Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
New York Results: The Democrats
Stung by a series of consecutive losses, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did what she *HAD* to do [Tuesday] night: She scored a decisive victory over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders bet big that an upset in New York would upend the Democrat race. He reportedly outspent Clinton 2-to-1 on ads. But in spite of the big money, big rallies and whatever momentum Sanders had, Hillary hit it out of the park [Tuesday] night, winning 58%-to-42%. She added at least 173 delegates, bringing her total delegate count to 1,930 or 81% of the total needed to secure the Democrat presidential nomination.
Taking the Wind Out of the Left’s Sales
It looks just like any other online shopping cart. There’s a drop down menu for parts and sizes. Click over to checkout, the website says, and choose your shipping option. But this isn’t your average Amazon order. It’s a ghoulish shop of horrors, where tiny human hands, hearts, eyes, scalps and livers are for sale.
Fired for Preaching: Georgia Dumps Doctor Over Church Sermons
Bi-vocational pastors be warned — what you say from the pulpit on Sunday could get you fired from your public sector job on Monday. Dr. Eric Walsh, a renowned public health expert who also serves as a lay minister, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Public Health alleging he was terminated for delivering sermons on issues ranging from homosexuality to evolution. “No one in this country should be fired from their job for something that was said in a church or from a pulpit during a sermon,” said First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys.
The Gift of Trump’s Ramshackle Campaign
Donald Trump, a man about town in Manhattan, doubtless fancies himself a Master of the Universe. He is, however, no match for folks who have run rings around his ramshackle campaign in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Casper, Wyoming. They met to select, by settled rules comprehensible to all who can read, delegates to the Republican National Convention. They selected so many sympathetic to Ted Cruz that Trump has declared the system in both states, and wherever else the diligent are defeating the dilettante, to be “rigged, disgusting, dirty.” Actually, he is having the novel experience of competing in systems that are not rigged.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Delegate Rules Aren’t ‘Rigged’ Just Because Trump Doesn’t Like Them
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has been bellyaching that the Republican Party’s presidential nominating rules are unfair. “It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system,” the front-runner fumes. He argues that “whoever gets the most delegates should win,” and not be bound by the “artificial” and “random” provision of an actual majority. And he lashes out at a “corrupt and crooked” system that empowers party officials and activists to choose those delegates in county and state caucuses. “That’s not the way democracy is supposed to work,” he complains.
How Trump’s Recent Behavior Reveals Disturbing Weaknesses
If you’ve ever played checkers, the card game Old Maid, baseball, or watched a sporting event, there is one basic fact that applies to all these games. In order to win, you must know the rules. If you don’t and your opponent does, you will certainly lose. If you’re playing checkers, a loss generally means very little. But if you’re a coach in the finals of the AFC Championship, you’d better study the rules and know them well, or it could cost you a trip to the Super Bowl. Since we were toddlers, we’ve learned that our world turns on rules. Some fair. Others not. But they are rules that must be followed.
Federal Court: Schools May Not Provide Separate Bathrooms Based on Biology
On Tuesday, the Fourth Circuit Court ruled against a Virginia school district that sought to accommodate a transgender student while also protecting the privacy rights of other students. The court concluded that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 — which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex — should be interpreted as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity, as a Department of Education letter suggested in 2015. The ruling allows a lawsuit brought by a transgender student to proceed.
Is Hillary Angling to Be the First Black Female President?
When it comes to pandering nobody does it better than Hillary Clinton – who is desperate to become the nation’s first black female president. In her latest outreach to New York City’s black voters, Mrs. Clinton told hip-hop radio show hosts that she carries a bottle of hot sauce in her purse. It was an apparent homage to a lyric in “Formation,” Beyonce’s latest hit song. Or as Hot Sauce Hillary calls her, “Bay-on-say.” But I’ll get to that little faux pas later. “I got hot sauce in my bag, swag,” is how the song goes.
Biden: ‘Israel Is Moving In Wrong Direction’
[Monday] was another day when Israelis were reminded, not that they needed to be, of how merciless their enemies are. A bomb was detonated by Palestinian terrorists on a bus in Jerusalem, wounding 21 Israelis, including women and children. Also [Monday] Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) uncovered another Hamas terror tunnel entering Israel from Gaza. These tunnels have one purpose — to provide a transit route into Israel for Hamas jihadists to use to murder Israeli civilians in their homes, schools and synagogues.
The Liberal War on Black Men
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, then a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and former chairman of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, to replace Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court. The rest, as they say, is history.
Yes, We Need a Canadian Border Wall
Canada’s sloppy, rushed and reckless Syrian refugee resettlement program is America’s looming national security nightmare. Donald Trump shouldn’t just be promising to build a Mexican border wall. He (and any other sovereignty-minded presidential candidate) should be vowing to rebuild the decimated “wall” of first-line watchdogs, field enforcement and patrol officers on our northern border. The urgency could not be greater.
Sanders Pushes Hillary Far to The Left
If conventional wisdom ruled in this election cycle thus far, America’s most prominent journalists would have painted the traditional portrait of the candidates. They would show Hillary Clinton and the Democrats warmly reminding the country of her husband’s allegedly centrist presidency. Whoever the Republicans nominated would either be declared by the media as too conservative to win, or be utterly ruined by trying to placate those crazy tea party people who inevitably make the moderates unelectable.
Obama Administration Tells Supreme Court ‘Lawfully’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Legally’
“Lawfully” does not mean “legally.” Welcome to what Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told the Supreme Court on Monday is the “immigration world.” Or, more accurately, welcome to the new world President Barack Obama — through his solicitor — is asking the Supreme Court to join him in declaring. It is a world that contradicts the law of noncontradiction. It is a place where something can be and not be at the same time. It is a place of illogic — and lawlessness.
Dissent Into Madness
The circus is leaving North Carolina — but not the one locals wish would go. Cirque de Soleil packed up its tents in a huff over H.B. 2 and took off for Kentucky, which — hypocrisy alert! — also doesn’t have the bathroom mandate they’re supposedly supporting! Like Pearl Jam and Boston and every other group they’re claiming are pulling out of the state, Matt Walsh writes, “the irony here is so thick I might choke on it.”
Rights Versus Wishes
Here is what presidential aspirant Sen. Bernie Sanders said: “I believe that health care is a right of all people.” President Barack Obama declared that health care “should be a right for every American.” The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: “Every person has a right to adequate health care.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his January 1944 message to Congress, called for “the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.” And it is not just a health care right that people claim. There are rights to decent housing, good food and a decent job, and for senior citizens, there’s a right to prescription drugs. In a free and moral society, do people have these rights? Let’s look at it.
Your Daughter Must Pee Next to a Man, and You Will Be Compelled to Agree
The rules of bigotry according to the left represent a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of nonsense. This week, we learned that if you don’t want your small daughter peeing next to a giant man who thinks he is a woman, you are a bigot; if you are a woman who is uncomfortable with a man who thinks he is a woman whipping out his male genitalia to urinate in front of you, you are a bigot; if you are a religious person who doesn’t want to participate in an activity you consider sinful, you are a bigot.
Higher Minimum Wage Is Well-Intentioned but Problematic
Much has been written about the ignorance, impracticality and offensiveness of many of the Republican front-runners’ policy proposals. Not nearly enough has been written about the ignorance, impracticality and offensiveness of the policy proposals emanating from the Democratic side, some of which, unlike Donald Trump’s Mexican-financed wall and Muslim ban, could actually become law. Consider the race to hike the minimum wage. Bernie Sanders wants it to get to $15 as soon as possible. Hillary Clinton wants to get there almost as soon as possible.
Hospital
I write this from the hospital. Seems I have lung cancer. My doctors tell me my growth was caught early and I’ll be fine. Soon I will barely notice that a fifth of my lung is gone. I believe them. After all, I’m at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked it No. 1 in New York. I get excellent medical care here.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
The Outrageous Campaign Against Exxon Mobil
It’s not easy to make one of the world’s biggest fossil-fuel companies a sympathetic victim, but a collection of state attorneys general, led by Eric Schneiderman of New York, has managed it. They have launched a campaign against Exxon Mobil that is a transparent — nay, an explicit — attempt to punish dissent on climate change. The members of the self-described “Green 20” are demonstrating a banana-republic-worthy understanding of the law and their responsibilities. They shouldn’t be entrusted with the power of a meter maid, let alone a top position in law enforcement.
What’s the Deal With a $15 Minimum Wage?
Arguing that no full-time worker should be paid so little as to live in poverty, Bernie Sanders supports increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. This is part of his plan for reducing income inequality in the United States. Unfortunately, raising the minimum wage, especially by such a large amount, will *reduce* the incomes of many low-wage workers by making fewer jobs available.