Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Melissa Harris-Perry Needs a Trip to Hard Work U
MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry is the cable TV pioneer who broke the tastelessness barrier for feminists by wearing tampons as earrings on air in 2013. This week, she made ignominious history again — as the race-baiting fool in an ivory tower bubble who believes the words "hard worker" are a slur against black slaves and moms who don't have health care. Caution: You may need a double dose of Excedrin to protect yourself from her brain-splitting nonsense.
The Man of the House
Plenty of important things happened in 1869 — Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated, the first college football game was held, even *War and Peace* was published. It was also the last time America had a Speaker of the House as young as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). At 45, the Wisconsin dad won't just be putting a new face on the GOP, but an energetic one. Of course, what the former VP candidate lacks in age, he more than makes up for in experience. As the Washington Post points out, he's logged 6,143 days in the House (only 1,000 less than John Boehner) — and he'll need every bit of that practice to help pull Republicans out of the mire they find themselves in.
Free Stuff Can Turn Out to Be a Bad Buy
Free college! That's what the Democratic candidates were offering in their presidential debate. And it's likely that, if the subject had come up, they would have offered something like free home mortgages as well, to judge from Hillary Clinton's statement that she had urged Wall Street to stop mortgage foreclosures. Sounds a lot like free houses!
Thank You, CNBC, for a Wonderful Evening
I dedicate the lead of this column to thanking CNBC for displaying its rank liberal bias in last night's GOP presidential debate for all the world to see. In relative terms, "all the world" is not that far off if you consider last night's audience size compared with the network's usually paltry ratings. The more people who saw this charade from the network's alleged moderators the better for America.
Jeb Bush Needs to Reconsider
The attack came with the reluctance of a good man knowing he must do something he does not want to do. At the CNBC debate in Boulder, CO, the pretentious moderators asked Marco Rubio about missing votes in the Senate. For perspective, Rubio has missed far less votes than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John Kerry when they ran for President from the Senate.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Biggest Loser in the CNBC Debate? The Media
It was, hands down, the most arresting moment of the Republican debate in Colorado. One of the CNBC moderators, Carl Quintanilla, asked Senator Ted Cruz whether his opposition to the just-announced congressional deal raising the federal debt limit demonstrates that he's "not the kind of problem-solver American voters want."
Lois Lerner Won’t Be Facing Criminal Charges
Here Are the Problems With the 'Investigation' That Cleared Her
New Study Shows Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide Increases Suicide Rates
Does legalizing physician-assisted suicide lead to a *drop* in the suicide rate? As counterintuitive as it sounds, some advocates of assisted suicide have been making this argument. A new academic study, however, shows the reverse to be true: legalizing physician-assisted suicide increases the total number of people committing suicide.
High School Boots Praying Football Coach
Coach Joe Kennedy has been booted from the locker room at Bremerton High School in Washington State, Fox News has learned exclusively. Superintendent Aaron Leavell placed the longtime coach on administrative leave after he refused to stop his post-game prayers.
Environmental Protection Army?
Even those of us who have worked in Washington for many years and become accustomed to the inner workings of government can still be amazed by what lurks behind the curtain sometimes. Case in point: the Environmental Protection Agency. Most Americans have at least heard of the EPA, even if they have only a dim notion of what the agency actually does. It tends to skate along under the radar, unless something unusual happens, such as the toxic spill that turned the Colorado's Animas River orange last August. Of course, what really made the spill unusual is that the EPA itself caused it.
Lame Ducks, Lame Deal: The Boehner-Obama Budget Plan
When I had just started to raise a family, and I struggled to make my small business turn a profit, I had to make decisions about what bills to pay based on priorities and due dates. Sometimes, the struggle to balance the checkbook would be a painful one, and we had to do without some things as "luxuries" — even if we hadn't considered them luxuries before.
This Is the Worst Budget Deal GOP Has Negotiated Since George H.W. Bush Violated No New Taxes Pledge
Halloween is looking especially scary this year. On Monday, Republican leaders in Congress declared an unconditional fiscal surrender to President Barack Obama and the left, negotiating a dangerous budget deal that eliminates all of the checks on Washington's spend-and-borrow binge by breaking the budget caps, ending the sequester and raising the debt ceiling by over $1 trillion.
Planned Parenthood's Hearts of Darkness
Who needs horror movies when the Center for Medical Progress is producing such frightening footage from Planned Parenthood? One after another, the videos of the group's organ harvesting scheme sound like something out of a Halloween script. If only it were. Instead, the gory trade — often joked about by the workers involved — is putting an exclamation point on taxpayers' insistence that Congress defund the organization responsible.
The Gowdy Committee as Seen from the Left and the Right
We are told that our political system here in Washington is "broken." The left and the right do not get along, and usually it is because the right is obdurately partisan. Actually, it is not the political system that is broken. It is much wider than the political system. It is the political culture, that is to say: the politicians, the operatives, the financial supporters and the voters (left and right). It is also the commentators, the reporters, the editors; in a word the media (left and right). The left-wing press sees things one way and reports on it. The right-wing press sees things differently and reports on it. Neither side agrees on almost anything.
Climate Policy: Just Say No!
Abundant, affordable, reliable energy, combined with economic freedom and limited, responsive government according to the rule of law, are indispensable to overcoming poverty. No society has risen out of poverty or can long stay out of it without both. That is why I oppose policies to prevent or reduce global warming allegedly caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide.
Hillary Won. America Lost
The narrative following Hillary's testimony at Congress' recent Benghazi hearing is clear: Hillary won. She (for the most part) calmly answered all the questions. She nodded approvingly when the Democrats on the committee accused Republicans of engaging in a partisan witch-hunt.
The Political Reality of Fantasy Sports
Americans have been betting on sports since the first time a Puritan pilgrim boasted that his horse was the fastest in Massachusetts Bay Colony and another said, "Wanna bet?" But fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly and government gotta fret about gambling on fantasy sports. Torrential television advertising by DraftKings and FanDuel is creating millions of customers for these sports fantasy businesses, thereby creating government anxiety lest Americans make unregulated choices inimical to their material and moral well-being.
The Earned Income Tax Credit: Small Benefits, Large Costs
When both liberals and conservatives like a government program, it usually means that it is expensive and expands the scope of government without delivering on its promises. The bipartisan support of the earned income tax credit is no exception. The EITC is best described as an anti-poverty program that encourages people to work. In a new study published by the Cato Institute, Chris Edwards and I explain that based on a deep dive into the economic literature and the budgetary impact of the program, conservatives and liberals alike underestimate its cost while overselling its benefits.
So What if Ben Carson Is a Creationist?
The TV news was on, and there was a story about the leading candidates in the Republican presidential field. "So if Donald Trump gets the nomination," my liberal friend needled me, "are you going to vote for him?" "He's *not* going to be the nominee," I said, "but I wouldn't vote for him in any case." "What about Ben Carson?" he wanted to know. I like what I've seen of Carson's personality and character, I replied, but I couldn't imagine backing someone so inexperienced for president. Then I added: "He'd make a great surgeon general, though!"
California: A State of Death
Shortly after signing a bill allowing assisted suicide in California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed another measure that forces pregnancy crisis centers to "offer information about affordable contraception, abortion and prenatal care." The information is to be displayed in the form of a sign tacked to the crisis center's door and must include a phone number to the nearest county services office where family free or low-cost family planning services can be obtained.