Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Second Warmest February in 123 Years for Contiguous U.S. — Ho Hum
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) eagerly reported March 8 that February was the second warmest February in the last 123 years for the contiguous U.S. Various news media played it up. More evidence of dangerous man-made global warming! (Except that, of course, warming is only evidence of warming, not of man-made warming. And the contiguous U.S. is not equal to the globe.)
The Kremlin Connection
If you spend too much time listening to Democrats and their fake news comrades at the NY Times, CNN, MSNBC and the Washington Post, you’d think Russia was on the verge of invading us. And when I say “too much time,” I mean any time at all.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
A Place to Learn and Celebrate America’s Foundational Principles
Encouraging developments are as welcome as they are rare in colleges and universities that cultivate diversity in everything but thought. Fortunately, state legislatures, alumni and philanthropists are planting little academic platoons that will make campuses less intellectually monochrome. One such, just launched, is Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership.
Hawaii Has No Case Against Revised Travel Executive Order
The new lawsuit filed by Hawaii against President Donald Trump’s revised March 6 immigration executive order is just as unsound as the lawsuits filed by other states against the original order — despite what some courts have said about the original order or may say about the revised order.
Bhojpur Prison, a Volleyball Match and Hope
Recently I had the opportunity to spend ten days in Nepal, with several of those days hiking through the mountains below the Himalayas. As our group of five guys trekked through village after village, we found the Nepali people to be filled with curiosity and astonishment. Witnessing tall, lighter skinned guys hiking in their midst was a rarity.
In the Land Where Jews Are Welcome, Anti-Semitism Is on the Rise
This weekend, Jews the world over celebrate the festival of Purim, a highlight of which is the public reading of the biblical book of Esther. In 10 fast-moving chapters, it recounts the first recorded attempt at a Jewish genocide. The Persian emperor Ahasuerus (known to historians as Xerxes I) allows himself to be persuaded by Haman, a powerful courtier, that the Jews are a disloyal and disobedient minority who ought to be eradicated. The emperor signs an edict authorizing Haman and his followers “to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day.” But the plot is foiled thanks to court intrigues involving Mordechai, the leader of the Jewish community in the imperial city of Shushan, and the courage and faith of Esther, the young Jewish heroine who becomes Ahasuerus’s queen.
Panhandling and the Pope: A Better Strategy to Help the Poor
Have you ever struggled with what to do when you encounter a person on the sidewalk of a major city or standing at a busy traffic intersection with a cup in hand? Have you given such individuals money or been deterred by the prospects of what your cash or coins might be used to purchase? Have you ever felt guilty if you did nothing to help?
Saturday, March 11, 2017
GOP Gives Trump Feud for Thought
Getting it done isn’t as nearly as important as getting it right. That’s the message conservatives are trying to communicate to House leaders on the biggest order of business in seven years: repealing Obamacare.
Back to Court
In the past 48 hours, six states have announced that they are rushing back to the federal courts to block President Trump’s latest executive order safeguarding our homeland security. Hawaii was the first to declare its opposition. Washington and Minnesota are also suing, joined by Massachusetts, New York and Oregon.
Congress: Please Replace NewbamaCare with NobamaCare
This week’s proposal by the House of Representatives, the American Health Care Act (let’s just call it NewbamaCare), appears to be a diet ObamaCare at best and not the repeal and replace for which most Americans had hoped. Perhaps we were not clear enough with “Repeal and Replace.” Perhaps we should have said “Repeal…*selah* (Hebrew for ‘pause quietly and think’) and Replace.”
The Donald & Me
Except that President Trump is tall, very rich, lives in the White House and has all his own hair, he reminds me of me. On the chance you don’t see it, let me explain.
Going Red for International Women’s Day
The ability of the communist Left to consistently mislead and use an ever-wider group of people never ceases to amaze.
Guam’s Racially Segregated Voting Scheme Is Struck Down
After a lonely six-year battle, retired Air Force officer Arnold Davis, a resident of Guam, has finally won his right to register to vote in the U.S. territory and participate in a plebiscite on its future.
Friday, March 10, 2017
ABC’s Huge Gay Propaganda Flop
They say network television is a profit-oriented business, but that’s obviously not the case when it clashes with Hollywood’s sexual politics. Last week, ABC tried to lecture America with a four-part miniseries on the radical gay left called “When We Rise,” and it tanked in ratings despite heavy promotion throughout the Academy Awards broadcast the night before the premiere.
Republican Health Care Plan: Coercion and Redistribution
The Affordable Care Act was based on government coercion of individuals and redistribution of wealth. So, too, is the Republican plan to “replace” it.
Swampcare: The Great Betrayal
Since 2010, Republicans have repeatedly promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is now universally referred to as Obamacare. Last week, Republicans finally unveiled their alternative to Obamacare, and it is best described as swampcare. Far from repealing Obamacare or replacing Obamacare, it only tweaks the Affordable Care Act and does nothing to drain the swamp.
Free Market Solutions the Key to Health Care Reform
Health care reform is an enormous challenge because when it comes to economic policy, Republicans always have an uphill battle. Their free market solutions are harder to sell in a nation that has long had one foot in the socialism door.
The GOP Repeal Plan Sucks. But Is It Better Than Nothing?
First of all, the preferred free-market plan for health care policy should be no plan whatsoever. The idea that we need a federal top-down strategy to manage a huge chunk of the economy is at the very heart of the problem. We don’t need a federal plan for health care. Yet Republicans have allowed liberals to frame the entire health insurance debate in these anti-market terms.
America’s High-Risk Complacent Class
“Most Americans don’t like change very much,” writes economist and Marginal Revolution blogger Tyler Cowen, “unless it is on terms that they manage and control.” That’s just one of many provocative sentences you can mine from the riches threaded through his new book, “The Complacent Class.”
Making American Sausage
Sausage is being made in Washington. But you don’t want to watch. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, liberal or conservative, watching Washington’s sausage being made will make you lose your appetite for democracy.