figure out their 40th anniversary. Ideologues, yes, but not too bright.
The environmentalists have virtually shut down the lobster industry in Maine. The issue at hand is the equipment that lobstermen use, and have used for generations, is considered deadly for whales, and we must save the whales at any expense to humans. Decades of data have been reviewed to ascertain the damage done to our ocean mammals. We will have to dig deeper as there are no deaths, none, zero, nada, but it must be a threat, and we need to shut down these nasty guys in yellow overalls working hard to make a living.
It is not just the lobstermen hurt by the regulations placed on them by these “Greenies” who have never put in a hard day’s work in their lifetime. They also impact seafood wholesalers, truckers, restaurants, and grocery/seafood shops. Finally, these regulations are depriving lobsters from or driving the price beyond the reach of many lobster lovers worldwide. Sadly, there is no data to initiate or substantiate these regulations.
On the flip side of environmental initiatives is the damage to sea life, especially sea mammals, by constructing and operating the massive wind farms built off-shore from Maine to New Jersey. Whales and dolphins have been washing up on shore, allegedly disoriented by sounds emanating from these windmills. These mammals use sound waves to navigate, and these foreign sounds created by the wind farms are causing these mammals to beach and die.
Over 300 whales have been killed in the northeast waters since 2017. Dolphin deaths are rising from the Northeast to the Gulf of Mexico. Many are blamed on disease, but the Northeast spike coincides with the increase in wind farms. Environmentalists are flocking to defend the wind farms, but unfortunately, the same number is hell-bent on destroying the Northeast lobster industry. Sadly, this shows a lack of concern with data or facts from a group of people who claim to be fact-driven. Hopefully, there will be more research done into wind farm damage and relief for the lobstering industry.
The post Are Today’s Greenies Too Young to Save the Whales appeared first on Granite Grok.
This is a freakingly great concept! If you can’t spend for everything, try PRIORITIZING the spending.
Authorized and even appropriated spending isn’t “the public debt.” For constitutional purposes, promised benefits from Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements aren’t even property, as the Supreme Court held in Flemming v. Nestor (1960), and Congress has as much authority to reduce them as to increase them. When lawmakers were drafting the 14th Amendment, they revised Section 4’s language to replace the term “obligations” with “debts.” If the Treasury ran out of money, the constitutional obligation to pay bondholders would trump all statutory obligations to spend.
“NO, No, no!” is what we hear from Democrats (pretty much all of them) and not a small number of fallow Republicans (The Stupid Party) who are He**bent on continuing to self-bash the Republican reputation (see how I did that, Ronnie Abbot??). Every Government dollar is sacred but only gets thrice blessed once it is spent on their priorities.
Which to say on all of their agenda items. NO program can be cut; no dollar can go unspent, and none of their activist’s supporters cannot go unenriched.
Government can NEVER be diminished, and that’s the reason their only argument is, “You’ll ruin the Faith and Credit of the US in the world if you don’t increase the Debt Ceiling!”. Never, EVER will you hear them say, “OK, everything and everybody in Govt gets a 5% haircut (financially). All they want to do is keep increasing the spending because Big Government must always be in the process of becoming BIGGER Government – so much the better in becoming their end game – where we are all dependent on the State and they will have achieved “equity” -> no one can be better than anyone else in ANYTHING (Harrison Bergeron, anyone?).
And as last century’s history taught us, that ends up in Shared Misery unless you are at the top of the heap of those who HAVE to control that “equity” (which is definitely NOT Equality).
Reasonable people, NORMAL people, FAMILY people sitting around the kitchen table when the pink slip arrives (or pink email or tweet – that’s PROGRESS?) and the money in stops, decide to prioritize. They decide what’s important: mortgage, electricity, heat for the house, car payment, food, clothes, and meds for the kids. Other stuff falls down from that. Some things fall out of the checkbook/debit/credit card spending flow after that – theaters, dining out, and other non-essentials.
At NO time, however, will those in Government do that. Biden just put in a $7 Trillion annual budget and announced that everything is needed, including, and very importantly, not telling people that it doubles the size of the Federal Government spending. There is no prioritization process.
You see, it is ALWAYS their money to be spent, and nary a thought that it was ours first (or now third as well as we will have to pay back the borrowed money + the interest on that borrowed money).
So who is at fault, the root cause?
We are – or, at least, some of us. Rather “them” as if I was in charge, I’d be looking at every program that has even the tiniest whiff of Stupidity wafting up from it, or one that can’t be traced back to the Federal Government’s Constitutional Powers, or one that should be offloaded back to the States, or that it belongs to the private sector.
And let the chips fall where they may. Besides, during my time in local government, I ALWAYS said that it was never our money.
After all, that’s the reasonable and Normal thing to do.
(H/T: Instapundit)
The post Like a Boomerang, The Exasperation Keeps Coming Back – Federal Govt Debt Ceiling Games appeared first on Granite Grok.
By voting for HB 10 you have not only betrayed the Republican Party, you have betrayed a basic tenet of Americanism. By joining with the Democrats to defeat the Parent Bill of Rights bill, you have joined with the Marxist who seek to destroy everything decent about our nation.
We want to thank Russ Payne for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
For you are promoting more and more government that always takes away freedom and spends the taxpayers money to create more controls.
Have you ever taken the time to read the NH or the US Constitution that you are all sworn to obey? By the way you vote on this bill, one would never know that you have.
Check out the Constitutions of NH’s, Bill of Rights, Art.] 2-b. [Right of Privacy.] An individual’s right to live free from governmental intrusion in private or personal information is natural, essential, and inherent,” December 5, 2018.
Both State and Federal Constitutions limit the government not the people. Compare your vote with our American birthing documents and then with these words from section II of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto written in 1848:
Abolition [Aufhebung] of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists.
On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.
The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.
Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.
Don’t you think your vote is more in line with President Biden plus all the Department of Education/UNESCO bureaucratic mandates than it is with the NH or the US Constitutions? It is time you voted for limited government as your constitutional authorization specifies instead of the path you have chosen that leads to 100% total government and the loss of liberty. You should take into consideration that there are fortunately a lot more parents than there are unaccountable bureaucrats. And they vote! Parental constituents who desire to protect their children should demand an explanation.
Sincerely & Respectfully
Russ Payne
The post Dan Wolf, Mike Bordes, Travis O’Hara & Mark Proulx – Karl Marx Would Be Pleased With Your Vote appeared first on Granite Grok.
During her confirmation hearing last year, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked to provide the definition of “woman.” It was a reasonable request, given the mountain of LGBTQ lawsuits working their way through our courts. But Judge Jackson seemed confused by the request, and argued that she’s “not a biologist.” Her response might easily have been dismissed as the kind of cagey doubletalk lawyers often use. But she’s not the only Democrat who appears befuddled by something the rest of us learned early in life.
Scores of other Democrats also seem confounded by the simple question: “What is a woman?”
But a panel of young women recently offered some encouragement, suggesting that those Democrats may not be as witless as they appear. Asked that same question, the panel members first stumbled and stammered, but eventually admitted they knew the answer all along. They just didn’t want to offend the trans community. Instead of responding with the simple truth, they decided to kowtow to an infinitesimally small, but irritatingly loud minority. We can surmise that all those Democrats are not so ignorant after all. Their boundless tolerance and self-imposed delusions just make them look that way.
In fact, they all learned a long time ago that men and women are genetically different, and that the two genders have complementary roles in procreation and propagating the human race.
Transgender surgery is not new. In America, long before Caitlyn Jenner, there was Christine Jorgensen. And even before that, European surgeons had learned to simulate gender changes, often convincingly, through surgery and hormone treatments.
But transgender surgery doesn’t actually transform anyone’s gender. Medical science hasn’t yet figured out how to reverse the genetic differences between men and women or to transform the internal organs of the human reproduction system. The life-altering surgery that trans patients undergo can allow them to assume the role of the opposite gender, and many patients are emotionally fulfilled by the procedure. But an increasing number of transgender people, especially younger ones, are quickly realizing that the procedure was a catastrophic mistake.
It was back in the early 1950s that George William Jorgensen, transitioned to Christine Jorgensen. At that time, very few saw him as a trailblazer. Many ridiculed him. The public at large, though, saw him as an oddity, and he was able to support himself by capitalizing on the resulting fame. Some in the trans community are trying to do the same thing today.
What medical science made possible society is now making acceptable. High-profile celebrities, TikTok, the internet, woke warriors, and Democrats like Justice Jackson and Joe Biden, have launched a propaganda campaign. As a result, what’s been labeled as “gender dysphoria” is becoming epidemic. With everything working for them, many in the LGBTQ community have become emboldened and more aggressive. They’re no longer satisfied with tolerance. Today they want their various lifestyles to become normalized, even celebrated, demanding that everyone must embrace their behavior, their delusions, and those absurd pronouns.
Just a few years ago, they re-defined marriage. Now they’re pushing to re-define terms like gender and even pedophilia.
Yes, now they’re targeting school children. Teachers have become self-appointed psychiatrists, pressing young students to consider gender transition at the slightest hint of an emotional problem, often without parental consent or knowledge.
Today, Americans don’t really care about an adult’s sexual orientation. They don’t care what clothes they wear, or which body parts they choose to remove or surgically construct if it makes them feel better. But most Americans don’t want to be a part of it or to celebrate it. And they’re outraged at efforts to draw their young children into it.
If we continue allowing a handful of vocal hedonists to dominate our society and set the rules, we’ll wind up with a whole generation of confused neurotics. We will evolve into a chaotic morass without a moral compass, and devoid of reason and common sense. And our courts will be overwhelmed with endless legal battles defending those things we’ve always cherished, like freedom of religion and the right to privacy. If they get to the Supreme Court, we already know how one justice will vote.
The Judeo-Christian principles upon which our country was founded teach us to be tolerant and compassionate, but they don’t tell us to abandon common sense. If we hope to change this corrosive course, we have to start by acknowledging a simple fact: The human species populated the world and created a civilization, for better or worse, through the union of man and woman.
That was no accident. It was by design.
The post An Epidemic of Gender Dysphoria appeared first on Granite Grok.
I found this interesting enough to share, obviously. It’s called An Anthem for Justice. It is a way to frame the “calculated intentionality underlying the COVID tyranny.”
This Anthem for Justice is my attempt to succinctly chronicle the calculated intentionality underlying the COVID tyranny, and I ask your help in spreading the clear message that #MistakesWereNOTMade. Please share this poem and keep it handy for the next time anybody uses verbiage to gloss over the atrocities committed. Let’s make 2023 the Year of Accountability so none dare repeat such acts in the future.
GraniteGrok and its readers have plodded, raced, walked, stumbled, and run through the evidence from the early months. There is no shortage of substantiation on these pages to justify the case for calculated intentionality. From pandemic war-panning to hostility toward safe prophylactic treatments to openly blatant statements by elites about depopulation, resets, and a new world order, the only thing standing between the average normal global citizen and acceptance is a paradigm. That “they” would never do it, couldn’t, but they did.
The following poem was inspired by a conversation with Mike Yeadon. We have both independently noticed the increasing use of terms like “bungled” and “blunder” to describe the crimes against humanity perpetrated under the cloak of COVID.
The presumption is that mistakes were made and, in some respect, at least lower on the food chain, they were, as I wrote in April of 2021, regarding Republican Governor Sununu’s response here in New Hampshire.
Given a taste of power, [the] first instinct is not just to abuse it but with blatant disregard for the limitations placed on them by State and Federal Constitutions.
This, by the way, is why we refuse to give New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu a break.
This was a test. He failed it. Miserably. As did all of his lickspittle sycophants. You put politics ahead of principle, treated your citizens like a rental car. Demonstrated without any doubt that you are incapable of being entrusted with authority.
You arbitrarily closed businesses, fined otherwise law-abiding citizens, constrained movement, killed jobs, allowed warrantless searches and seizures of property.
And what is truly disgusting is that people on the right are still making excuses for this.
Mistakes were made. We elected people to our legislatures, town, and city councils, and select boards that, when given the opportunity, tried to bend us over a rail and rape our liberties. Businesses died. People lost their livelihoods. Many died alone. Hospitals and doctors murdered patients for money. And those who pushed back were called cranks, extremists, and deniers. They were surveilled, censored, and even detained. Medical experts were panned by media clowns, late-nite stooges, hags, ruffians, and ignorant politicos.
To protect the orders passed down from a cabal that Margaret Anna Alice rightly calls out.
Name your genocide—it was not a mistake.
That includes the Great Democide of the 2020s.
To imply otherwise is to give Them the out they are seeking.
Whether you were a planner or just their tool, the end remains the same. It always is. Name your genocide, and the “response” to the Wuhan Flu resulted in a genocide that has not yet ended. And the planners and facilitators do not deserve a way out.
War crimes were committed. When do the hearings begin, because if they do not, history will repeat itself.
The poem is in text form here, with links for those who do not prefer the audio-video experience (below).
HT | Margaret Anna Alice Substack
The post Mistakes Were NOT Made – An Anthem for Justice appeared first on Granite Grok.
If you are an adult and into drag shows (being in them or watching them), that’s your business. I don’t care. But I oppose subjecting children to these degrading sexualized clown shows. And the President of Texas A&M finds them demeaning to women.
“Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not. As a performance of exaggerating aspects of womanhood (sexuality, femininity, gender), drag shows stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against womanhood. Any event that diminishes an individual or group through representation is wrong,” Wendler wrote.
…
“As a university president, I would not support ‘blackface’ performances on our campus, even if told the performance is a form of free speech or intended as humor. It is wrong. I do not support any show, performance or artistic expression which denigrates others—in this case, women—for any reason,” he wrote.
Forward-thinking women and men have worked together for nearly two centuries to eliminate sexism. Women have fought valiantly, seeking equality in the voting booth, marketplace and court of public opinion. No one should claim a right to contribute to women’s suffering via a slapstick sideshow that erodes the worth of women.”
You’ll find similar sentiments in these recently added remarks by (no longer a registered Democrat) Tulsi Gabbard.
There is no greater expression of hatred and hostility towards women than to try to erase our existence as a category of people and to minimize us to being a construction of anyone’s imagination.
Amen, sister of the traveling objective truth!
Now. Let us repeat, echo, renew, and reaffirm that if all the adults in the room consent, it’s none of our business. That includes mudwrestling, tossing midgets, furry conventions, and whatever they do at Spring Break these days. Consenting adults deserve a wide birth when it comes to making choices about their idle amusements if they do not harm others, just like they do with first amendment rights to association, redress, religion, and speech, especially the sort others may find offensive. Wide berth!
Everyone is entitled to express an opinion about the value of everything, including these ‘past times’ for or against. That is how adults work things out as individuals, couples, groups, communities, states, and nations, and the higher up that chain you go, the wider the berth necessary.
As for drag shows, the present vaudeville-esque misogynistic cartoon-like stereotypes of women. Feel free to be offended, but isn’t it more offensive for so-called forward-thinking liberals to imprint that image on children’s minds? We are not just subjecting them to a wholly age-inappropriate characterized sexualization. We impress upon them that a man in clown makeup acting like a sex worker is a reasonable (sensible, plausible) example of womanhood.
A form of cultural proselytizing with which they are so obsessed that they demand adults dressed like caricatures of women in terrible makeup perform for other people’s children.
The President of Texas A&M has nailed it, if not to the castle church door in Wittenberg, then at least the internet’s virtual door. The left is preoccupied with making fun of women while encouraging men to mock them using stereotypes Democrats claim to despise.
And they are proud of that. They brag about it. Defend it. It’s a hill to die on for them. But it is not a positive image, nor is it empowering unless by which you mean empowering men to erase women and decades of progress, those nearly two centuries invested in eliminating sexism.
It’s not surprising. The left has been working to undo the emancipation of black slaves since the day it happened, so it was only a matter of time before they came for women. But, like blacks, they continue to lie and insist they are their best advocates.
It’s simply not so.
The post “Drag Shows Stereotype Women in Cartoon-like Extremes for the Amusement of Others” appeared first on Granite Grok.
Things have happened since the last demand for a school district’s card catalog – all local. That Gunstock thing. The primary and general elections. And now we’ve got the Belknap Delegation Budget screwup. But it is time to get back to that card catalog.
This research project has a number of facets based on findings from the various Districts within NH. Not least of which is how well they are willing to follow the law (the listing of all the books in a District’s libraries is not exempted from right-to-know like personnel records or school safety plans).
Some complied immediately and without complaints or concern (Gilford). Some had questions and a bit of pushback (Berlin). Others I have to circle back on because they refused. Thankfully, I have a persistent streak in me (even if it takes some amount o time).
So today, it was Hinsdale’s turn. I generally send these RSA 91-A Right To Know emails out to all of the members of the School Board; after all, they are the representatives that have been elected to manage the District, and they should be aware of legal items like this. It turned out, however, that NO emails were listed on their new website, so I had to call in to get one – no email failure message yet, so I hope that it has been received. It follows along with the other emails I have sent:
From “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To CommunityConnections@Hnhsd.org
Date 3/22/2023 3:07:49 PM
Subject An RSA 91-A (Right To Know ) demand for the Hinsdale Scrhool District Library card catalog.Good afternoon. This email is intended to be received by the Hinsdale School District SAU 92’s school board:
- Holly Kennedy, Chair
- Jeana Woodbury
- Julia Klelee
- April Anderson
- Sean Leary.Vice-Chair
Please find attached to this email a Right To Know demand for the card catalog covering all of the libraries within the District. This Right To Know is copied below.
It is requested that the Responsive Records be returned in a spreadsheet file which all current Library content management systems can do.
Kindest regards,
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com |
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire
Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records. Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled within that mandated window per RSA 91-A, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.
This request is for the Hinsdale / SAU92 School District library “card catalog”. This is for any and all books located in the following:
The information for each Responsive Record shall include:
Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, unavailable for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.
As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016) . Unless there is some reason that it is not reasonably practical to produce such, explain why it is not practical to comply. I am asking that the Responsive Records be returned in a spreadsheet file (e.g., EXCEL, OpenOffice) which your library system can produce.
Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails, query files) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server or in your / email host backup system(s).
Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder to use in uploading those responsive records.
Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Skip Murphy
GraniteGrok.com
The post The Public School Library Card Catalog Project is Back – This Time, Hinsdale School District / SAU 92 appeared first on Granite Grok.
I have to be upfront that I heard about this comparison from Kevin O’Leary, the Chairman of O’Leary Ventures. He drew the differences over the last twenty-five years of Moorhead, Minnesota, and Fargo, North Dakota.
These two towns are less than two miles apart, but their stories could not be more distant. Less than a quarter century ago, both were small towns with an equal population of 50,000. Fargo is now the home of 140,000, and Moorhead boasts 45,000. The change indicates the exact reasons for the New York to Florida or California to Texas migrations. People will move their families to a better place for their families. Let’s look at some interesting features of these neighboring towns separated by a state line, a bridge, and powerfully different governing policies.
On the surface, these two Midwest towns are very similar. They have the same demographic makeup, virtually the same political alignment with over 40% Republican, and comparable property values, with the edge going to Fargo with many more homes over $500,000. Fargo is growing, housing is booming, and people cannot say enough positive. Not your typical North Dakota town and has over 25% of the state’s population. Folks that are still in Moorhead or have already left talk about a broken infrastructure, rising crime, and a clueless, corrupt government.
The job growth is about 25% greater in Fargo versus Moorhead, and Moorhead has a 7% income tax versus 2% in Fargo. That tax savings is huge when combined with the quality of life differential and the opportunities offered in Fargo. Fargo has invested in itself with a renovated downtown, museums, theaters, and a world-class zoo are some of the attractions that make people call Fargo home, many of them from neighboring Moorhead.
Why are we using today’s article to discuss two small towns in the heartland? Because it highlights why we need to start looking at taking care of our issues. Banks fail in California, and banks all over the country have to bail them out. New York and California spent their way to huge budget shortfalls and took COVID funds to make them whole. That relief will work for now until they find themselves in the same fiscal state. That was COVID money from every American used to bail out two mismanaged states. Why? Why do people and governments that do the right thing for their citizens have to ante up to save cities or states that waste money on foolish programs that only make them feel good? It is wrong and a practice that has to stop.
We have seen significant movement of people looking for a better place for their family. It may be because of financial parameters, better schools, or a better way of life. It is obvious that the destination for many of these migrants is the Red states. Democrat states are expensive, crime is rising, taxes are excessive, and the schools are centers for indoctrination. Just like elections, policies have consequences. Red states have proven policies that better align with the American principles we learned as children. We have to be cognizant of not allowing these “Blue” migrants to bring their failed policies with them. They are welcome. Their old ways are not.
The post Tale of Two Cities, Policies Matter appeared first on Granite Grok.
Anyone who knows me has heard me quote Confucius: The first step towards wisdom is to call things by their right names.
What we call things determines how we think about them and how we act toward them. This is why it’s time for us to stop using the term public school and replace it with a term that is both more accurate and more precise: welfare school.
By welfare, I mean ‘Money that is taken from someone else to be given to you or spent on you.’ So food stamps are welfare. But so is Social Security.
(People don’t want to believe that, but more than 60 years ago, in Fleming v. Nestor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that you have no legally binding contractual rights to Social Security benefits and that those benefits can be cut or even eliminated at any time.)
Some types of welfare require you to demonstrate need, while others don’t. But welfare is welfare.
Using the name welfare school would force us to confront an inconvenient truth: that these institutions exist primarily to provide schooling — i.e., daycare, transportation, recreation, nutrition, therapy, and so on, with the possibility of a little education occurring — for the children of parents who are unable — or more often, simply unwilling — to take responsibility for educating them.
Imagine how just changing the name might affect decisions by parents about how to educate their children. You’re not going to send your kids to the Croydon Welfare School if you can help it. And that would be better for the kids, since less than half the children at that school are performing at proficiency by the time they leave.
(That’s also true at the overwhelming majority of welfare schools in New Hampshire. But even at schools near the top of the rankings, as many as 1/4 of the kids fail to reach even the most basic levels of proficiency by graduation. Which doesn’t stop them from graduating.)
Imagine how just changing the name might affect decisions by taxpayers about what kinds of subjects should be taught, what kinds of activities should be subsidized, and so on. You’re not going to support sports and other hobbies at your local welfare school — especially if those schools are being subsidized by people who are on fixed incomes, and being taxed out of their homes.
We have enough experience by now to know that a welfare school shouldn’t be any parent’s first choice for educating his kids. It should be a last resort.
But the lofty-sounding name public school disguises the nature and distorts the perceptions of what happens there — and more importantly, what fails to happen there. It encourages parents to believe that they are providing their children with an opportunity, when it’s closer to the truth to say that they are imposing on those children an opportunity cost.
Perhaps worst of all, it props up the idea that it’s reasonable for the state to exercise a monopoly on education — even though that flies in the face of our state constitution, which charges the state with protecting us from monopolies.
Changing the name public school to welfare school would be one small step towards climbing out of the hole we’ve dug for ourselves. But it may be an essential one.
The post Call Them What They Are: Welfare Schools appeared first on Granite Grok.
We learned that it was a very disappointing day for House Republicans and we lost many good bills either to Inexpedient To Legislate (ITL) or to the Table, and had some really bad bills move onto the Senate. House Democrats had many wins. Again, numbers matter.
We learned that one bill can take as much as an hour and 15 minutes to work through, as we started off the morning with a special ordered bill. HB49 was a Finance bill which had to do with the closure date of the Sununu Youth Services Center. Two amendments were passed on this bill with regard to plans on how to deal with the closure, the finances, departmental/agency responsibilities of dealing with new care management of at risk youth, and a new 18 bed facility. Let’s hope that with this legislation the broken mess of how the State deals with these troubled kids will improve. We’re certainly throwing enough money at it, some of it federal, and some of it state money ($21.6 million).
We learned that we couldn’t get any good health bills passed today as three were ITL’d and one was tabled. HB557, regarding removing the rulemaking authority of Dept. of Health and Human Service with regard to immunization requirements beyond the diseases mentioned in statute. The roll called Ought To Pass (OTP) motion of that bill died 184-193, and then the subsequent ITL motion passed 194-185. The status quo of DHHS making vaccine requirements remains a sure shot.
Additionally, we learned that HB575 was ITL’d with a roll called vote of 192-186. That bill would have prevented the purchase, promotion, and distribution of vaccine and pharma products, by the state and its political subdivisions, which have not been tested with voluntary human, clinical trials. So the State can continue using our citizens as guinea pigs and taxpayer money can be used to promote untested experimental drugs and vaccines for Big Pharma.
Then we learned that HB582 died with an ITL vote of 205-177. This bill would have allowed us to finally just be able to get a count (with no names attached) of how many abortions are actually performed in New Hampshire. House Democrats do not want you to know… because of privacy … or something. After that, we Tabled HB615 with a vote of 354-29 which would have required independent audits of reproductive healthcare facilities, so we could determine whether there is true fiscal separation between family planning activities and providing abortions. Remember we didn’t want tax dollars paying for abortions in these facilities? Audits would help prove that.
We learned that CACR2 did not garner the required 3/5ths votes to pass, but the OTP motion ended up 193-191 on a roll call vote. This bill would have proposed a constitutional amendment to establish a state constitutional right to “reproductive autonomy” and provide that such right could not be denied or infringed “unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means. No matter… this unnecessary bill was aborted.
We learned that HB88 passed with an OTP vote of 199-185. This bill adds a provision to the fetal life protection act (FLPA) that was passed in the last biennium. House Democrats wanted to be assured that they can have an absolute statutory right to an abortion before the 24 weeks, since Roe V Wade was reversed. It’s dumb because the FLPA already allows for anyone to have an abortion for any reason before 24 weeks.
We learned that HB224 also passed on a roll called vote for OTP of 205-178. This bill removes the criminal and civil penalties for doctors who perform an illegal abortion under the provisions of FLPA. Interesting to note that House Democrats passed HB231 last session to punish veterinarians with civil penalties for declawing a cat, but voted today to remove criminal and civil penalties for doctors who abort healthy babies after 24 weeks (6 months) gestation. They apparently wish to give cats better protection than human beings in the womb.
We learned that HB271, repealing the Fetal Life Protection Act (FLPA), narrowly died when the roll called OTP vote ended in a tie 192-192 and was subsequently Tabled by a voice vote. You can see who wants absolute unconditional abortion in NH by looking at the roll call votes on this.
We learned that HB562, requiring informed consent prior to having an abortion was ITL’d by a voice vote. Also HB591, the prohibition of abortion after detection of fetal heartbeat was ITL’d 271-110. There were Republicans who voted to ITL the bill because they feel our current law of a 24 week ban with the Fetal Life Protection Act reflects what most NH voters (even pro choice people) feel is reasonable with regard to abortion. Rep. Candace Moulton (D-Manchester) said in her floor speech that she was giving us a science lesson and that the heartbeat is actually just an electrical signal between ions and not an indication of life. She’s a registered nurse and certified teacher who has a bachelors in biochemistry and nursing – so she should know. Trust the science… right?
We learned that CACR4 also could not garner 3/5ths required vote to pass. You will be able to see, through roll call votes, which of your elected House members want $5000 instead of $200 for their services. After a tabling motion failed, the bill was ITL’d 239-145. The majority felt they wanted to keep the tradition of $200 pay and remain a voluntary legislature. Rep. Walter Stapleton (R-Claremont) said that we have many great traditions in the House but this is not one of them. Supporters seeking this “inflationary upgrade” to the pay level said that this was not a raise in pay – just an update. Yeah – a $2.3 million dollar upgrade, at taxpayers expense.
Finally, we learned that HB142 relative to the operation of the Burgess biomass powerplant passed OTP 269-109. We can now throw more money ($48 million) at this unsustainable facility in Berlin and help them to reset the contractual terms of their purchase power agreement with Eversource. Yes, a bailout helps the local economy and the timber industry in the North Country, but no doubt Burgess will be in the same financial mess with Eversource in a year or two, as they were 2 years ago. Federally, taxpayers bail out banks, but here in NH we bail out biomass plants.
Up next on April 6th will be House votes on the Biennium Budget and is a House deadline for all bills that was set in January. I will not be reporting on this House Session as I will not be in attendance. It will be the first House session that I have missed since I was elected in Nov. 2018. It is Passover on April 6th, and I will be celebrating this important holiday with my family. It is the Exodus from Egypt… from slavery to freedom.
The post So Kids, What Did We Learn From This Week’s House Session (03/23/23)? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Care of the Hal Turner Radio Show, we’ve got their list of 100 things that disappear first during war. In other words, items you may want on hand just in case the SHTF.
It’s not my list, and it may not be yours. Feel free to make add or subtract suggestions in the comments. Fans of Nitzakhon’s Survival Sunday may have some thoughts as well, or could point you to links or posts of relevance.
Until then, here’s the K.I.S.S. list care of Hal Turner Radio Show.com; ‘This list was made by a person who survived the Bosnian War. It shows the 100 items to disappear first in war.’
Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy…target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
Water Filters/Purifiers
Portable Toilets
Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 – 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
Rice – Beans – Wheat
Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)
Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)
Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY – note – food grade if for drinking.
Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won’t heat a room.)
Grain Grinder (Non-electric)
Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.
Survival Guide Book.
Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)
Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.
Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)
Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
Vitamins
Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)
Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.
Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)
Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)
Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)
Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)
Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).
Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels
Milk – Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)
Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)
Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)
Coleman’s Pump Repair Kit
Tuna Fish (in oil)
Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)
First aid kits
Batteries (all sizes…buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)
Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)
Flour, yeast & salt
Matches. {“Strike Anywhere” preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first
Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators
Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)
Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, “No. 76 Dietz” Lanterns
Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times)
Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting – if with wheels)
Men’s Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
Fishing supplies/tools
Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams
Duct Tape
Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes
Candles
Laundry Detergent (liquid)
Backpacks, Duffel Bags
Garden tools & supplies
Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)
Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel
Bicycles…Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc
Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats
Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)
Board Games, Cards, Dice
d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer
Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets
Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)
Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)
Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave)
Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)
Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase
Reading glasses
Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)
“Survival-in-a-Can”
Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens
Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog
Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)
Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky
Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts
Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)
Lumber (all types)
Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)
Cots & Inflatable mattress’s
Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.
Lantern Hangers
Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts
Teas
Coffee
Cigarettes
Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)
Paraffin wax
Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.
Chewing gum/candies
Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)
Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
Goats/chickens
The post 100 Items You Need, That DISAPPEAR FIRST During War appeared first on Granite Grok.
Will the new chair of the NH GOP, Chris Ager, change course? Or will the same old same old continue where hairs are split, and business as usual continues?
We want to thank Karen Testerman for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
Will the NH GOP continue selectively applying rules when convenient and ignore the organization’s by-laws? Does public perception matter? Will he put principle above politics?
Questions are permeating social media, as well as your articles on GraniteGrok.
Public perception matters. When notable “Republicans” endorse Democrats, does that count as bi-partisanship?
Thad Riley is only the tip of the iceberg. Now Kevin Smith has followed suit. And it isn’t just Republicans endorsing Democrats.
The NHGOP By-laws clearly state, (emphasis added)
Any registered Republican who, at the same time joins or allows his or her name to be used in support of a political committee or a defined group of individuals, that, in title or effect, is intended to be understood by the public to be a committee or group comprised in whole or in part of members of the Republican Party endorsing a candidate for elected office from another political party, when there is a candidate nominated by the Republican Party for that office, shall be disqualified during the then present and the next biennium from holding an office of the State Committee or any County or City Committee, from being a member of the Executive Committee and from being a member of the State Committee.
Here the famed NH9, FaceBook We the People, and Resolve organizer, Terese Grinnel, has violated this by-law multiple times. Terese currently sits as a member of the Merrimack County Republican Committee. In the 2022 general election, you can see her post endorsing Libertarian Lily Tang Williams against Republican Bob Burns.
From Telegram Terese, a primary organizer of the Resolve Initiative, is promoting Libertarian Ben Weir over Republican Keith Mitchell for Sheriff in the 2022 election. Did this cost the GOP a sheriff in Merrimack County?
Most recently, she posted this video on Facebook. Here she is promoting and fostering the establishment of another party while serving as a member of the State Committee of the NHGOP. To save time, there are two places where she announces this while working from within using those resources at 12:50 and then again from 27:35 to 45:08. Why is this okay?
It appears Chairman Chris Ager can choose to adhere to rules, including the NH GOP Platform as stated in the bylaws or he can just be one of the deep state.
The post Dilemma for Whom? appeared first on Granite Grok.
Skittles® were always “gay,” so there’s no excuse for a bigoted California lawmaker’s proposed legislation that could ban them from the state.
That’s a joke—Skittles®, Taste The Rainbow. The proposed ban is real, however, if these food additive restrictions were to become law.
California State lawmakers are considering legislation which could ban the sale of multiple candies such as Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, and jelly beans. Other foods such as Campbell’s Soup would be face possible bans as well.
Forget about the homelessness crisis and skyrocketing crime which are causing endless misery for the state’s residents. The most immediate threats to Californians according to the state politicians are candy and soup.
The bill, which was introduced far-left Democrat Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, targets the following five additives: propylparaben, red dye 3, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate and titanium dioxide.
I did a little research on Titanium Dioxide. “Small amounts of titanium dioxide are added to certain foods to enhance their white color or opacity .” I can imagine not caring about the appearance enhancement, so maybe it’s a moot point, but as with all things in nature, the dose makes the poison. In quantity, there is any number of things that could do harm or even kill you but, in small amounts are beneficial or harmless.
Titanium Dioxide appears to be one of them.
The EU’s objections are speculative and based on more than a few presumptions for which insufficient research exists. Again, if you don’t care about the supposed benefits, then I can’t see why you need the additive, but a one-state ban creates what may be an unnecessary limitation that will increase costs and reduce access for no benefit, b this is California, where that should be the state motto.
We virtue signal you pay the price.
Californians shouldn’t have to worry that the food they buy in their neighborhood grocery store might be full of dangerous additives or toxic chemicals.
This bill will correct for a concerning lack of federal oversight and help protect our kids, public health, and the safety of our food supply.
I imagine that if you’d never mentioned it, no one would know, and therefore no worry. Even now, there’s probably a limited amount of concern. But again, here is California, where harmful masks, lockdowns, and covid vaccines are forced on people who don’t even need them.
Skittles®? Those have to go. And hey, that sounds a little anti-gay to me.
Note: I like Skittles® ( or used to), and no, they don’t make you gay (and yes, I have to add that). They could make you obese or Type II Diabetic if you ate enough of them, but then that’s true if you take in “enough” of just about anything – except perhaps Kale or Quinoa (blech!).
The post California Doesn’t Want You to ‘Taste The Rainbow’? appeared first on Granite Grok.
This article was prompted by Stephen Peterson’s March 16, 2023 article at GraniteGrok.com, entitled “New Hampshire Constitutional Militia.” Peterson referred to the essay by Edwin Vieira, which is reprinted in the book by Daniel McGonigle.
We want to thank Mary Maxwell for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.
Vieira has a very boots-on-the-ground approach, in which every able-bodied person should join in the effort to defend the nation and the Constitution.
In a Comment to Peterson’s article, I invited all Grokkers (and all NH cops) to come to my house in Concord, NH, on March 19, 2023, for a discussion of the matter. Nobody showed up, but below is the Handout we would have used to investigate what can actually be done by private militias.
Three things seem to stand in the way of our becoming Vieira-type troops:
I don’t plan to debate these three obstacles here today. The present article is but a vehicle for passing along the quotes I had gathered for a handout. See below. It’s bad enough that the March 19 chocolate cake went to waste (or to waist, as the case may be); the research is salvageable!
Bottom line: the Second Amendment is surprisingly insufficient to make the citizenry a force for defending, by itself, the Constitution. Quoting 2A and puffing up one’s patriotic feelings is not enough. I may be wrong; please correct me in the Comments.
Here is the “attachment.” If you print it in Garamond font, size 11.5, it will fit nicely onto the front and back of one letter-size page.
RELEVANT QUOTES ON MILITIAS AND MILITARY COMMISSIONS — MARCH 19, 2023 from US Constitution, federal and New Hampshire statutes, court rulings. MaxwellMaryLLB@gmail.com
Article I, section 8, clause 11: “[Congress shall have the Power] to declare war. Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel Invasions.”
Article I, section 8, clause 16: “[The Congress shall have the Power]… To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress….”
Article II, section 3: “[The President] shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Article IV, section 4: “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a Republican Form of government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the [State] Legislature, against domestic Violence.”
Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
NH statute, revised; 110-B:1 (2018) I. “The militia shall be divided into 3 classes, namely the national guard, the state guard, and the unorganized militia. …IV. The unorganized militia shall consist of all able-bodied residents of the state who are 18 years of age or older, who are, or have declared their intention to become, citizens of the US, and who are not serving in the national guard or state guard.”
NH statute 110-B:3 Registration and Draft of Unorganized Militia: I. “Whenever it shall be deemed necessary, the governor may direct the members of the unorganized militia to present themselves for and submit to registration at such time and place and in such manner as the governor may prescribe in regulations issued pursuant to this chapter.”
Resolution introduced into NH House 2009 sponsored by Reps. Itse, Ingbretson, Comerford, Senator Denley: “That the several States… are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact…, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, …reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that the gov’t [is not] the final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself….” [This was inspired by Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798]
1878 The Posse Comitatus Act: “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army … as a posse comitatus … to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” (10 USC 341 for foreign troops in US.) Note: today under the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau’s Partners for Peace, begun in 1990s, there are foreign troops in every state. New Hampshire’s partner is El Salvador.
Page 2. Federal law, codified at 18 USC 2384: “If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, …. they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”
NH Revised Statute sec 104:28 “Who wears or displays without authority any uniform or badge by which a sheriff, officer, or investigator is lawfully identified … shall be guilty of a class B felony.” [There’s a list of each state’s laws on “prohibiting private armies, i.e., militias, at public rallies,” at Law.Georgetown.edu.]
Treason 18 USC 2381: “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the US.”
Presidential Decision Directive 39, June 21, 1995: [Clinton, after the OKC bombing]: “The United States regards all such terrorism as a criminal act and will pursue vigorously efforts to deter and preempt, apprehend and prosecute… individuals who perpetrate or plan to perpetrate such attacks….”
In Home Building and Loan Association v Blaisdell (1931) SCOTUS said: “Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power …. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power … were not altered by emergency.”
MILITARY COMMISSIONS. Hamdi v Rumsfeld, 2004. Note: Hamdi was a US citizen captured in Afghanistan and accused of aiding the enemy. SCOTUS ruled that a US citizen can be designated an enemy combatant. Jose Padilla was included in Hamdi case. Under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the decision as to whether he is a combatant can be made by an executive branch’s Combat Status Review Tribunal. (Sen Graham: “What’s the name of the case, if you can recall, that reaffirmed the concept that you can hold one of our own as an enemy combatant?” SCOTUS nominee Kavanaugh “Hamdi.”)
The Military Commissions Act of 2009 is “to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes”. The MCA was prompted by Hamdan v Rumsfeld, where a Gitmo plaintiff asked for rights, and in 2009 Boumedienne. For War Crimes Act, see 18 USC 2441. (Note: ‘Military Tribunal‘ is not the same as Military Commission. A tribunal is part of the UCMJ for soldiers.)
FDR issued a Proclamation: “all persons who are subjects, citizens or residents of any nation at war with the US [and who enter the US] through coastal or boundary defenses, and are charged with committing … sabotage, espionage shall be subject to the law of war and to the jurisdiction of military tribunals”.
Military Tribunals, 1942. (US president, FDR, used a military tribunal to convict six German saboteurs; caught in US. The decision of a justice matter, normally held in a court, was taken by the executive branch. The saboteurs were enemies of the US, as Germany and the US were at war. On the battlefield, the president could order them killed. But did he have the right to “tribunalize” the captives in the US?)
The US Supreme Court in Ex Parte Quirin, 1942, held: “There is a class of unlawful belligerents not entitled to [POW] privilege… And by Article 15 of the Articles of War Congress has made provision for their trial and punishment by military commission, according to ‘the law of war’.” [Quirin is still law.]
POSTSCRIPT — VERDICT.JUSTIA.COM has just come out with an essay by Prof Vikram Amar of relevance to these matters. I will now quote a portion of his essay, verbatim:
In the summer of 2021, the Missouri governor signed into law the state’s so-called “Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA),” whose preamble (a section styled as “findings”) declares that the “supremacy” of federal law “does not extend to various federal statutes, executive orders, [etc., that regulate firearms and ammunition in various ways].”…
The district court ruled, among other things, that SAPA’s declaratory centerpiece, §§ 1.410, 1.420, and 1.430, violates the Supremacy Clause because it constitutes an “unconstitutional ‘interposition’ against federal law and is designed to be just that.” From there, the district court reflexively invalidated the rest of SAPA on the ground that no part of the statute was severable from the statute’s interpositional core.
The big problem with the district court’s “interposition” reasoning is that it cuts too broadly, and would essentially prevent a state from engaging in any government speech to register disagreement with federal laws and policies that might violate various limitations in the Constitution. The district court rightly points out (quoting seminal Supreme Court cases) that “states have no power . . . to retard, impede, burden or in any manner control the operations” of the federal government in arenas where the federal government has lawful power. But the declaratory centerpiece of SAPA does no such thing. It does not impede, burden, or control federal operations; it merely makes clear Missouri’s belief that certain federal laws violate the Second Amendment, and that such federal laws will not be respected by, or enforced by, the state. Importantly, §1.430’s words say that ostensibly illegal federal laws will not be enforced “by” the state, not that such laws will not be enforced “in” the state, the latter phrase being one that would suggest active interference by state officials in the efforts of federal officials to enforce federal law.
— end of my except form Prof Amar. You cand “Read More” at https://verdict.justia.com/2023/03/21/what-role-can-states-properly-play-in-resisting-potential-federal-overreach
And don’t forget the unanimous decision in Prinz v United States (1997) — a case that was initiated by Sheriff Richard Mack and which ruled, if not is so many words, that state law enforcement is not the servant of the federal government.
Now here is a 59-minute lecture by Daniel McGonigle, given at Camp Constitution in NH in 2015, on the History of “the Militia” in America
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Sic transit Gloria, as the saying goes. Nowhere is this more true than Vermont where the fading charm of being a dairy farmer’s delight, a land flowing with maple syrup and RBST free cream to help wash down your organic coffee, has been replaced by becoming a third-residence getaway for the uber-wealthy who excel at creating third-world conditions to exploit.
So if you’re a fan of bananas and use the word democracy when you really mean republic, the time is ripe for you to make your way in this brave new Banana Republic of Vermont!
How can Vermont be a Banana Republic when it’s so far above the tropical zone you can barely find bananas at the store? Silly commonsensitarianist, you don’t need bananas. You don’t even need a republic. Here is a list of the things you will need to make Vermont a first-class, first-world Banana Republic.
Monteverde Monte Venality – You will want piles of green to pay off politicians. With this capital you get to encourage them to say they’re “for the people”, but we know which people they’ll really mean (wink-wink). In a Banana Republic this is called a capital gains tan because you’ll be on the beach counting greenbacks knowing you’ve got Montpelier in your back pocket. Feel that Bern!
Character Assassinations and Real Assassinations – operating in a Banana Republic means dealing with difficult people, such as do-gooders who believe in antiquated ideas like “the rule of law” and “citizens rights”. You’re not just a citizen you’re an elite and you have the right to rule, am I right? So when these chatterbox knights of the people start yammering on about “civil liberties” you get some of your friends in the news media to take some un-civil liberties with their character. If that doesn’t work, you take some liberties with their life. It’s not personal, it’s political.
This Land Is Our Land This Land Was Your Land – have you ever tried to hold a conversation with a Vermont farmer? You need an interpreter who speaks fluent Green Mountain redneck or some dialect of Bidenese. Seriously, you can’t tell if they’re yawning or tongue wrestling themselves. C’mon man! People this incapable of coherent speech cannot be trusted with owning land, especially after making the conscious choice to shovel animal crap for a living. As the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the shovel, so grease up some palms and buy that parcel at a discount. Weed is the new cattle and the nice thing about weed? It poops piles of revenue.
Hello Guvnah! – if you want to succeed in a Banana Republic you have to be on a first name basis with the governor. Right now his name is Phil, as in “Phil my right hand with some money and see if my left hand doesn’t get you that contract to put windmills on those wetlands”. It’s not called the green movement because they love trees you silly hippies!
Vocab Enrichment – terms like “coup” and “failed state” will no longer be vague ideas as you race to finish the Time’s crossword puzzle. They will be right outside your property value depressed door amigo!
All the Trans Run On Time – one sure fire sign of a Banana Republic is the timely rise of all things trans. Trans-rights, trans-lefts, what difference does it make? One thing is certain, your old republic is now a trans republic.
Sponsor A Child In Need – For those children strong enough to make it past the angry forceps and out of the womb at the local “medical clinic” the future is brighter than a fresh pack of C4. Banana Republics are incredible employment opportunities for children looking to make a lasting impression on a cruel world that wasn’t good enough to deserve them. The savvy investor who wishes to up their game to warlord will sponsor a child terrorist and deploy them accordingly. Few things say “I’m the new boss” as well as paying a youngin’ to blow themselves up at your expense.
El Presidente – once the thrill of being a local warlord has worn off there is only one last hurdle to overcome. Do you have what it takes? Well, if you can explain why you need to defund the police while paying them to beat the citizenry into submission, raise concerns about the threat of corrupt countries like China and Ukraine while using them to raise the number of commas in your bank account, and have your competition arrested despite overcoming your own child-like arrested development, then by golly you can smell the sweet scent of victory like it’s a 9 year-olds head full of shampoo at a 2a.m. ballot harvesting party. Hail to the Cheiftan!
So whether you plan to tame the turf in your tiny hamlet or power move your posterior to the presidency the Banana’s Guide to Living In A Banana Republic for Vermonter’s is a step by step process to coming out on top while everything is sinking to the bo
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The following 91-a Right To Know Request was sent to the Superintendent in SAU33/Raymond School District after I received notification that students were wearing digital badges to track their behavior. I’ve also been told that other districts are using the same surveillance devices on their students. New Hampshire law requires a digital tracking device to have school board approval after a public hearing, and parents/ guardians must consent. Teachers are using their personal phones to scan the badges and students PII (personally identifiable information) and school photos are all shared with PBIS Rewards. Cellphones are not secure devices.
NOTE: Nothing about parental consent when sharing this sensitive data, or anything about parents or guardians in this statement:
There is nothing in the documents about a student’s right to privacy that is now included in The New Hampshire Constitution.
An individual’s right to live free from governmental intrusion in private or personal information is natural, essential, and inherent.
This is government surveillance, and includes the sharing of personal information with a 3rd party vendor. There are no privacy protections in place to secure this data because in December 2011, the U.S. Department of Education changed the regulations governing the release of student data to the private sector, without Congressional authorization to do so.
From the information provided by the school district, I am unable to confirm that the district followed the law. I have asked for in investigation by The New Hampshire Department of Education.
==================================================================================
Dear Superintendent Leatherman:
Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA, 91-1), I am requesting public access, within 5 business days, to the governmental records:
1) All documentation on any and all PBIS systems used in the SAU33/Raymond School district.
2) Any and all consent forms sent to parents or guardians by SAU33 so they could approve the use of a digital badge or technology device used to transmit information, or monitor the students.
3) Copies of school board notes from any discussions or votes by the school board approving the use of a digital badge or technology devices used to transmit information, or to monitor the students.
Per RSA 91-A:4IV(C) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, available for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.
Please let me know when these records are available for inspection or you may email the records to me at Banfieldannmarie@gmail.com.
—
Ann Marie Banfield
TRUST REQUIRES TRANSPARENCY
RECEIVED FROM:
Jennifer Heywood <j.heywood@sau33.com>
Attachments
to me, Terry
Good morning. In response to your Right to Know Request dated March 14, 2023, please see the attached documents.
Regarding school board discussions or votes, we’ve searched by keyword for items relevant to your request and we did not find any matches. However, there may be instances of board discussion that didn’t appear in our search results. You are welcome to view board meeting minutes and backup documentation. Minutes and backup are readily available on our website dating back several years: minutes may be found here, and backup documents may be found here. Alternatively, you are also welcome to view minutes at the SAU Office – please contact me to set up a time and what timeframe for minutes you would like to view, and we will have them available for you.
Kindly,
Jennifer.
—
Jennifer Heywood
Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools
Raymond School District, SAU 33
43 Harriman Hill Road
Raymond, NH 03077
603-895-4299 x1103
Fax 603-895-0147
j.heywood@sau33.com
COMPLAINT SENT TO The New Hampshire Department of Education:
Dear Ms. Fenton, Per the correspondence below involving a 91-a Right to Know Request sent to SAU33 Superintendent Leatherman, I am asking you to begin an investigation to determine if the district administrators violated RSA 189:68-II. II. No school shall require a student to use an identification device that uses radio frequency identification, or similar technology, to identify the student, transmit information regarding the student, or monitor or track the student without approval of the school board, after a public hearing, and without the written consent of a parent of legal guardian of an affected student which may be withheld without consequence.It appears the district is currently using a digital badge device to track students. Based on the email I received back I have not been able to confirm that this device was approved by the school board, or that parents have consented as required by RSA189:68-II. State statute requires school board approval after a public hearing, and this must be done with written consent by a parent or legal guardian. Respectfully, Ann Marie Banfield
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3.20.23 RTK PBIS
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