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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I used to think the Orange One was just another morally corrupt, empty headed politician seeking self aggrandizement at the expense of his neighbors, constituents and the American people at large. I still do think that. But I also think he’s completely out of touch, not just with his own constituents, and not just with people he’s supposed to lead in his own party and in his own chamber, but with reality.   He’s delusional, frighteningly so, given his position.

He recently made a few comments in an interview that I’ll touch on here that I believe make one question his mental capacity to serve.

He stated the following with regards to fellow his Republicans in the House. I assume he’s talking about the principled conservatives, and there are some.  Boehner the Orange  said:

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Voter fraud, that is.  We’ve put up a lot of the names of the perpetual Democrat / Organizing for Obama [American socialists] that come here to work on campaigns, staying at Democrat “nest” homes, quick vote here in NH, and then skedaddle out to the next piece of work.  We’ve caught the double registrants and voters – they won’t be happy when someone runs a background check on them in the future.  But the Democrats keep insisting there’s no such thing as Voter Fraud.  Well, here’s the next batch of “voters in multiple places” (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Over 40,000 People Are Registered to Vote in Both Virginia and Maryland

As midterm elections quickly approach, many are starting to think about voting and potential fraud at the polls. And once again, we find that there is cause to be worried about voter fraud here in the U.S. It appears in a new report that 44,000 people are registered to vote in both Virginia and Maryland.  A vote-integrity group crosschecked the voter rolls in the two states and found far too many people registered in both states. The group, known as The Virginia Voters Alliance, is going to expand their research into surrounding states like Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Georgia. 

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First there was the coordination of the Lefty bloggers, political operatives, and “journalists” on messaging known as “JournoList” – a coordinated effort started by Ezra Kline to drive the same story the same way over and over again.  That is, until it was discovered and then “stopped” (even as some still think that it still exists albeit in some other form).

I’m shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!  There seems to be a “secret agent drop box” process at play on the Dem side – and Jeanne Shaheen is The Object Lesson of the Day.  Yes, coordination.  Between entities that should not, by law, coordinating on campaigns.    The NRSC steps up to the blackboard for this lesson on political sleight of hand:

For some time, journalists and political observers have wondered how Harry Reid’s Majority PAC runs ads that always seems to be strategically coordinated with the campaigns they are supporting, since said coordination is prohibited by law. Now we know.

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