Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, February 3, 2017
Hail the Gender-Fluid Scouts?
The Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, used to be derided as a “traditional, values-based” organization, whose oath spoke of a “duty to God” and whose law insisted the Scouts be “reverent.” Now the BSA worships something else: corporate donations. It should have been expected after it folded on homosexual Scouts and then on homosexual scoutmasters.
America: The Nation That Prays
On the first Thursday of February each year, lawmakers and religious leaders from around the world gather for an event here in Washington that has been going on for 65 years. It is the National Prayer Breakfast, which celebrates both the privilege of living in a nation where we can openly pray and of how God yet remains the foundation of every freedom we enjoy in America.
Who Knew There Were So Many Homophobic, Racist Xenophobes at Berkeley
The birthplace of the free speech movement has become its graveyard. Hundreds of liberals rioted at the University of California, Berkeley Wednesday night, burning stores, throwing Molotov cocktails and clashing with police. The rampaging mob forced the university to shut down an event featuring gay conservative firebrand and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Thank God for Harry Reid
There are many people to thank for the coming accession of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Donald Trump for winning the election. Hillary Clinton for losing it. Mitch McConnell for holding open the high court seat through 2016, resolute and immovable against furious (and hypocritical) opposition from Democrats and media. And, of course, Harry Reid.
Why Supreme Court Nominations Prompt Scorched-Earth Warfare
After successfully delivering the secret knock and password, a beleaguered, unshaven older man walks into the bunker, stomping out the cold from his feet on the way in. He walks over to one of the garbage-can fires, where his younger yet battle-hardened comrades are gathered, strategizing about the fight to come. As the grizzled veteran rubs his hands over the flames, his eyes glinting in the firelight, he says to them, wistfully, “You know, Supreme Court nomination fights weren’t always like this.” It’s not quite that bad yet in Washington, but the year is young and the fight over Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, has just begun.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Cult Politics vs. Democratic Politics
Call it *The Naked Leftist, Part Deux,* the “Deux” standing for leftist farcicalities that exploded across the land during the second week of the Trump administration after its announcement of a vetting policy that was several measures less draconian than the ones enacted by the Carter and Clinton administrations. The first week was bad enough — a tempest of marches, protests, boycotts, a threat to burn the White House, Brobdingnagian displays of female genitalia swaggering on city streets, and the usual monotonous references to Hitler, apparently detected by some part of the female anatomy that doesn’t have to be censored to be cited.
Judge Neil Gorsuch: A Worthy Scalia Successor
President Donald Trump has nominated Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Put simply, Gorsuch’s judicial philosophy is to respect the text (textualism) of the Constitution and the intent of its original writers (originalism).
Where Justice Scalia Was Wrong
With an asperity born of exasperation, Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote, “If you want aspirations, you can read the Declaration of Independence,” but “there is no such philosophizing in our Constitution,” which is “a practical and pragmatic charter of government.” Scalia was wrong, and much depends on Neil Gorsuch not resembling Scalia in this regard.
ESPN Tennis Analyst Sacked Over Bogus Charge of Racism
Doug Adler does tennis commentary for ESPN. Strike that. Doug Adler *used* to do tennis commentary for ESPN. After several years working matches for the sports channel, the former tennis pro was advised that his services would no longer be necessary.
Gorsuch Is Great!
Americans who care about the intent of our Founding Fathers were ecstatic [Tuesday] night when President Trump announced that Judge Neil Gorsuch was his choice to fill the Scalia vacancy on the Supreme Court. The rollout of the nomination was extraordinary.
Collective Exhale After High Court Announcement
[Tuesday] night, America received the answer to a long-awaited question: Who will President Trump appoint to fill Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat at the U.S. Supreme Court? An FRC commission survey last year revealed that the empty seat was a major factor for almost 80 percent of voters. At 8:00 p.m., Trump took the podium in the White House East Room and announced that he’d selected Judge Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for the High Court post.
It’s Not What You Say; It’s How You Say It
On Feb. 9, 1950, at a speech before the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Sen. Joe McCarthy brandished a piece of paper. “I have here in my hand a list of 205 ... known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” But McCarthy never released the names he supposedly had, and changed his story in the days and weeks that followed about exactly how many known communists there were in the State Department. McCarthy’s irresponsible grandstanding eventually got him censured by the Senate and contributed tremendously to discrediting the whole cause of anti-communism.
Bannon Among the Soi-Disant Sophisticates
Last week, President Donald Trump’s recently appointed chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, caused a stir among the press corps. He telephoned The New York Times and in what the Times reported as “blunt but calm tones” proclaimed, “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.” Journalists reacted to his comments with “alarm and defiance.”
When Normalcy Is Revolution
Political correctness under the Obama administration led to euphemisms that no longer reflected reality.
The Narrative
Just days into the Trump administration, the left’s narrative is clear. First, it was that Trump is an “illegitimate” president because he didn’t win the popular vote, claims about “voter fraud” notwithstanding. Then the left tried name-calling. Unfit. Immoral. Crude. High-handed. Fascist. His supporters stuck with him when similar tactics were tried during the campaign.
Lord, Protect Judge Gorsuch From the Pack of Rabid, Liberal Jackals
It’s only a matter of time before Democrats accuse President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee of hating puppies.
Congress Can’t Count on the Other Branches to Protect Digital Privacy Rights
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently shot down the latest effort by the Justice Department to compel Microsoft to hand over the data of a foreigner stored overseas. Amazingly, the government asserted that a U.S. search warrant should carry jurisdiction over the data of an Irish citizen being stored on a server in Ireland simply because it is owned by Microsoft, an American corporation.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Refugee Resettlement: Here’s What No One is Saying
This week, with the talk of many in our nation focusing on Trump’s latest executive order, which temporarily halts refugee resettlement, liberals and their funded activists are up in arms and taking to the streets. Even some Republicans are raising concerns over both the content of the EOs and the way in which they were implemented. However, lost in all the turmoil is one aspect of our nation’s refugee program that is seldom discussed but should be of great concern to anyone who has ever worked through a budget, whether in your family or business.
Acting AG’s Defiance of Trump Shows Politicized Nature of DOJ
The kerfuffle on Monday night over former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates’ statement criticizing President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring better screening of travelers from failed countries that are the biggest sources of terrorists in the world shows the difference between a Justice Department guided by politics versus the rule of law.
Trump Should Rescind Obama’s Transgender Agenda and Protect Religious Liberty
The media was abuzz [Monday] with rumors that President Donald Trump was preparing an executive order that would protect religious liberty in the aftermath of the redefinition of marriage. Trump should issue such an executive order, and he should rescind former President Barack Obama’s executive actions on sexual orientation and gender identity that created many of these problems in the first place.