Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
A Manifesto of My Own
In reading Paul Johnson's masterful "Art: A New History," I came across a startling number of art masters who did bodies sublimely, hands and even landscapes brilliantly, but who could not plausibly paint a human face. Some of the artists recognized this and had their subjects look over their shoulder or off to the horizon, or were painted behind a floppy hat. Nonetheless the artists are esteemed as great, though limited.
Never Again
Seventy-one years ago [yesterday], Soviet forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, revealing some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust. More than one million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. Nearly all of them were Jews, killed as part of Hitler's "final solution to the Jewish question," which ultimately claimed six million Jewish lives. In 2005, as then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was threatening a second Holocaust by vowing to "wipe Israel off the map," the United Nations voted to recognize January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
#OscarsSoWhite — Biggest Fraud Since 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot'
First, the facts. Since 2000, 10 percent of Oscar nominations have gone to black actors. Blacks comprise 13 percent of the country's population, so the Oscar nominations have roughly paralleled the percentage of blacks in the U.S. Here's how the nomination process works. There are about 6,200 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy is divided into 17 branches, with the actor division — of 1,138 members — the largest. Actors nominate actors in each of the four categories — lead and supporting, actor and actress — listing up to five names ranked in order of preference. The five nominees come from the highest-ranked names with the most votes beyond a minimum threshold. So all actor members literally "write in" their personal choices.
With Iran, It's Strictly Business
For anyone whose knowledge of history extends beyond the current season of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" or the latest instant replay of an NFL game, the four days of meetings involving Iran's president Hassan Rouhani, European leaders and businesses should remind people we have seen this show before. Rouhani's state visit, the first by an Iranian president in nearly 20 years, follows the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran, the world's leading supporter of terrorism. Corporate giants and politicians are salivating at the prospect of doing business with a regime led by a man who has referred to Israel as "an old wound" that "should be removed."
Obama Administration Needs to Abandon Its Petraeus Obsession
In politically driven moods, the ancient Romans often wiped from history all mention of a prior hero or celebrity. They called such erasures damnatio memoriae. The Soviet Union likewise airbrushed away, or "Trotskyized," all the images of any past kingpin who became politically incorrect. The Obama administration seems obsessed with doing the same to retired Gen. David Petraeus. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is now thinking of retroactively taking away one or two of Petraeus' four stars. The potential demotion in rank, opposed by the Army, is intended as further punishment for the misdemeanor to which he pleaded guilty last year. Petraeus accepted two years of probation and paid a $100,000 fine for allowing his mistress, Paula Broadwell, to read classified information for research on the biography she was writing about Petraeus.
The Problem With Obama's Trickle Down Regulations
President Obama's legacy is sadly clear. Eight years of this administration's disastrous environmental policies and unwarranted regulations are not only creating havoc in Washington, DC, they are trickling down into individual states, increasing costs for businesses and potentially stalling much needed economic development in areas starving for prosperity and growth. Even worse is emerging evidence of state regulators tearing pages out of the EPA's playbook and piling on with additional environmental rules and penalties that only add to the confusion and costs for businesses around the country.
Michael Bloomberg: An Echo, Not a Choice
Michael Bloomberg's epiphany about the 2016 presidential proceedings is that what is missing is a second bossy, big-government billionaire from Manhattan's East Side — another candidate with malleable party loyalties. Bloomberg, whose net worth estimated by Forbes is $38.6 billion (eighth on the list of richest Americans), is again exploring an independent presidential candidacy. In 2001, he spent $74 million to become New York's mayor. He had been a registered Democrat but ran as a Republican to avoid a competitive primary. Re-elected in 2005, he left the GOP and in 2009 won a third term as an independent, spending $102 million — $174 per vote — to eke out a 50.6 percent victory against a negligible opponent. He had persuaded — not a Herculean task — the city council to alter the law, enacted and reaffirmed in *two* referendums, limiting mayors and city council members to two terms.
Healthcare.gov Fail
When James Madison argued in favor of a representative republic over a direct democracy in the Federalist Papers, he was most concerned about the emergence of political factions that would marginalize average citizens. But Madison's constitutional arrangement presumed that elected representatives would exercise firm control over public policy decisions. Over past few decades, those elected representatives have surrendered policy making decisions to unaccountable, cumbersome, incompetent administrative agencies. Exhibit A: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The Faith of Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio is relying in part on his Christian faith in his quest to win the Republican nomination for president. The Florida senator recently hired a director of faith outreach, assembled a religious advisory committee, has been interviewed in Christianity Today, and used a faith-based television ad to appeal to prospective voters in Iowa.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Big Oil's Effort to Tax Carbon and Your Family's Finances
As world leaders gathered in Paris last month for the United Nations climate summit, many seemed surprised that several large oil companies, including BP and Shell, endorsed a carbon tax as a "key element" of any international climate deal. Less surprising was the preference of those in the renewable energy sector to see a tax on carbon. The implication was of course that if major companies — oil companies in particular — want to tax themselves, who are we to stand in the way? It must be an indication that the climate crisis is so acute that even they have seen the light.
Pay No Attention to What Planned Parenthood Is Doing Behind the Curtain
In an astonishing bit of legerdemain, a local grand jury in Harris County, Texas, has refused to indict Planned Parenthood for violating a Texas statute that prohibits the attempted sale of human organs, despite the video evidence to the contrary showing Planned Parenthood doctors and executives discussing organ sales. But the very same grand jury *has* indicted David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), who organized, filmed, and released the undercover "60 Minutes"-style videos, for supposedly violating *the very same Texas statute*, which also prohibits the attempted *purchase* of human organs.
Florida: Christian Schools Can't Pray at Championship Game
Prayer is important at Florida's Cambridge Christian School. "We train our students that prayer is foundational to their walk with Christ," Head of School Tim Euler told me. "Our faith is founded in prayer." So when Cambridge Christian faced off against University Christian School last December in the 2A state championship football game, they asked the Florida High School Athletic Association if they could begin with a word of prayer. The FHSAA said no.
In Search of Solutions
Whether you're liberal or conservative, it's usually easy to say what you oppose. Both sides spend a good deal of time trying to shoot down policies from the other side. But do you know what you favor? It's not enough to simply say "no" all the time. Yes, that's an important function in our system of government. Opposing bad policies is part of the job. But only part. You also need to promote good policies. And if you lose sight of what you're for, you won't be able to do that — at least not effectively. That's why I'm glad to see the Heritage Foundation's "Solutions 2016" come out. It's more than a handbook of sensible policy solutions on a wide range of issues, both domestic and foreign. It's a gut check for conservatives — a reminder of why we do what we do.
Pro-Life Journalists Indicted
A grand jury in Harris County, Texas, has indicted two pro-life journalists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, with the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). As you no doubt recall, CMP is the group responsible for the disturbing undercover videos that exposed Planned Parenthood's trafficking in baby body parts. The grand jury was initially formed to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had illegally sold fetal body parts. Instead, it cleared Planned Parenthood and somehow ended up indicting the journalists for attempting to illegally purchase baby body parts.
Anti-Establishment Does Not Mean Pro-Conservative
Donald Trump will change everything. This seems to be the consensus among anti-establishment Republicans. According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, Trump leads among anti-establishment primary voters with an actual majority of 51 percent. And a full 51 percent of Republicans think Trump is "the best choice to bring needed change to Washington, perhaps the single most crucial attribute to leaned Republicans."
CNN Enables Hillary's Whitewash
Just a couple of weeks after CNN happily acquiesced to a quickly improvised "town hall" meeting for President Obama to promote gun control, they once again agreed with the Democrats to provide a "town hall" event with Iowa voters. It was not a debate, where the candidates would spar, but an orderly event to allow all three candidates to promote themselves for a half-hour. For the most part, it was a night of softballs. CNN carefully prescreened both the questions and the questioners and made it so. The closest thing to a hardball for Hillary Clinton came from young mop-topped Taylor Gipple, a Sanders backer. "I've heard from quite a few people my age that they think you're dishonest, but I'd like to hear from you on why you feel the enthusiasm isn't there."
What's a Party For?
What is a political party? By the intensity of internecine conflict among Republicans, you might conclude that it's a church. Sen. Ted Cruz is among the leading voices of a faction that wants to treat the Republican Party as a confession — singing to the choir, denouncing heretics and damning sinners to hell. This appears to be part conviction and part political calculation on Sen. Cruz's part. He's fully convinced that a Republican can win in 2016 by energizing the base. "The evangelical vote," a Cruz strategist told The Cook Political Report, "is the largest unfished pond of voters — it's a frickin' ocean." Convinced that dispirited white, evangelical voters stayed home in recent elections but can be roused by a sectarian candidate, Cruz barreled into Washington, D.C., in 2013 spitting fire not just at Democrats but at his own party, too. They were all part of the "Washington cartel," he thundered. Republican leaders were not just weak or ineffective — they were treacherous.
A Tale of Two Tapes: Teen Cruz and Terror-Coddler Obama
The crack media buzzed this week with the discovery of a totally front-page, news-breaking, breathtaking videotape. GOP presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, CNN reported, was caught on camera confessing how he "sought 'world domination.'" Gasp! This is something voters need to know. Left-wing rag Mother Jones vigilantly covered the damning film clip and dove into the "eerie" details of Cruz's "five-year plan" in which he "began plotting his path to the White House." The New York Daily News ominously reported that the "unearthed" video showed that "Even when he was a teenager, 2016 contender Ted Cruz craved power."
Federal Report: 40 Percent Qualify for Need-Tested Benefits
As of December 2012, the total population of the United States — including members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas — equaled 315,255,012, according to the Census Bureau's estimate. At some time during 2012, according to a study the Congressional Research Service published last month, approximately 134,800,000 people qualified for one or more of "nine major need-tested benefit programs" and approximately 106,000,000 actually received benefits from at least one of them.
Plan-demonium! U.S. Not Sold on ObamaCare
ObamaCare was supposed to give Americans more health care coverage. There's just one problem: no one wants it! That's the conclusion of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which added to the law's heap of troubles with its latest projections. Turns out, even hefty fines can't persuade Americans to buy into the president's system, as millions opt not to enroll. After predicting business would top 20 million people, CBO broke the bad news that enrollment would miss the mark by a whopping 40 percent.