Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Thankful for Pets
Last Thanksgiving our family had two dogs and two cats. It’s looking like not long after this holiday, we’ll be down to two.
Enemies of Language
Throughout history, revolutionaries of all stripes have warped the meaning of words to subvert reality. And now here we go again, with another effort — spearheaded by the media and universities — to use any linguistic means necessary to achieve political ends. “Sanctuary city” is a euphemism for the local and state nullification of federal law — a subversive tactic that dates back to the nullification crises during the Andrew Jackson administration and, later, in the years leading up to the Civil War.
A Republican Ban on Internet Gambling Would Repeat a Costly Democratic Mistake
Many on the left have taken Donald Trump’s surprise victory poorly, responding with considerable hand-wringing and emotional outbursts. Instead of simply focusing on the many evils that they anticipate will take place under President Trump, they would do well to look in the mirror and recognize that there would be far less cause for concern had they not spent the past eight years cheering on the expansion of executive power under President Barack Obama.
Be Thankful
As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, millions of Americans are hitting the roads or heading to airports to be with friends and family. I love this uniquely American holiday. But it’s not just a day off of work, a day devoted to parades and football, not even turkeys and pumpkin pies.
The Arc of History Doesn’t Always Bend Toward Justice
History is on our side. That’s a claim Barack Obama has made frequently, in his two successful campaigns for president and during his nearly eight years in office. It’s a claim that looks a little shakier this Thanksgiving holiday than it did during the Halloween holiday three weeks ago.
Stephen K. Bannon Is Winning
History is not standing still. At least it is not stopping for America. It did not stop with the Clinton era, which is now finally over. America is moving along at a rapid pace. For the Clintonistas and their millennial acolytes, however, I guess America did stop. In fact, for them it froze, locked into an eternal 1968, forever reliving all the demonstrations and sit-ins, and the sobbing, heaving hubbub of yesteryear. Yet America goes on riding the currents of history, and those currents are moving rapidly.
Democrats and the Nazi Card
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the odds-on favorite to become the Democratic National Committee’s chairman, had a long association with the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam. He compared then-President George W. Bush and 9/11 to Adolf Hitler and the destruction of the Reichstag, the German parliament building: “9/11 is the juggernaut in American history and it allows ... it’s almost like, you know, the Reichstag fire,” Ellison said. “After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader of that country (Hitler) in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted.”
‘Hamilton,’ Trump and Diversity
President-elect Donald Trump says Brandon Victor Dixon, the actor who currently plays Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” should apologize for his tacky lecturing of Vice-President-elect Mike Pence about diversity and the “fear” of people like himself, an African-American, about a Trump-Pence administration.
Be Thankful You Have Something to Grumble At
At this shank end of a shabby year, Americans still can be thankful: They do not have the problem of nothing to grumble about.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The Southeast Drought: Nothing New Under the Sun
I realize it’s going to be tough to separate the honest climate brokers out there from those who simply are trying to drive home points based on an agenda they cannot retreat from. The classic example is the current Southeast drought. Of course, it’s not a drought for those who were in the path of Hermine, Julia, Matthew or the non-named mid-summer beast that hit Louisiana. (Good job Donald Trump on not needing a named storm to visit and try to help out.) The fact is this: 25-33% of summer rainfall in the South (from roughly I-45 in Texas to the SE coast) comes from systems that have some link to the tropics. Since evaporation rates are high, if there are no tropical systems, it is going to be dry. But the averages are not because of even distribution but instead result from back-and-forth swings that contain a lot of dry years and then some big hitters.
The Muslim Registry That Wasn’t
The first thing to know about Donald Trump’s alleged proposal for a Muslim registry is that it isn’t a Muslim registry.
The Tyranny of the Broadway Bullies
Even though it was in midtown Manhattan and even though the people there had to pay hundreds of dollars just enter the room, there was no unanimity among them.
Memo to the President-Elect
Dear Mr. President-elect, Everyone else is giving you advice, so why can’t we? (Then again, the last time you asked for our advice, we told you over lunch that winning was not in the cards, so you might be hitting the delete button before this sentence is complete.) But here it comes. Five thoughts.
Trump’s First 100 Days
Ironically for a 70-year-old populist, Donald Trump brilliantly harnessed the power of social media to get his message out during the presidential campaign. Eschewing big money ad buys and network sit-downs, Trump re-wrote the rules of campaigning by talking directly to the American people.
The Return of Assassination Fascination
Alert the CDC: Left-wing America has been overcome by another contagious epidemic of assassination fascination. It’s time to declare a public health crisis.
Thanksgiving and America
One Fourth of July in the 1980s, when I was living in Hong Kong, I read a tidbit in a local newspaper about America’s Independence Day. Across the United States today, the columnist declared, families are celebrating the birth of their nation by sitting down to turkey dinners with all the trimmings.
Crucial Religious Freedom Case Arrives at Supreme Court
Among the factors that drove the electoral victory of Donald Trump was his very strong support from evangelical Christians. Trump won the white evangelical vote 81 percent to 16 percent. This was a higher percentage of the evangelical vote than received by the last three Republican presidential candidates. And one very strong factor driving this evangelical vote was concern about the Supreme Court.
Thanksgiving Tragedy
Tomorrow, as you celebrate the meal the Pilgrims ate with Indians, pause a moment to thank private property.
Will Conservatives Stand Up to Trump if They Must?
Here’s an alternate-reality scenario. It’s 2016, and the president-elect of the United States is ready to take office. Her chief advisor pledges a trillion-dollar stimulus package directed at infrastructure. The advisor explains: “It’s everything related to jobs. The conservatives are going to go crazy. I’m the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. ... It’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Shipyards, iron works, get them all jacked up. We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s. ... We’ll govern for 50 years.”
College Removes American Flag, Calls It ‘Symbol of Fear’
A private college in Massachusetts has announced it will no longer fly Old Glory because it has become a “heated symbol” in the aftermath of the presidential election — an “environment of escalating hate-based violence.”