Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
How San Francisco Keeps Its Carbon Footprint Down
Not long before the start of the NBA playoff game between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, the television screen flashed to a panoramic view of the San Francisco skyline — as seen from the East Bay. A bank of early evening fog floated into the city from the West, rolling off the unseen Pacific. High-rise buildings stood in silhouette before that bank of fog, many stretching out in territory to the south of the Transamerica Pyramid.
On ‘Inequality’
Is there a more brain-dead concept than to empower the government to fight “income inequality”? What sane, normal, rational human being thinks that human talent, drive, interests and opportunity can — or should — result in equal outcomes? Despite my love of athletics, I knew in third grade that my friend, Keith, could run much faster than I could. For two years I played Little League ball, and I got better at it. But no matter how hard I tried or how many hours I spent, I could not hit, run or throw as well as my friend Benji.
Years After Hiroshima Comes the Blah
I was reading a brilliant biography of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by Charles Moore titled “Margaret Thatcher At Her Zenith: In London, Washington, and Moscow” just about the time our president was delivering his rhetorical serving of mush at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, Japan. There he was, calling for a “moral revolution” worldwide, which would rid the world of nuclear arms. He said: “We may not be able to eliminate mankind’s capacity to do evil...But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them.” Incidentally, what will President Obama or his successor do with a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclear-armed Iran that he so recently enabled?
End of the EU?
Later this month, British voters will go to the polls and cast their ballots on a referendum to stay or exit the European Union (EU). The vote is often referred to as the “Brexit” — short for “British exit.” You may recall that Barack Obama went to England several weeks ago and threatened British voters if they dared to leave the EU. Obama suggested England would be at the back of the line in future trade deals.
A Gorilla ‘Tragedy’
A gorilla has taken control of your TV set. What an apt metaphor for the past year. In fact, of course, I refer to the actual gorilla that was (if you take the word of some of the more unhinged commenters on social media) “assassinated” by zoo officials in Cincinnati. I nearly wrote “who,” but that would be to commit the error so many are making in this case — confusing animals with people. To recap: A family visited the gorilla exhibit over Memorial Day weekend. A 3-year-old child managed to slip into the gorilla enclosure while his mother was distracted.
Fighting P.C. in the W.C.
The president always claimed he wanted to unite people. And now, his bathroom edict finally has! Unfortunately for him, the country’s consensus is vastly different than his own. In the two weeks since the Obama administration announced its gender free-for-all, parents, leaders, and activists across America are lining up to fight back. Sick of seeing children’s safety sacrificed on the altar of radical sexualism, governors and attorneys general are drawing a line at their borders and telling the White House: Keep out!
The British Will Choose Their Destiny
Sitting on the sun-dappled terrace of the House of Lords, watching the Thames flow, Lord Nigel Lawson explains that the June 23 referendum, which he hopes will withdraw Britain from the European Union, was never supposed to happen. It is, he says, the fulfillment of a promise Prime Minister David Cameron expected to be prevented from keeping.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Pure Political Theater, Based on an Agenda
The Weatherbell.com seasonal hurricane forecast first went out in late March. And with the 2016 hurricane season underway, it’s worth taking a look at what we settled on in mid-May.
In Defense of the Cincinnati Zoo
The typical response when someone saves a small child from harm isn’t “How dare you?” But the Cincinnati Zoo has been subjected to a torrent of abuse for making the agonizing decision to shoot and kill one of its gorillas, a 17-year-old silverback named Harambe, when a 4-year-old boy fell into its enclosure.
In Clinton, Americans Don’t Trust
One year ago this month, a Quinnipiac University poll of voters in three swing states highlighted a looming problem for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign: More than half the respondents in each state regarded her as dishonest. A nationwide CNN poll the same month yielded similar findings: Fifty-seven percent of voters said Clinton was not trustworthy.
Trump’s Revised Tax Plan: Will It Be Acceptable to Conservatives?
Now that Donald Trump has locked up the Republican nomination, we can look more closely at his policy proposals. In April, when the two candidates were still battling for the Republican nomination, I compared Donald Trump’s tax plan to Ted Cruz’s plan. Now the important question is how does Trump’s plan compare with Hillary Clinton’s or a possible third party candidate’s plan? Importantly, Trump has indicated recently that he might propose a different tax plan than what he originally proposed, saying so to both ABC and NBC. If he sticks with the principles of his original tax plan, but seeks smaller cuts in tax rates, his revised plan would be better by being more consistent with fiscal responsibility.
Do Louisiana Lawmakers Really Think the Declaration Is Racist and Sexist?
Days before the 1983 gubernatorial election in Louisiana, Democrat Edwin Edwards infamously declared that “the only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” Edwards was elected governor that year — demonstrating the low bar Democrats must hurdle to hold public office in the Bayou State. Edwards may have been a scoundrel (not to mention a convicted felon) but at least he didn’t slander our Founding Fathers or the Declaration of Independence.
New Evidence Supporting School Choice
A groundbreaking new study from the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas provides state of the art data showing the benefits of school choice. The bottom line: When parents have choice where to send their child to school, their children perform better in reading and math tests.
Multiple Choices in November
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld were nominated to lead the Libertarian ticket at the party’s national convention over the weekend, which made headlines for other reasons. Johnson and Weld claim to be conservatives, but Weld is especially liberal on values issues and Johnson supports legalizing virtually all drugs.
The $16 Billion Tax-Credit Black Hole
President Obama and GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan want to expand it. Tax preparation companies and illegal immigrants are cashing in on it. Fraudsters have found bottomless ways to exploit it. The earned income tax credit, a bipartisan-supported “anti-poverty” benefit, is robbing honest, law-abiding Americans blind. Originally intended to help low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples with children, the refundable tax credit has ballooned into a massive welfare entitlement for politically correct constituents who pay no income taxes — yet are still eligible for payouts.
Are the Clintons the Real Housing-Crash Villains?
We are going to reveal the grand secret to getting rich by investing. It’s a simple formula that has worked for Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn and all the greatest investment gurus over the years. Ready? Buy low; sell high. It turns out that Donald Trump has been very, very good at buying low and selling high, and it helps account for his amazing business success.
Premiums Take a Hike Under ObamaCare
Obamacare is getting a premium check-up — but it’s consumers who are starting to feel sick. After more than a half-decade of the president’s spectacular failure, health care insurers can’t make a living — and Americans are forking over theirs for the most basic of coverage. Now, desperate to stop the financial bleeding, insurance companies are turning to states for permission to raise premiums, in some cases as much as 58 percent!
Hillary’s ‘Self-Inflicted’ Email Mess
Dana Milbank and Ruth Marcus are both Yale-educated reporters-turned-columnists at The Washington Post. They view the world through the same lens. This sometimes means they can write pretty much the same column. It also means they both have a huge blind spot when it comes to sympathizing with Hillary Clinton.
Notes From a Neo-Nazi Cuckservative
Last week, California State University, Los Angeles held a “healing space” event to provide a safe forum for students and professors to unleash their feelings about my campus speech in February, sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation. That speech, you may recall, was originally canceled by university President William Covino. After I decided to go to the campus anyway, hundreds of screaming students blocked doorways, assaulted prospective speechgoers and pulled the fire alarm mid-speech. Professors egged on the protesters; one even threatened student organizers. I was forced to enter through a back door and exit surrounded by a full phalanx of armed and uniformed officers, thanks to the near-riotous conditions outside.
Elitist Arrogance
White teenage unemployment is about 14 percent. That for black teenagers is about 30 percent. The labor force participation rate for white teens is 37 percent, and that for black teens is 25 percent. Many years ago, in 1948, the figures were exactly the opposite. The unemployment rate of black 16-year-old and 17-year-old males was 9.4 percent, while that of whites was 10.2 percent. Up until the late 1950s, black teens, as well as black adults, were more active in the labor market than their white counterparts. I will return to these facts after I point out some elitist arrogance and moral bankruptcy.