Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, April 15, 2016
The Bathroom 'Freedom Fighters'
Back in the 1980s, Bruce Springsteen and other rock stars formed Artists United Against Apartheid and performed a song proclaiming "Sun City" that referenced an entertainment resort in a region of South Africa. The song mocked the Reagan administration's constructive engagement policy to end apartheid. And rock stars also routinely performed in the totalitarian Soviet Union, believing that was incredibly constructive.
Obama Administration Should Not Apologize for Hiroshima
Secretary of State John Kerry toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum in Japan this week, a month before he and President Obama will meet foreign ministers at the G-7 Summit. Reuters reported that he witnessed "haunting displays [of] photographs of badly burned victims, the tattered and stained clothes they wore and statues depicting them with flesh melting from their limbs." "It is a stunning display. It is a gut-wrenching display," explained Kerry. "It is a reminder of the depth of the obligation every one of us in public life carries ... to create and pursue a world free from nuclear weapons." Iran would exempt itself, of course.
High School Wants to Shut Down Off-Campus 'Jesus Lunch'
There's a religious liberty standoff underway in Middleton, Wisconsin. On one side is a group of Christian moms armed with Chick-fil-A sandwiches and 400 homemade brownies. On the other side are public school administrators who believe that Jesus and plump juicy chicken breasts are "divisive." The controversy surrounds an off-campus lunch event involving students at Middleton High School known as "Jesus Lunch." The high school allows students to eat lunch off-campus. In 2014 a small group of parents began meeting with their children in a nearby park — providing home cooked meals along with a Christian-themed, inspirational message.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Dream Big: Reversing Obama's Fundamental Transformation
"We are five days away from fundamentally transforming America" were ominous words uttered by Barack Obama just five days before his election in 2008. And seven years later we see that Obama's goal has greatly been achieved, due to his undying commitment to his ideals. Tragically though, his agenda has been enabled by the unwillingness of his Republican opponents to stand on their professed ideals. But that's a whole separate story and not the subject of my thoughts today.
Is NATO Worth Preserving?
Donald Trump recently ignited another controversy when he mused that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was obsolete. He hinted that it might no longer be worth the huge American investment. In typical Trump style, he hit a nerve, but he then offered few details about the consequences of either staying in or leaving NATO. NATO is certainly no longer aimed at keeping a huge Soviet land army out of democratic Western Europe, as was envisioned in 1949.
Congress Still Wasting Taxpayers' Money
As the tax deadline approaches it's once again time to consider how the federal government wastes our money. Remember the spending caps that were supposed to keep Congress from overspending? Gone with the wind. How about the promise Republicans made about no more earmarks on spending bills? It disappeared almost as fast as a gold coin in a magician's hands. Of course, they are not calling these new and improved earmarks earmarks. They call them something else, so they can claim they are keeping their promise. Is it any wonder this political season is characterized by voter anger?
A Clear-Eyed View of the Contact Lens Debate
The intensity with which some American companies try to use the government to trick or deceive consumers is astonishing. Yet the extent to which lawmakers seem content to cater to these crony pursuits never disappoints, either. Case in point: the current attempt to protect contact lens sellers from competition at the expense of consumers. An estimated 40 million Americans wear contact lenses. That's a $4 billion industry. Thanks to the heavy-handed government regulation of all things health care, contacts already cost more than they should. However, if an ongoing effort to reduce competition through government cronyism were to succeed, costs might soon rise even more.
Islam & Anti-Semitism
Whenever the subject of Muslim immigration comes up, the debate often centers around whether we have an effective process to weed out potential jihadists. There is more than one example, more than one dead American, to suggest we do not. Earlier this week, we reported that many Muslim immigrants are not assimilating into British culture and often reject the values of Western Civilization. There is no reason to assume that Muslims coming to America are much different.
Donald Trump's Rigged Media
Now that it looks like the GOP nomination won't be decided until a contested convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump and his supporters assert that the whole system is undemocratic. But if democracy was organized to give everyone a fair and equal shot to impress voters with their knowledge and experience, then our system has been rigged for Trump for the last nine months. The media — not just the liberal media, but some "conservative" media, too — have been the gale-force wind beneath Trump's wings.
36 Reasons to Stop Me Before I Tweet Again
1) "Political correctness" is just a fancy term for not telling the truth. 2) Obama says he wants "mandatory" voting, as it is in Australia. Voter ID is "unduly burdensome" — but *forcing* people to vote is not?! 3) Obama says with "mandatory" voting, "You start getting 70-80 percent voting rates." Still not as high as the voting rates for dead people in Chicago! 4) Democrats, the "party of freedom," want mandatory health insurance, mandatory employer-paid leave, mandatory minimum wage and mandatory voting.
Bill Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill Is History
Over the last few days, former President Bill Clinton displayed one of the salient weaknesses of our contemporary politicians. He did this even while reminding Americans of, some would say, his rare lapses in true leadership: his 1994 bipartisan legislation to lower crimes rates in cities. When confronted by low-information Black Lives Matter activists during his speech in Philadelphia last week, he wilted. It took him 24 hours, but eventually, after an eloquent defense of his 1994 leadership, he groveled, whimpering, "I almost want to apologize."
Smart ALEC Response to Big Biz
Disney, Apple, Coke, Starbucks, and others have spent the last three weeks griping about how bad the First Amendment is for business. Boy, were they wrong! According to a new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), North Carolina and Mississippi have everything to gain promoting freedom. Turns out, H.B. 2 and H.B. 1523 weren't just good decisions — but profitable ones!
The Destructive Threat of Cyberwarfare
There is a consensus that aggression by one nation against another is a serious matter, but there is no comparable consensus about what constitutes aggression. Waging aggressive war was one charge against Nazi leaders at the 1946 Nuremberg war crimes trials, but 70 years later it is unclear that aggression, properly understood, must involve war, as commonly understood. Or that war, in today's context of novel destructive capabilities, must involve "the use of armed force," which the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court says is constitutive of an "act of aggression."
'Duck Dynasty' Star's NASCAR Prayer Enrages Liberals
My good buddy Phil Robertson has drawn the ire of a bunch of Jesus-bashing, liberal lug nuts after he petitioned the Lord during a NASCAR invocation to put a "Jesus-Man in the White House." Brother Phil delivered the pre-race invocation on April 9th at the Texas Motor Speedway's Duck Commander 500. And it was a mighty fine invocation, indeed. "I pray Father that we put a Jesus-Man in the White House," he prayed. "Help us do that and help us all to repent, to do what is right, to love you more and to love each other. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen."
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Admonitions From Washington Worth a Listen
Had you been in Philadelphia on Sept. 19, 1796 and picked up a copy of the American Daily Advertiser, you would have discovered a remarkable statement — not on the front page, but on the second. It was from a high-ranking and popular elected official who had no interest in keeping his office. "Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary," he said, "I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it."
American Workers Matter: A Chicago Wake and Wake-Up Call
Circle this date on your calendar: April 22. I'll be in Chicago that day attending what may be a very significant milestone in American politics and domestic policy. It's going to be a wake and a wake-up call, part memorial and part protest. If you are a so-called American "STEM worker" in science, technology, engineering or math, if you have college-age children studying in the STEM fields, or if you have younger children who aspire to work in STEM industries and you are concerned for their future, you should do everything you can to join us.
Failure to Raunch
People have been wondering for years how to get porn out of their communities. Now they know: Make bathrooms gender-specific! That's all it took in North Carolina, where one of the country's leading adult sites is hitting the road to protest H.B. 2. A day after Bruce Springsteen's tirade, xHamster is the latest liberal to jump on the bandwagon out of town. Like PayPal, the site is livid that Governor Pat McCrory (R-N.C.) is giving local businesses the freedom to set their own policies. (Also known as the free market.) "Sorry, bigots!" they tweeted. "As of today, access to xHamster.com is blacked out in the state of North Carolina until further notice... Judging by the stats of what you North Carolinians watch, we feel this punishment is a severe one. We will not stand by and pump revenue into a system that promotes this type of garbage. We respect all sexualities and embrace them."
Boeing and the Mullahs
I was furious to see [yesterday's] report that Boeing is in talks to sell commercial aircraft to the Islamic Republic of Iran. I suppose you can make the case that this will help American workers. But it also increases the chances that other Americans will have to die in the future in combat to stop an increasingly aggressive Iran. Just a few weeks ago, Iran seized U.S. sailors, humiliated them and used it for the regime's propaganda purposes. Tehran test-fired missiles with the words "Israel must be wiped off the face of Earth" inscribed on the missiles. Iranian terrorist networks are directly responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Attacking Our Nation's Founders
During Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign visit to Liberty University, he told the students that our nation was created on racist principles. Students at a Christian-based university, such as Liberty, do not often hear the founders-as-racists argument. But it is featured at many other universities, as well as primary and secondary schools. Most often, the hate-America teachings are centered on the fact that slavery is a part of our history. What is left untaught is: Slavery was a routine part of human history. Blacks were the last people to be enslaved. Plus, our Founding Fathers struggled mightily over the issue of slavery. Let us look at some of that struggle.
Campaign Lies
If you took all the lies out of political rhetoric, how much would be left? Apparently even less than usual this year. The latest, and perhaps biggest, lie — thus far — is that Donald Trump was cheated out of delegates in Colorado because the voters did not select the delegates. Two very different questions have gotten confused with each other. One question is whether this is the best way to choose delegates. Most of us would say "No," but most of us don't live in Colorado, and each state is allowed great leeway in how it chooses to pick its delegates.