Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Obama’s Culture War
The economy is stagnant. ISIS continues its genocide. But the Obama administration has the time to launch another blitz in its ongoing war against our Judeo-Christian culture. Having successfully redefined marriage, the left is now trying to force its radical agenda into the schools and on our children. When conservatives warned that would happen, we were mocked. Well, here we are.
Dealing With Immigration
There’s no question that illegal immigration is a major headache in America, a headache of migraine proportions. Even though liberals choose to pretend that the problem exists only in the minds of conservative racists, even they know that race has nothing to do with it. If there were 15 or 20 million Scandinavians “living in the shadows,” as they like to say, conservatives would be equally resentful that of all the nations in the world, ours was the only one whose sovereignty could be ignored with impunity. Of course it would also mean that there was nobody left in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Obama Administration Loses Key ObamaCare Case
A federal district court in Washington, D.C., ruled Thursday in favor of the U.S. House of Representatives’ challenge to the Obama administration’s implementation of part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The act has been “revised” dozens of times by the administration since its passage in March 2010, leading the House to sue over the administration’s payment out of the U.S. Treasury of subsidies to insurance providers for providing cost-sharing reductions to certain policyholders, even though Congress explicitly refused to appropriate funds for these subsidies.
Trump Still Needs the GOP
I don’t know if the late Lesley Gore was a Republican or a Democrat. But after what’s happened in the last year, the Republican National Committee ought to license her 1963 hit for its theme song.
Will the Trump Nomination Change Our Polarized Partisan Patterns?
An irresistible force meets an immoveable object. The irresistible force is the sense of discontent with how things have been going during this young century. Americans are displeased with a sluggish economy that fell into a deep recession and with foreign policies that seem to have produced disappointing results. The immoveable object is the strong partisan polarization of American voters, who have been casting almost equal percentages of their votes for each political party in presidential and congressional elections for two decades now, except for a surge against Republicans in 2006 and 2008.
Obama’s Lawsuit Against North Carolina Isn’t About Civil Rights
Some of us care little about the debate over public bathrooms. We do, however, care about the ongoing destruction of federalism, individual choice and good-faith debate in America. One reliable way to quash dissent and force moral codes on others is to liken a cause to that of the 1960s civil rights fight, because every liberal issue is situated somewhere on the great historical arc of “equality” and “justice.”
Ken Burns, Pompous Poster Boy for Liberalism
“Like the amputated limb felt long after it has been cut off, I miss Trayvon Martin,” the famous orator said. Who would utter such an elaborate expression of white guilt? Try star PBS documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, gushing his way through a government-funded honor: the Jefferson Lecture, the “nation’s highest honor for intellectual achievement in the humanities,” awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In Sickness and in Wealth?
After six years of insisting Obamacare would drive down costs, the American people aren’t buying it — not the coverage, and certainly not the lies. Millions of families are feeling the financial pain for themselves, as prices and premiums climb higher than the 2,700-page bill that produced this mess. The system that was supposed to transform our health care system has succeeded in that transformation, but not in the way it was promised.
Millennials Embrace Socialism, but Do They Know What It Is?
Socialism is having a moment. I’m not just referring to Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly strong showing in the Democratic primaries. Various polls show that millennials have a more favorable view of socialism than of capitalism. And millennials generally are the only age group that views socialism more favorably than unfavorably. Some conservatives aren’t surprised. Schools have been force-feeding left-wing propaganda to kids like it was feed for geese at a foie gras factory.
The Unfolding Disaster
In Nebraska Tuesday night, with only Donald Trump still running for the Republican nomination, 40 percent of Nebraska’s Republican voters voted against him. In the last two weeks, Donald Trump has publicly declared that he does not need the Republican Party to unite behind him to win and that he does not need conservative support.
Trump & Ryan Meet
A deeply divided Republican Party took a major step toward unity [yesterday]. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan met [Thursday] morning to discuss their differences as well as areas of agreement. After their meeting on Capitol Hill, they issued a joint statement.
Should Christians Vote for Donald Trump?
For many Christians, Donald Trump is like a bucket of store-bought chicken at a Wednesday night church supper. It may be a culinary heresy — but folks will still eat it. That’s the best case scenario for the Trump campaign as they try to woo wary Evangelical Christians. Many are still not convinced that the man who has had more wives than there are letters to the Corinthians shares their view from the pew.
I Have an ‘Incomplete’ in Life 101
During the commencement ceremony at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., where I am a professor, we will be singing Isaac Watts’ “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Tears will come to my eyes as we harmonize the line, “*Time, like an ever-rolling stream*, bears all its sons away.” Once again men and women, students that I have come to admire and value, will leave our hallowed halls and begin their new lives. In most cases, my aging mind will forget their names, but I will remember our conversations and lessons. These will not be forgotten. These students have met all the qualifications for their degrees and will spread across the globe as they pursue new opportunities of employment and service.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Examples of History Beating Hysteria in Climate and Weather
So what happened to the perma-drought? Predictably, the drought in the Plains, like the 1950s, has reversed. The simple answer is that similar large scale patterns produce similar large scale results. The media does not bother to question those who were scaring the wits out of people in the Plains, Texas in particular, over a new dust bowl starting. The three-year period of 2010-2012 was very similar to 1952-1954. By March of 1955 and 2013, Texas was in dire straits. At WeatherBell, back in 2013, we were saying a reversal similar to the late 1950s would follow.
Killing Us Softly With Overregulation
In 2011, President Obama signed an executive order directing federal agencies to scrutinize their rulebooks with an eye to removing outdated regulations that were smothering the economy. “We are . . . making it our mission to root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb,” he explained at the time. The intention, said the president, was to get rid of “excessive, inconsistent, and redundant regulation” and to “reduce the burdens regulations may place on small businesses.”
The Conservative Crackup Makes Way for Hillary’s Crackup
Last week, the pressing news story was the conservative crackup, which pleased me, considering I wrote the book titled “The Conservative Crack-Up” many moons ago. Although, there were a lot more facts in my book than you will find in all the news reports that appeared last week. Moreover, the ending to my crackup story was a lot a happier for conservatives than the crackup ending predicted last week for contemporary conservatives. In brief, the wisenheimers of the media were predicting that Donald Trump, having snagged the Republican nomination, would come to Washington, D.C. in a matter of days to burn down the Republican National Committee headquarters and take Republican leaders prisoner, most significantly House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Primary Results: The Democrats
The big contest for Democrats [Tuesday] night was West Virginia. (The Nebraska primary is non-binding.) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders continues to give former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fits. She just cannot put this race away. [Tuesday] night, Sanders beat Clinton by 15 points among West Virginia Democrats. That’s a stunning reversal from 2008 when Clinton beat Barack Obama by 41 points. In 2008, Clinton won nearly 241,000 votes. [Tuesday] night, she won only 86,000.
What Government Can’t Do
Let’s call this the most unsurprising headline of the year so far: “Marriage Increases the Odds of Surviving Cancer, Studies Find.” Next thing you know they’ll be discovering that salt makes you thirsty. I’m not actually belittling the science, more the opposite. Even the most cursory glance at social science data accumulated over the past, oh, 150 years provides copious evidence that we humans do better pair-bonded for life. And if data doesn’t convince you, there’s also literature, anecdote, tradition and intuition. But let’s stick with science for now.
DOJ’s Credibility Gone in a Flush!
The Obama administration may be going to battle *with* North Carolina, but the state’s congressional delegation is going to bat *for* it. While the Justice and Education Departments plot their revenge for the Tar Heel’s Public Facilities Privacy & Securities Act (H.B. 2), a few blocks away in Congress, House members from North Carolina are demanding some answers of their own. In a letter to the Department of Education signed by 10 Tar Heel Congressmen — Richard Hudson, David Rouzer, Renee Ellmers, Virginia Foxx, Walter Jones, Mark Walker, George Holding, Mark Meadows, Robert Pittenger, Patrick McHenry — the group demanded an explanation for the financial blackmail the administration is threatening over what they call a “perceived violation” of Title IX.
When the Left Liked Conscientious Objection
Do you remember the name Daniel Berrigan? Berrigan was a Jesuit priest well-known for his protests of the Vietnam War. He became a household name in the 1960s, along with his brother, Philip Berrigan, also a priest. They were the “Berrigan Brothers,” leading lights in the anti-war movement. He died last week at age 94.