Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, April 18, 2016
The Obama Doctrine Has Made the World More Dangerous
Five years ago, President Obama hailed the military campaign in Libya that toppled Muammar Gadafhi as one of the foreign-policy triumphs of his presidency. Today he calls Libya his worst mistake. But though he may have changed his grade from an A to an F, his commitment to "leading from behind" — a euphemism for American passivity and abdication — hasn't budged.
Ted Cruz: The Tax Basher!
Is your stomach in knots today? Happy Tax Day! Most folks I know find themselves engulfed in stress just when they should be enjoying the arrival of Spring and the beauty it brings. In March and April families can actually feel the tension build as Tax Day approaches. Dads are grumpy, and moms are even grumpier. Where are those receipts? When can I find the time to read all the new tax codes? Why does the government take so much? Can we afford to hire an accountant? Can we afford not to? Why the heck should we have to? Will the IRS investigate or audit me if I make a mistake? You know the drill.
The Clinton-Trump Ticket
Like Barack Obama, Donald Trump is convinced that he is the smartest person in the room. Any room. So it is that when he entered the lair of Chris Matthews, the schnook who confessed to experiencing an orgasm when he heard Obama's voice, and was asked to name the three main functions of the federal government, the big oaf mentioned national security, health and education. Well, a .333 batting average will get a baseball player into Cooperstown, but when you're hoping to be the GOP candidate for president, it's strictly bush league.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Histories That Shouldn't Be Secret
When President Obama departs for Saudi Arabia, an incubator of the 9/11 attacks, he will leave behind a dispute about government secrecy. The suppression of 28 pages, first from a public congressional inquiry and then from the 2004 report by the national 9/11 Commission, has spared the Saudis embarrassment, which would be mild punishment for complicity in 2,977 murders. When Obama returns, he should keep his promise to release the pages. Then he should further curtail senseless secrecy by countermanding the CIA's refusal to release its official history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
School Superintendent, Principal Confront Moms Over 'Jesus Lunch'
School administrators in Middleton, Wisconsin, have intensified their threats and intimidation of a group of mothers who host a weekly "Jesus Lunch" for students at a park adjacent to Middleton High School. New video shows school officials physically confronting one of the moms in the park — as one woman's stunned husband observes from a distance. The moms were undeterred and told school officials they were going to serve lunch regardless of their objections.
Big Biz: You Want Appease of Me?
It's tough to be more unpopular than the Obama administration — but Big Business is succeeding! The two cellar-dwellers were only separated by a few percentage points in public opinion (33 percent to the president's 41) in November. Now that companies are picking a fight with voters in North Carolina and Mississippi, not only are large corporations disliked, but accused of doing more harm than good.
Tax Day
Today is April 15th. As you know, this is the day when most of us would normally file our taxes. This year, we get a short reprieve — tax filings are not technically due until Monday, thanks to a holiday observed in the District of Columbia. Doesn't that make you feel better? In honor of Tax Day, I thought it would be "fun" to stick with the theme of taxes and how Big Government spends your money.
Who Was Ty Cobb? The History We Know That's Wrong
Ty Cobb was one of the greatest baseball players of all time and king of the so-called Deadball Era. He played in the major leagues — mostly for the Detroit Tigers but a bit for the Philadelphia Athletics — from 1905 to 1928, and was the first player ever voted into the Hall of Fame. His lifetime batting average of .366 is amazing, and has never been equaled. But for all that, most Americans think of him first as an awful person — a racist and a low-down cheat who thought nothing of injuring his fellow players just to gain another base or score a run. Indeed, many think of him as a murderer. Ron Shelton, the director of the 1995 movie *Cobb*, starring Tommy Lee Jones in the title role, told me it was "well known" that Cobb had killed "as many as" three people.
GMOs and India: The Mustard Chapter
Last month, anti-genetically modified organism (GMO) activists engaged in a war in the streets of India's capital. The agitation is about the genetically modified (GM) variant of mustard — DMH-11 (Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11). Why?
Polls & Revolutions
I know that a lot of people distrust polls. I'm not one of those people. I learned my lesson in 2012 when the polls all said that Obama would be re-elected and I went with my gut, which insisted there was no way on earth that the worst president in American history would, after the most disastrous first term imaginable, be provided with an additional four years in which to make things even worse. At the time, I said that America could probably manage to survive eight years of Barack Obama, but I wasn't convinced it could survive an electorate that would provide him with a second term. I still feel that way.
Friday, April 15, 2016
Trump Wuz Robbed
Give Donald Trump credit for planning ahead. He is preparing to be a sore loser. Trump's complaints that he is being undone by a rigged system crafted by a corrupt Republican Party is the dress rehearsal for his campaign's closing argument should it come up short in Cleveland. Trump will, in his telling, have been stabbed in the back by insiders and be fully justified in wreaking a terrible revenge on the party that he briefly sought to lead.
History in the Making — The El Niño/La Niña Couplet?
This is the Waterloo of the climate debate, in my opinion. The test is upon us.
Paul Ryan's 20-20 Vision
Paul Ryan can see the future. He can see that Hillary is going to be the next president. He can see the Republican Party train wreck strewn across the tracks this fall. Ryan's not playing coy or hard to get when he insists he isn't running for president and doesn't want to be drafted by the GOP. He's not running — not this year.
Clintonism, RIP
How far they've come. And I'm not talking about the GOP, whose front-runner representing 37 percent of the Republican electorate has repudiated post-Reagan orthodoxy on trade, entitlement reform, limited government and Pax Americana (and possibly abortion, but who knows?). I'm talking about the Democrats. The center-left, triangulating, New Democrat (Bill) Clintonism of the 1990s is dead. It expired of unnatural causes, buried — definitively, if unceremoniously — by its very creator.
The Donald/Bernie Show: Shades of Hugo Chavez
Does this sound familiar? "They wanted something new, something fresh, and they found in this man a radical discourse. He said he would get rid forever of the old elites." Or this: "He ran as the outsider, the non-politician in a country which had come to distrust politicians. The media loved him, and he loved them back. ... They gave him huge amounts of newspaper space and hours on television." Or this: "He can be funny. He can seem buffoonish. He obeys none of the rules for what is expected of a head of state, or for that matter, a public official on television."
TV Shows Its Conservative Side on Abortion Issue
Maybe the makers of "The Big Bang Theory" don't watch "Meet the Press." Hillary Clinton got into a bit of trouble earlier this month when she told "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd that "the unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights." Clinton was merely noting that some restrictions on abortions are permitted under the law. But the real kerfuffle was over the idea that a person can exist in America without any rights — or that fetuses are people at all. The International Planned Parenthood Federation cautions activists to avoid the "p" word.
Putin Flexes Muscles
Russian President Vladimir Putin is flexing his muscles again. Two days this week Russian aircraft buzzed a U.S. destroyer conducting drills in the Baltic Sea. On Monday, two Russian SU-24 fighter jets made several "close-range and low altitude passes" over the USS Donald Cook as it was conducting deck landing helicopter drills. The Russian harassment continued the next day.
Wrongly Crying Foul for Political Gain
It's one thing to be upset with the so-called Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Barack Obama and his destructive policies, but it's another for a GOP presidential candidate to exploit that anger illegitimately against a fellow anti-establishment candidate. Many of us have been critical of the GOP leadership for opposing conservatives in GOP primaries, not backing conservatives in office trying to do the right thing, always advising that Republicans dilute their message to attract independent voters and not sufficiently recognizing the threat President Obama represents to this nation and opposing his agenda.
Donald Trump's Insincere Process Arguments
"Gestapo tactics." That's how Donald Trump's recently installed campaign manager, Paul Manafort, characterized the Ted Cruz campaign's successful effort to win all 34 of Colorado's pledged national convention delegates at the long-scheduled Republican congressional district and state conventions. "Today winning votes doesn't mean anything," Trump complained. "It's a corrupt deal going on in this country and it's not fair to you people."
Standing on the Shoulders of Bryant's
Publicly, companies like Coca-Cola don't mind giving North Carolina and Mississippi a hard time. But privately, the tirades are taking their toll. The price of coddling LGBT activists is a steep one, especially for CEOs who rely on the very leaders they're condemning for robust state economies. For most companies, the tension between checking the gay-friendly box and protecting their bottom line is at the tipping point. And it won't be too long before more companies realize that in the battle between cultural bullies and state conservatives, businesses have the most to lose.