Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Questions Legitimate Journalists Should Be Asking Hillary Clinton
On Sept. 14, 2012, three days after the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods in Benghazi, Libya, Hillary Clinton appeared at Andrews air force base, where she spoke with family members of those slain. Shortly afterward, Tyrone Woods' father reported that she told him, "We are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of your son." Sean Smith's mother recently repeated this, saying, "She said it was because of the video." Glen Doherty's sister said she chose "in that moment to basically perpetuate what she knew was untrue."
Hot Air in Paris
If representatives of the nearly 200 nations gathered in Paris for the UN Conference on Climate Change had instead formed a coalition to fight a real threat — Islamic terrorism — they might have accomplished something useful. Instead, what they came up with is a document that even Secretary of State John Kerry, in a rare moment of candor, confessed is pointless.
Administration, Please Continue to Spew Misinformation on Guns
The Obama administration is not only at odds with America, as founded, but also woefully out of touch with ordinary Americans, and it is deceitful or delusional (or both) on guns. President Obama twisted himself into a pretzel to deny that the San Bernardino, California, massacre was committed by Islamic terrorists. Even as facts accumulated — making the obvious undeniable — he continued to cling to the preposterous narrative that it was workplace violence. It's those high-stress jobs, you see, that cause otherwise peaceful people to fire up their time machines and go back to buy weapons to kill dozens of people who have nothing to do with their workplace grievances.
Obama's Social Media Mishap
No, the president did not accidentally tweet an embarrassing photo. Regrettably, this is far more serious. Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Tashfeen Malik "talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad." "She said she supported it," the Times wrote. "And she said she wanted to be part of it." Yet as Malik sought entry into the United States, she ultimately passed three background checks. Not once did those posts raise any red flags ... because the Department of Homeland Security never checked her social media profile.
Festival of Smugness
There are few more repugnant spectacles among the liberal elites of this country than the festival of smugness that follows any comment by a conservative public figure that can be twisted into a racial slight. This week it is Justice Antonin Scalia's turn. In an oral argument over affirmative action, Scalia said: "There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to — to get them in the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a less — a slower track school where they do well."
Why Don't Republicans Identify What They Are Fighting?
American conservatives are rightfully annoyed with the Obama administration, and Democrats generally, for refusing to name radical Islam or Islamism as the major source of terror. When Nidal Hasan murdered 13 fellow soldiers at Fort Hood ,the administration refused to label the mass murder — committed by a Muslim in the name of Islam — an act of Islamist terror, or even terror at all. Instead it was officially declared a "workplace shooting."
Monday, December 14, 2015
Judicial Watch Takes Deadly San Francisco Sanctuary Policy to Court
Judicial Watch recognizes that local cities' and states' "sanctuary policies" for illegal alien criminals are deadly and unlawful — so much so that we're willing to go to court to try to stop them. You will be pleased to know that JW just filed a taxpayer lawsuit in San Francisco County, California Superior Court to end a March 2015 expansion of San Francisco's sanctuary ordinance that prohibits San Francisco Sheriff's Department personnel from exchanging information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about the citizenship or immigration status of inmates in the Sheriff Department's custody.
Freedom of Speech and Public Employee Unions
U.S. labor unions have long been experiencing a decline. In 1954, union membership for both public and private sector employees combined peaked at 28.3 percent. Today only around 11 percent of all workers belong to unions. The overall rate of union membership would be much lower were it not for the public sector — teachers, police officers, other municipal workers — where the rate of union membership is considerably higher at nearly 36 percent. This higher rate among the public sector is why the outcome of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association is a major concern for labor leaders.
We Aren't The World
To believe his critics, Donald Trump has ripped up the U.S. Constitution and sprinkled its shreds on the smoldering embers of what was once the Statute of Liberty. He did this, of course, by proposing a temporary ban on Muslim immigration into the United States, which might be the most roundly and fiercely denounced idea in America since the British Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts (in 1774). There is no doubt about it: Donald Trump's proposal is invidious; not all Muslims are a security risk. It is unworkable; among other things, airlines would have to screen travelers from Europe for their religion. It is imprudent; we don't want to send a message of generalized hostility to Muslims.
The Right Way to Apologize for Slavery
Eight American states have apologized in recent years for their involvement in slavery. Delaware's governor wants his state to follow suit. "It's essential," said Governor Jack Markell on Dec. 6, the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States, "that we publicly and candidly and wholly recognize the everlasting damage of those sins." He urged legislators to approve a joint resolution declaring that Delaware "denounces and deplores" the slavery that existed within its borders for more than two centuries.
The Blacklist Lives On
The fact is that I write so much that there are times even I lose track. One such occasion occurred recently when I opened my copy of Written By, the monthly magazine published by the Writers Guild for the sole purpose of allowing hacks to pretend that the schlock that most of them churn out is great art that will live on through the ages.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
A Missouri Town Demands Substantive Due Process
If Pagedale, Missouri, is a glimpse of the future, the future is going to be annoying. Pagedale might represent the future of governance unless some of its residents succeed in their lawsuit against their government. If they do, it will be because they successfully invoked the principle of substantive due process. Pagedale is 1.19 square miles of St. Louis County. Approximately 93 percent of its 3,000 residents are African-American and about 25 percent live below the poverty line. There is not much of a tax base for their government. But supposed necessity does not confer constitutionality on Pagedale's decision to budget on the assumption of a steady blizzard of capricious fines.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Church Slapped With Criminal Summons Over Worship Service 'Noise'
"Silent Night" has new meaning for a Louisiana church after they were issued criminal sanctions because their worship services exceeded 60 decibels — which is about the same noise level of a dishwasher. The executive pastor of Vintage Church was issued a criminal summons and the rest of the staff was threatened with "physical arrest" if they used any microphones or amplified sound in their worship services, according to a lawsuit filed by Liberty Institute.
Local Officials Advocating Sanctuary Policies Put Illegal Criminals Ahead of Americans
San Francisco and other cities across the United States have created so-called "sanctuaries" for illegal aliens. These municipalities are defying federal immigration law, just like some Southern jurisdictions that defied federal civil rights laws in the 1960s. But unlike that earlier era, today's sanctuary cities are creating safe havens for known criminals. Their policies have victimized innocent Americans, enabling illegal aliens to commit thousands of crimes that would not otherwise have occurred.
Terror Fears Rising
There are widely differing polls over whether Donald Trump is going too far with some of his latest remarks about Muslims and terrorism. But what the polls don't disagree on is that the American people are increasingly concerned about the threat we face from radical Islam. A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds that fears of terrorist attacks are at their highest levels since the days immediately following 9/11. Seventy-nine percent of Americans believe a terrorist attack is likely to occur in the next few months. Terrorism also beat out the economy as the top concern among Americans.
Policy Riders in the Sky...
If there's anyone busier than Santa, it's Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.). As Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, it's up to him to make sure the government's stockings get stuffed for next year. That means another working weekend for he and the budget negotiators, who've been plodding through hundreds of pages of spending legislation before its release next week.
Trumpism and Elitism
In "The Myth of Sisyphus," Albert Camus's exploration of the role of suicide in the modern world, the philosopher of the Absurd states, "That universal reason, practical or ethical, that determinism, those categories that explain everything are enough to make a decent man laugh." Camus was making reference to philosophical giants of western civilization whose task was to justify a universe seemingly indifferent to humanity's yearning for meaning. All of which Camus dismissed with a rhetorical flip of his hand and a whiff of disdain; he believed magisterial cathedrals of thought were irrelevant to enlightening individuals' souls about the most important thing in their lives. Quite the contrary, their hubris induces mirth, as his cold analysis in "Sisyphus" made clear.
Movies, Muslims & Morons
I suspect I'm not the only person who assumed Muslims were behind the massacre at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino as soon as the first reports went out. When later in the day, the media began to act coy when it came to naming the killers, we knew our first instinct was correct. No way would they have held back if the names had been Jimmy Jones or Susie Smith, but God forbid they report that 14 people had just been massacred by the usual suspects.
Friday, December 11, 2015
The Killer Smog in China (and India) — A Lot Like 60 Years Ago in the West
Rapid industrialization requires abundant, cheap energy!
The Ignorant Crusade
Self-righteousness is liberating. The same people who are most exercised about guns in America, and want to ban and even confiscate entire categories of firearms, know little about them and evidently feel no compunction to learn. The worst terror attack in the United States since Sept. 11 has become the occasion for another frenzied, poorly informed push for new gun restrictions. President Barack Obama gave a prime-time address on the terror threat, in which he resolutely reaffirmed the status quo in the campaign against ISIS. Except that he hopes that gun control, one of the signal political and policy failures of our time, will now be deployed to help foil the apocalyptic terror group.