Every day, we have published at least eleven new pieces (one every 90 minutes) between 6:30 am and 9:30 pm, every day, for what feels like a long time. That’s a lot of content. Well, I’m changing it.

Effective yesterday, the new schedule is every two hours, beginning at 6 am and ending at 10 pm. The change means nine new posts every day instead of eleven.

We’ll still add breaking news when we can and any other content that needs to pop in here and there (or just because we feel like it), but the new default will be nine posts, one every two hours, beginning at 6 am.

Why?

Speaking for myself, I’d like to write “better.”

Without the time to focus on making the content more interesting or unique, it begins to get a rushed cut and past feel, and I’m Not Lovin’ it, and since this is a hobby, I need to be loving it.

Everyone has a tone or a “sound” to their work, and I think mine’s getting lost in the business side of being a prominent media source (which we still are), trying to keep a promise, so…I’m adjusting things a tiny bit to try and make a little more room.

Summarized: I hope to exchange a little quantity for better quality: small changes, and maybe, at least once and while, better results.

So, that’s the plan today. It is subject to change based on circumstances, but I wanted folks to know what’s up. Oh, and a reminder: GrokMeet in Concord on May 14th, 6-8 pm ET, Area 23 Pub in Concord.

We hope to see you there.

The post Tweaking the ‘Grok! appeared first on Granite Grok.

History has shown that voluntary economic trade between individuals, without the “guiding” Hand of the Government, has lifted billions out of poverty and onto the road of a higher standard of living at lower costs and higher quality compared to when markets were controlled by others and such decisions were made beforehand.

Although Adam Smith is today often regarded as a “conservative” figure, he in fact attacked many of the dominant ideas and interests of his own times. Moreover, the idea of a spontaneously self-equilibrating system – the market economy – first developed by the Physiocrats and later made part of the tradition of classical economics by Adam Smith, represented a radically new departure, not only in analysis of social causation but also in seeing a reduced role for political, intellectual, or other elites as guides or controllers of the masses.  -Thomas Sowell (Basic Economics)

But look at that last part – “a reduced role.”

Those that held such positions must have hated that they were getting cut out of the middle and no longer got their “cut of the pie” even if was just the satisfaction that their decisions were “for the betterment of all”.  Such hubris!  Such thinking is limited, self-avowing, and self-interested in one way or another.

It’s that limiting part that is the most important, however, as while it may reduce “friction” for some transaction, it completely closes off entire sectors of commerce from even being thought of. In short, it limits innovation.  Items like the microprocessor, the revolutionary iPod (at the time), personal computers, the shipping container, affordable cars, non-stick pans, clothes washing machines, floor vacuums, bike helmets; heck, even the “in house toilet”. Some interesting, some mundane but none, I believe, could have been developed if even just a small cadre of people were controlling the marketplace.

No, the innovational idea by Smith recognized that it was the Individual, looking out for their own self-interest in trying to make life better for themselves and their families by serving others with new and varied products that made their lives better, were the key to the marketplace.

It is at our own economic peril that we ditch this ever-so-important insight.

(H/T: Cafe Hayek)

The post Notable Quote – Radical Ideas CAN be the Right ones! appeared first on Granite Grok.

I wrote this during Obama’s Presidency but never published but since Biden’s presidency is a continuation – “Obama’s third term” – let’s revisit how Obama unleashed Islam on the American people.

This started as a conversation, but it actually is a monologue, since Mr. Obama is extremely swamped with other important time-consuming activities to bother with nobodies like me. I don’t like it, but I don’t blame him.

I think I took to task, somewhat at length, a former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for what I found to be braying—perhaps others may have found it to be singing—the praises of Islam.

To be even-handed and not be blind to the actions and words of our own leaders, I want to say my piece, ever-so-briefly about Mr. Obama.

*Staffing of Administration. Mr. Obama has had intimate exposure to Islam during his childhood. In fact, his father and paternal relatives were and are Muslims. But, Obama says he respects Islam as one of the great religions of the world and peaceful religion but considers himself Christian. In a way that’s very Christian of him. In his great practice of Christian charity, he has staffed several high-level sensitive posts in his administration with not only Muslim Americans but with “fanatically Muslim” Americans.

Again, we can chalk that to his desire for promoting and including the diverse people of this nation in their government. And given that Muslims now number second in population after Christians, then they have the right to be significant players in his administration. All this seems reasonable enough. But, I have trouble with Obama, in subtle and not so subtle ways, time and again, lending his prestige and that of the office of the Presidency to the promotion of Islam.

It is theoretically true that the White House is the house of the American people and all Americans are welcome to visit it. But, I am opposed to the practice of inviting members of religious orders to celebrate their special holy days. Why? It smacks of placing the stamp of approval on those religious orders that make the cut. Those who have the numbers, money, and influence are invited. Those who don’t, are not. And those who don’t have any religion are not given a place at the table or even let into the place.

Across the board, fairness is a hallmark of democracy in general and a representative republic in particular. All minorities and “insignificant” people are entitled to the same exact treatment as the majority and the “significant” ones. That’s the way I read it.

*Visiting King Abdullah. I was deeply disappointed by seeing our President paying homage to the Saudi Arabian king and in the manner, he did so. I was shocked to see him bend down so low to grasp the man’s hand as if he was going to kiss it. A great sigh of relief when he didn’t kiss it. Also, in bending down so low and with such intensity and reverence, good thing he didn’t throw his back out. We would’ve been in very bad shape if he had thrown his back out and couldn’t spend all those endless days playing gulf and scrimmaging basketball. What a catastrophe that would’ve been.

Seriously, Mr. President, the man you honored by your visit, is the 21st century Caliph wannabee. He, his royal clan, a raft of businessmen, enriching themselves at his trough are lead backers and bankrollers for spreading the Wahhabi sect of Islam in the world. In order to achieve their objective, they let their money solve any problem that gets in their way.

Mr. Obama, these diehard zealots are dead set on destroying the very open democratic system that voted you into office as the standard-bearer for democracy in the world. These Allahists don’t believe in democracy. They like autocracy and religious autocracy is just fine. It gives them everything they want and does everything they wish without being accountable to their own people. They see themselves as appointees of Allah and they say that they are accountable only to Allah and not the people. A terrific deal they have and they aim to keep it.

People like the Saudi king, the Emirs of the Persian Gulf, the Sheiks, and other despots should be called for what they are and far from being condoned and respected.

*The Praise for the Adhan. Mr. Obama, it sounded very touching the way you expressed your reaction to the Muslims’ call for prayer—adhan. You said that the call emanating from the minarets of mosques was one of the most beautiful sounds you have ever heard. That’s indeed very touching,

Question. Did you, Mr. Obama, not hear the wailings and screams of the thousands of prisoners of conscience rising from the dungeons of Islamic torture chambers, but you only heard the adhan from the prison’s minaret?

You say you were nowhere near any prison to hear their cries for help that are answered with only greater torture? Great thing for you. You definitely don’t want to be anywhere near those slow-death and sometimes not-so-slow death chambers.

Mr. Obama, does it come as news to you that wherever Islam rules, it does so on the bent backs of many prisoners of conscience? Only those who lack conscience, who don’t deserve to be called human, can ignore the suffering of humanity’s best children while singing the praises of the belief system that is the lead tormentor of people it deems as kefir or those brave people who resist its savage rule.

The kind of praise lavished on Islam while millions are brutally treated by Islamic governments is counter to the highest ideals of enlightened humanity. Justice must reign supreme. Justice is another precious blessing of the Creator for all people, without a single exception.

A little sharing here, Mr. Obama. The chairman of an African American Studies Program at a university was invited to give a talk about peace. The speaker opened his talk by saying: To hell with peace, give me justice. Justice indeed. What use is peace without justice?

I am certain you know what another American, a champion worker of Justice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. felt about the importance of justice: “Threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Many good sons and daughters of this nation have heeded Dr. King’s call and have joined the ranks of upholders and defenders of justice.

It is the minorities that suffer immense injustice on an ongoing basis. I expect the President of this great nation to be the lead promoter of our pledge: one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all

The post Let’s Revisit How Obama Unleashed Islam on the American People.  appeared first on Granite Grok.

Dear School Board Members,

How DID it feel watching your staff member being humiliated, in public, because of YOUR Policy JBAB that compels her to lie to parents? To ME? 

This is what happens when Elected Representatives implement policies in which they will NEVER suffer the consequences from doing so – only others.

Did you ever think that a Parent would NEVER ask such a question?  I’m betting that you didn’t – after all, how many Parents ever read the policies that you are putting into place. I’m betting that you ARE betting that JBAB would continue to fly under the radar such that very few Parents would ever know the evil you have unleashed. In fact, on that point, how many new policies are you getting ready to place upon the community that you lead – do you realize that you are following in the path of Laverentiy Beria in that having so many laws policies in place, you will almost always be able to condemn some student or staff member?

“Is my son transgender or not?”

“This is not a Question and Answer time”

“That’s a dodge”

“I’m just following this rule here (pointing and tapping on her notes)”

“I was just following orders”; does that ring any bells for you? It should if you know your history.

I am betting that when you went into non-public, I was mentioned and most likely not in a terribly good fashion.  To be truthful, I don’t care. You invoked, unknowingly, the Law of Unintended Consequences when you rushed that Policy into place. Did you never give one thought that a Parent would ask that question at a public meeting? YOU ALL PUT HER AT RISK for having that question asked of her.  In fact, all of your staff is now at risk.  While I could not see their faces, I’m betting a few of the Parents behind had looks of disbelief as to what you have set into motion.

Engineers, when confronted with problems that must be solved will look at the symptoms, formulate a hypothesis as to what is wrong, and then work their way through that problem to find the answer – what we call Root Problem Analysis.  THE issue/malfunction/”failed part” that causes the issue.  Monday night, that root problem was not me – I was a symptom.  Danielle Bolduc was also not the root problem – she was also a symptom; she was an “effect” of the “cause and effect” process that you, the Gilford School Board, put into motion.

Note that she is not the one at fault – you all are for putting her AND all other staff members into the same place.  I have railed for two years that you CANNOT force government speech onto people – that you, as part of Government, are forcing your staff and students (and anyone else that comes onto school property) to speak only in terms that the Board’s Policy JBAB approves of in a mandatory way when it comes to using a very small subset of pronouns when talking about a transgender student. Government Speech, not Free Speech.

Coerced speech. A deliberate decision to remove one of America’s most valued attributes – the Freedom of Speech and the Right to one’s conscious of belief. I will be truthful – until Monday night, I had only concentrated on the situation where MY Freedom of Speech (and others) was being removed from me (in a mandatory fashion as told to me by Superintendent Beitler).

But I learned something new Monday night that I hadn’t realized.  Watch the video starting at 8:41 – it has that partial transcript above at its start.  However, you NEED to listen what I said afterwards which is also important

“I appreciate the honesty. But your employer has put you into the situation to lie to me…It also means that I can’t trust Principal Bolduc. I can’t trust his teachers because I’ll never know if they are lying to me or not.”

Your staff no longer has the Freedom of Speech and you have taken away their ability to tell the truth.  This is “progress”?

No, not just in this but in ANYTHING.  Ditto for the School Board but I’m figuring that you already knew that. Did you even THINK of the ramifications you were unleashing?

Member Sanborn wanted me to compromise in putting my lawsuit into abeyance until the Board could discuss it next month. My return reply was would the Board then pull JBAB for that period of time, in a show of returned good faith?

I dryly note that this compromise was a “one way” only; I was willing to pull my lawsuit as my part of the compromise IF and ONLY IF the Board pulled JBAB.  After all, a one way compromise is no compromise at all. I waited for any of the members, especially Chair Jeanine Onos, to make that motion and vote to show good faith. If you had voted to do so, I would do the same for my lawsuit.

Silence was your answer – no motion was offered. If that compromise was a serious one, you could have had a motion right then and there and voted on it.  Heck, you could have called either for another public meeting or a non-public meeting (with the required 24 hour proper noticing as required by RSA 91-A).  In checking the SAU 73 website, I see that no such meeting has been noticed. Thus, the message that has been sent is that:

• no compromise is possible with this stiff-necked Board that can’t bring itself to say it was wrong – and apologize.
• you are willing to spend taxpayer money unnecessarily to defend something that, if it gets into the courtroom, you’ll be laughed out of the courthouse. And I hope your lawyer gets sanctioned for blatantly giving bad legal advice to you (akin to “no, there’s no RSA that give you the Powers to do that but we’ll keep stalling this”). My lawyer agrees there aren’t any such RSAs to support JBAB.
• once broken, Trust is a very hard thing to reestablish – but you decided to go that route and continue to lie about your Policy JBAB – in silence. And let it spread throughout the District.

So it seems that the Board is totally willing to foist a development of distrust within the District from Parents (and students) towards the Board and staff.

A DIFFERENT form of Coerced speech and as uncomfortable as Principal Bolduc was (clearly) uncomfortable in answering my plain and simple question, how many other Parents will start to ask that same question.  How many more staff are you willing to put into that same situation. How many of them will either stare at you in rebellion or with smoldering anger that you did this to them.

One last thing – since when does a Policy trump the Freedom of Speech of any of the Members?  I’ve never seen an RSA that forces a School Board Member to give up their Freedom of Speech and I’ve already debunked the School Board Ethics Policy that requires you to “shut your mouths”:

Right to Know Demand – Your Ethics Policy Outlines a Number of Items That a School Board Shall Comply With…”

Turns out that when I asked, there were no signed copies (a Code of Ethics is a contract of sort – without signing it, it is unenforceable).  Ditto anything that forces your silence in canceling your Freedom of Speech at any time.

I already fought this issue when Evans Juris (at the time, the Gilford Town Administrator) and Debbie Shackette (then Gilford Financial Director, now Belknap County Administrator) tried to force all of the Budget Committee members to sign it. Like several of the School Board policies, it was not about “Ethics”, it was a muzzling as I and another said thigs that were not welcomed by the “good ole’ boy” network that had run the town for years – we aired “the dirty laundry” they wanted to remain hidden.  I refused to sign it (especially after I discovered they had plaigiarized it from Sunnyvale, CA and called it their own).

There is no RSA that allows a school board, or any other government entity, to require more conditions to the position to which you have been elected. Especially when it comes to the Freedom of Speech.  To anyone who says otherwise, demand that they tell you the specific RSA. And remember, if they quote one, because I know which one they will use, read the last clause of “students and staff” and realize that you are NOT staff – you are Elected Representatives.

Be Brave. Do Something.

Sincerely,

Skip

The post So How Did It Feel, Gilford School Board, to Watch Your Principal Lie to Me in Public Because of Your Policy JBAB? appeared first on Granite Grok.

John Hawkins was one of the established bloggers that helped GraniteGrok rise from the “small blog sea of tens of millions” at the beginning of the blogosphere by linking to us fairly often.  Yes, it was a treat to see that someone far higher in the “rankings” would take note of us and what we wrote. We used to talk a lot when our paths crossed at different conventions – always pleasant, informed, and opinionated! A lot of fun!

He’s had a number of blogs he’s started, notably Right Wing News, but like a lot, it suffered when the closed environments like Twitter and Facebook came along (heck, so did we). While we do this as a hobby/obsession, he has always been a professional blogger and his latest incarnation if Culturcidal on substack. I do get his eblasts but it is a paid subscription writing platform.

One of his latest creations is the title, above.  He helped us – I’ll return the favor:

America is turning into such an intolerant, victim-centered, outrage-based, politically correct, that joke isn’t funny, how dare you hold an opposite opinion-centered culture, that a lot of people are afraid to tell you the truth anymore. It’s easier for people to sometimes just keep their heads down and hope that the outrage mob will pick another victim. But, unfortunately, when people become afraid to speak the truth, common sense can die in the darkness because everyone is caught up in saying what we’re “supposed to” believe instead.

An America that encourages free speech, discourages censorship, and believes in a free exchange of ideas will ALWAYS be superior to the ugly, backward “safe space” of a culture that so many people are trying to create. With that in mind, here are 25 common-sense truths that you’re no longer supposed to say.

1) Knowing what sex you are really is as simple as looking in your pants when you’re born and no, you can’t change it just because you feel like it.

4) Gender and sex are the same thing and anyone who disagrees has no business teaching children.

5) Racism still exists, but it isn’t a serious impediment to anyone’s success in America as it used to be several decades ago.

7) The proper remedy for speech isn’t censorship, it’s more speech.

8) We should deport children that enter the United States illegally not just because they’re breaking the law, but because if we don’t, it only encourages more bad parents to bring or send their children here.

11) Diversity isn’t a strength that makes us better, it’s a weakness that takes many special steps (emphasis on assimilation, patriotism, colorblindness, etc.) to overcome.

13) Drag queens are deviants and shouldn’t be allowed near children, much less allowed to be part of storytimes for kids.

15) Yes, we get lots of good immigrants, but bums and parasites flooding in with them have made immigration bad for America.

16) Young black men aren’t primarily dying because of white people or the police, they’re dying because other young black men are shooting them.

17) Given how many Americans are uninformed, don’t pay taxes, or are looking for handouts, we’d be better off if far fewer Americans voted.

20) Teachers shouldn’t be able to withhold any information from parents about their kids unless a potential crime by the parents is involved that may be a police matter.

23) Most adults that are rich or poor long-term deserve to be.

25) Slavery was a nearly universal phenomenon and Americans should be proud that we, along with Great Britain, did the most of any nation in history to end the practice, rather than be ashamed that our nation had slaves just like everybody else.

The post “25 Common Sense Truths That You’re No Longer Supposed to Say” appeared first on Granite Grok.