Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Trump's Early Campaign Success Is a Wake-up Call
Most of the politically savvy people I know are still confident that Donald Trump will not be the Republican nominee for president.
Hurricanes Become a Ping-Pong Ball in the Climate Debate
This caught my eye, from USA Today: "Study: Climate change adding billions to U.S. hurricane costs." Oh really? The study quoted ended in 2005, not factoring in the last 10 years. During that time, by way of the Saffir-Simpson scale, there were no major hurricane hits on the U.S. (On my power and impact scale, there have been three borderline majors.) It's been an amazingly quiet period, meaning the dire ideas that we heard about have been nothing but *wrong*.
Biden Decision Leaves Both Parties in Disarray
Joe Biden has made it official: He is not running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. It's the latest development in a presidential campaign cycle that has not been going according to script. Biden said that personal factors played a part in his decision. At a time when few children die before their parents, he has had to endure the grief of losing two of his four children — his daughter Naomi in December 1972, his son Beau last May. "There's no timetable for this process," he said in announcing his decision Oct. 21.
Iran Marches, Russia Rules, Obama Watches
Guess who just popped up in the Kremlin? Bashar al-Assad, Syrian dictator and destroyer, now Vladimir Putin's newest pet. After four years holed up in Damascus, Assad was summoned to Russia to bend a knee to Putin, show the world that today Middle East questions get settled not in Washington but in Moscow, and officially bless the Russian-led four-nation takeover of Syria now underway.
Doctors Agree: Obama's Electronic Medical Records Mandate Sucks!
Hey, who's up for a stiff dose of "See, I told you so?" For the past several years, medical professionals have warned that the federal electronic medical records mandate — buried in the trillion-dollar Obama stimulus of 2009 — would do more harm than good. Their diagnosis, unfortunately, is on the nose.
The Fundamentals Still Matter
Much of what the American press covers in political campaigns is the daily horse race of polling and — every three months — the campaign finance numbers. Many of the people in the press who shape the coverage of American politics have never actually worked on political campaigns, run for office, held office or even worked for elected officials. There is more to politics than the polling and money.
Rupert Murdoch's Houses of Horror
When James Carville rants that Rep. Trey Gowdy is a super-villain spawned by Rupert Murdoch, conservatives could reply by noting that Murdoch has much less of a financial connection to Gowdy than he does to gay leftist TV producer Ryan Murphy, who had one hit with "Glee" and an ugly garbage barge of other TV programs. In June 2012, Murphy hosted a $25,000-per-person event at his Beverly Hills home for Barack Obama's re-election that included celebrity attendees Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon and "Glee" star Jane Lynch. He threw his own Murdoch money into that cause.
Hillary Clinton Owns the War in Libya (And Its Horrible Aftermath)
Libya is in chaos. It's a festering pit of radicalism, anarchy and death, epitomizing everything that can go wrong when Western intervention has no clear long-term purpose. And a woman who believes she should be president of the United States — ostensibly on the strength of her decision-making abilities as secretary of state — believes that what's going on in Libya is a success.
About a Boy
"It's about what these women will let guys get away with." You may not expect to hear commentary like that at your garden-variety think tank panel discussion, but it got pretty lively at the American Enterprise Institute discussion on the topic "Do Healthy Families Affect the Wealth of States?"
Focus, Please
In recent weeks across the nation of Israel, fanatical Palestinian Muslim youths have attacked and killed Israeli Jews. Using knives, axes, and ice picks, they have murdered grandmothers, women and children. The United Nations has collectively yawned.
Back to the Future of Planned Parenthood
To most people, the word "reconciliation" means settling a fight. In Congress, it means starting one! This seldom-used budget process has become the center of attention for weeks, as GOP leaders try to tackle two of the most controversial uses of government money: Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare. Although reconciliation isn't used often, it is a powerful tool for the majority party to jump some of the procedural hurdles in the Senate on budgetary issues.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Several States Launch New Lawsuit Against ObamaCare. Here’s Why It Will Likely Go to the Supreme Court.
Thought the litigation battle over Obamacare was over? Think again. Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana are about to file a new lawsuit against Obamacare, claiming that a fee being imposed by the IRS as a condition of states continuing to receive Medicaid funds is both unconstitutional and a violation of federal law. And they are in discussions with more than a dozen other states about joining this new lawsuit.
House Hunters: GOP Shops for New Leader
If you thought the 2016 elections were heating up, you should see the House Speaker's race! In the frenzy since John Boehner's (R-Ohio) resignation, the back and forth over who will succeed him has seemed more like a daytime drama with the main characters constantly changing. This week, the saga over the most-watched seat on Capitol Hill took another twist now that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is seriously considering the job many are drafting him for.
Farewell to Clock Boy
Don't cry, America, but we are losing Ahmed Mohamed. The 14-year-old Muslim boy who built a clock (sort of) that some people mistook for a bomb (it looked like a bomb) is leaving with his family to live in Qatar. Ahmed said at a press conference on Capitol Hill [Tuesday] that he was leaving the U.S. because it is "hard" growing up in America and "going to school being a Muslim." (If he thinks it's tough here, trying going to school as a girl in Afghanistan.) I guess that sort of makes him a reverse Muslim refugee.
Doing for Yourself
A recent New York Times headline read, "Raising Taxes on the Wealthiest Would Pay for Bold Plans." The story says that by soaking the rich "the government could raise large amounts of revenue ... while still allowing them to take home a majority of their income." Nowhere in the story, nor in the endless promises of Democratic presidential candidates, is there a single word about whether more government spending will produce the promised outcomes.
High School Quarterback Penalized for Thanking God
Mexico High School quarterback Dante Turo was raised by his parents to give glory to God — especially on the football field. "When you score touchdowns, when you make big plays, it's easy to become proud," Geno, his dad, told me. "It's easy to take credit for yourself. I didn't want my son to get caught up in that." Geno, who lives in a small town north of Syracuse, New York, encouraged his son to find a subtle way to praise the Lord after making big plays.
The Crucible You Never Knew ... Arthur Miller at 100
October 17, 2015, is the centenary of the birth of Arthur Miller, one of the literary left's shining lights and righteous crusaders against some of liberals' worst demons: Joe McCarthy, "HUAC," and, more generally, anti-communism. Yes, anti-communism. As often noted by Harvard's Richard Pipes and the Hoover Institution's Robert Conquest, few things have animated liberal animus quite like anti-communism. It's not that liberals have been pro-communist so much as they are *anti-anti*-communist. They dislike anti-communists more than they dislike communists. Their preferred demon isn't Joe Stalin but Joe McCarthy. As James Burnham, the great ex-communist, put it, "for the left, the preferred enemy is always to the right."
Superman Takes on the Cops, Batman Takes on Gentrification, and Captain America Takes on Border Control
One of the most depressing features of modern American life lies in the left's total war on every facet of our shared culture. It isn't enough to produce movies with Steve Carell and Julianne Moore and Ellen Page about lesbian partners seeking legal protection for conveyance of property. Now, even comic books must be hijacked in order to promote leftist messaging.
Hurting the Poor Is No Way to Help Them
Combating bad ideas would be much easier if they were all backed by ill intent. More often than not, however, the opposite is true, and the worst government policies are enacted with the intention to help. Such is apparently the case with the aggressive campaign by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to eliminate the payday lending industry.
Candidates Should Choose Their Judicial Muse
A supremely important presidential issue is being generally neglected because Democrats have nothing interesting to say about it and Republicans differ among themselves about it. Four Supreme Court justices are into the fourth quarters of their potential centuries — Stephen Breyer (77), Antonin Scalia (79), Anthony Kennedy (79), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (82). So, presidential candidates should explain the criteria by which they would select judicial nominees.