Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, December 23, 2016
Behold the Left’s Manufactured Hysteria About GOP Obstruction of Judicial Nominees
Liberal hysteria is nothing new. But over the last six months, the Left’s manufactured outrage over the Senate’s refusal to confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court has hit new heights. Now they’re making the false claim that Republicans have deliberately obstructed *all* Obama-nominated judges, even down to the federal district court level.
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Can Numerical Models Even See Cold When It’s Coming?
One has to wonder if standard modeling is capable of predicting any major cold. Here are the three most glaring reversals in temperatures that the U.S.-based CFSv2 model had no idea were coming, and by failing to do so caught people off guard. But the background question is: Can models even see reversals to cold?
Whatever Happened to Family Friendly News?
It seemed like a good idea. Prepare a national news broadcast that parents can watch with their children without fear of trauma, nightmares, or lewdness. If I can watch the news with my children, then I have a natural opportunity to discuss issues and problems of the day, encouraging my children to be informed consumers of current events. This experiment of family-friendly news became the policy of certain news outlets in the 1990s, but was quickly co-opted by Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. The Clinton sex scandal took the national news in directions that were not family friendly — never mind the fact that there are certain subjects that I myself as an adult do not want to think about while I am eating my dinner. The “family-friendly news era” was so short that when I search for the term today, I get only 19 hits.
The Russian Hacking: Liberals, Media & Their Grand Hypocrisy
Over the last several weeks the media has been consumed with the Russian hacking story, suggesting the nation that has been our adversary for the last century somehow sabotaged our free elections and contributed to the defeat of Hillary Clinton by Donald Trump. Of course, the Clinton camp and its supporters have been pushing this story since Hillary’s defeat in November.
Baby, Let’s Not Ruin Everything
A Christmas standard since the 1940s, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is an uncommonly catchy and witty song that is now — incredibly enough — controversial.
Refugee Sought in Berlin Attack
After initially arresting the wrong man, German authorities are reportedly on a massive manhunt for Anis Amri, a 23-year-old Tunisian. Amri became the focus of the Berlin Christmas market attack after police found his ID in the cab of the truck that mowed down scores of holiday shoppers.
The Familiarity of Christmas
Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt. Not if it’s a familiarity with Christmas. While America and much of the world are focusing attention on the coming of the new president, little attention is paid to a gift not even the world’s richest person could pay for and which is even today not received by many to whom it is offered.
Trump Team Reaches Out to Marine Vet Who Is ‘Out of Ammo’
Last week, I received this email from Rennae: “Dear Larry, Larry Wayne Lindsey is from Colorado. He has been a staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, who had a big rally on the state capital steps in Colorado, where Larry did security. Larry is a Marine veteran who served with honor. He has also been battling cancer for about three years. Three days ago, they only gave him the night to live. I fear he won’t get to see the inauguration. I am trying to get through a maze of people to see if we can get a call from President-elect Trump to Larry. It would mean so much to him.”
Peace Through Technology
“To change anything in the Navy is like punching a feather bed. You punch it with your right and you punch it with your left until you are finally exhausted, and then you find the damn bed just as it was before you started punching” (Franklin Roosevelt, 1940). What the former assistant secretary of the Navy said is descriptive of the entire military. Each service’s culture, and interservice rivalries, and bureaucratic viscosity are resistant to reform. Which is why the next secretary of defense, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, has the most difficult management challenge in American government.
Justice Thomas and the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Recently, a voice of the conservative media did what he is supposed to do, to wit, tell the rest of the story. The mainstream media only tells America part of the story. They tell us how they perceive the world and leave it at that. This is why so much of recent American journalism — and indeed, history — is so unsatisfactory to sentient observers. Journalism and history are told exclusively from the left’s point of view, and those of us who do not share the left’s point of view get the feeling that something is missing.
Bill of Rights at 225: The Very Successful Third Amendment
Throughout our nation’s history, vigorous debates and court battles have raged over the meaning and extent of the protections provided by different parts of the Bill of Rights. Many of these arguments have centered on the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. But there have been virtually no fights at all over the Third Amendment.
The Trump Nail in the Media Coffin
President-elect Donald Trump probably will not often communicate with the nation via traditional press conferences. Nor will Trump likely field many questions from New York/Washington journalists. What we know as “the media” never imagined a Trump victory. It has become unhinged at the reality of a Trump presidency. No wonder the fading establishment media is now distrusted by a majority of the public, according to Gallup — and becoming irrelevant even among progressives.
Is Trump’s Pick for Budget Director a David Stockman Redux?
In his 1986 memoirs, “The Triumph of Politics,” David Stockman wrote: “The politicians were wrecking American capitalism. They were turning democratic government into a lavish giveaway auction. They were saddling workers and entrepreneurs with punitive taxation and demoralizing and wasteful regulation.” For the four years he served as President Ronald Reagan’s budget director, Stockman fought for his vision of sustained economic growth and social progress through sound money, lower tax rates and curtailment of federal spending, welfare and subsidies to private interests.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Zero Gee and I Feel Fine: Remembering John Glenn
The man for whom I was named has died. John Glenn, the last of the Mercury astronauts, died on December 9 at age 95. Five decades ago he was launched atop a refurbished Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile that had originally been designed to hurl hydrogen bombs at the Soviet Union. The Soviets had their own—the Vostok-K booster that the year before had sent Yuri Gagarin in an orbital flight around the Earth.
Fourth Circuit Upholds Virginia’s Voter-ID Law
In a loss for Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, the court dismissed the idea that the law is discriminatory or unconstitutional.
Bracing for Change at HHS
In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, more than half of respondents, 52 percent, said that Donald Trump will either not change the way business is done in Washington or will bring the “wrong kind of change.” This may sound negative, but the fact that 48 percent believe positive change will occur points toward a meaningful note of hope and optimism.
New Thinking
Responding to [Monday’s] terror attacks in Ankara and Berlin, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted, “The civilized world must change thinking!” If the initial reaction is any indication, it appears Mr. Trump may be asking too much of Western elites.
The Double Standard on Election Acceptance
Two months ago, the liberal media erupted in horror after the third presidential debate. Fox’s Chris Wallace challenged Donald Trump on whether he would accept the result of the election, and Trump said he would wait and see. NBC described a “flood of condemnation” and cited President Obama accusing Trump of “(undermining) our democracy.” “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie called it an “earthquake.”
Michelle Obama’s Christmas Lump of Coal
Just what we all need to ring in the Christmas season: Un-merry millionaire Michelle Obama belly-aching about the burdens and sacrifices of public life with billionaire Oprah Winfrey. “There’s nowhere in the world I can go and sit and have a cup of coffee,” Obama lamented. It’s a frequent grievance. In September, she told InStyle magazine: “My hopes are to recapture some of the everydayness, some anonymity. ... (I)t will be nice to open up the paper, look at the front page, and know that you’re not responsible for every headline.”
How Harvard Drove a Wedge Into Football
This story starts with the equally ineffective intelligence and counterintelligence activities of the Yale and Harvard football teams of the early 1890s. Agents from Yale were suspected to be lurking in a Cambridge cemetery near the Harvard practice field. Harvard responded by building a great big beautiful wall — or, rather, a higher fence — to prevent these Yale men from posing a security threat. James L. Knox, Harvard class of 1898, later explained how an opportunistic surveillance conducted by one Yale man a continent away nearly defeated its purpose.