Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, January 4, 2016
A December Bouillabaisse
For those unfamiliar with the word in the title, it is defined as a spicy fish stew or a mixture of incongruous things. It is that second meaning I generally aim for in my articles, although I expect that liberals, were they ever to read me, would think the first definition with its emphasis on fishy is more appropriate. The reason that I can't usually devote an article to a single issue is that there simply isn't time. Even as often as I write, I can't keep up with all the madness. Instead, as is always the case with those engaged in guerrilla warfare, I have to hit and run.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
What You Need to Know About 'The Big Short'
One of the most intriguing movies I've seen in a long time is *The Big Short*. It's about the housing bubble and what we now call the Great Recession, based on Michael Lewis's bestselling book "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine." The main characters are money managers who not only realized that the housing bubble was being supported by unsustainable subprime mortgages, but also found a way to make millions of dollars from the inevitable crash. Here are 10 things moviegoers need to know.
Before Government Became Reviled
Soon, voters will have the opportunity and impertinence to insert themselves into the 2016 presidential conversation that thus far has been the preoccupation of journalists and other abnormal people. The voting will begin in Iowa, thanks to Marie Jahn. When, after 38 years as recorder for Plymouth County in northwest Iowa, Jahn decided to retire in February 1975, local Democrats decided to throw her a party. When it came to attracting a speaker, the best they could entice from their party's national ranks was a former one-term governor of Georgia.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Nitwits, Morons and Incompetents
So far as I can recall, I had never heard of Susan Rice before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton handed Benghazi off to her and told her to go out on five Sunday news shows and take one for the team. Her assignment was to pretend that a well-planned terrorist attack that left four Americans dead was a spontaneous response to an inconsequential video. Needless to say, she didn't exactly carry the ball across the goal line. What she did was the equivalent of fumbling on the two yard line and watching the opposition run it back for a 98-yard touchdown.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Outsourcing the Mentally Ill to Police
The latest police shooting to roil Chicago was all too familiar — and not because it fits the poisonous narrative of rampant police racism alleged by Black Lives Matter. Quintonio LeGrier's father called police after locking himself in a bedroom when his son menaced him with a baseball bat. When the police arrived, LaGrier, a 19-year-old with emotional problems, allegedly charged them with the bat. An officer shot him dead, and accidentally killed a neighbor as well.
'Star Wars' and Slavery: A Quandary Awakens
If you're opposed to slavery, is it OK to still like "Star Wars"? It's a question I've been wrestling with ever since Jonathan Last, a friend and writer at the Weekly Standard, pointed out to me that the "droids" in the "Star Wars" movies are slaves. Unlike a lot of the ridiculous "Star Wars" revisionism in recent years — much of it ushered in by Last himself when he argued that Darth Vader & Co. are in fact the good guys — Last's case that droids are slaves strikes me as nearly incontrovertible. I'd hoped to be persuaded otherwise when I went to see the "The Force Awakens." No such luck.
Space: The Visionaries Take Over
Fractured and divided as we are, on one thing we can agree: 2015 was a miserable year. The only cheer was provided by Lincoln Chafee and the Pluto flyby (two separate phenomena), as well as one seminal aeronautical breakthrough. On Dec. 21, Elon Musk's SpaceX, after launching 11 satellites into orbit, returned its 15-story booster rocket, upright and intact, to a landing pad at Cape Canaveral. That's a $60 million mountain of machinery — recovered. (The traditional booster rocket either burns up or disappears into some ocean.)
Obama Reshapes Presidential Politics — But Maybe Not to Democrats' Benefit
One thing that's striking about the presidential race, which, finally, officially begins soon, is how much the race has been shaped by Barack Obama. The course of the contests for both the Republican and Democratic nominations would be inconceivable absent the course of the Obama presidency.
Propaganda and 'The Danish Girl'
As night fell on Christmas Eve, National Public Radio was in its usual holy-day mode, using your tax dollars to mock the traditional Christian creed. This time they promoted an activist movie called "The Danish Girl," yet another alleged "true story" about artist Einar Wegener, a married man who wanted to be a woman named Lili. An earlier NPR commercial — sorry, "underwriting announcement" — said he was the first recipient of "gender confirmation surgery."
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Ten Stories That Fired Up America in 2015
It was a year filled with micro-aggressions and gender neutral pronouns. Bruce became Caitlyn. Black Lives Mattered. And the Baby Jesus got banned. The Greatest Generation has given way to the Perpetually Offended Generation — young Americans who suffer epic meltdowns at the mere hint of criticism. Young Americans who feel entitled to take what you earned. This past year we covered the stories the mainstream media ignored, giving a voice to the folks President Obama once called bitter – those of us who cling to our guns and our religion.
Conservatism: Defined by Action, Not Word
It seems the popular thing to do these days is to declare oneself a conservative, at least, it appears that's the aspiration of nearly every one of the Republican candidates for President. It's also true that during nearly every Republican congressional campaign, the candidates insist that they are the true conservative. But is the Republican Party overwhelmingly represented by conservatives, both in Congress and in those seeking the presidency? Is it simply that easy: just assert one is a conservative and, voila, he or she is such?
Taking Stock
Taking stock is a tradition observed by Jews at Yom Kippur and others who examine their lives at the end of a year and vow to improve in the new year. One group needs to take stock perhaps more than any other: the mainstream media. They continue to lose readers and viewers, but close their eyes and ears to complaints from the public, guaranteeing continued decline in revenue, along with buyouts and layoffs.
A List of 2015's Ludicrousness
E.B. White reportedly said "the most beautiful sound in America" is "the tinkle of ice at twilight." In 2015's twilight, fortify yourself with something 90 proof as you remember this year...
2015 Was an Awful Year? Look Again
Of curse 2015 was a miserable year; all years are miserable. It was a year of rampage killings and police brutality, of natural disasters and government corruption. There were ghastly terror attacks and devastating civil wars, floods of refugees and acts of unspeakable cruelty. Airliners were blown out of the sky. Priceless antiquities were destroyed. Politics seethed with incivility. Too many innocents died young, too many officials lied, too many victims suffered. ... Yet in reality, 2015 was in many ways an *annus mirabilis* — a year of wonders and blessings. Sample some of the evidence.
Republican Congress Delivers a Year to Forget
A tumultuous year for the Republican-led Congress has come to an end. If you were a supporter of the GOP establishment's shallow goal to show the country that it could "govern" by passing bloated spending bills, congratulations. If you're a special interest, congratulations are probably in order, as well. If, however, you held out hope that the GOP would put up a fight for smaller government, I hope the New Year's Eve Champagne helps with the disappointment.
Hillary's Server, Monica's Blue Dress and History
To those of us who have followed the ongoing Clinton Saga, which now reaches back almost 25 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton's computer server promises to become as historic as Monica Lewinsky's stained dress. That is to say, that her server may indeed become as significant to her presidential prospects as Lewinsky's dress was to Bill Clinton's prospects for impeachment.
California Leading From Behind
California has given us three new truths about government. One, the higher that taxes rise, the worst state services become. Two, the worse a natural disaster hits, the more the state contributes to its havoc. And three, the more existential the problem, the more the state ignores it.
Hey, NFL, What About the Taxpayers' Concussion?
Three NFL teams claim they want to come to Los Angeles, the nation's second-biggest market. Their current home cities either did not agree to build a taxpayer-funded stadium or are dragging their feet in doing so. Now each of the possibly L.A.-bound teams *used* to play in L.A., before they left for greener pastures — aka more taxpayer money than L.A. offered. The two competing L.A. stadiums, where a team or two might or might not be playing, *supposedly* are being built (or will be built) without tax dollars: one in L.A.-adjacent Inglewood, the other in nearby Carson.
The Goldwater Talking Point
In 1964, Senator Barry Goldwater lost the presidential election to Lyndon Johnson. Since then, Barry Goldwater's loss has become a talking point about why conservatives cannot win. Even now, both the media and Republican establishment are saying the most conservative candidates in the 2016 field cannot win because of Barry Goldwater's example.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
State Squeezes Last Penny From Bakers Who Defied Lesbian-Wedding Cake Order
Melissa Klein was checking her bank accounts just a few weeks before Christmas when her face turned ashen. The money was gone — every single penny. Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries had confiscated all the cash in Mrs. Klein's checking account and savings account as well as a special account set aside for their church tithe. Yes, friends — the state of Oregon stole money meant for our Lord.