“Are there things that we need to do to improve?

Of course. We do that after every election and especially after this election that so many of us were heartbroken over.”

– A circumspect NH Dem Chair (for life?) Ray Buckley speaks at a forum in the run-up to the party’s vote on whether he should get an eight two-year terms.

Edible estrangement

Here’s one more reason Daryl Abbas, chair of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee deserves some kind of medal.

During the very same March 1 meeting where the topic became “deviant sexuality,” an earlier incident shines even more light on just what kind of folks are being elected to serve in the House of Reps.

During the meeting, when the panel was decriminalizing marijuana laws, Dem Nicole Klein-Knight of Manchester took time to educate her fellow members on edible cannabis – in this case, gummies.

Holding up a pharmaceutical bottle, she said, “Would you believe that I am a medical card carrier and this is what gummies look like? It’s in a medicine bottle. Would you believe that that is how they package it? There are labels. There are warnings. There’s not a bowl of gummies left out, and it’s regulated completely.”

Shortly after that, NKK, on camera, pulled a gummy out of the bottle and popped it into her mouth.

DA then threw up his hands and told NKK to turn off her video feed.

Even though she wasn’t seen during the rest of the virtual meeting, she was there and actually voted on the bill. No word on whether the gummies were still in effect at the time.

What do (Mr.) Potato Head and Mitt Romney have in common?

Romney and Potato Head: You’re canceled!

So let’s try to figure this out together. “Cancel culture” accusations are running rampant, especially from the right side of the spectrum, where folks are pretty much at their wit’s end over “cancellations” of a whole buncha stuff, from the recent withdrawal of six Dr. Seuss books for racial insensitivity, to Hasbro renaming its toy Potato Head, formerly known as Mr. Potato Head, and even “Sesame Street,” for putting disclaimers on some of is older episodes’ skits.

Right-wing culture warriors like Fox “News” and Ted Cruz have glommed onto this, er, phenomenon, as a sign of the end of civilization, or something like that.

And it’s probably fair to say that a large number of the members of the Carroll County Republican have the same feeling.

Which raises an interesting point. Th’other day Carroll County Republican Party Chair Frank McCarthy of Conway confirmed to The Conway Daily Sun that the committee “overwhelmingly” voted to censure and call for the resignation of the 17 GOP members of Congress — seven senators and 10 representatives — who voted to impeach or convict Trump.

Censure and resign – in other words, “we want you canceled.”

In fact, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney – one of the 7 senators, who owns a home in Wolfeboro – got special treatment. Not only should he be kicked out of Congress but, the GOPers voted, he is persona non grata. As the resolution states, he “is not welcome to participate in political events hosted by the committee.”

In other words, don’t even think about coming to talk to us. Double canceled. Or, in the words of Tony Soprano, dead to us.

Of course, the Carroll County GOPers have every right to approve such a resolution – or, as their chair, FM, said, “It’s time to have backbone and stand up for what we believe is right.”

But couldn’t the Dr. Seuss Foundation, Hasbro and “Sesame Street” say the same thing?

Creative thinking

OK – here’s an example of the kind of out-the-box thinkers we’ve got over in the House of Reps.

During a recent meeting of the beleaguered Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, GOP Rep. Gary Hopper of Weare did a little brainstorming on a bill to take limits off the filing of Victims Compensation Fund claims for sexual abuse or human trafficking charges.

GH, who said he couldn’t make the next meeting when further discussion of the matter would be held, nonchalantly said, “Seeing that I won’t be here, if we take this previous bill back up could somebody amend it so that we finance that fund by selling the organs of the perpetrators who profit in human trafficking. We need to sell their organs,” Hopper said.

It’s OK if you had a similar response to another committee member, Dem Rep. Laura Pantelakos of Portsmouth. Hers was, “My God almighty.”

And Salem GOPer Darryl Abbas, chair of the panel, pounding his gavel, told GH, “That really wasn’t necessary.”

It probably wasn’t necessary, but it always helps to know how our elected reps approach their job.

Learning experience

Yes folks, recent events emanating from the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee sure have given us quite the insight into how at least some elected officials think.

Consider that at a March 1 meeting of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee – during a discussion of a bill that would ban the use of the socalled “gay panic defense” to justify murder of LGBTQ people – GOP Rep. Dick Marston of Manchester, had a point to make. “I’m just saying we don’t want to have special privileges for special people. We’re all the same group. We’re all the same people. If you kill somebody you should be charged with murder and should be tried on it and there’s no way in heck that you’re going to be able to say it’s because he or she was some deviant sexuality that I’m not.”

Those two words, “deviant sexuality,” were sure heard loud and clear, including by Daryl Abbas, beleaguered chair of the beleaguered committee.

Banging his gavel yet again, DA told DM, “No member is able to speak of someone’s ‘deviant sexuality’ like that.”

To which DM replied, “What is LGBT?”

To which DA responded by adjourning the meeting. Now, to be fair, DM pretty quickly started doing some selfeducation to find out the answer to his question. Because a coupla days later he issued a statement:

“I come from a generation where my comments were accepted by society. However, just because I am in my 80s is no excuse to justify my comments. Rather, it is a reminder of the progress our society has made. I am sorry I was late in joining the rest of you who already made that progress.”