Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
No Hearings
We reported yesterday that Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was holding firm in his opposition to hearings for any Obama nominee to the Supreme Court. In fact, Grassley invoked the so-called "Biden Rule." (In 1992 then-Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Joe Biden warned President George H.W. Bush against making any nominations to the Supreme Court in the election year.) Late [Tuesday] afternoon, the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that they had unanimously agreed that there would be no hearings on any Obama nominees to the Supreme Court this year.
On Obama Nominee, It's No or Never
There have been times over the last year and a half where voters probably wondered what they'd gotten out of a Republican Senate. This week, they know the answer: reassurance that GOP leaders won't allow a lame-duck president to stack the Court with liberal jurists. After taking some well-deserved flak for not using his majority more, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may have just chosen the most important moment to do so.
The Trashing of Bill's Accusers: What Did Hillary Do — and Why Did She Do It?
Hillary Clinton has never been asked whether she verbally intimidated alleged rape survivor Juanita Broaddrick. Nor has Clinton been asked whether she spearheaded the so-called "nuts and sluts" strategy to silence and intimidate women who alleged affairs with or sexual abuse by Bill Clinton. The books "Hell to Pay" by Barbara Olson and "No One Left to Lie To" by Christopher Hitchens depict Hillary Clinton as the puppet master behind the hiring of lawyers and private detectives to dig up dirt on her husband's accusers. Bolstering the credibility of Hitchens' book is a foreword written by respected historian Douglas Brinkley, a frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC and other networks. Is this true?
Is It Voter Fraud Season? Let's Hope Not
In recent years there have been far too many cases in which elections in America have been rigged. As a result of court involvement, the guilty parties have in some cases spent time in prison, in some cases been released on parole, and in some cases paid fines for their involvement. You might assume that new safeguards have been put in place to restore public confidence in the fairness of elections in America. Unfortunately, however, many proposed safeguards have been politicized in ways that have prohibited their use. In a recent sampling of voting fraud in America, the Heritage Foundation reported on almost 300 documented cases from 43 states. In each and every one of these cases, either the individuals were convicted of fraud, or the results of the election were overturned.
Students Told to Write Essay on Their Conversion to Islam
Gobsmacked! British moms and dads were fuming after a school instructed students to write an essay explaining why they had converted to Islam. Gemma Gough posted the assignment on Facebook and said her child would not be completing the assignment. "This is not acceptable," she wrote. 'Kids are too impressionable and imagine if these letters got in the wrong hands in years to come." The 12- and 13-year-old kids at Beaucamps High School in Guernsey were told to consider what it would be like to become a Muslim. They also had to write a letter to their loved ones explaining their decision to become a Muslim.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Sloppy Joe: Biden's Mess of SCOTUS Quotes
The Supreme Court of the United States can be a somber place — but never more so than [Monday] when the justices reconvened for the first time without the late Antonin Scalia. Absent its largest personality, the Court struggled to adjust to two weeks of oral arguments without its longest-serving member. Black drapery still hangs over Scalia's empty chair, which is now the focal point — not just of the room — but of a fierce battle over the nomination process.
Too Many Citizens, Too Few Soldiers
It was the summer of 1775, and the colonists in America were facing the growing threat of tyranny by their government. The new life they sought was in serious jeopardy by King George III, a man whom the colonists one year later described as having "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object an absolute Tyranny." During that same summer, the New York Legislature sent a letter to General George Washington, who had just recently been appointed the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. In the letter, Washington was commended for "taking up arms … in the glorious struggle for American Liberty." The Legislature acknowledged the reality that Washington had the "character of our worthiest citizens" as he was answering the call of a people in trouble.
What Would Happen If New York City Went Forward With Letting Illegal Immigrants Vote
The New York Post is reporting that some members of the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus will be pushing for the New York City Council to pass a law allowing illegal aliens to vote in NYC elections for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president, and City Council. This is an anti-democratic policy driven by politics that dilutes what it means to be a citizen.
The High Court's Anti-Marriage Ruling
Love is in the air this Valentine's Day. But that doesn't mean that marriage and family are flourishing. A mistaken understanding of romantic love — the Hallmark and Hollywood version — has, unfortunately, undermined key aspects of committed marital love, and the consequences have been dire. Fifty years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan issued his famous report on the black family. He pointed out that births to single mothers in the general population were in single digits but in the black community were approaching 25 percent. Today, 40 percent of all Americans, 50 percent of Hispanics, and 70 percent of African Americans are born to single moms. These children have done nothing wrong and, frequently, these mothers have done nothing wrong — they're often the only ones to take responsibility and care for the kids — but something has gone wrong. And these children, women, and entire communities suffer as a result.
Joy and Bad Law
According to Betfair.com, Jennifer Lawrence probably won't win best actress at the Oscars Sunday. I'm rooting for her, though — not because of her acting, but because the movie she stars in, "Joy," celebrates the difficulty of entrepreneurship. Lawrence's character is based on real-life entrepreneur Joy Mangano, who invented the self-wringing Miracle Mop and other "Ingenious Designs," as her company is known. Now she hawks them and other products on the Home Shopping Network. The film accurately depicts struggles businesses face. Joy goes deep into debt to finance her idea, overcomes manufacturing problems, persuades skeptical marketers and deals with such menaces as patent trolls.
Religious and Economic Liberty: Flip Sides of Freedom's Coin
The late Justice Antonin Scalia was many things — brilliant, principled, good hearted, fearless. He was also an unmatched defender of constitutional liberties, not least of which is property rights. As George Mason Law professor Ilya Somin notes, "During his 30 years on the Court, (Scalia) helped lead a revival of judicial protection for constitutional property rights (and) deserves great credit for his role in strengthening judicial protection for property rights." The right of owning what one earns or purchases is one of the indisputable reasons for America's economic prosperity. Yet those on the Left simply refuse to accept it. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton would, if elected, enact even more confiscatory tax hikes than already exist. In the name of "fairness," they would mandate coercive charity: One segment of the population being required to give some of its income to another.
When Manliness Goes Missing
By most available information, Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination. He's not a conservative in any meaningful sense — he shifts his positions at whim, preaches about the worth of big government and suggests that he will personally "win for America." But after eight years of Barack Obama's passive-aggressive emasculation of Americans, many conservatives have embraced Trump because of his unbridled masculinity. He's Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas": a toxic dude who's fun to watch, but who might occasionally shoot somebody just for the hell of it. On Fifth Avenue, apparently. And receive plaudits from his followers.
The Never-Ending Obama Valentine
President Obama may be a lame duck, but the press never tires of celebrating him as the first black president. They ran President Bush's poll ratings into the ground as his term ended, but here in Black History Month, they are promoting Obama like it's still 2009. On "NBC Nightly News," anchor Kate Snow played video posted on Facebook of a 4-year-old black girl crying and distraught that Obama's time in office will soon be up. "This is, of course, President Obama's last year in office, a fact that has at least one of his supporters quite upset," Snow told viewers. "Watch what happens when this 4-year-old girl's grandmother, Caprina Harris, explains that Mr. Obama will no longer be the president."
Starving on the Prosciutto-and-Brie Poverty Diet
Heed the cry of an entitled young American hipster: Woe is me, me, me, me, me! Talia Jane, a 25-year-old melodramatic millennial, made social media waves last week with her "open letter" to the CEO of crowd-sourced review website Yelp. The indigent English major in smart glasses lamented her deplorable plight toiling in the company's San Francisco-based customer support office of its food delivery and takeout division Eat24 — oh, the poetic injustice — as she bravely battled hunger pangs. Sure, she had "great" benefits, she admitted, including "vision, dental, the normal health insurance stuff?." Normal? I've been in the workforce 25 years and never had vision benefits. Have you?
Obama Presses Radical Agenda
Oh, if only we had a president who cared as much about veterans as he does about the comfort of enemy combatants. Speaking at a White House press conference [Tuesday] morning, President Obama announced that the Pentagon was submitting a formal plan to Congress to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "I am absolutely committed to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo," Obama declared. And he vowed to "make the case for doing so as long as I hold this office." So what does the president propose we do with the terrorists currently held there? He wants to release some to other countries, even though, if history is any guide, many of them will return to the battlefield to wage jihad against us.
Clinton vs. Trump: The Good News Is One Would Lose
The first time I looked at the website for Either, "the world's largest game of 'Would You Rather' questions," this was the dilemma at the top of the page: "Would you rather be stabbed in the stomach 10 times or shot in both kneecaps?" That is pretty much how I feel about the increasingly plausible prospect that Americans voting for their next president this fall will be asked to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. For sheer entertainment value, Trump is the obvious choice. Consider his solution to the "drug epidemic," which he presents in a 43-second campaign video.
Gullible Americans
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), satirist, essayist and political pamphleteer, is a favorite of mine. He wrote "Gulliver's Travels." One of Gulliver's voyages was to Laputa, where he visited the grand academy of Lagado, whose scientists have visions not unlike today's politicians who exploit mankind's gullibility. Before getting around to our politicians, how about a quick synopsis of Gulliver's visit to the grand academy of Lagado, where scientists were trying to solve important problems? To wage war against famine, one scientist was trying to convert excrement back into food. For eight years, another scientist was engaged in a project to extract sunbeams from cucumbers
Little Difference Between Sanders and Trump
Down in South Carolina, in the days before the Republican primary, I was shocked by the number of South Carolinians who told me they were trying to decide whether to support Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. This choice is, of course, possible in an open primary state such as South Carolina. But what could possibly be happening, I asked myself, that the same voter could be considering Sanders and Trump? When I dropped out of the welfare state 33 years ago and became a conservative and a Republican, I felt I was walking out of one world and into another that was totally, irreconcilably different.
A Rubio-Cruz Ticket Might Be the Only Way to Stop Trump
As things stand, Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee. That's awful news, and depressing to contemplate. But terrible possibilities don't become less terrible if we refuse to contemplate them. Rather, they become more likely. The GOP's collective desire to look away has been a problem for months. Nearly everyone, including yours truly, believed that Trump's candidacy would exhaust itself on its own terms. There are many reasons why that hasn't happened. Chief among them: Too many people thought it was someone else's job to bell the Trumpian cat. No better evidence for this can be found than the fact that of the $215 million spent by super PACs so far this cycle, only 4 percent was spent attacking Trump, according to the Washington Post.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Chick-fil-A Flap Rocks Another American University
The war on poultry rages on yet another public university campus, this time at the University of Nebraska — Kearney. The hullabaloo started last January when students were asked to select a new dining option for the student union. Their choices included Chick-fil-A, Panda Express, IHOP, A&W and Sbarro. The youngsters chose Chick-fil-A in a landslide. I mean, who doesn't love a plump juicy chicken breast tucked between hot, buttered buns? However, it turns out majority does not rule at the University of Nebraska — Kearney. A vocal minority pitched a fit and demanded that Chick-fil-A be banished from campus.