Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
California Joins the Effort to Persecute, Suppress Scientific Dissent on Climate Change
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in trying to prosecute ExxonMobil for supposedly lying to its shareholders and the public about climate change, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported that Harris is investigating what ExxonMobil "knew about global warming and what the company told investors."
Saturday, January 23, 2016
The Battle for the Soul of the Right
At the moment, the Republican establishment is relevant to the presidential-nomination battle only as an epithet. Less than two weeks from the Iowa caucus, the fight for the Republican nomination isn't so much a vicious brawl between the grass roots and the establishment as it is a bitter struggle between traditional conservatism and populism that few could have foreseen. Conservatism has always had a populist element, encapsulated by the oft-quoted William F. Buckley Jr. line that he would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But the populism was tethered to, and in the service of, an ideology of limited-government constitutionalism.
Snow v. Wade: Marchers Take the Town by Storm
While the rest of the capital braces for a whiteout, thousands of pro-lifers spilled into the D.C. streets convinced that the real state of emergency is our culture. While the federal government, local schools, and area businesses hurried home to beat the blizzard, a generation undeterred by ice or snow continued their pilgrimage to the Supreme Court — determined to stir the conscience of America and end 43 years of government-sanctioned bloodshed.
Control What You Can Control and Enjoy the Benefits
I expect that I confuse a lot of people at the gym where I work out. I have been asked more than once why I breathe so hard. The short answer is that I do high-intensity interval workouts where I raise my heart rate and then recover before beginning another interval. Some people have looked at me strangely when I talk to myself, probably somewhat loudly because I am wearing headphones. But I suspect there is something about me that is more confusing than either of these. Many are surely confused because I am pudgy; those who are blunt might even say fat. I have been regularly doing intense workouts for years, yet I do not have the physique expected of such a person. I am not alone; the expectation that exercise will result in massive weight loss and a buff body often fails to materialize.
The Big Picture
Charles Krauthammer, insightful as always, has a must read column in [the] Washington Post, pointing out the historic shift that took place in the Middle East last Saturday, January 16th — "Implementation Day" for President Obama's nuclear deal. Consider this excerpt: "In a stroke, Iran shed almost four decades of rogue-state status and was declared a citizen of good standing of the international community, open to trade, investment and diplomacy... On Saturday, the Iranian transport minister announced the purchase of 114 Airbuses from Europe. This inaugurates a rush of deals binding European companies to Iran, thoroughly undermining Obama's pipe dream of 'snapback sanctions' if Iran cheats."
GE, Massachusetts and the Corruption of Crony Capitalism
As General Electric gears up to move its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston, the people and communities being left behind are dreading the pain to come. John Engel, a real estate agent and town councilor in nearby New Canaan, told public radio's "Marketplace" that the departure of 800 GE executives, most of whom will likely list their homes for sale, will send the local housing market staggering. Once the region loses millions of dollars in disposable income, it will ineluctably lose much of the business those dollars sustained. There will be fewer patrons to fill local restaurants, for example, and thus fewer jobs for restaurant employees. Some (most?) of the $14 billion that GE has annually spent buying goods and services from Connecticut vendors will migrate northward. Ditto the $10 million GE has spent per year on charitable contributions, and the estimated 49,000 hours its employees have given in volunteer work.
A Few Well-Chosen Words About Dogs
As a rule, I like to use my bully pulpit to put liberals in their place because they just keep asking for it and someone needs to slap them down. But this time out, I'd like to share what others have said on behalf of dogs. After all, they are our best pals and our boon companions, ready to protect our homes and loved ones no matter how small they are. I know for a fact that even our Angel will rip the postman to shreds if he even thinks about setting one foot inside our house. Okay, perhaps she wouldn't exactly rip him apart, but she would certainly bark at him until he caved in and scratched behind her ears.
Do Emotions Trump Facts? Part II
Former governor Sarah Palin is an intelligent person, contrary to how liberals have tried to portray her. So it seemed to me that, if anybody could explain why they were promoting the candidacy of Donald Trump, it would be Governor Palin. But I listened in vain for any evidence or logic that would provide a reason to vote for Donald Trump for the office of President of the United States. There were lots of ringing assertions, just as in Trump's own speeches, but no convincing facts or demonstrable reasons.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Will Obama Be Held Accountable for Fast and Furious? What a New Court Decision Means
In an odd coincidence, a federal district court on Tuesday issued a decision against President Barack Obama in the Operation Fast and Furious fiasco, at almost the same time that Fox News broke a story about Mexican authorities finding a Fast and Furious gun in the hideout of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Assimilation Nation No More
America has always been a melting pot. We are a nation founded by people from all over the world who came here seeking a better life for themselves and their families. So why is immigration such a hot-button issue? To be sure, it has often been steeped in bitter controversy at various points throughout our history. Certain ethnic groups have bravely borne the brunt of suspicion and hostility — and proven their ability to become good, patriotic Americans. But today, the issue seems to have taken on a harder edge. Why?
The White Actors Matter Academy Awards
"Black Lives Matter" — except in Tinseltown. The Hollywood liberals who give Academy Awards to their friends got called out for their lack of diversity this week. It seems this year the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences couldn't find a single actor of color worthy of an Oscar nomination for a lead or supporting role. Its 6,000-odd members went 0 for 20 in their search. For the second straight year.
Sean Penn's Ideological Overdose
Sean Penn has long been the poster boy for the Hollywood left, another one of those overpaid dilettantes who constantly berate the country that's given him international fame and incredible wealth. Penn's loathing of Yankee imperialism is so intense that he thinks America is "over-demonizing" a Mexican drug kingpin that Forbes magazine estimates is responsible for the deaths of 34,000 people — mostly Mexicans. In an act of sheer self-promotion, Penn exploited an acting connection to gain an audience with notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, fresh from a prison escape. Instead of asking this man how he could butcher so many thousands of men, women and children, he asked him to condemn the American "war on drugs." This meeting and fawning interview resulted in Penn writing a rambling mess of over 9,000 words in Rolling Stone magazine — after Penn and the magazine agreed to let the mass murderer read and approve the article before publication.
Bruising Cruz
Former Senator Bob Dole entered the 1980 Republican presidential primary to stop Ronald Reagan. At the time, Dole declared Reagan would be deeply destructive to the Republican Party. When no one rallied to Dole he called for former President Gerald Ford to get into the Republican primary to stop Reagan. Ford did not get in. Reagan did not destroy the Republican Party. Reagan, in fact, became the standard bearer for the party. It is worth noting that every Republican nominee since Reagan, with the exception of John McCain in 2008, actively opposed Ronald Reagan in 1980.
This Time, It's Personnel
Eight years of President Obama will be more than enough for most Americans. But unfortunately, the administration's radicalism won't end when his term does. Hundreds of political appointees are already making life difficult for their successors. Nowhere is that more obvious than the U.S. military, where the next president will inherit a mess of morale, readiness, political correctness, and social confusion.
Do Emotions Trump Facts?
Those of us who like to believe that human beings are rational can sometimes have a hard time trying to explain what is going on in politics. It is still a puzzle to me how millions of patriotic Americans could have voted in 2008 for a man who for 20 years — TWENTY YEARS — was a follower of a preacher who poured out his hatred for America in the most gross gutter terms. Today's big puzzle is how so many otherwise rational people have become enamored of Donald Trump, projecting onto him virtues and principles that he clearly does not have, and ignoring gross defects that are all too blatant.
Refugees Riot
Muslim migrants at a French refugee camp in Calais are rioting and, for the past two nights, they have literally burned the camp to the ground. Why would they do that? The camp they are at now is not exactly the most welcoming place. Known as "The Jungle," it's essentially just a tent city housing about six thousand people. Crammed into such squalid conditions, you might expect people to get upset. So the French government, at a cost of more than $21 million, built better temporary housing with heat, showers, beds and electricity.
The Kochs' Biggest Sin: Disagreeing With Liberal Narrative
Jane Mayer of The New Yorker has a new book out: "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right." It's mostly about those old devils the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are billionaires. They own a very big company. They also are very prominent philanthropists, giving hundreds of millions to cancer research, concert halls and other worthy causes. But what makes them hated and feared by progressives such as Mayer is their political work. They help fund some organizations and foundations, some purely educational, some partisan.
The GOP Gets the Iran Prisoner Swap Wrong
Give President Obama credit. His Iran nuclear deal may be disastrous but the packaging was brilliant. The near-simultaneous prisoner exchange was meant to distract from last Saturday's official implementation of the sanctions-lifting deal. And it did. The Republicans concentrated almost all their fire on the swap sideshow. And in denouncing the swap, they were wrong. True, we should have made the prisoner release a precondition for negotiations. But that pre-emptive concession was made long ago (among many others, such as granting Iran *in advance* the right to enrich uranium). The remaining question was getting our prisoners released before we gave away all our leverage upon implementation of the nuclear accord. We did.
It's an Era of Angry Populism and No One Is Immune
As many conservatives grapple with the growing prospect of a Donald Trump presidential nomination, I've started to hear them asking one another the once unthinkable: "Would you vote for Trump?" Mostly, the answer is "of course not." He's a fascistic clown. He's a clandestine liberal (not really that cagey about it, to be honest) who'd be a disaster for the country, not to mention destroy the Republican Party for generations, perhaps forever. Which is exactly the point, right?
The Establishment's Irrational Fear of Ted Cruz
Some time ago I said that many establishment Republicans dislike Ted Cruz so much that they would even back their nemesis, Donald Trump, if necessary to keep Cruz from winning. This is one time I wish I had been wrong. The establishment has long held Cruz in contempt but didn't believe he had any realistic chance of securing the GOP nomination. Now, with his campaign success, he's scaring their pants off. Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole has issued apocalyptic warnings against nominating Cruz, and I've just received an email that Sen. Orrin Hatch prefers Trump over Cruz as well.