Shane Sirois, a rep from the lovely red town of New Ipswich, emailed me, identifying himself as a member of the Vax Injury Caucus.  He was putting out an all-hands-on-deck call for action because SB 319 had a hearing in the Senate HHS committee on 1/10/24.  Like I’ve said before, Nashua owes red towns its gratitude for serving us unserved folks in the House.

Furthermore, Nashua is dependent on New Ipswich for senate representation, so of course, I answered the call.  Plus, I support(ed) the bill.

This bill, as you can see by clicking on the link, bans government purchasing and distribution of vaccines with insufficient human trial data, to use my own words.  I rallied up the troops in my own spheres of influence and the hearing can be viewed in this link.

SB 319 is between 4h05 and 5h22min.

Dr. Chan and his colleague appeared for this bill and must have used the word “robust” more than Humphrey Bogart said, “here’s looking at you, kid” in Casablanca.  Dr Chan also lied into the mic while answering questions, but that’s another story that you can talk to Nurse Terese about sometime.

This was my first hearing chaired by Senator Regina Birdsell, and it went smoothly for the most part, but she did voice her objection to speakers criticizing other speakers.  I’ve become somewhat seasoned at pushing the envelope when it comes to decorum, so I expressed my disdain for Dr. Chan without saying his name the moment I took a seat at the mic and referred to Jeb and Regina as “the swing votes.” (at 4h50min)  And those two “swung” the wrong way!

So it was no surprise that the committee recommendation, 4-1 with my senator dissenting, was a referral to interim study.  We all know this is the quiet way to euthanize a bill.  Suzanne Prentiss from the enemy camp presented the recommendation to the whole senate yesterday, and it was no surprise that the man with the gavel “shepherded the senate sheeple” into adopting the recommendation.

“But wait, there’s more”(on Regina), as those late-night UHF TV infomercials say.

Today, I was combing through next week’s hearing calendar in search of another bill in the same committee.  I found it scheduled for Wednesday, 2/14, along with a few others.

That was when I stumbled upon SB 402 with its lone sponsor, the committee chair, allowing pharmacists to administer The Jab.

Naturally, this piqued my interest.  And it also brought back the memory of seeing the sponsor muzzled in the senate chamber on 1/26/23.  I don’t easily forget such minutia, and I decided to look into Follow the Money dot org.

Now, it has been pointed out that taking pharma money is not uncommon on both sides of the aisle, but how much do you, dear reader, think is the maximum amount acceptable?  And what about the taker’s voting record following the donation?  It is, after all, called “follow the money” dot org, but I encourage people to also look elsewhere for confirmation.  Some suggestions would be open secrets dot org or even the Secretary of State’s office.  Do the due diligence you see fit, especially if you vote in District 19.

The post Is Sen. Regina Birdsell Part of the Covid Cult?  You Decide. appeared first on Granite Grok.

The fun thing about the Democrat Dictionary, as infrequent as the installments are, is that no matter what the word is, it only ever means what Democrats think it means when they think it. The word Democracy is an excellent example of this.

They can’t shut up about it, Democracy. Defending it, saving it, honoring and protecting it, by which they mean their definition of it, not actual Democracy.

Democracy to Democrats is about people having the freedom to choose from a pool of candidates the Democrats allow, with the winner being whom they decide if the voters choose the wrong one (ask a Bernie supporter if I’m wrong).

So powerful is the Democrat commitment to their definition of Democracy that it also applies to the Republican Party, of which none of them are members and who would never be allowed to pick the Democrat’s nominee. While Democrats will go out of their way to pretend to be Republicans (for voting purposes) to pick the Democrat’s opponent, hoping that their candidate will win more easily.

They’ve gotten so keen on picking both nominees that in states where Democrats hold offices and power over elections, they have moved repeatedly to prevent the Republican party, a private organization, from deciding which of its candidates can be on its primary ballot – using government power over the voting process (printing of ballots) to enforce their will upon Republicans to limit whom they may choose for a candidate for President.

This is about as honest an example of what Democracy means to Democrats as you’ll ever find.

Democracy is not about Democracy; it is about using the government to get whatever it is Democrats want, whenever they want it.

And yes, we do live in a constitutional republic, which doesn’t work for Democrats, so they call it a Democracy. That and they love mobs, and there’s nothing quite like making 49.9% of the people do something because you’ve demonstrated – by fact of fiction – that you’ve convinced 50.1% to let the government do it to you.

The post Night Cap: Democrat Dictionary – ‘Democracy’ appeared first on Granite Grok.

Hawaii is Blue. If not for California, it would likely be the progressive poster child for failed policy. It is run by statists who appoint statist judges, but in an odd twist, the State’s Supreme Court has discovered federalism … as an excuse to deny an individual right.

In a February 7th ruling, the high court announced that it did not have to listen to the US Supreme Court or any precedent related to its interpretation of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

Christopher Wilson was arrested seven years ago for carrying a handgun for protection while hiking. Being in Hawaii, he was charged with multiple firearms violations and introduced to the tedious and expensive court system. Hawaii does not allow you to carry outside “the home if you are able to get permission to carry at all. Seven years later the State’s highest court has ruled against Wilson.

“We reject Wilson’s constitutional challenges. Conventional interpretive modalities and [Hawaii’s] historical tradition of firearm regulation rule out an individual right to keep and bear arms under the [Hawaii] Constitution.”

Jacob Sullum, writing at Reason, observes (with reference to  District of Columbia v. Heller,  McDonald v. Chicago, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that,

The Hawaii Supreme Court thinks all of those cases were wrongly decided. In a ruling issued on Wednesday, the court sides with the Heller dissenters by embracing the view that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”—unlike “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” (protected by the First Amendment), “the right of the people” to be secure from “unreasonable searches and seizures” (protected by the Fourth Amendment), and the unspecified rights “retained by the people” under the Ninth Amendment—does not refer to an individual right. Rather, the Hawaii Supreme Court says, the Second Amendment involves a “collective right” that is relevant only in the context of militia service.

It appears to me that Hawaii’s “historical” tradition is to selectively acknowledge rights as individual or collective based on partisan political interest. The very reason why we have a Federal Constitution, which Hawaii accepted as the highest law of the land when it joined the nation. And yes, we can have endless conversations about courts and constitutions and not following those words or these words or the vagaries of time and definitions, and it’s all legitimate grist for that mill. But at its simplest, you shouldn’t either see all the natural rights as an individual or none of them and make that case to the people so they can vote accordingly.

That’s not how any of it works because while there is some ground-level momentum toward collectivism in regard to rights like free speech, we still have some way to go to see the whole stable subdued by the creeping Marxists who love the word federalism if they can use it to deny people rights.

You can find a lot of inside baseball and background on State v. Wilson here if you like getting into the weeds.

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