Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
The Year of Hysteria
We should be glad that 2015 is passing into memory, because it was a year when we could barely hold it together. It was a year when we freaked out over symbols and scared ourselves with fake statistics. It was a year when the facts weren't allowed to get in the way of a good, overwrought slogan. It was a year when we convinced ourselves that Earth was nearly beyond saving. It was a year of the safe space and micro-aggression.
Bill Clinton's Predatory Behavior: Fair Game
Hillary Clinton has slammed Donald Trump for having a "penchant for sexism," but the Clinton-adoring media are acting shocked and dismayed that Trump would be so rude as to respond that she ought to look at her own husband when it comes to sexism and a "record of women abuse." Reporters are treating this as a sketchy allegation, or if true, a remarkably impolite way to campaign.
Four Stars for Honesty
Actor Samuel L. Jackson is no shrinking violet when it comes to sharing his thoughts about current events. He had a lot to say recently about the 2016 campaign, which was exactly what you might expect from a Hollywood liberal. But his remarks about the San Bernardino shootings were also very revealing.
Populism From Unlikely Candidates
Populism is typically born in places like Nebraska, Louisiana, Kansas and the other places given short shrift in that famous Saul Steinberg New Yorker cartoon showing the view of the world from 9th Avenue. It's not supposed to hail from Brooklyn or Queens, never mind Burlington, Vermont, or midtown Manhattan. But that's where the two reigning populists of the 2016 cycle call home.
Defining Political Child Abuse: A Tale of Two Cruz Families
Remember 5-year-old Sophie Cruz? Groomed for a year by an outfit called the "Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition," Sophie is the ponytailed poster child for amnesty who was literally propped up in front of the pope during a September visit to Washington, D.C. Latino activists brazenly bragged about training the first-grader before the visit and crafting a letter in her name pleading with the Catholic pontiff to help her rescue President Obama's executive illegal immigrant amnesty program DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents), which was halted under federal court order on May.
Freer Markets, Not More Regulation, Will Improve Retirement Marketplace
The Department of Labor has spent a good part of 2015 trying to revise the regulation of advisers that provide investment advice to our retirement plans. Specifically, DOL wants to expand inclusion of these investment advisers as "fiduciaries" under ERISA, the landmark law passed in 1974 to regulate retirement plans.
Questions for Presidential Candidates
A little over a month from now, voters in Iowa will be heading into their local caucuses to cast the first substantive votes in the process that will determine whom the major parties nominate for president. In Jan. 2017 — just over a year from now — the United States will inaugurate only its third president of the 21st Century.
For Obama, It's Not Delusion, It's Purpose
Good news, America: the Obama administration has achieved peace in Syria. That's according to John Kirby, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Public Affairs and spokesperson at the US State Department, who issued a blog post filled with five-word summations of 2015. Here's their summation of the Syrian crisis: "Bringing Peace, Security to Syria."
2015
Terrorism! Crime! Deadly storms! Hillary Clinton! We reporters focus on bad news, but at year's end, let's remember what went right. 2015 was a better time to be alive than most any prior point in history. The rich got richer. Some people think that's a problem, but why? Do rich people sit on their piles of money and cackle about how rich they are? Do they build giant houses that damage the environment? Well, they sometimes do.
Be Leery of Governmental Distortion of the Market
An activist government can wreak havoc on the free market. From our nation's earliest days, it was heard that "the power to tax is the power to destroy." But Americans should be especially wary of when the government steps beyond setting rules for the marketplace and seeks to set the marketplace itself. This is the risk when government regulators overplay their hand with pending mergers and acquisitions.
The Year in Blame Shifting
On Monday, when he announced that a grand jury had declined to indict two Cleveland police officers in the 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said enhanced video of the incident showed the boy was drawing what looked like a gun from his waistband. Although the object was actually an Airsoft pellet pistol, McGinty said, Timothy Loehmann, the officer who killed Tamir within two seconds of arriving at the scene, had no way of knowing that.
Misleading and Using Blacks
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ran headlong into the leftist meat grinder by questioning whether college admission of blacks with academic achievement levels significantly lower than the rest of the student body is beneficial to blacks. His question came up during oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, wherein the court will rule whether the use of race in college admission decisions violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws" to all citizens.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Mall Brawls: Teens Terrorize Holiday Shoppers
You might want to slip on a Kevlar vest and some body armor the next time you head down to the local mall to do some shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond or the Pottery Barn. The entitlement generation is on the rampage — turning many of our nation's shopping centers into war zones. Over the long holiday weekend, mobs of unsupervised teenagers terrorized shoppers and department stores across the fruited plain.
The Sum of All Fears
President Obama and members of his administration assure us we have nothing to fear when it comes to terrorism. Whether you accept this, or not — and opinion polls show a majority do not — there is another fear that in large part is behind the phenomenon known as Donald Trump. It is the fear we are in danger of losing America. Speaking as a member of a group that will in this century become a minority in America — that would be white people — I don't fear minority status. I fear that those who will soon make up the majority will not embrace the values and traditions that have built and sustained America through wars, economic downturns and other challenges to our way of life.
Ready to Get Squeezed?
As the calendar counts down to 2016, most Americans are focused on New Year's Eve parties. Some are focused on next year's campaign to replace President Obama. But what is Barack Obama thinking about? He's thinking about how much more he can do to forever change America. In a recent email to his left-wing supporters, Obama offered a preview of what we can expect in the remaining days of his presidency: More assaults on our values and more attempts to end run Congress — as if the past seven years weren't enough.
Nostalgia Ain't What It Used to Be
When Christmas arrived at our household, a time of great joy and celebration, of course, all thoughts of politics, culture and the frequent nastiness of things in general were put aside. Naturally, this was an occasion to immerse oneself into a sugar-plums-dancing-in-your-ears, Jack-Frost-roasting-on-an-open-fire, Hillary-free day, to be enjoyed by everyone in our family, ranging in age from seven months to seven decades or so. Christmas music hummed in the background, red and green lights twinkled everywhere, peels of laughter and mirth rippled through the air, a ninety-pound black Labrador imitated a lap dog, trying out one lap after another — things didn't get better than that. Until, that is, the first present was opened, in this case, by one of the grandchildren.
Supreme Court Grapples, Once Again, With Redistricting
Fifty-one years ago the Supreme Court handed down its one-person-one-vote decision, requiring that within each state congressional and legislative districts must have equal populations. That gave redistricters a relatively easy standard to meet. Census data provides block-by-block population counts every 10 years, and it's possible now to draw lines for districts so that their populations are identical or vary by just one person. But redistricting cases keep making their way to the Court nonetheless.
'I'm Not Ready to Get Married'
Part I in a series of widely held beliefs that are either untrue or meaningless: In every age, people say and believe things that aren't true but somehow become accepted as "conventional wisdom." The statement "I'm not ready to get married" is a current example. Said by more and more Americans between the ages of 21 and 40 (and some who are older than that), it usually qualifies as both meaningless and untrue. And it is one reason a smaller percentage of Americans are marrying than ever before.