Trust your girlfriend.
If you really want to address this, I would talk to the aspiring electrician one on one and just discuss the things you have a concern with. If he is really new and you can just look at the code together, he might decide you are right and everyone can stay friends. Start on the basis that you are both new and you are learning together.
He might end up telling you that is just the way they do things around there (particularly the ground rod thing) and that is the way it is.
The other option is to go to the IAEI (or other trade group) meetings and see what the other inspectors say about those issues.
When I was working, I worked across 6 or 7 jurisdictions for the state and I was surprised how people could read the same document and make such different interpretations.
