Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Clinically Insane: Nation Reacts to Abortion Bombshell
For families like Karnamaya Mongar’s, [Monday’s] Supreme Court decision was nothing to celebrate. While some young women cheered a ruling that lets monsters like Kermit Gosnell exploit them, Mongar’s parents know all too well what the five justices’ opinion means for daughters like theirs. Karnamaya couldn’t tell these misled girls her story, because she was left to die in Gosnell’s filthy clinic recliner after an overdose of Demerol — most likely administered by one of his 15-year-old anesthetists. Like them, she probably never believed that ending her baby’s life would cost her her own. But that will be an even greater risk now that our highest court has given abortionists the freedom to treat women — not as patients, but profits.
The Liberal Tilt at PolitiFact
CNN’s “Reliable Sources” offered a panel discussion on June 26 asking if Americans are so apathetic to the truth that our politics have entered a “post-fact check phase.” This is a reference to Donald Trump, of course. The media believe he’s a liar and gets away with it because of public apathy. What these journalists will never concede, however, is that Democrats get away with dishonesty because of their own apathy. Hillary Clinton’s obscene lie about landing in sniper fire in Bosnia is a distant memory.
Twin Falls Cover-Up
In the aftermath of the Orlando terrorist attack and major Supreme Court decisions, a developing story in Twin Falls, Idaho, may have escaped your notice. The story hasn’t made it to the national news, but it should. Like many small, rural communities around the country, the Obama administration has chosen this town, located near the Nevada/Utah border, to receive hundreds of refugees from Muslim nations. No one asked the citizens of Twin Falls if they approved of this. Residents of Twin Falls have voiced their frustrations to local officials. Some have been threatened, others have been spat on by the new arrivals. Then a truly horrible assault occurred. Three young refugees reportedly raped a mentally challenged five-year-old girl.
The Sunday After Brexit
It was off to one side of the train line but not too far away. The tower of an ancient church stood up in golden sunshine. Before it and beyond it rolled fields of brilliant green, crossed by hedgerows and accented by occasional trees. Stretching out in front of the church was a small village of solid stone houses. How old was that church? How old were those houses? How long had farmers tilled the fields around them? How long had this architecture — this village — stood in this rural part of England? The answers were impossible for a foreigner to immediately learn as the train from Scotland rolled smoothly and rapidly southward on its journey to London — on the Sunday after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.
Multiculturalism: A Failed Concept
German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that multiculturalism has “utterly failed,” adding that it was an illusion to think Germans and foreign workers could “live happily side by side.” The failure of multiculturalism is also seen in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and other European countries. Immigrants coming from Africa and the Middle East refuse to assimilate and instead seek to import the failed cultures they fled. Leftist diversity advocates and multiculturalists are right to argue that people of all races, religions and cultures should be equal in the eyes of the law. But their argument borders on idiocy when they argue that one set of cultural values cannot be judged superior to another and that to do so is Eurocentrism.
A Disastrous Court Decision on Abortion
The Supreme Court’s decision, striking down the Texas abortion law signed by Governor Rick Perry in 2013, is but the latest example of the lost, confused, sick nation we have become. In the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, “A country I do not recognize.” The Court, in an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, found unconstitutional the two contested provisions of the Texas law — that physicians performing an abortion have “admitting privileges” at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic and that facilities where abortions are performed must meet the standards of an “ambulatory surgical center.” The Court’s decision says that these conditions place an “undue burden” on a woman’s alleged right to an abortion.
When Abortion Fans Let the Truth Slip Out
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued yet another politically driven leftist decision, this time over the contentious issue of abortion. The court explained that not only did the Constitution of the United States mandate that states not infringe upon the phantom right to abortion but that health regulations on abortion clinics in Texas had to be overturned if they made it less convenient for women to kill their babies at such clinics. To this decision, “The Daily Show” had but one well-considered response: “Celebrate the #SCOTUS ruling! Go knock someone up in Texas!” The right reacted without outrage; even the left found the tweet sufficiently indiscreet to merit a bit of tut-tutting.
Convicted and Unemployed
Just got out of jail? Odds are that within five years, you’ll get caught doing something illegal and go back to jail. This is bad for ex-cons, their victims, their families and America. Some of these people, of course, are career criminals who ought to stay in jail. But most are people who deserve another chance. They are more likely to stay straight if they find work. Work gives people purpose. It fills the idle hours that get many people into trouble. But America makes it extra hard for ex-cons to find work. Some states make it illegal.
The Wisdom of Mencken, Nock Seems Fresh Today
Believing in my bones, as I do, that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are unworthy and unqualified to be president of the United States has inspired me to do a lot of soul searching, and that has drawn me more and more to the writings of the legendary H.L. Mencken and less-than-legendary Albert J. Nock. The two Tory anarchists, as some called them, were friends and intellectual comrades-in-arms who stood athwart the progressive and populist passions that defined American politics in the first half of the 20th century.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Conscience and Republican Convention Delegate Voting Rules
Over the weekend a reporter on Fox News said something that struck my attention: “There is a move to have the Republican Convention Rules Committee enact a measure that would prevent bound delegates from abstaining from votes on the first ballot, based on their conscience.” This reference to conscience got my attention because I have studied the subject for decades, having also written a history of liberty of conscience. Wanting to make sure that the reporter had her facts straight, I tracked down the source for the reporter’s brief remarks. It turns out that Virginia has a statute that requires delegates to the national political conventions to vote for the winners of the primaries. This year for the Republicans that would be Donald Trump.
Brexit Earthquake Hits Britain
Earthquakes seldom hit the British Isles. But one did late Thursday night and early Friday morning, as the constituency returns started pouring in on the referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom would remain in or leave the European Union. Most polls had shown a small margin for remain, and betting markets made it an odds-on favorite. Hedge funds went long on the assumption “Remain” would win. It had the support, after all, of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, the leftist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Bank of England President Mark Carney and the financial leaders of the City of London.
Britain to EU: Good Riddance
Maybe it was those college courses on the history of Europe that soured me on the idea of a united continent. How could a conglomeration of nation states noted for invading each other, pillaging and warring against each other form a union? How could a continent with different languages, cultures and money become a united states of Europe modeled after the USA? Unity is not union. As the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher observed: “European unity has been tried before, and the outcome was far from happy.”
The Fraud Goes On
Last week the Supreme Court of the United States voted that President Obama exceeded his authority when he granted exemptions from the immigration laws passed by Congress. But the Supreme Court also exceeded its own authority by granting the University of Texas an exemption from the Constitution’s requirement of “equal protection of the laws,” by voting that racial preferences for student admissions were legal. Supreme Court decisions in affirmative action cases are the longest running fraud since the 1896 decision upholding racial segregation laws in the Jim Crow South, on grounds that “separate but equal” facilities were consistent with the Constitution. Everybody knew that those facilities were separate but by no means equal. Nevertheless, this charade lasted until 1954.
Hillary Clinton Pleads for 4 More Years
What an amazing speech in Columbus, Ohio, last week by Hillary Clinton. She started off: “People are working harder and longer just to keep their heads above water. And to deal with the costs, the everyday costs, the costs of basics like childcare and prescription drugs that are too high. College is getting more expensive every day. And wages are still too low and inequality is too great. Good jobs in many parts of this country are still too hard to come by.”
A Sad Day at the Supreme Court
Today is a sad day for the pro-life movement. In a 5-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down laws passed by the state of Texas regulating the health and safety standards of abortion clinics. After Texas passed these regulations, more than half of the abortion clinics in the state shut down. Many states adopted similar laws in recent years. Incredibly, the court’s majority opinion, written by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, claimed that the safety regulations failed “to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes.”
Can We Harness the Worldwide Populist Movement?
It is hard to deny that there is a worldwide impulse against elitism, globalism, unaccountable regulatory bureaucracies and illegal immigration that is powerfully present in the United States and transcends the Donald Trump candidacy. The vote to leave the European Union won decisively in Britain, which doubtlessly shocked the elites and political forecasters. Populist forces have also gained ground against former leftist strongholds in other parts of Europe. Many attribute this trend to an uprising of working-class voters, who have been damaged by the global economy and ignored by elites. That certainly proved true in the Brexit vote, in which working-class areas voted to leave the EU while the establishment and mostly affluent voted to remain. Likewise, in the recent elections in Austria, conservatives gained ground among working-class voters who had aligned with Social Democrats a mere decade previously. The same patterns have emerged in Denmark and Germany.
Why the Left Hates Referendums
One of the common laments of leftist commentators in Europe and America concerning Brexit is that holding referendums is a bad idea. The most frequently expressed example is the contempt in which the left holds British Prime Minister David Cameron for having suggested the referendum in the first place. But why would the left hate referendums? Doesn’t it claim to represent “the people”? Isn’t “power to the people” one of the most popular sayings of the left? Isn’t the American left trying to abolish the Electoral College precisely because it isn’t directly representative of “the people’s” will?
SCOTUS Chooses Riskier Business on Abortion
It’s a surreal day in America when hundreds of young women stand outside the U.S. Supreme Court and cheer a decision that subjects them to dirty and dangerous abortion chambers like Kermit Gosnell’s. Yet that’s exactly what happened [Monday] morning when five unelected justices decided to topple a law enacted by the leaders of Texas, which required that abortionists offer such “controversial” things as trained staff, up-to-date sanitation codes, or hallways wide enough to accommodate gurneys.
Corporate Clinton
Many leaders of big business support Hillary Clinton. Last week she announced a list of 56 corporate backers. No wonder Bernie Sanders is still running against her. Hillary Clinton always has attracted well-connected business supporters. Even before she ran for office. Remember the lucrative cattle trades when she was Arkansas first lady? That came from a local businessman who knew how important it was to have friends in the governor’s mansion.
Microaggression Madness: Footwear Flattery and Santa Cause Coed Kerfuffle
The University of North Carolina has been infected with a micro-aggression pandemic. We are being led to believe the entire campus has been afflicted with this highly communicable, politically correct malady. University officials recently released online guidelines to employees on issues ranging from gender-neutral dress codes to casual conversations about ladies shoes in hopes of staving off the spread of this heinous disease. One of the guidelines posted on UNC’s Employee Forum warned against complimenting a woman on her choice of footwear. To do so would be considered to be a micro-aggression meaning “I notice how you look and dress more than I value your intellectual contributions. How you look is really important.”