Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Hillary’s Climate of Hate
Who are the haters? Who are the autocrats? Who are the serial abusers of power? Only one presidential candidate has wielded the sledgehammer of government against personal enemies. Only one presidential candidate has exploited a spouse’s public office to exact revenge on political dissenters. Only one presidential candidate has a quarter-century track record of taxpayer-subsidized demagoguery and class warfare. And as the most recent undercover investigation by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas revealed this past week, only one presidential candidate has been directly linked to a scheme to foment chaos and violence at her opponent’s rallies.
Dumb American Youth
Do you wonder why Sen. Bernie Sanders and his ideas are so popular among American college students? The answer is that they, like so many other young people who think they know it all, are really uninformed and ignorant. You say, “Williams, how dare you say that?! We’ve mortgaged our home to send our children to college.” Let’s start with the 2006 geographic literacy survey of youngsters between 18 and 24 years of age by National Geographic and Roper Public Affairs. Less than half could identify New York and Ohio on a U.S. map. Sixty percent could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map of the Middle East, and three-quarters could not find Iran or Israel. In fact, 44 percent could not locate even one of those four countries. Youngsters who had taken a geography class didn’t fare much better. By the way, when I attended elementary school, during the 1940s, we were given blank U.S. maps, and our assignment was to write in the states. Today such an assignment might be deemed oppressive, if not racist.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Californian’s Fight Against Illegal College Subsidies for Illegal Immigrants Heads to Court
The next front in the battle over in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants will play out in a California appeals court on Nov. 3 in a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch on behalf of California resident and taxpayer Earl De Vries. The issue there is not whether the California Legislature can authorize in-state tuition to illegal immigrants — courts have held that they can — but whether the University of California Board of Regents, an independent body from the state Legislature, can lawfully authorize in-state tuition for illegal immigrants at all University of California campuses in direct violation of federal law.
ACLU: School’s Salute to Cops Sends ‘Ominous, Frightening Message’
A patriotic, pre-game celebration honoring law enforcement and first responders at a high school football game has drawn the ire of the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. New Jersey’s Middletown High School South saluted more than 100 police officers and military personnel on Oct. 21st. The celebration culminated with teenaged football players and police officers unfurling a massive American flag before singing the national anthem. “A star-spangled celebration” is how the Asbury Park Press described the festivities.
Trump’s Biggest Vulnerability Is Trump
Hillary Clinton may be the first candidate in American history to win a contest of personalities without having one. She has been content to make the election all about Donald Trump’s character, and Trump has obliged because, really, what else would he consider as fascinating and important as himself? In a more normal year, Obamacare would be a byword for the failures of liberal technocrat rule. Insurers have been exiting the exchanges, and many of those that are staying are hiking premiums by 20 percent or more. Even a Democratic governor, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, has said that Obamacare is “no longer affordable to increasing numbers of people.”
YouTube vs. Conservative Speech
Last week, The Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial about YouTube restricting access to 16 videos — down from 21 — that were created and posted online by my nonprofit educational organization, Prager University. The subheading read, “YouTube thinks Dennis Prager’s videos may be dangerous.” The Journal said: “Tech giants like Google and Facebook always deny that their platforms favor some viewpoints over others, but then they don’t do much to avoid looking censorious. ... Dennis Prager’s ‘PragerU’ puts out free short videos on subjects ‘important to understanding American values’ — ranging from the high cost of higher education to the motivations of Islamic State.
Texas to Target: Try on Safety!
For a lot of women, finding the right swimming suit is hard enough. But for one teenage girl, trying one on turned into a terrifying experience that could scar her forever. She was in a Target changing room with her mom, when she saw a 46-year-old “transgender” man looking over the partition at her unclothed body, videotaping her. Horrified, her mom ran after him to the parking lot, where he got in his car and sped away.
The Politics These Two Unpopular Nominees Hath Wrought
In last week’s third and (thank goodness) final presidential debate, each candidate did an excellent job of presenting convincing arguments for why people shouldn’t vote for the other. Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a felon, and Clinton called Trump a traitor. Unfortunately for America, there is plenty of basis for the former charge and less but still disturbing evidence for the latter. These two may not be the most unpopular pair of major-party presidential nominees in history. James Buchanan and John C. Fremont in 1856 may have been worse, at least judging from their later feckless careers.
Immigration Controversies
Despite controversies that rage over immigration, it is hard to see how anyone could be either for or against immigrants in general. First of all, there are no immigrants in general. Both in the present and in the past, some immigrant groups have made great contributions to American society, and others have contributed mainly to the welfare rolls and the prisons. Nor is this situation unique to the United States. The same has been true of Sweden and of other countries in Europe and elsewhere.
Hypocrite Clinton
In the modern history of American politics, has there ever been a bigger hypocrite than Hillary Clinton? Her 30 years in politics have taught us clearly that Clinton lives by one set of rules and wants to impose different rules for everyone else. She constantly accuses Donald Trump of transgressions of which she herself is guilty. She sermonizes about a code of conduct that she, her husband and her operatives routinely violate. We have learned from her emails that she has two personas: She tells voters one thing and her donors the opposite.
Dirty Tricks: Then and Now
Students of the Watergate era (or those old enough to have lived through it) will recall the “dirty tricks” played by Richard Nixon’s henchmen, most notably Donald Segretti. Segretti, who was hired by Nixon’s deputy assistant, Dwight Chapin, was tasked with smearing Democrats, including senator and 1972 presidential candidate, Edmund Muskie of Maine. Among several “tricks,” Segretti composed a fake letter on Muskie’s letterhead falsely alleging that Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) had fathered a child with a 17-year-old girl.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Polling as Propaganda
Two significant polls were released in recent days. I’m sure you heard all about the ABC News poll. It was talked about endlessly over the weekend because it found Clinton/Kaine leading Trump/Pence by 12 points — 50% to 38%. I doubt you heard about the latest Investor’s Business Daily poll. It was released this morning and found Trump and Clinton tied. By the way, the IBD poll was the most accurate poll in the last three election cycles. If asked, both pollsters would look into a camera and tell Americans that they followed all the rules of modern polling. But one of them is extraordinarily wrong. How can that be? There is a huge problem somewhere.
Hillary Clinton’s ‘Progressive Vision’ of Religious Freedom
The 2016 debates are history, and although nearly every topic was hammered to heaven, one was not broached at all: a First Amendment guarantee that makes us uniquely American. Freedom of religion represents the proverbial canary in the coal mine and the evidence shows it may gasping. Let’s take a look.
OUTRAGE! Pentagon Says Soldiers Must Repay Bonus Money
Every now and then a story crosses my desk that gets me riled up. This is one of those stories. The Los Angeles Times reports that as many as 10,000 soldiers who were given bonus money to reenlist have been ordered to repay the cash. During the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the California National Guard was faced with a manpower shortage. So it offered massive enlistment bonuses to entice soldiers to re-enlist. But now, a decade later, the Pentagon says it wants that money back — with interest. The Times reports that the California Guard mismanaged the bonuses and as many as 10 thousand soldiers received too much money. It was not an isolated problem. There are reports of bonus money mismanagement in all 50 states. Soldiers who refuse to repay the bonus money could face garnishments and tax liens.
Dennis Prager Doth Protest Too Much
I have been a Dennis Prager fan for a very long time. In the pre-internet days when he published a newsletter, I was a subscriber. I have read many of his columns and listened to several of his speeches. When his syndicated talk show was on Boston radio, I often tuned in. I not only own most of his books, I’ve kept one in my office at the Boston Globe for years — his 1995 essay collection, “Think a Second Time.” What I always admired most about Prager’s work was his focus on goodness and decent values as the most important ingredients in a healthy society. Prager, a committed Jew, has often written that God’s primary demand of human beings is kind and ethical behavior. And he has excoriated ideologues who would rather defame their political opponents as bigots or haters than grapple fairly with their arguments.
What Clinton’s Support of Partial Birth Abortion and Donations From Qatar Have in Common
Hillary Clinton touts herself as a tireless advocate for the rights of women, children and families. Her record shows otherwise. While it is true that the Clinton Foundation and Secretary Clinton have done some good, the stark reality is that recent history reveals that Secretary Clinton is also perfectly willing to throw both women and children under the bus when it is politically expedient to do so. Consider: Secretary Clinton accepted at least $ 25 million from oppressive nations like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where the laws and culture allow husbands to beat their wives. Women caught in adultery are stoned; girls and women are treated like property; females are often denied an education and they can’t even enjoy some of the basic conveniences we take for granted, like driving a car.
Liberals Say the Darnedest Things
It was the legendary Art Linkletter who first pointed out that kids say the darndest things, but kids can’t hold a candle to Democrats. Although Barack Obama has spent nearly eight years shortchanging NASA, forcing our scientists to hitch rides on Russian spacecraft, he has now announced that he wants to see Americans on Mars in the near-future. He didn’t specify who those Americans would be, but I have a hunch it’s Republicans he’d like to shoot a kazillion miles into outer space. Still, since it’s nicknamed the Red Planet, you would think it would be a more natural habitat for communists and their fellow travelers in the Democratic Party.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
What Anita Hill and Bill Clinton Can Teach Us About Trump and Women
There will be some people going to the polls next month who were not even born when these events happened. Yet the print and broadcast media are a swirl with tales of powerful men, the women they interacted with and, of course, sex. The trouble is that most of what is being said is wrong. Take Anita Hill. Twenty-five years ago she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and in dramatic testimony, televised to a national viewing audience, accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her while she was his employee. Some writers are now comparing Donald Trump to Clarence Thomas.
In Wisconsin, a Measure of the Country’s Metabolism
In 49 states, when you order breakfast in a restaurant you might be asked if you would like pancakes or an omelet. In Wisconsin, you are asked if you would like pancakes with your omelet. Ron Johnson would, thank you. This Republican U.S. senator, who is burning prodigious amounts of calories campaigning for a second and final term, really does represent the hearty eaters who were fueling up at a Perkins restaurant here on a recent Sunday morning. In 2010, Johnson left his plastics manufacturing company that made him wealthy enough to try, against his preference for the private sector and against his wife’s adamant disapproval, to become the only manufacturer in the Senate. He surfed into that chamber on the Republican wave raised by two things that annoyed Johnson enough to propel him into politics — the Obama administration’s stimulus that did not stimulate, and Obamacare, which six years later is in intensive care.