Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Brexit: Sovereign Kingdom or Little England?
Given their arrogance, pomposity and habitual absurdities, it is hard not to feel a certain satisfaction with the comeuppance that Brexit has delivered to the unaccountable European Union bureaucrats in Brussels. Nonetheless, we would do well to refrain from smug condescension. Unity is not easy. What began in 1951 as a six-member European Coal and Steel Community was grounded in a larger conception of a united Europe born from the ashes of World War II. Seven decades into the postwar era, Britain wants out and the EU is facing an existential crisis.
The Left’s Different Approach to Rights That It Opposes
I have an idea. The federal government needs to compile a list of women who shouldn’t be allowed to get abortions. The criteria for getting on the list must be flexible. If an official at, say, the NIH or FBI think that a woman should be a mother for some reason or other, he or she can block an abortion. Maybe the woman has great genes or a high IQ or the sorts of financial resources we need in parents. Let’s leave that decision where it belongs: in the hands of the government. Heck, there’s really no reason even to tell women if they’re on the “no abort” list. Let them find out at the clinic. And if they go in for an abortion only to discover they are among the million or more people on the list, there will be no clear process for getting off it, even if it was a bureaucratic error or case of mistaken identity.
Cafe Told to Remove ‘God Bless America’ Banner
Whenever folks in Penfield, New York, get a hankering for pancakes for lunch, they head over to the 5 Mile Café. The family owned restaurant is known in those parts for serving breakfast any time of the day (order their homemade corned beef hash). They are also known for their patriotism. “We are very patriotic here at the café — all year round, not just this time of year,” owner Jennifer Aquino told me. “We have American flags and patriotic things around the café.” So Jennifer decided to ask the town for a permit so she could post a “God Bless America” banner on the front of her restaurant. She wanted to display the banner from Memorial Day through Independence Day.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
The Hinge of the Great War
The walk began at 7:30 a.m., July 1, 1916, when British infantry advanced toward German trenches. In the first hours, eight British soldiers fell per second. By nightfall 19,240 were dead, another 38,230 were wounded. World War I, the worst manmade disaster in human experience, was the hinge of modern history. The war was the incubator of Communist Russia, Nazi Germany, World War II and innumerable cultural consequences. The hinge of this war was the battle named for “that little stream,” the river Somme. The scything fire of machine guns could not be nullified even by falling curtains of metal from creeping artillery barrages that moved in advance of infantry. Geoff Dyer, in “The Missing of the Somme,” notes: “By the time of the great battles of attrition of 1916-17 mass graves were dug in advance of major offenses. Singing columns of soldiers fell grimly silent as they marched by these gaping pits en route to the front-line trenches.”
Terror in Turkey
As Ramadan draws to a close, Istanbul’s Ataturk airport became the scene of the latest Islamic-inspired atrocity. Late [Tuesday] afternoon, three suicide bombers staged a coordinated attack similar to the March attack at an airport in Brussels, Belgium. Forty-one people were killed and more than 230 were wounded. Some suggest that the attack may have been retaliation for Turkey restoring formal ties with Israel this week. It has also been noted that the attack occurred on the second anniversary of ISIS formally declaring its caliphate. Honestly, I don’t care why they did this. I’m not losing sleep trying to comprehend why they kill. Nor am I conflicted over why they hate us.
Catfish, the Other Cronyism Meat?
Cronyism is the ugly marriage between special interest groups and politicians, which results in an abuse of the government’s power to grant special privileges to a few winners — for example, unfairly preventing competition or doling out subsidies and bailouts at the expense of taxpayers. Though cronyism is always outrageous, the way cronies go about achieving their goals is sometimes oddly funny. Case in point: the government’s changing the definition of catfish to classify the fish as — wait for it — meat, not seafood. As Patrick Mustain reports in Scientific American, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., included an amendment in the 2008 farm bill designating catfish as a “species amenable to” the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which “requires appointment of inspectors to examine and inspect all meat food products prepared for commerce.” The 2014 farm bill made this silly amendment official.
Donald Trump vs. CNN: Score One for Donald
I see that CNN is calling upon the good offices of Mr. Potato Head to refute Donald Trump’s evisceration of Hillary Clinton in his speech last Wednesday. Mr. Potato Head is very indignant that Peter Schweizer has written a book, “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” demonstrating that a pattern of corruption exists in the relationship between The Clinton Foundation and the Clinton State Department. He says that pattern of corruption does not establish the Clintons’ guilt. Well, an author can only do so much. Schweizer has written a convincing book about the Clintons’ corruption. The rest is left to the courts, which have yet to get the Clintons’ case, but my guess is they will have at the Clintons soon enough.
Campaign Conversion?
Following a meeting between a group of evangelical leaders and Donald Trump last week, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, was interviewed by Pennsylvania pastor Michael Anthony. Dobson told Anthony that Trump had recently come “to accept a relationship with Christ” and is now a “baby Christian.” Dobson was vague about the details of Trump’s supposed religious conversion, telling Anthony that while he knows the person responsible for “leading” Trump to Jesus, he would not name the person and couldn’t specify the time or place. “I don’t know when it was,” said Dobson, “but it has not been long.”
The Embrace of Socialism — Despite Its Track Record
One of life’s enduring mysteries is why the left — against overwhelming evidence to the contrary — insists on more taxation, more government spending and more government control over the private sector. Europe’s socialism has, over the last several decades, generated few private sector jobs and lags in growth when compared to the United States with its comparatively lighter hand of government. What does it take to show that, good intentions aside, government bureaucrats cannot spend money as efficiently and as effectively as the people who produce the money? The most recent example is Venezuela. Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor now presides over a country with food lines and soaring inflation, all directly attributable to the pursuit of a socialist paradise where a benevolent and enlightened government redistributes wealth from the greedy few to the entitled many. It ... does ... not ... work.
Dr. Frankenstein Elites Created Populist Monsters
Following the Brexit, Europe may witness even more plebiscites against the undemocratic European Union throughout the continent. The furor of ignored Europeans against their union is not just directed against rich and powerful government elites per se, or against the flood of mostly young male migrants from the war-torn Middle East. The rage also arises from the hypocrisy of a governing elite that never seems to be subject to the ramifications of its own top-down policies. The bureaucratic class that runs Europe from Brussels and Strasbourg too often lectures European voters on climate change, immigration, politically correct attitudes about diversity, and the constant need for more bureaucracy, more regulations and more redistributive taxes.
Brexit = Yes on Sovereignty
Late last week, the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK) voted to leave the European Union, a governing body comprised of 28 countries in Europe. As we examine the issues surrounding Brexit, it is useful to understand the history and the power struggles within this governing body. Beginning in 1952 with the countries of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, the European Union sought to unite the countries across Europe for trade and other cooperative efforts. The United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark joined in 1973, followed by Greece, Portugal and Spain in the 1980s. Austria, Finland, and Sweden became members in the 1990s, while the 2000s welcomed Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Croatia’s 2013 membership has been the most recent addition.
Cigarettes Are Hazardous, but Some Lawmakers Are Worse
in Hawaii and California, the minimum age for buying cigarettes was raised recently to 21. Now Massachusetts lawmakers, addicted to the rush that comes from limiting other people’s choices, are keen to jump on the bandwagon. A bill banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone younger than 21 — and, for good measure, making it a crime to sell cigarettes in drugstores — passed the state Senate by an overwhelming vote last month. The bill is now before a House committee; it could reach the full House for a vote in a matter of days. Soon after the Fourth of July, adults in Massachusetts who smoke or who do business with smokers can expect to have less freedom than they have right now. Happy Independence Day.
Your Business and Marriage: The Urgent vs. Important
Last year I wrote about the importance of marriage in “An Entrepreneur’s #1 Partnership,” emphasizing the need to prioritize your marital relationship above your business. But it’s easy to write about doing so, and quite another thing to actually live it out on a daily basis. Entrepreneurs and employees are often tempted to focus more of their attention and energies on their business or job than the relationship with their spouse. As an entrepreneur, I can affirm the struggle this dilemma often presents. And if you’ve spent any amount of time in business, you know exactly why this is.
The Golf Between Colleges and Common Sense
If laughter is the best medicine, then someone ought to take a copy of UNC’s “microaggression” guidelines to every hospital in America! The memo, brainchild of the University of North Carolina’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, is a new low for a politically correct movement that’s already God’s gift to late-night comedy. What is microaggression, you ask? It’s defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation and religious slights and insults to the target person or group.”
Run, Don’t Walk, to the Nearest Brexit
Great Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has energized populist movements around the globe. Some Americans wonder if Brexit previews a Donald Trump presidency. The presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, is playing up the possibility. “Donald Trump might win — send money” is her new message. In fact, he might win. Anything is possible in American politics. He’s been able to connect with white, working class, secular voters who until now remained Democratic or stayed home. But the success of “Brexit” offers no guarantees. There are many differences between the United Kingdom and America.
Did Obama White House Bully Anti-Muslim Preacher?
There was a troubling item tucked deep inside the House Republican’s Benghazi report on Tuesday. It involves Terry Jones — the Florida preacher who has an affinity for burning the Koran. According to the report, the White House directed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to call Preacher Jones. There were also discussions that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might “issue another statement to distance the United States from the Pastor Jones video.” It was one of several action items involving the Obama administration’s efforts to blame the attack on a YouTube video that mocked Islam.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Brexit’s Aftermath
For many people outside of Britain, the Brexit vote came in like a typical news item. One minute, you knew nothing about it (or almost nothing), then it was all over the news. And now you see people reacting with great passion over the result. For me, it wasn’t a surprise. Regular readers may recall that I endorsed a pro-Brexit vote two weeks ago, calling on my British friends to get control of their own government with laws from their own Parliament, not from bureaucrats in Brussels. In fact, this whole decision has been a long time coming. This was no impetuous decision. The push-pull debate over Britain’s membership in the European Union has been going on since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister 30 years ago. In her magisterial book “Statecraft,” she called for a trade alliance among the nations with the freest economies in the world, as an alternative to Britain’s continued reliance on the supranational European government in Brussels.
A Vote for Self-Government
Democracy is too important to be left to the people. That is the global elite’s collective reaction to Britain’s vote to exit the European Union, which is being portrayed as the work of ill-informed xenophobes who never should have been entrusted with a decision of such world-historical importance. Judging by their dismissive tone, critics of Brexit believe that the EU’s lack of basic democratic accountability is one of its institutional advantages — the better to insulate consequential decisions from backward and shortsighted voters. The opiate of the Western political class is cosmopolitanism, making it almost impossible for elites to understand the Brexit vote on its own terms.
Political Correctness Puts Americans in Grave Danger
If Americans were shocked by the recent terrorist massacre in Orlando committed by Omar Mateen in the name of ISIS and other Islamist jihadis, they should be even more alarmed by the Obama administration’s response, which once again sought to obfuscate the role of Islamist ideology in motivating that terrorist attack — the largest on U.S. soil since 9/11. In spite of Islamists having established an unparalleled record of terrorism — some 20,000 assaults globally in the name of Islam since 9/11 – U.S. law enforcement, intelligence and national armed forces have for many years been operating partially blindfolded with one hand tied behind their backs under the heel of the politically correct posture of protecting Islam and Muslims.
Outsourcing Security Is Dumb and Deadly
It is not a theory that delegating the protection of our embassy and military personnel to other countries risks lives. It is a reality bathed in American blood. The latest reports on Benghazi released this week underscore the persistent dangers of outsourcing security. By all accounts, the security conditions at the State Department’s consular facility in Libya were “deplorable,” as the House Benghazi committee’s final summary report described it. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been warned a month before the attack that violence was “on an upward trend” and “unpredictable;” “lawlessness was increasing,” and local militia groups that were providing security in many areas were at the same time “undercutting it in others.”