Many Granite Staters have seen the recent report in the New Hampshire Journal regarding the investigation done by the Department of Education of the New Hampshire school teacher who took a student to have an abortion.

The teacher indicated that he or she called in sick to take the student because she did not have anyone “to support them.”  Parents who I have talked with are shocked, and they should be shocked. But should we be shocked, really? After all, despite repeated attempts to pass legislation to support parents, legislation has been blocked by Democrats and many in the education establishment.

In the past two years, legislation on parent’s rights has twice been defeated. This year my constitutional amendment that said “parents have a fundamental right and responsibility to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children” did not get sufficient votes in the New Hampshire House to send it to the voters. We have one glimmer of hope, however.

We want to thank Rep. Glenn Cordelli for this Op-Ed. If you have an Op-Ed or LTE
you would like us to consider, please submit it to steve@GraniteGrok.com.

HB1312 has passed the House and Senate and is headed to the Governor, hopefully, for his signature. I worked on this bill with Representative Kristine Perez of Londonderry who ushered its passage through the legislature.

HB1312 will be just the first step in making sure that there will be no more incidents of teachers aiding children to get abortions. One part of the bill states:

“A school district may not adopt policies, procedures or student support forms that prohibit school district personnel from answering questions from a parent about his or her student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being, sexuality, or a change in related services or monitoring, or that encourage or have the effect of encouraging a student to withhold from a parent such information.”

In other words, if a parent asks, tell them the truth about what is going on with their child in school – no secrets from parents. But requiring parents to be told the truth is just the first step.

Rep. Perez and I have already discussed follow-up legislation (if re-elected) for next year that will provide criminal penalties for any teacher repeating this shameful act of taking a student for an abortion. But we need to go beyond just teachers. We will state that no adult can “traffic” an unemancipated minor child to get an abortion while concealing it from their parents.

This really is not an abortion issue. It is about trafficking children and usurping parent’s rights. This will be a priority for Rep. Perez and myself next year.

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Sports is a very fickle part of our lives. I used to be a sports fanatic but certainly less so as I aged and realized how much valuable time sports can consume. I am not a fair-weather fan, only paying attention when the local teams win.

I tend to look for a deeper story in sports that has meaning far deeper than what we see in the highlights. One such situation draws daily attention, while another does not seem to get the attention it deserves.

Caitlin Clark has been a scoring phenom since she first threw a basketball through a hoop. As a collegiate player at Iowa, she scored more points than any other college male or female in history, and she drew record crowds to watch her that many games she played in needed to be moved to larger venues. There had been other big stories in women’s basketball, but none rose to the level of Clark’s. She became the first-round draft pick of the WNBA Indiana Fever. Caitlin has been the target of many physical attacks on the court by jealous opponents who fail to see what Clark is doing to elevate the league and players. Three elements of Clark may be the reason for these players lashing out. Clark is White, Straight, and Christian. It is truly a shame that people see these individual characteristics rather than Caitlin Clark, the person.

The other individual I find fascinating is Joe Mazzulla, the second-year coach of the 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics. Mazzulla was thrown into the fire last year when then-coach Ime Udoka was fired for a contract violation. Few people knew much about Mazzulla, and many called for him to be replaced when the Celtics did not bring home a championship. Fortunately, his boss, Brad Stevens, was not one of those people.

Stevens stuck with his coach and pulled off some incredible roster moves to put together the best team in the league from start to finish in 2024. As the season went on, and it was apparent we were witnessing something special, we began to look closer into this coach who seemed to relish his lack of notoriety. As the layers were peeled away, an extraordinary individual was unveiled, displaying a much deeper individual than a championship coach.

I started accumulating videos of Mazzulla in different situations, waiting for one to show a crack in this gem, and have yet to find one. People were asking him questions that might have caused someone to pause before responding, yet the coach had the perfect response each time. One reporter asked if Coach was impacted by members of the Royal Family sitting courtside for one of Boston’s games. His response was, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” which drew a chuckle. Still, he said he only recognized one royal family and was unfamiliar with any other from Great Britain.

In another instance, Coach was asked how he was handling the pressure of The Finals. He replied he met three young women under the age of 21 who had terminal cancer. He thought he was helping them with his visit, but he was impacted by these three women smiling and enjoying the moment as they were dying in bed. They taught the Coach the meaning of life.

Mazzulla does not look at himself as a basketball coach but as a man who goes to work to help others reach their potential. Some say that Brad Stevens is the MVP of the 2024 Celtics for putting a great team together, but it was Joe Mazzulla who took those players and their egos and made them a team with a goal. One of the mottos of the Celtics is, “It is different here.” That difference starts with a man who is a Christian and a husband before a championship coach. We are fortunate that Stevens saw enough in Joe Mazzulla to give this 35-year-old the reigns to the greatest NBA franchise. Mazzulla took those reins and gave Boston its 18th NBA Championship and the promise it would not be the last in the Joe Mazzulla era.

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When you think about LEGO, you might remember it from your youth (or infantilized adulthood). And depending on when you discovered ELGO that could be limited to a handful of different colored bricks, massive Death Star-sized builds, or even that BIONICLE thing they did for a while. How about Drag Queens and Furries?

LEGO (apparently) went woke a while ago but I guess they’ve got more pride now. I’m just leaving this here for your consideration.

LEGO just released a LGBTQ+ Pride video with furries and drag queens marching: pic.twitter.com/ce1MBdxOpk

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 20, 2024

One enterprising Xer asked if LEGO would be promoting furries and drag queens worldwide or just in some select locations.

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Science is a problem for the Left when it is allowed to be science. Question the norms, challenge assumptions, and test every hypothesis. That should be the consensus, not the Scientism that undermines science to curry political favor.

The latter has complete control of the Left and its media allies, and it is embarrassing how ridiculous it has gotten. The climate business was bad enough, but COVID and the whole gender spectrum thing. It has polluted the culture, and people are afraid to challenge the cultural norms they are advancing.

Sen. John Kennedy is not afraid.

“The differences between biological males and biological females explode during puberty,” he began. “Girls, during puberty, develop 14% smaller hearts. Their lungs are 12% smaller… You cannot debate that. It’s just a biological fact. That helps boys take in oxygen and pump blood more efficiently than girls can. That gives boys a clear edge in endurance sports like swimming, for example, cycling, rowing…”

Girls’ lungs are 12% smaller than boys’ lungs. Their hearts are 14% smaller.

That gives boys a clear edge in endurance sports. pic.twitter.com/cGieBNHDpE

— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) June 19, 2024

We are not afraid, nor are most of you, so we are in pretty good company. But we need more allies willing not just to speak out but to stand up to this dangerous trend. And if you need some words or inspiration, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than this. Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice is speaking at the Faith and Freedom Summit. Red Meat, my friends.

Moms for Liberty cofounder Tiffany Justice speaks at the Road to Majority @FaithandFreedom summit in Washington DC on June 22, 2024.

“We don’t have time to be angry, now is the time to mobilize!” pic.twitter.com/hIWeI3Pc4R

— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) June 23, 2024

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Here’s a question: How much would you pay to know what it’s like to have Nikki Haley in your living room?

Sorry…clarification: How much would you pay to hear what it’s like to have Nikki Haley in your living room so you can be bestowed with second-hand knowledge?

Whatever dollar figure (assuming you would actually pay in dollars) popped into your mind, you may not have realized that someone who is running for office here in New Hampshire has already given an answer to that question and quantified it publicly. The dollar amount ranges from $25,000 to $40,000…and thanks to a video released by the Washington Speakers Bureau last November, we know the person of interest who gave that appraisal is a GOP candidate for the Second Congressional District, Vikram Mansharamani.

Much has been made over the past several years about how government has become dominated by a class of ladder-climbers, bureaucrats, and experts, whose hallmark (besides their glibness) seems to be their desire to push an agenda that always consolidates more power for themselves at the expense of the governed. It’s not your imagination; Washington, D.C., really is a city isolated from the rest of the country. Moreover, it’s a place and a culture dominated by people who can easily wield their credentials and leverage their networks to insulate themselves from the perspectives of the rest of the citizenry. I ought to know. I once lived there.

We want to thank Andy Schaalman for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

Soon after I arrived in the Beltway as a student at American University, it became obvious that there was a template of the kind of person the school wanted its students to emulate. That template included acclaimed authors like Francis Fukuyama, pundits like Fareed Zakaria, “foreign policy experts” like Ian Bremmer, and financial wizards like Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Wonky intellectualism and “global thinking” were prized over common sense everywhere and nearly always. When I hear Vikram Mansharamani talk about the interplay between “the U.S. economy, geopolitics, and the world economy,” it’s like hearing an old song for the first time in over ten years. You may not remember every single lyric, but the familiar chorus comes back to you fast.

Vikram seems like a nice guy, and he probably is. But he gives every indication of being the sort of candidate who wants to go to D.C. to move amongst the crowd of people he considers his intellectual and power-brokering peers. People in that mold make fine talking heads, lobbyists, law professors, diplomats, financial analysts, you name it. They don’t tend to make representatives who see their first duty as being to their constituents.

Which brings me back to the $25,000 to $40,000. To believe that the speaking fee justifies itself, you’d probably have to believe that every person who has insider access to everyone who makes a serious run for public office has obtained the secret to power for themselves. More importantly, to sell the secret to power – or as Vikram has referred to it, “how the sausage is made” – for a price tag, you’d probably have to believe that power is both an unalloyed positive and something that no one had figured out the secret to before. You might even be the sort of person who sees the ultimate things to chase in life as power and success.
I don’t know about you, but I suspect we have enough of those people in D.C. already.

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Everything Steve wrote a while ago about a revolution by conservatives is pretty much true. If the Left is in power, when someone shoots back against Antifa or BLM, they (the Left) would love to declare a national emergency and deploy federalized troops to crush resistance.

But if we can elect Donald Trump, there is a better than even chance that by declaring a national emergency, we would or could use the limited military against those internal terrorist groups, their supporters, and financiers. Also, we need to consider radical Islamists, and all those military-age illegal aliens would likely be a factor.

In the article comments, one writer rightly pointed out that in the first instance, with a democrat-controlled military, the resistance would use guerilla tactics, never engaging the police or military, only assassinations of leftist politicians, media, activists, and infrastructure. How long did the Irish Republican Army fight British rule? Ask yourself.

In the second instance, my hope, roles would be reversed, but we conservatives would have a far better chance of survival as many of us are legally armed and could immediately respond to terrorist threats on site.

Ideally, with a Trump administration, major incidents of violence could be avoided and criminal terrorist gangs arrested early on along with those funding them. But who knows?

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For those of us of “age,” we have watched as the Wall built of the “bricks of Societal Norms” has had every brick removed from it. At first, not much changed – Society still seemed to be the same as it was, and the decay was invisible.

Over time, however, I’ve watched how the nation’s secular religion made headway to the point where it is now like Islam – once it grew to a given point, it started to “throw its weight around.”

Filling a void.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, new data from Gallup shows that church attendance has dropped across all polled Christian groups. As the following chart shows, the biggest drop in attendance in the past 20 years has been amongst Catholics, which has fallen from 45 percent of U.S. adults self-identifying as Catholic saying that they go to religious services weekly or at least every week in 2000-2003, down to 33 percent saying the same in 2021-2023. This is a decrease of 12 percentage points. Catholics’ attendance is lower than their Protestant counterparts, which saw a drop of 4 percentage points in that time frame from 48 percent of worshippers to 44 percent.

Lately, it is VERY clear that despite preaching “inclusiveness,” it is antagonistic towards traditional religious beliefs, and anyone protesting against them becomes targeted.

We can now have all but naked and sexualized parades, Governmental blessing of the destruction and theft of private property, the sanctity of marriage is a shambles, the traditional nuclear family is seen as outmoded (and in fact, dissed for being “hetero-privileged”), and the idea of absolute right and wrong has been turned upside down and inside out (right, Van Jones?) to the point it is all but pointless. Gratitude, gratefulness, mercy – all attributes associated with Christianity are being left behind.

There are a lot of churches that have declining seats in the pews and no more so than the formerly “mainline” Protestant denominations. Why?

IMHO, they have decided BIGELY to join that secularization of religion. They have abandoned the Biblical teachings and purpose for the trappings of the current culture and assuaging themselves that they are staying culturally relevant – and refuse to admit that the idea that their main purpose was to save souls and then educate them. Instead, contra to the Bible’s teachings, they hang transgender flags over their doorways and accept any behavior willingly as “being accepting”.

Sure, you have to meet people where they are, but these churches, IMHO, have not only not led them to a path of righteousness but have jumped into bed with them.

And the conservative parishioners no longer attend labeling such behaviors by church leaders as heretical – Truth isn’t variable, it doesn’t change with “the times” – it is what is supposed to be preached and evangelized.

So if there is no spiritual beacons calling the lost in, what happens? Society becomes poorer as the “shared” morality gets splintered and relativistic.

And, unless another Revival begins, not only will churches continue towards their Doom Loop, but so will Society. G. K. Chesterton:

When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.

And he becomes his own god. And when that happens, ANYTHING is believable, including that one is god in and of themselves. Morality becomes singular in nature: “my lived experience” and “MY truth” is the relativism that will destroy Society. When one is their own god, Self is the uttermost attribute and of the uttermost importance.

And when billions adopt that outlook, what happens?

Colossians 2:1-5

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

(H/T: Zero Hedge)

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The people in charge of the summer Olympics (in Paris) are getting a charge out of an Olympic village with NO Air conditioners. They installed a series of cooling pipes under the floors, but the US Olympic Team, Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada, and Britain have their own ideas.

The Germans are probably just excited to be someplace with enough electricity to run an air conditioner, but according to the AP, AC is not very common in France or the EU.

According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.

China is the place to go for AC and Dirty coal. Good to know.

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.

“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”

I wonder if anyone else will join the parade of Western nations telling the French to piss off with their paltry efforts at comfort?

And how amusing would it be if half or more of the competing nations decided to bring AC with them? Talk about increasing the carbon footprint, which brings up another point. Aren’t the Olympics, even without the BYO AC, just a massive waste of emissions we could probably do without?

I’ll let you decide, but if this helps, breaking (breakdancing) is now an official Olympic sport.

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The UN’s New York City Summit of Future, which will take place on Sept. 21st and 22nd, is meeting “to strengthen global governance for both present and future generations.” The ultimate goal of world government does not include our freedom or independence but rather the unlimited wealth and power of the UN, which promotes Chinese-style controls upon the state.

The purpose of this is to establish multi-lateral protocols that can be quickly activated throughout the globe to respond to “global shocks.” They want global decrees to automatically respond to a wide range of crises at the expense of national sovereignty. (Check out this planned Emergency Platform at: https://gojt.us/zn6i) Even though Biden will robotically wave it by with a kiss, remember, it must pass the Senate. These plans, if accepted, could make this July 4th the last day we celebrate independence.

We want to thank Russ Payne for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
You can review our ‘Op-Ed Guidelines‘ on the FAQ Page.

Did you vote for such disloyalty to the U.S. Constitution that takes your tax dollars and spends them to act as a boomerang that targets your liberty? What can one person do? First, implore your Congressmen and Senators to support the Defund Act (H.R. 6645 & S. 3428). Then take advantage of this campaign season: ask incumbent congressmen and candidates to sign the UN Withdrawal pledge form. Get your copies at (https:got.us/iunwp).

President Ronald Reagan’s words point out our noble obligation: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in the United States where men were free.”

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With Independence Day almost here, proud Americans are gearing up to celebrate the birthday of the greatest nation in the world. There’ll be fireworks displays, parades, and family gatherings.

Many will take a moment to reflect on how it all started. Perhaps they’ll pause to think about our founding documents, the American Revolution, and the sacrifices made by those patriotic colonists who fought and died for our independence.

Independence Day is probably the most patriotic day of the year. But this is 2024, and not all Americans are proud.

Anti-American sentiment today runs the gamut from ambivalence to utter disdain. Many will join in the festivities without even knowing what they’re celebrating. Others, sadly enough, will sneer at the celebrations. Some believe that America is racist and xenophobic. Some condemn its capitalist system. Others see themselves as conditional patriots. They say they’re patriotic, but believe our country needs to be fundamentally transformed.

They use patriotism as nothing more than a tool to manipulate the masses, to push an agenda. They’ve used it to justify tax increases, telling us, “It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, they told us that getting vaccinated was “the most patriotic thing you can do.”

But patriotism has nothing to do with taxes or vaccinations. It’s something that seems to elude too many American citizens today. It’s simply a love of country. It means putting America first. It’s supposed to serve as a common bond uniting all citizens. And it’s one reason we’re so deeply divided.

People often forget that even during the American Revolution, not all the colonists supported the patriots and their efforts to break free from an increasingly oppressive government. Many, often for selfish reasons, remained loyal to the British Crown, and even took up arms against the patriots.

It’s a simple fact that America would not exist today, were it not for those visionaries who fought so hard and sacrificed so much to create our constitutional republic. After more than 200 years, the vast majority of Americans still treasure the rights guaranteed by our Constitution, and recognize that document as the supreme law of the land.

But in recent years, some politicians have come to believe that our Constitution is outdated, that the country has outgrown the values and ideals it represents. Consumed with the power entrusted to them, those politicians have forgotten that they all took a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution. They’ve forgotten its first three words: “We the people.” So they issue unilateral decrees and edicts that do nothing for the American people, but only benefit themselves and their allies. Untethered to the documents that created America and guided our country throughout its history, they create only havoc.

Havoc at our border, havoc in our streets, havoc in our schools, havoc on the world stage.

They also create 21st Century versions of patriots and loyalists.

Patriots have defended our Constitution throughout our history. They love our country and bear allegiance to the founding principles enshrined in that document. They only want greatness for America. Yet critics call them – those proud constitutionalists – a “threat to democracy.”

On the other side are the loyalists, deep state bureaucrats and misguided citizens willing to close their eyes to all the havoc and pledge their allegiance to a government that brazenly defies all constitutional restraints, a government that’s become increasingly oppressive and corrupt. With blind loyalty, they stand by that government and embrace whatever radical new agenda it introduces. Even if it includes things that would have horrified them just a few short years ago. Even if it leads to the disintegration of our republic. That is the folly of mindless loyalty to unprincipled politicians.

Two and a half centuries ago, Ben Franklin and the Founding Fathers created a new government. Asked to define it, Franklin said it’s “a republic,” but added these cautionary words: “If you can keep it.”

We should consider his warning this July 4th as we celebrate the birth of our nation. We should remember that there are internal and external forces that hate America. They give rise to a pervasive, ominous feeling that our constitutional republic is in serious jeopardy.

In this election, the platforms of the Republican and Democrat parties have been overshadowed. The real struggle will be between patriots – constitutionalists with an abiding love of country – and loyalists, faithful to the politicians who want to destroy it.

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Air travel has declined since COVID, and I can’t help but think this is just another progressive Rube-Goldbergian plan to get people to stop traveling. You make it too expensive or too much trouble or too expensive or inaccessible, or even dangerous.

They tried to jab all the pilots, Boeing went #woke, and planes broke. The Airlines have beenfalling in line on diversity quotas, so the Air Line Pilots Association International has decided that certain words are no longer appropriate for their members (while, ironically, the word ‘member’ is not prohibited).

“While the word ‘cockpit’ dates back to the 1900s, it has been and may be used in a derogatory way to exclude women in the piloting profession,” the guide explained, according to Breitbart. “Many women have heard a variation of ‘It is called a cockpit for a reason’ by a male pilot, suggesting that women do not belong in the piloting profession. The intent behind the use of the word is important. … While the word ‘cockpit’ dates back to the 1900s, it has been and may be used in a derogatory way to exclude women in the piloting profession. … Many women have heard a variation of ‘It is called a cockpit for a reason’ by a male pilot, suggesting that women do not belong in the piloting profession. The intent behind the use of the word is important.”

The word Cock, or (Old English) Cocc has a long history of referring to things male (and not in its current derogatory context), so I suppose there is room for consideration, especially if tradition or history is of no consequence but what the hell is this.

The APLA also dislikes using the terms “mother” and “father” because those “may inadvertently ignore different family structures,” such as “caregivers, same-sex parents, stepparents, families with adopted members, and more,” Breitbart noted.

I’ve known my fair share of biological men who were “mothers,” so I’m not inclined to agree. It is certainly not necessary for a pilots association to weigh in on the matter generally or amongst its “members.” People should feel free to call whatever it is whatever they like, and if they ask nicely, friends and family might be inclined to comply with the way people adopt someone’s preferred nickname out of courtesy.

And while corporations or incorporations bending to the cultural winds seems like a sensible thing to do, recent history has shown us that this trend is wholly incompatible with free speech and expression to the point of Obnoxious Orwellian principle. Those who do not speak outside the approved argot are the prevue or petty despots and aspiring tyrants. And pilots ought to be thinking about flying planes and the safety of passengers, not whether they are permitted to use the word cockpit to describe their office space.

After all, given that the criteria for hiring the people who build and maintain their aircraft are more focused on demographics than aptitude paying attention is more important than ever. We wouldn’t want Boeing or the ground crew accused of discrimination because its diverse hires caused a plane to crash that killed the diversity pilot who was trying to fly it from the thing up front where they operate the aircraft.

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