Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
A Chance to Mend First Amendment Rights
When the Supreme Court contemplates changing its mind, it must weigh the institutional interest in the law's continuity against evidence that a prior decision has done an injury, even a constitutional injury. The court took 58 years to begin, with the 1954 school desegregation decision, undoing its 1896 decision affirming the constitutionality of "separate but equal" public facilities and services. On Monday, oral arguments at the court will indicate whether it is ready to undo 39 years of damage to the First Amendment rights of millions of government employees.
Proposed ObamaCare Gender Identity Mandate Threatens Freedom of Conscience and the Independence of Physicians
New proposed regulations from the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services would create serious conflicts of conscience for many organizations, hospitals, physicians, and other individuals involved in health care. The proposed regulations create special privileges based on gender identity that would lead to unreasonable and costly litigation for physicians, hospitals, insurers, and others involved in health care. They effectively would require controversial procedures, such as "sex-reassignment" surgery, that respected medical professionals argue have not been proven to be effective in treating serious mental health conditions. Every individual should be treated with dignity and respect, especially when he or she is in need of medical care. However, the proposed regulations would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, threaten freedom of conscience, and advance bad public policy.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
The Difference Between Obama's Recovery and Reagan's
So President Barack Obama is back from Hawaii and the Los Angeles Times reports the president will trumpet his economic record. The Times reports: "Eager to stay on the offensive as new Republican majorities are seated in Congress, the president plans to take a more bullish economic message on the road next week in something of an early test drive of his State of the Union message. During stops in Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee, Obama plans to draw a connection between actions his administration took early in his presidency and increasingly positive economic trends in sectors such as manufacturing and housing."
Ban Radical Islam ... Not Guns
President Obama was on CNN [Thursday] night for a national "town hall" discussion about gun control. Of course, it was no such thing. It was political theater with an audience tilted heavily toward Obama's agenda.
DOE Uses Dough to Coerce Schools
Only the Department of Education would try to stop bullies by becoming one! Instead of starting a dialogue about what constitutes sexual harassment, the agency is ordering colleges to adopt its radical new definitions — or lose federal funds. Like the rest of the Obama administration, the DOE has gotten into the habit of throwing its weight around without any accountability or justification in the law. And while one of the biggest culprits of that, Secretary Arne Duncan, may be gone, his legacy of intimidation continues.
Big Brother vs. The Little Sisters: Obama Admin Takes Nuns to Supreme Court
The Obama administration's lack of understanding of the spiritual depth and commitment of private religious charities is shocking. The callousness of the federal effort to compel a noble Catholic religious order — the Little Sisters of the Poor — to forsake its faith commitments shows the depth of the intolerance of the behemoth secular state under President Obama. The story is one of courageousness on the part of the nuns of this religious order. Founded in France in 1839, the Little Sisters of the Poor has spread to many other countries, including the United States, with the charitable goal of giving aid and comfort to the poor. The Sisters take the normal vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but also add hospitality, which they extend to some of the "least of those in our midst."
Poll Results, the Clintons & Islam
I'm the first to acknowledge that when I conduct one of my infrequent polls, there is nothing even slightly scientific about it. After all, I'm not seeking a cross-section of voters based on age, race, job or profession, income, religion or any of the other factors that the folks at Gallop and Pew put such store by. On the other hand, I do have readers all over the country and I suspect that 99% of them are Republicans and that 100% of the 99% actually vote on Election Day. So they shouldn't be too casually dismissed, even if I'm not licensed to practice.
Ted Cruz Is Nixon, Not Goldwater
The lazy conventional wisdom is that Ted Cruz is the new Barry Goldwater, doomed to suffer an electoral landslide defeat should he win the Republican nomination. Not only is this wrong about Cruz's general-election chances, it may compare Cruz to the wrong 20th-century Republican forebear. The better analogue for Cruz might be Richard Nixon, not in the crudely pejorative sense, but as another surpassingly shrewd and ambitious politician who lacked a personal touch but found a way to win nonetheless.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Public School Recruits Students to Work for Hillary Clinton Campaign
A public high school in Maine was caught red-handed trying to recruit students to work on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign as a "community service opportunity" without the knowledge or consent of parents. Could you imagine the national media firestorm had the school been recruiting for Donald Trump's campaign? Students at Marshwood High School in South Berwick received an email from the Clinton campaign urging them to sign up for positions as unpaid "fellows."
A Red Herring in Virginia
Voters are fickle and often don't pay much attention to races besides the top ones, like president and governor. That must be why Virginians narrowly elected Mark Herring state attorney general two years ago. A majority of people apparently didn't think it mattered a lot who held the office. Were they wrong! A couple of weeks ago Herring decided he would no longer recognize concealed carry permits from 25 other states. Roughly 6.3 million people currently allowed to carry weapons — and thus protect themselves and others — will be disqualified. Half of the states in the union will see Virginia as an inconsistent partner and some law-abiding gun owners denied the right of self-defense might not visit the state, costing it tourism dollars.
Taking a Closer Look at the Terrorist Threat
A recent Gallup poll asked Americans to name the No. 1 issue facing the country. What do you suppose came out on top? Not the economy. Not health care. Not immigration. No, the issue that headed the list was terrorism. This hardly seems surprising in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. Yet that didn't stop certain critics from dismissing this fear and airing the statistics that show you have more to fear from car accidents, heart disease and ingrown toenails than from terrorism.
Negative Campaigning Breaks Out in Republican Race
Rough and tumble. Hammer and tongs. In the race for this year's Republican nomination, Donald Trump has not hesitated to attack and ridicule many of his opponents, and some of them have teed up attacks on him, only to hold back when they seemed to help rather than hurt him. Ted Cruz is the one candidate who has conspicuously refrained from attacking the national frontrunner, gliding along in his wake. "As others have thrown rocks and others have tossed insults, I haven't reciprocated," Cruz said Jan. 5.
Guns: Bad Journalism and Bad Politics
Are you opposed to "common sense" gun laws? These are what liberals like Hillary Clinton are always proclaiming their support for. In their telling, expanding background checks, closing the "gun show loophole," and restricting Internet sales will, in the words of liberal columnist E.J. Dionne, "(limit) the carnage on our streets, in our schools and houses of worship, and at our movie theaters." That's not an argument — it's moral grandstanding, and not a word of it holds up under scrutiny.
Obama's Partisan Harangues Demanding Bipartisanship
I've long marveled at President Obama's calls for bipartisanship right before viciously tearing into Republicans. It's creepy, because he is either too self-absorbed to know he's doing it or arrogant enough to assume we won't see through it. I'm referring not to the routine partisan rancor between politicians in the course of debating an issue but to those occasions when there is no time between Obama's demands for cooperation and his tongue-lashing of Republicans — when he waxes eloquent about getting along and then immediately pummels his opponents. It's so strikingly inconsistent that I am surprised even conservative commentators don't make more of this.
The Cosby-Clinton Media Double Standard
The indictment of Bill Cosby for sexual assault could play an important role in the 2016 campaign. On Comedy Central, leftist "fake news" anchor Larry Wilmore said even if Cosby isn't convicted, a trial is a good thing. "For too long, the women who have accused him of this crime were not being listened to, because they were being silenced by a powerful man and a complicit culture. And, now, finally, regardless of what happens next, they're being heard."
Obama's Legacy Is Executive Abuse
Over the winter break, I finally got around to binge-watching "Parks and Recreation." In case you missed the show's seven-year run, it's about a fascistic small-town councilwoman who believes it's a politician's job to impose her notions of morality, safety and decency on everyone, no matter what voters want or what the system dictates. She is justifiably recalled by the people of her town after attempting to regulate portion sizes at fast-food restaurants but ends up running a federal office where she can do big things without the consent of the people.
No Cindy Sheehan-Style Media Attention for Benghazi Victim's Father
For partisan Democrats, when the word "Benghazi" comes up, the sophisticated thing to do is roll your eyes. If the name Charles Woods comes up, the normal thing to do is say, "Who?" So let's talk about Cindy Sheehan for a moment instead. Remember her? For a while, she was the Joan of Arc of the antiwar left. The mother of a U.S. Army specialist killed in Iraq, Sheehan held a vigil outside President George W. Bush's ranch, demanding to meet with him so she could denounce the war to his face.
Congress Acts
[Wednesday] night the House of Representatives, on a largely party-line vote, passed legislation repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood. It has passed bills to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood on several occasions. But in previous years, these bills have died in the Senate. What is different this time is that the repeal/defund legislation already passed the new Republican Senate under special rules that prevent filibusters. With the House's approval, both chambers of Congress are now on the record in favor of repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood. The bill is now headed to Barack Obama's desk.
Defy America, Pay No Price
If you're going to engage in a foreign policy capitulation, might as well do it when everyone is getting tanked and otherwise occupied. Say, New Year's Eve. Here's the story. In October, Iran test-fires a nuclear-capable ballistic missile in brazen violation of Security Council resolutions prohibiting such launches. President Obama does nothing. One month later, Iran does it again. The administration makes a few gestures at the U.N. Then nothing. Then finally, on Dec. 30, the White House announces a few sanctions.
Congress's Role in Repeal: Won and Done
President Obama could never undo his pro-abortion legacy — but this week, Congress is giving him an opportunity to try. In perhaps one of the single greatest accomplishments of the last seven years, Republicans managed their first-ever, dual-chamber rebuke of Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare. After more than 60 tries, Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) party celebrated the victory at a special signing ceremony of the Restoring Americans' Health Care Freedom Act this afternoon.