Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, February 10, 2017
Media Criticism of Conway Reveals a Double Standard
CNN has grave concerns about White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway’s credibility and even refused to have her on its Sunday show recently, apparently to protect viewers from her Jedi mind trick powers.
The Story of Reality
Greg Koukl’s “The Story of Reality” is one of the most important books I’ve read in a long time, and I want to encourage you — Christians and non-Christians — to read it. I know of no more efficient way to introduce you to the meaning of Christianity and the Christian worldview.
Sessions Confirmed
Sen. Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, was finally confirmed Wednesday night. After weeks of leaving the Justice Department decapitated, the Left finally ran out of stalling tactics. The vote was 52-to-47, virtually along party lines. Only one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, voted for Sessions. (I suspect that has something to do with the fact that Trump carried West Virginia by 42 points.)
Another Kind of Resistance
There is no way to prove this, but see if you agree with me: The average American parent would be glad to see his public high school celebrate Martin Luther King Day with tributes to the Civil Rights movement, lectures on the history of slavery and Jim Crow and discussions of the challenges faced by blacks and other minorities in America today. Actually, it’s not really a guess, because curricula like that are found throughout the nation.
More CEOs Jump on the Liberal Brand Wagon
Most people don’t put “politics” on their shopping list — but it’s what a growing number of companies are selling. These days, what’s lining store shelves is only part of the story in corporate America, where CEOs seem more preoccupied with pushing their brand of morals than merchandise. Fans got a taste of the shift last Sunday, when the second biggest story from the Super Bowl was the liberal slant to many ads. With commercials that cost a 100 thousand dollars a second, brands like Coca-Cola, Google, Airbnb and others surprised everyone by spending the single biggest marketing moment of the year on their politics — not products.
The Travel Moratorium: A Hopeless Disaster
Stupid but legal. Such is the Trump administration’s travel ban for people from seven Muslim countries. Of course, as with almost everything in American life, what should be a policy or even a moral issue becomes a legal one. The judicial challenge should have been given short shrift, since the presidential grant of authority to exclude the entry of aliens is extremely wide and statutorily clear. The judge who issued the temporary restraining order never even made a case for its illegality.
The Immutable Laws of Politics
There are some rather immutable laws of politics Democrats forgot about, but only after Republicans forgot about them first. They explain where we are at as a country and what will happen next.
Tables of Transparency Turn on the Litigious Left
When Pope Francis visited America in 2015, one topic that seemed mandatory to address was the old scandal over priests found guilty of sexually abusing children. Despite more than a decade of reforms and a more liberal-pleasing pontiff, some activists never stopped bashing the Catholic hierarchy.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Liberal Violence vs Conservative Protests: A Moral Equivalence?
For the last several years I have watched in utter disgust as a steady stream of liberal groups have acted out violently in cities across our nation. Whether it was the Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matter, or most recently the anti-Trump “protesters,” there is a common thread to all these anarchist-type leftists. While some of their grievances may have merit, what might begin as organized protests soon turns to threats, rioting, vandalizing, destruction, and assaults. Common to many of these violent events are clashes with police, tear gas, arrests, and injuries. Sadly, some of these criminal leftists have even killed those we entrust our safety to — our men and women in blue.
The North Korean Red Line
The Cold War was waged and won in many places, including this beach city, home to the RAND Corp. Created in 1948 to think about research and development as it effects military planning and procurement, RAND pioneered strategic thinking about nuclear weapons in the context of the U.S.-Soviet competition. Seven decades later it is thinking about the nuclear threat from a nation created in 1948.
The Right Can’t Defend Trump’s Behavior
By now you may have noticed the difficulty many conservatives have defending everything President Trump does and says. I’m not just referring to the big policy moves, most of which conservatives can support fairly easily (so far). I mean the whole whiplash-inducing spectacle: the unfiltered, impulsive tweeting, bizarre interview non sequiturs, glib insults and distractions.
Major Media Remain in Denial
Since Donald Trump’s election, the major media have been trying to figure out what they did wrong, given their fawning coverage of Hillary Clinton and their anti-Donald Trump stories. Didn’t they help twice elect Barack Obama? Why didn’t the formula work this time?
California Goes Confederate
Over sixty percent of California voters went for Hillary Clinton — a margin of more than 4 million votes over Donald Trump. Since Clinton’s defeat, the state seems to have become unhinged over Trump’s unexpected election.
Collateral Damage From an Ill-Advised Executive Order
President Donald Trump is unhappy that a federal judge put the kibosh, at least temporarily, on his executive order blocking immigrants and other travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations. Though the order was framed as something to address a national security issue, it became clear very quickly that one of its most immediate impacts was denying legal workers, who pose no security threat, the ability to leave and re-enter the country — at great cost to them, their employers and the country’s productivity.
The Super Bowl Drove Me Gaga
For me the football season begins in mid-December (when everyone becomes serious) and ends at the Super Bowl (when everyone becomes deathly serious). This year it ended with the longest Super Bowl in history. Though I am the epitome of punctuality, I let the season go into the first overtime in Super Bowl history without turning off the television, so I could see whether President Donald Trump’s prediction would be vindicated. He predicted that the New England Patriots would win by eight points. It won by six after being down 28 to 3 in the third quarter! Another two-point conversion and the president’s prediction would have been right on the money.
Audi and Snoop Dogg During the Super Bowl
The exciting recent Super Bowl meant that fans paid more attention to the game than to the commercials. But there were some doozies, including the 84 Lumber commercial that sympathetically depicted a Latina mother and her young daughter trying to cross the border and enter America, only to encounter a foreboding wall. Hint, hint: President Trump wants to build a wall on the southern border. But at least two other commercials stood out.
Hostile Court
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments [Tuesday] afternoon in a case challenging President Trump’s order pausing immigration from seven nations known to be hotbeds of radical Islamic terrorism. A decision is expected at any time. To most observers, the judges seemed hostile to the government’s position.
Libs to Trump: Keep Your Pause Off Us!
There are plenty of differences between Barack Obama and Donald Trump — but believe it or not, their immigration caps aren’t one of them. While the Left hits the panic button on the president’s executive order halting entry to the U.S. for some visas and refugees, the reality is that the Republican’s immigration thresholds aren’t that much different than his predecessor’s.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Trump Is Right: Settlements Don’t Impede Peace
The world’s restless fixation with where Jews live has flared up again. On Monday evening, Israel’s parliament passed a law authorizing the government to legalize thousands of homes built in the West Bank, in many cases on land against which there are claims of prior ownership.
How and Why the Senate Must Reform the Filibuster
The Senate prides itself as being the greatest deliberative body in the world. When Jefferson asked Washington why the Constitutional Convention created the Senate, Washington compared it to the hot tea Jefferson cooled in a saucer. “We pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”