Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, July 8, 2016
Orgy of Guilt
The Islamic State, you have to acknowledge, is on quite a roll. Over the July 4 weekend, the FBI arrested a northern Virginia neighbor of mine, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh. He was apparently plotting a Fort Hood style attack and told an FBI informant: “I just want to live a good Muslim life and die as a Shaheed (martyr).” Jalloh was thwarted, but around the globe, fellow admirers or members of ISIS have been inflicting chaos and death at an accelerating rate.
The American Evolution
America always has been an exceptional nation. People in other countries recognize that America is unique. It’s why so many of those fleeing foreign oppression come to the “land of the free.” What made the U.S. great were its principles, not its officials. America was different from most other nations. It was committed to limited government and individual liberty, alien concepts in most countries. The U.S. attempted to restrain government abuse through the separation of powers, another unusual idea, especially at a time of absolute monarchs.
Hearing Highlights
Here are a few highlights from Comey’s testimony [Thursday] morning: Former Secretary of State Clinton may be facing perjury charges. Chairman Jason Chaffetz asked Comey if Clinton lied to Congress. Comey answered, “Not to my knowledge. I don’t think there’s been a referral from Congress.” Chaffetz replied, “You’ll have one in the next few hours.”
No Charges but Plenty of Blame for Hillary
It was clear from FBI Director James Comey’s congressional testimony Thursday that he thinks Hillary Clinton lied to the American people, even if he was reluctant to say it in so many words. But then he didn’t need to. We’ve known for over a year that Clinton has been lying about her server. She lied about the reason she set it up — she claimed she wanted the convenience of using just one device. She claimed she never sent or received any classified email. She claimed she handed over all of her work-related emails. She claimed that her stealth system had been approved. She claimed that her lawyers read every one of her emails before opting to hand them over or delete them.
When It Comes to Clinton, American Justice Is Blind, Deaf and Dumb
FBI Director James Comey was summoned to Capitol Hill on Thursday to explain why orange will not be Hillary Clinton’s new black. House Republicans grilled the FBI director for hours over his recommendation not to press charges against Bill Clinton’s wife. The FBI determined she was extremely careless, but not criminal in her handling of confidential and classified emails. They said it was not her *intent* to break the law and put the entire nation in grave danger. Be sure to use that defense the next time you get pulled over in Hog Jaw, Arkansas, for running that red light. Let me know how that turns out for you.
Comey: A Theory
Why did he do it? FBI director James Comey spent 14 minutes laying out an unassailable case for prosecuting Hillary Clinton for the mishandling of classified material. Then at literally the last minute, he recommended against prosecution. This is baffling. Under the statute (18 U.S.C. section 793(f)), it’s a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or “through gross negligence.” The evidence, as outlined by Comey, is overwhelming.
The Clinton Curve
I didn’t intend to run the red light. I didn’t intend to run you over in a crosswalk. I didn’t intend to get you pregnant. I didn’t intend to write this column. Therefore I’m not guilty of writing it and I can’t be blamed if you’re reading it. The lawbreaking that Hillary Clinton committed with her serial mishandling of classified material in her emails should not be excused with the argument that “I didn’t intend to break the law.”
Now Controversial: ‘God Bless America’
It didn’t used to be — that’s a phrase we use a lot these days, isn’t it? — but the Fourth of July festivities bring out the angriest guff from the left. In 1991 Boston Globe arts critic (and aspiring poet) Patricia Smith decided to refashion the national anthem in the leftist rag The Nation. “Oh say, we’ve seen too much,” she began. “The Star-Spangled Banner pushes like a cough through America’s mouth and the twilight’s last gleaming is just that, a sickly flash above our heads as we ride unsuspecting in the bellies of sleek trains, plop to our knees in churches, embracing truths that disgust us.”
Disqualifying in a Sane World
HILLARY CLINTON: I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two. FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY: Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send email on that personal domain.
Hillary: Guilty as Not Charged
It’s no mere academic question: Do we believe in the rule of law anymore? Are we a nation of laws or of men? The cherished idea of the rule of law in our system is about everyone’s being subject to the law in equal measure. The law, including criminal law, applies even to our political leaders. Both members of the American power couple known as the Clintons have escaped accountability all of their adult lives, so it comes as no shock that Hillary Clinton is once again being allowed to skate, even though the head of the very body tasked with investigating her — the FBI — has detailed precisely how Clinton did in fact break the law.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
How Strong Is the Connection Between Climate Change and Brexit?
The influx of Middle Eastern immigrants to the United Kingdom through the European Union undoubtedly played a significant role in Brexit, coupled with many British citizens’ resentment against what they perceived as intrusive and ill-advised rules imposed by unelected and unaccountable European Union officials and bureaucrats (among other reasons).
The Truth About Socialism: Venezuela Destroys Its Currency
Millennials are among the most avid supporters of the socialism promoted by Bernie Sanders. What is most remarkable is that there is ample evidence that socialist regimes bring untold economic harm to the very citizens who initially support them. My prior article on socialism in Venezuela discussed price controls and the life-threatening shortages that such controls bring. The other disastrous policy which socialist Venezuela has embraced is inflation of its money supply. Sadly, inflation is like taking a drug, its use requires larger and larger doses to produce the desired effect. Venezuela is now spiraling downward toward a hyper-inflationary overdose.
Churches Fear Iowa Law Will Silence Pastors
Congregations across the state of Iowa are in grave danger of having their pastors silenced in the pulpit over LGBT public accommodation rules, according to a federal lawsuit filed against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Fort Des Moines Church of Christ filed what is known as a “pre-enforcement challenge” — arguing that a portion of the Iowa Civil Rights Act is a threat to First Amendment freedoms. Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal firm that specializes in religious liberty lawsuits, is representing the church in its fight against the commission.
Neither Snow nor Rain nor Billion-Dollar Losses
Making a profit by selling goods and services that consumers want to buy at given prices is the first goal of any business. If consumers aren’t interested and the business doesn’t adapt, it will go under. That’s unless you are the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Service is a major business enterprise operated by the federal government. Thanks to Congress, it has something many business owners would love to have — protection from competition. Its monopoly on access to mailboxes and the delivery of first-class and standard mail means it doesn’t have to worry about someone offering a better service at a lower price. But that’s not all. In a new Cato Institute study, Chris Edwards explains that unlike private businesses, the Postal Service has access to low-rate loans from the Department of the Treasury, effectively pays no income or property taxes, is exempt from local zoning rules and even has the power of eminent domain.
Free Pass for Hillary
FBI Director James Comey has given Hillary Clinton something better than a get out of jail free card. He’s protected her from indictment by recommending to the Department of Justice that she not be prosecuted for her and her staff’s “extremely careless” handling of emails on private servers that included documents classified as “top secret,” “secret” and “confidential.” Once again the Clintons have escaped the long arm of the law, which in their case is much shorter than the arm extended to other government officials who have been caught committing far fewer infractions.
Will California Ever Thrive Again?
There was more of the same old, same old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predications of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed rail — before the first mile of track has been laid. One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon. Such pessimism is daily fare, and for good reason. The basket of California state taxes — sales, income and gasoline — rates among the highest in the U.S. Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.
A Walk With the Demonstrators
A week after the historic Brexit referendum I attended what we might call its sequel. As Americans will recall, on June 23 all of Great Britain’s bien-pensants ever so unctuously voted *against* Brexit. That is to say they voted against leaving the EU. They lost 52 percent to 48 percent. The outcome was a bit of a surprise, but they lost fair and square. Thus, a week later they flooded the streets of central London to protest the outcome of the vote and piously call for a new election. It was not that they claimed the election had been rigged. Rather, they claimed the wrong people won. They wanted a second try.
Ramadan Ends With Hundreds Dead
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan ended [Tuesday]. The death toll from radical Islam’s jihad against Western Civilization stands at nearly 350 people killed in just the past month alone. While Iraqis suffered the worst losses, the carnage was not limited to the Middle East. According to NBC News, Islamic supremacists struck in eight countries spanning the globe from the United States to Bangladesh. Here’s a summary of the Ramadan atrocities, courtesy of the “religion of peace.”
Jesse Williams’ Rant — Media Didn’t Fact-Check His Lies
Where to start with actor Jesse Williams’ widely praised rant on police brutality and white racism delivered at this year’s Black Entertainment Television awards show? To his enthusiastic audience, Williams reeled off lie after lie, all in the name of black “resistance” over the “oppressor” — meaning anyone he believes benefits from “this invention called whiteness.” Time magazine called his discourse “powerful.” Where are fact-checkers when the fact-devoid desperately need fact-checking? After all, Williams practically *begged* to be fact-checked when he said, “What we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day.”
The Sobering Evidence of Social Science
The report was so “seismic” — Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s word — that Lyndon Johnson’s administration released it on the Fourth of July weekend, 1966, hoping it would not be noticed. But the Coleman report did disturb various dogmatic slumbers and vested interests. And 50 years on, it is pertinent to today’s political debates about class and social mobility. So, let us now praise an insufficiently famous man, sociologist James Coleman, author of the study “Equality of Educational Opportunity.”