Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Take the Winnings and Run
Where do Republicans get that special talent for turning gold to dross? They score an electoral "massacre" (The Economist) in 2014 and, a year later, what do they have to show for it other than another threat to shut down the government? Hillary Clinton is caught in email flagrante and Benghazi mendacity and yet, with one Kevin McCarthy gaffe and a singularly ineffective 11-hour Benghazi hearing, Republicans render her sanitized.
The Media's Ignorance of American Religion
I seemingly must rewrite this every election season. As Ben Carson rises and the media is confronted by some mysterious something called a "Seventh Day Adventist," it is time again to explain American Protestantism to the press. It is amazing how the American mainstream media continues to write about American Christianity with complete ignorance regarding its basic terms, history, and beliefs.
Race and University Admissions: Abigail Fisher v. University of Texas II
Abigail Fisher applied for admission to the University of Texas at Austin (UT) as part of the entering class of 2008. Little did she know that being rejected for admission under UT's race-conscious program would bring her before the U.S. Supreme Court, not once, but twice. Fisher v. University of Texas II is scheduled to be heard in the court's new term. The outcome will shape college and university admissions policies nationwide.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Hitler Youth and Orwell's Child Spies: It's Happening Again ... Sort Of
"Youths across US are suing states, federal government to force action against climate change," proclaims a headline from U.S. News and World Report. The author continues, "dozens of young people want a say in the planet's future, so minors nationwide have been suing states and the federal government in recent years to push action on climate change."
What Tuesday Night's Election Results Prove About Social Conservatism and Voters
Kim Davis confounded the pollsters and propelled an underdog candidate, Matt Bevin, to victory in the Kentucky governor's race. Nearly two-thirds of voters in Ohio rejected marijuana. And citizens in Houston vetoed their city council and rejected a bad policy on sexual orientation and gender identity. Conventional wisdom is that social liberalism is an electoral winner, but that's not true. At least not in the swing states of Kentucky and Ohio, and not even in the liberal city of Houston. And definitely not [Tuesday] night.
The Declining State of the U.S. Military
It seems fitting that the Heritage Foundation released its latest Index of U.S. Military Strength just before Halloween. It makes for some scary reading. It's easy to assume that our military will always be prepared to not only defend our shores, but to protect our allies and interests worldwide. Indeed, to suggest otherwise might seem unnecessarily pessimistic. But wishful thinking doesn't keep you safe — doing the hard work to remain prepared does. You can't do that if you don't examine our actual state of readiness, and that's what the editors of the 2016 edition of the index have done.
OK, Who Ordered the Mexican Heroin?
Heroin use in the United States increased by nearly 80 percent between 2007 and 2012 alone, and The New York Times' main reaction to this depressing fact is to be overjoyed that the new addicts are mostly white. The important point is not that ragingly addictive drugs are sweeping small-town America, young lives are being cut short, or that we lost one of the most talented actors of his generation to a heroin overdose. What matters is that that the drug epidemic is not having a disparate impact.
Supreme Court Tackles Sinister Trends
The IRS scandal — the denial of essential tax-exempt status to conservative advocacy groups, thereby effectively suppressing the groups' activities — demonstrates this: When government is empowered to regulate advocacy, it will be tempted to suppress some of it. And sometimes government will think like Oscar Wilde: "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."
Once More With 'The Vision Thing'
It was George H.W. Bush who reportedly dismissed an idea from a friend that he should spend time at Camp David thinking about what he might do should he become president. According to a January 26, 1987 article in Time magazine, Bush is said to have dismissed the suggestion with this line: "Oh, the vision thing." Now comes the new speaker of the House, Rep. Paul Ryan, who is not only embracing the "vision thing," but is accusing his fellow Republicans of not having any vision at all.
Conventional Wisdom Proves Ignorance in the Presidential Race
The current presidential campaign is blowing up lots of political myths. For years, the conventional lament was that the "wrong" Bush had run for president in 2000. George W. Bush was supposedly tongue-tied. He was said to be polarizing. He was derided as too much the twangy, conservative Texas Christian. If only his younger, softer-spoken brother, then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, had run instead!
The Brutal Horror of China's One-Child Policy
By almost any yardstick, China's one-child policy has been a grim failure. The Communist regime last week modified its notorious population-control program, announcing that married couples would henceforth be "allowed" to have two children. But the decision comes far too late to repair the damage the one-child policy caused, or to ease the unimaginable pain left in its wake. Rarely has a government subjected its people to so dreadful a social experiment.
Camera-Shy Cops Can Relax
FBI Director James Comey says cops are reluctant to do their jobs because they worry that their actions will be captured on camera. Judging from the official response to the shooting of Zachary Hammond, they have little to fear. Speaking at the University of Chicago Law School last month, Comey said police officers "in today's YouTube world" are afraid to get out of their cars, lest they face camera-wielding bystanders intent on recording them. He warned that good policing could "drift away from us in the age of viral videos" as cops refrain from confronting suspicious characters.
Why the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Movements Should Meet on Main Street
Little common ground exists between the left wing and right wing these days. One exception found in the emergence of the tea party and Occupy Wall Street movements is a healthy distrust in the motives of politicians and government regulators. These concerns are vindicated when officials are caught teaming up with the super rich to abuse political power.
Off-Year Results
Several states and localities held off-year elections [Tuesday]. Here's a brief summary of the major contests.
Space City Eclipses Expectations!
Almost a year to the day after FRC's "I Stand Sunday" event, Houston stood all right! With one voice, voters banded together, overpowered the mayor's agenda, and took their city back. Proposition 1, the ordinance that would have punished free speech and forced a radical definition of sexuality on Houston's most innocent, went down in flames [Tuesday] night, shocking the nation with a landslide 62-38% victory.
For Ben Carson's Mom, a Presidential Medal of Freedom
Dr. Ben Carson is an American hero. He is also a frontrunner in the Republican race for the White House. What is more he is black, God-fearing, law-abiding and a distinguished neurosurgeon. Weighing the most important things in life, he is everything you would want in an American man. Yet his road in life has not been without challenges. As a young boy growing up in Detroit, he now says he had temper-management difficulties — curiously, this admission caused laughter among middle-class liberal pundits.
CNBC Biased? You Don't Say!
Question: What did Reince Priebus not know about CNBC — and when did he not know it? Priebus, chair of the Republican National Committee, sanctioned CNBC's sponsorship of last week's debate. When during and after the debate many of the candidates blasted the moderators for their bias, Priebus said that the moderators created a "hostile environment" and "it was one 'gotcha' question, one personal low blow after the other."
Bullies Lose, Sanity Wins in Houston: There Will Be No Man Parts in the Ladies Room
The bullies lost. After a nearly 18-month slugfest, Houston's LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance was crushed in a landslide defeat Tuesday — rejected by 61 percent of voters. "The people of the city have spoken and they have spoken loudly," Houston pastor Steve Riggle told me. The nation's fourth largest city sent a clear message to City Hall: men who identify as women are not welcome in the ladies room.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Obama's Secret Destruction of Our Immigration System
Hastening the "fundamental transformation" of our nation while there's still time.
Cruz and Rubio Are Outflanking the GOP Field
Politics is a breeding ground for martial metaphors, starting with the word "campaign" itself. Politicians "under fire" "take flak" as their consultants sit in "war rooms" and launch ad "blitzes" in "targeted districts" and "battleground states" to put their clients "over the top" -- with the help of their "troops" in the field. When that doesn't work, the generals sometimes resort to some dreaded "nuclear option." Even if it succeeds, the pundits often declare it a "Pyrrhic victory."