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I don’t think so, given that environmentalists want that “pristine, noble savage environment for us all – nothing nowhere for nobody”:

The Energy Department released a report Tuesday identifying streams ripe for hydropower development in hopes of meeting an Obama administration goal of doubling electricity from that source by 2030.  The Oak Ridge National Laboratory analysis concluded that currently undeveloped streams could support roughly 65 gigawatts of new hydropower. Streams on lands currently under federal protection could host an additional 19 gigawatts, the report said.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, speaking at a Washington conference hosted by the National Hydropower Association, said that amounted to more than double current production levels.  It’s time to “pull the cover off this hidden renewable right in front of our eyes,” Moniz said.

Sure, the want us all to disavow all fossil fuel usage but after accomplishing that, streams and rivers will be next.  It will always be a racheting downward on energy supply and usage – regardless of the demand demanded by the rest of us sane folks.  Remember, that bait fish that the Greenies so love in California has decimated the most productive growing area in the US.  Water for fish, no water for the food that feeds the world.

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And so did my company just a bit ago! Yeah California – you moved a company that US-based itself in California since it came here from Japan in the 1950’s.  I guess the mounting taxes and regulations made it easy to hear the siren sound of Gov. Rick Perry’s call for a more business friendly environment in Texas.  At some point, that IS going to make a difference.  So, Texas / Rick Perry 1 – California / Jerry Brown 0.  From the LA Times (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to move large numbers of jobs from its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance to suburban Dallas, according to a person familiar with the automaker’s plans.  The move, creating a new North American headquarters, would put management of Toyota’s U.S. business close to where it builds most cars for this market. North American Chief Executive Jim Lentz is expected to brief employees Monday, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Toyota declined to detail its plans. About 5,300 people work at Toyota’s Torrance complex. It is unclear how many workers will be asked to move to Texas. The move is expected to take several years. 

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This adds onto my post here on Capitalism in talking about Entrepreneurship:

The ultimate source of our prosperity is a set of institutions and cultural attitudes (along with what Deirdre McCloskey calls “habits of the lip” that give dignity to the bourgeoisie) that encourage innovative commercial and industrial activities. The bicycle was improved not by “technological progress,” but by relatively free and innovative entrepreneurial markets that created much of the capacity for technological progress and that directed and prompted countless innovators and entrepreneurs along the way to do their thing and to share the fruits of their productive activities with consumers.

Go to the link and read the vignette of how the bicycle went from beyond the reach of the common man to a child’s toy.  The description above is the key – and what Obama and Elizabeth “You didn’t build that” Warren get wrong.  Innovation comes from the mind of the inventors themselves and not from “what Government does”.  They see those “institutions” as being completely Government based and take far too much credit for anything that anyone else does.  It is the attitude of “we are all collectivists” run amok.  Then they believe that

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I do watch the Sunday morning talking head show and this week, Fox News Sunday had a head to head between Jennifer Gratz who was the impetus the case decided by the US Supreme Court concerning race preferences (affirmative action) in admission policies at the University of Michigan) and Shanta Driver who argued FOR racial discrimination to be continued to combat racial discrimination (even as the people of Michigan passed a referendum to stop such activities).

I fall into the latter category – I grew up in a bad time for race relations in America and watch, real close up, the school busing problems in Boston.  As long as it is kept up as an issue, it will continue to be an issue.  And as we have seen with Reverands Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, those that can profit from it, will and at which point, becomes self-perpetuating.  Thus, watching this particular clip completely shows both sides in contrast.  The “good stuff” starts at 5:28:

5:28 – Gratz outlines why she sued –

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The Hill:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) admitted Friday it’s “difficult to turn the clock back” on ObamaCare, but proposed making the law voluntary as a possible fix for consumers.  “I think it’s going to be difficult to turn the clock back. People get assumed and accustomed to receiving things, particularly things that they get for free,” he told a crowd of students at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Friday.

Paul’s comments echo those of other Republicans who have admitted it will be difficult to fully repeal the law after some of its more popular provisions took effect.

And he is right and that was always the argument all along – once the “free stuff” was rolled out, the smiling Democrats knew that their March to a Socialist end game would be that next step in shoving the Overton Window leftward. They just would never openly and publicly admit to it, always preferring to couch it in other terms that were politically acceptable.  But if you stripped off all the Happy Words, that was the message: “We give you stuff   Sadly, the only shot of stopping this in DC by the Legislature would have been for the House to refuse to fund it – a Constitutional step that exist given their control of the purse.  And we saw them do what we feared – they wussed out. 

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This should get Pantaleon Florez III’s attention: you like being a “rent seeker”

Just 3 hours ago, Pantaleon Florez III left a  comment on a post I put up about a month ago college grad schools complaining that because of Obamacare, the college that employed them had to cut their hours simply because of the economic realities forced upon it by Obamacare.  My attitude at the time was “well, most of you voted for him, so decisions have consequences”.  I’ve decided to respond here instead of in a comment.  To recap:

A contingent of University of Kansas graduate students have launched a petition opposing a proposal by campus officials to slash the number of maximum weekly hours graduate student employees may work from 30 to 20 – a plan concocted by administrators to skirt Obamacare mandates.  “We do not wish to see graduate employees lose employment opportunities that are crucial for paying their bills, feeding themselves and their families, and generally establishing a decent standard of living,” the petition states, according to the campus Daily Kansan.

Pantaleon responded this way (and I am attempting to show the quoting of my post so emphasis is mine with a bit of reformatting, parts separated by “*****”):

My post: “The world owes you nothing – not even a “decent standard of living”

The Comment: “All people who work hard deserve to be compensated in a way that provides them a decent standard of living. I have held a job since I was 14. I have worked hard for everything I have.”

This is part of our problem – too many people conflate compassion and economics and come up with a view that is neither.  Effectively, you are demanding

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That day where Environmentalists lament that the rest of us have either have just ignored them (at best) or decided not to let them control our lives (at worst, from their perspective).  Why should I let them – I grew up and live in a country where the foundation is personal Freedom and individual Liberty?  I did not grow up in a collectivist society – yet that is what they are trying to create.  No, not because it is supposed to make ME better (though that is one of their lame excuses: “it will be good for you!”) but they believe that they must do everything they can to protect “Mother Earth” – GAIA worship.  Or sure, the next pretense is that wailed about is “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE”!

Note to clueless: we all ARE gonna die but just not generally because of your screaming at us.  Know why?  I’ve been listening to this crap for 50 years and almost all of the predictions the Green Totalitarians have shoved at us have turned out wrong.  But, like the true inner socialists they are, facts don’t seem to matter.  Here in the US, our air is MUCH cleaner, the river water doesn’t catch fire, and the land is far better as well.  Smog doesn’t sting the eyes the way it used to, the water is safer, and we generally don’t have to worry where the kids play.  Here’s some of them that were made back in 1970, courtesy of Big Peace:

•  “Air pollution… is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
• “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”  Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
• “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson
• “We have about five more years at the outside to do something.” Kenneth Watt
• “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” George Wald, Harvard Biologist

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