Right Opinion

A Legal Victory for Gun Rights

On Thursday, a three-judge panel vacated a ruling by a Maryland district court that had upheld the state's ban on so-called "assault weapons" and large-capacity magazines (holding more than 10 rounds). In Kolbe v. Hogan, the panel (in a 2-1 decision) sent the case back to the district court, holding that the district court judge had used the wrong standard to review the law. The district court had rejected the plaintiffs' Second Amendment claims, concluding that the Maryland restrictions passed constitutional muster under "intermediate scrutiny" review.

Border Security Is National Security

It is a phrase I have repeated over and over again during recent national debates about immigration reform: "Border security is national security." There is nothing racist or bigoted about that statement. It is simply common sense. And it is a lesson Europe is learning the hard way. According to the Associated Press, the Belgian woman who alerted police to the location of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks, also told authorities that Abbaaoud entered France with 90 other Islamic extremists. Abbaaoud claimed that they got in with a wave of migrants and came without any documents.

Roberts' Rules of Disorder

Chief Justice John Roberts said he isn't bothered "at all" by the criticism of the Supreme Court — which is good, because there's plenty of it. Heading into the 2015-16 term, public disapproval of the Court had never been higher. And with a stack of social issues before the bench this spring, last year's numbers may look good come June. Religious liberty, ObamaCare mandates, and abortion regulations are awaiting their turn before nine justices who haven't been winning popularity contests for their impartiality these days.

Don't Discount Donald Trump

Donald Trump's loss in Iowa wasn't just a victory for conservatives, but a loss for the mogul's routinely low and dishonest style of campaigning. There was nothing subtle about his disgraceful attacks on Ted Cruz's eligibility to run for president, although Trump at times tried to wrap them in a hilariously transparent tissue of concern about Cruz's welfare. He accused Cruz of being in the back pocket of Goldman Sachs for an above-board loan (Cruz failed to disclose it on one form, but reported it on others) even though Trump's own highly leveraged business career would have been impossible without ungodly bank loans. He pandered all he could on ethanol, stopping just short of promising to fuel Trump Force One with the stuff.

ACA and Insurers Create More Barriers for Consumers

Falling Oil Prices and the Future of the World Economy

Yesterday my wife paid $1.99 per gallon for gasoline, a price lower than almost anyone expected a few years ago. From 2010 to early 2014, oil prices were fairly steady at close to $100 per barrel. Beginning in June 2014, oil prices began falling, recently falling below $30 per barrel. It is not clear how low oil might go.

America's Declining Economic Freedom

When you think of the United States as being free, what comes to mind? The ability to speak your mind? To vote? To live and work where you please? Good answers, but there's another kind of liberty that's easily overlooked, although it affects nearly everything we do. I'm talking about economic freedom. How free are we to earn without being overtaxed and overregulated? How complicated is it to start a business and keep it running? Does our government spend too much? Can we trade freely with other countries?

The GOP Did Good in Iowa

I don't know how the primaries will turn out in New Hampshire next week. But I was glad to see Republican voters in Iowa prick some of the air out of the Trump balloon Monday night and lift Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to the top of the GOP heap. All Iowans didn't get caught up in the Trump celebrity or go goofy for the Trump plane. A lot of them looked at the Donald's political substance -- and realized he didn't have any. Not in politics, anyway.

Ambition vs. Conviction on the Debate Stage

In the last Democratic debate before the New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton came up with her fourth explanation for the gluttonous speaking fees and campaign contributions that the financial sector and investment firms — "Wall Street," in liberal shorthand — have been showering on her for so long.

White Rapper Confesses 'White Privilege'

Macklemore is the stage name of a white rapper from Seattle named Ben Haggerty. He and his publicists are currently trying to convince the hip-hop press and the music media to notice the greatness of his new nine-minute song "White Privilege II." The entertainment industry's white self-flagellation has entered a new phase. Actually, this is a regular part of the Macklemore routine, presenting himself as a guilty white dude transgressing on black cultural territory. When he won a Grammy in 2014 for his hit "Thrift Shop," he sent a text message to black rapper Kendrick Lamar: "You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have," which he then posted to his Instagram account. "It's weird and sucks that I robbed you."

Obama's Mosque Speech Was a Dangerous Fantasy

For eight years now, the president has reprimanded the American people for their attitudes about Islam. And Barack Obama's big speech to the Islamic Society of Baltimore — granted, filled with many harmless platitudes — was no different, leaving little room for any honest dialogue about ideology or faith. Many of the president's ideas about "tolerance," in fact, are antithetical to the American experience, not something to celebrate.

Obama's Muddled Message

I read the president's speech to the Islamic Society of Baltimore and found that it was a very muddled message. Below are a few quotes from the speech followed by my response.

Ted Cruz and the Body of Christ

There is a misplaced fear — shared, I'm sad to say, by many on the right — that Christian conservatives are zealots, theocrats and all-around bogeymen. Ever since the advent of the moral majority during the Reagan years, establishment Republicans have been leery and sometimes contemptuous of them.

Cruz vs. Rubio

I have, since last September, written several times that I think the 2016 campaign comes down to a race between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The loss in Iowa after leading in the ten polls preceding the caucuses has taken the wind out of Donald Trump's sails. He is refusing to invest in New Hampshire and will not buy expansive data to micro-target voters. I suspect Christie, Bush, Kasich, and Fiorina fade. Ben Carson is already fading. Despite Carson's attacks on Ted Cruz over urging Carson supporters to stand with Cruz, the facts are that Ted Cruz's campaign relied on CNN reporting to tell Cruz's supporters that Ben Carson was getting off the campaign trail after Iowa. Carson's campaign has cut fifty staffers and is already announcing more cuts after New Hampshire. Carson will be out soon. He is using Ted Cruz as a way to stay on life support, but his campaign is over.

The Man Behind the Mosque

Anyone who says President Obama doesn't believe in the freedom of religion is wrong. It is evident by his actions that he *strongly* believes in that freedom — at least for Muslims. And Wednesday, he stood in a mosque just outside of Washington that has record of radicalism to prove it. With a compassion he rarely demonstrates for the Christian faith, the president stunned plenty by spending the day before the National Prayer Breakfast legitimizing an ideology at war with the world.

Probing for Clues in the Iowa Caucus Numbers

Now that the results of last Monday's Iowa caucuses are in, speculation naturally turns to next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. Will Donald Trump fail once again to receive the percentage he's getting in polls? Will Marco Rubio build on his close third-place Iowa finish to overshadow rivals Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie, who have been rivaling him in New Hampshire polls? In a state where evangelical Protestants make up only 22 percent of primary voters, will Cruz fail to replicate what he got in Iowa (where 64 percent of GOP primary voters identify as evangelical Protestants)? Will Hillary Clinton lose as badly to Bernie Sanders as current polling indicates?

The 'Establishment' Nonsense

The reigning idiocy of the current political season is the incessant tossing around of "establishment," an epithet now descending into meaninglessness. Its most recent abuse is by Donald Trump supporters rationalizing his Iowa defeat with the following consolation: If you tally up Trump and Ted Cruz (and throw in Ben Carson), a whopping 60 percent of the vote is anti-establishment! So what? The threat to the GOP posed by the Trump insurgency is not that he's anti-establishment. It's that he's not conservative. A Trump primary victory would convulse the Republican Party, fracture the conservative movement and undermine the GOP's identity and role as the country's conservative party.

Conservatives Shouldn't Throw Around 'Republican Obama' Label Lightly

"The Republican Obama." That's the new hot attack on Sen. Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz leveled the epithet at Rubio just days before the Iowa caucuses, which is a little ironic since Cruz has been called the same thing in the past. But the leader of the opposition to Rubio, at least when it comes to this line, is actually someone not in the race: Joe Scarborough, the normally affable host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

An Open Letter to Jeb Bush

Dear Gov. Bush: There are many ways to express your love of country. One is to serve as president. In your case, that path seems closed. Since April, you spent the better part of $15 million in Iowa, yet you came sixth, winning just 2.8 percent of the vote and one delegate. At this rate, you'd need to spend $18,540,000,000 to win the nomination -- which is more than even Right to Rise can manage. There is no shame in losing, of course, and it's always possible that New Hampshire will shock the world by giving you a victory, but let's face it, the RealClearPolitics average of New Hampshire polls has you at under 10 percent (under 5 percent nationally), and your donors are panicking. After what was supposed to be a reassuring post-Iowa conference call with your campaign, one donor told Politico, "Have you ever heard the phrase 'rattle of death?'"

Ted Cruz Leadership: Listening to Others

How many times have you heard someone say, "God gave you two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you talk?" While I don't know if that's the reason God made us that way, I do believe in the message that is conveyed. It seems that many in leadership are frequently more interested in speaking first and listening second, if at all. Perhaps a leader seeks to impress or dominate the conversation. Or perhaps he simply feels he has all the answers. But if there's one thing that will diminish the respect of others, it is a leader's lack of interest in what others think or have to say. It may not be intentional on his part, but if a leader cares about those he is entrusted with, it's incumbent on him to listen more than he speaks.