Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
A Not-So-Murray Christmas for Libs
The only package pro-lifers cared about this Christmas was the budget reconciliation one. And thanks to the hard work of conservatives in the House and Senate, they got it! In the early evening [Thursday], Americans celebrated the first major victory against Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare since the GOP took control of Congress. After weeks of late nights and procedural gymnastics, the Senate delivered its most stinging rebuke of the president's favorite twin pillars of policy: his signature health care law and favorite abortion business. With one more vote than they needed, the GOP is a small step away from sending the Restoring Americans' Health Care Freedom Reconciliation Act to the president's desk, where the responsibility for the failure of ObamaCare and nation's complicity in abortion's barbarism will ultimately rest.
Christie's Coveted, Meaningless Prize
The Union Leader, New Hampshire's largest newspaper, endorsed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for president [last] weekend, calling him "the one candidate who has the range and type of experience the nation desperately needs." The endorsement got a lot of coverage; news reports routinely characterized the Union Leader's seal of approval as "coveted" and "influential."
Discriminatory Racial Preferences in College Admissions Return to the Supreme Court
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
Obama Speaks
President Obama addressed the nation yesterday to offer his thoughts about the San Bernardino massacre. I ignored his nonsense then, but here's what he had to say: "At this stage, we do not yet know why this terrible event occurred... We don't know why they did it. ... We do not know their motivations... It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don't know. It's also possible that this was workplace-related." That comment borders on willful deception. The efforts of big media and left-wing apologists for radical Islam to dismiss what our own eyes and ears tell us is infuriating.
U.S. Postal Service Wasting Billions on New Mail Trucks
Political satirist P.J. O'Rourke makes an oft-missed point when he says, "It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money." Taking a page straight from the government playbook, the United States Postal Service's upcoming $6.3 billion procurement of new mail delivery trucks echoes this sentiment perfectly.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Wimping Out in Paris
President Obama is over there in Paris where the blood of 130 innocents slaughtered by Islamic extremists last month is barely dry. He's on a continent where millions of people and their governments are on edge, waiting for the next cafe to be sprayed with machine gun bullets. So what great presidential thing does he do? Does he issue a ringing call for the leaders of Western Civilization to follow him in an all-out war to exterminate the barbaric Islamic terrorists? Are you kidding?
God CAN Fix This
Of all the horrific shootings this country has suffered these past few years, [Wednesday's] tragedy at San Bernardino may have been the most significant. Not because it took more lives than others, or even because of the gunmen's potential motives. No, Wednesday's tragedy was more stunning because it prompted an even fiercer attack — on faith. Instead of turning to one another for strength in crisis, Americans turned *on* each other.
The 'God Isn't Fixing This' Liberal Media
The first wave of analysis after the mass shooting in San Bernardino suggested that this could be a right-wing militia or anti-government conspiracy. This is the default position of the anti-conservative press: unless shown otherwise, it was one of those right-wingers. Then they named the suspects, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. Remote controls were surely tossed across America when CNN legal analyst Casey Jordan guessed that the Muslim shooter was "going into this conference room where there was a holiday party, which may have been offensive to him." Ah, religion.
The CAIR Effect: See Something, Do Nothing
As news of the San Bernardino jihadist shootings blared on airport TVs, I spotted a TSA monitor flashing the now ubiquitous message: "If you SEE something, SAY something." The warning should be followed with a big "LOL" and a winky-blinky, just-kidding emoji. It's one of the emptiest slogans in modern American life. While the White House pays lip service to homeland security vigilance, it consorts with Islamic terror sympathizers who attack vigilant citizens and law enforcement officers at every turn.
Climate Talks Reveal Progressivism's True Hypocrisy
What do you call it when elites fly their private jets to an international climate change conference to forge a deal with despots that caps American prosperity without our consent? You call it progressivism. It's estimated that 50,000 carbon-spewing humans participated in the Paris climate conference. But while President Barack Obama was taking his working dinner at the three-Michelin-star L'Ambroisie, public protesters were banned from protesting in the aftermath of the Islamic terror attacks. Liberté? Not so much.
Another Case of SJS?
In the aftermath of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, which left 14 people dead and at least 20 wounded, the FBI, most of the media and local law enforcement are warning us not to jump to any conclusions. This could be work place violence, or perhaps someone offended the shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik.
'Nothing to Do With Islam'
In the aftermath of Paris and before San Bernardino, Hillary Clinton articulated the forced catechism of the left: "Let's be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism." What happens when a major political party becomes so wedded to political correctness that it feels constrained to deny reality? Clinton could hardly have chosen a less opportune moment to squeeze her eyes shut about the threat of Islamic extremism, a threat that is glaringly, blazingly obvious.
It Was Not Always So
Two weeks ago, a man began firing shots in a parking lot in Colorado Springs. He moved into a Planned Parenthood facility. Eventually captured, it turns out the man is a lunatic. He lived in a trailer with no running water or electricity. He had a history of violent behavior and crazy theories about the world. But according to the American political left, the man was clearly a Christian pro-life activist.
Prayers for Shooting Victims Prompt a Dubious Front Page
Dear New York Daily News, You're doing it wrong. Long before the blood was mopped up, before police issued the all-clear, before the motives of the shooters were known and the names of the dead were released, before you had any idea how the murderers in San Bernardino obtained their guns — or their bombs — you knew exactly what this story had to be about: gun control.
The State of Play in the Republican Race
There are just eight-and-a-half weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, with two of those weeks devoted to holidays during which polling is ordinarily not conducted, and the race for the Republican presidential nomination seems to be taking perceptible shape. And it continues to defy conventional wisdom. Since mid-July Donald Trump has been leading in the national polls, except for a moment early last month when he was effectively tied with Ben Carson. His numbers have moved up and down a bit but have stayed between 22 and 30 percent since early August.
University: Your Holiday Party Cannot Be a Christmas Party in Disguise
If you plan on having a Christmas party at the University of Tennessee be sure to leave the Baby Jesus and Santa Claus at home. The taxpayer-funded university's Office for Diversity and Inclusion recently released an "unofficial" edict calling for the campus to host holiday parties that do not emphasize religion or culture. "Ensure your holiday party is not a Christmas party in disguise," the organization warned in an online document titled, "Best Practices for Inclusive Holiday Celebrations in the Workplace." Ah yes — Christmas-neutral. It's all the rage on college campuses these days.
Cruz vs. Rubio — A Better GOP Race
A funny thing is happening on the way to the GOP meltdown. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, the two most popular and broadly acceptable candidates in the field are perhaps the most talented and most reliably conservative. Oh, and by the way, they are Hispanics in their 40s. Donald Trump is still leading the polls and has demonstrated a staying power that has confounded his critics, but Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are now beginning to stand out in the rest of the field, clustering with Ben Carson in effectively a three-way tie for second place nationally.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Planned Parenthood and Those Villainous Christians
In the wake of the Colorado Springs shooting, I read a great deal about so-called Christian terrorism from liberals. I don't think they've thought this through. We've spent years hearing how associating Islam with terrorism is outrageous and bigoted. President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton have all made the case that Islamic terrorism has "nothing whatsoever" — Clinton's words — to do with Islam. President Obama insists the Islamic State "is not Islamic."
Erdogan's Turkey Is a Dubious Ally
Turkey often appeals to the West for support, given its longtime membership in NATO. Now, Turkish leadership is in a shouting match with Russia's provocative president, Vladimir Putin, over Turkey's downing of a Russian jet in probable Turkish airspace. Each country has accused the other of helping terrorists in Syria. The problem with Turkey and the West, however, is that their relationship is decades out of date. What was once an alliance is now nothing special at all.
Three Cheers for Cultural Appropriation
For seven years, the Center for Students with Disabilities at the University of Ottawa has sponsored free on-campus yoga classes, a popular program taught by a professional yoga teacher from the city's Rama Lotus Yoga Centre. To the reasonable among us, free yoga for special-needs students may sound innocuous and gentle. But not to the vigilantes of political correctness, who successfully pressured the university's student government to suspend the classes as an intolerable instance of "cultural appropriation."