Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Another False 'Turning Point' on Climate
History, on the "right side" of which Barack Obama endeavors to keep us, has a sense of whimsy. Proof of which is something happening this week: Britain's last deep-pit coal mine is closing, a small event pertinent to an enormous event, the Industrial Revolution, which was ignited by British coal. The mine closure should not, however, occasion cartwheels by the climate's saviors, fresh from their Paris achievement. The mine is primarily a casualty of declining coal prices, a result of burgeoning world energy supplies. Thanks largely to the developing world, demand for coal is expected to increase for at least another quarter-century.
Trump Finds an Ally
Ladies and gentlemen, he has done it again. Donald Trump has, with a few lines uttered in his gamy style, set off a cacophonous controversy that threatens to overwhelm just about every other controversy in this controversy-bountiful nation. It has even overwhelmed global warming or climate change, or whatever they are choosing to call the delusion this time. Last week, Trump called for a 10-year moratorium on Muslim migration into America, and all hell broke loose. In light of Muslim violence around the world this brouhaha caught me off guard, especially when one considers the violence in Texas, Tennessee and most recently San Bernardino, California. In Paris, the violence was against unarmed civilians by Muslims both indigenous and foreign born. In San Bernardino, it was much the same. Is it not time to at least temporarily tighten the immigration laws?
GOP Debate Number Five
Each of the Republican presidential candidates brings something good to the race for the GOP nomination and some things not so good. In the fifth and final GOP debate of the year, the candidates on the main stage, and even a few on the "undercard," presented ideas and positions that many Republican voters would consider far better than those we have now under the president we have now.
Families of Terrorists See No Evil, Speak No Evil
Amid all the furor over Islamic terrorism in the United States, a few themes are ignored: the role of friends and family of terrorists, and how well the U.S had treated many of those who went on to kill Americans. Take, for example, the family members of Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, who recently murdered 14 people and wounded 21 in San Bernardino before being killed by police. The New York Times recently contacted Malik's sister in Pakistan, Fehda Malik, who insisted that her sister was not an extremist, "She knew what was right and wrong," Fehda Malik said.
Football Coach Suspended for Midfield Prayer Files Discrimination Complaint
One coach prayed to God. Another coach chanted to Buddha. But only one got punished — the Christian coach. Joe Kennedy, a beloved assistant football coach in Bremerton, Washington, was suspended on Oct. 28 after he refused to stop his post-game prayers at the 50-yard line. On Tuesday, he filed a discrimination complaint against the school district, claiming the district did not punish the team's offensive coordinator for conducting Buddhist chants in a similar manner.
'Mismatched' Black Students Pay the Price of Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is once again before the Supreme Court. The case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, arose from the usual scenario: A white student applied to the university but was denied admission, while black applicants with weaker academic credentials were admitted because of racial preferences designed to favor minorities. It's no mystery why Abigail Fisher, the rejected student in this case, would object to that racial double standard and take her protest all the way to the Supreme Court. What's less clear is why the University of Texas embraces such a double standard.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Attacking the Truth: Part II
The case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, involving racial double standards in admissions to the University of Texas at Austin, has an Alice-in-Wonderland quality that has been all too common in other Supreme Court cases involving affirmative action in academia, going all the way back to 1978. Plain hard facts dissolve into rhetorical mysticism in these cases, where evasions of reality have been the norm.
Students Practice Calligraphy by Writing 'There Is No God but Allah'
A Virginia school district is defending a classroom assignment that required students to practice calligraphy by writing the Muslim statement of faith, "There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Female students at Riverheads High School in Staunton, Virginia, were also invited to wear Muslim clothing — a story first reported by The Schilling Show. The school district convened a meeting on Dec. 11th to discuss the assignment with outraged parents.
Climate Make-Believe in Paris
Saving the planet has never been so easy. The Paris climate talks concluded in a rousing round of self-congratulation over an agreement that, we are told, is the first step toward keeping Earth habitable. If generating headlines and press releases about making history were the metric for anything, Paris might be as consequential — if misbegotten — as advertised.
Hillary Says Relatives of Benghazi Heroes Are Liars
Our news media are so overwhelmingly obsequious to the Democrats that Hillary Clinton can imply the relatives of the Americans killed in Benghazi are liars on national TV, and no one in the press blinks an eye or finds it newsworthy. ABC is about to host another one of those hide-and-seek Saturday night Democrat debates. There is something very ironic here: It was on this network where she made that outrageous statement.
Vetting Obama's Witless Vetters at DHS
Gaping holes in the K1 fiance visa interview process. Reckless bans on scrutinizing visa applicants' social media posts. Ignored alarms over marriage fraud. New details keep seeping out about all the "red flags" Obama's immigration officials missed in the case of the San Bernardino jihadists. Color me unshocked. The American public and Capitol Hill politicians should have been more vigilant about vetting Obama's vetters in the first place. What do you expect when you put crony know-nothings, political hacks and identity politics zealots in charge of our safety?
Security Dies Where Multiculturalism Thrives
While Americans fret over Donald Trump's plans to ban Muslim immigration to the United States temporarily thanks to the government's inability to keep us safe, the government continues to prove its inability to keep us safe. This week, we found out that President Obama's Department of Homeland Security prohibited agents from screening foreign citizens applying for visas to enter the country. According to former acting undersecretary at DHS for intelligence and analysis John Cohen, "During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process. ... The primary concern was that it would be viewed negatively if it was disclosed publicly and there were concerns that it would be embarrassing."
Pretend Answers on Terror
I wish I were as confident as many politicians and news commentators. They *know* what America should do about ISIS and terrorism. Donald Trump, who says he can feel terrorism "like I feel a good location ... I have an instinct for this kind of thing," says he would "bomb the s—" out of ISIS strongholds, ban Muslim immigration and shutter American mosques. America should "stop pussy-footing around!" according to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. "Bomb them. Keep bombing them. Bomb them again and again. And I don't care how long it takes!"
Between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Not Even a Contest
New polling shows Ted Cruz picking up major steam and looking very serious in challenging Donald Trump's leadership in the Republican presidential candidate field. A Bloomberg News/Des Moines Register poll shows Cruz now leading in Iowa. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Cruz jumping up 12 points from 10 percent in late October. Now, at 22 percent, Cruz is just 5 points behind Trump. True to form, Trump is beginning personal attacks against Cruz.
Mass Shooting Delusions
Two days after the massacre in San Bernardino, Marco Rubio said something that most gun control supporters probably thought was outrageous. The Florida senator, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, told CBS News "none of the major shootings that have occurred in this country over the last few months or years" would have been prevented by the gun laws proposed in response to them.
Our Timid Military Leaders
This month, President Barack Obama's defense secretary, Ashton Carter, decreed that there will be 220,000 combat military jobs offered to women — including in Army special operations forces and the Navy SEALs. He said, "They'll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat ... and everything else that was previously open only to men."
Why the War on Guns Has Failed
In the wake of the San Bernardino attack, liberals are in a total panic over guns. The New York Times broke a 95-year precedent to editorialize about gun control on its front page. But the Times seems restrained compared with the full-on meltdown at the New York Daily News, which has taken to calling the head of the NRA a "terrorist."
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
How to Protect Your Family & Business From Islamic Jihadists
Risk. It's something we all live with. Risk is simply a degree of danger or loss that we face, whether known or unknown, and we face it every day. If we're smart, we seek to manage that risk, both personally and professionally, but it's always there. We purchase insurance to protect our assets. In business we hire risk managers. We lock our doors. We wear a seatbelt when driving. We check the air in our tires. There is no end to the things we do to mitigate our risk of loss or injury.
Attacking the Truth
Among the many sad signs of our time are the current political and media attacks on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for speaking the plain truth on a subject where lies have been the norm for years. The case before the High Court is whether the use of race as a basis for admitting students to the University of Texas at Austin is a violation of the 14th Amendment's requirement for government institutions to provide "equal protection of the laws" to all.
What, Exactly, Is a Fascist?
It's hard to find a self-respecting liberal these days who doesn't denounce Donald Trump as "a fascist." If you Google "fascist," the first thing that pops up on the screen is a photo of Trump. University professors, Democratic pundits and members of the media who don't call him a fascist resort to over-the-top, sneering terms like "racist," "repellent" and even "Nazi."