Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
ACLU Wants Kim Davis' 'Scalp to Hang on the Wall'
Federal prisoner Kim Davis walked into the Kentucky jail cell wearing an orange jumpsuit and holding a Bible. "When I went back into that holding cell I hit my knees and just prayed, just cried out for God to give me some peace and assurance that all was going to be well — and I prayed and I sang," she told me in her first digital interview. It was September 3 — the day Mrs. Davis became the first Christian jailed as a result of the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. Federal Judge David Bunning ordered her jailed for contempt of court after she defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. He denied her request to accommodate her religious beliefs by simply removing her name from the marriage form.
Going to Pot: Advocates Are Understating the Health Risks of Smoking Marijuana
A lot of things can date an old movie or TV show: clothes, furniture, cars. And another thing: cigarettes. They're all over the place in many films, markers of an era when smoking was far more common. It took a while — the surgeon general's report came out five decades ago — but the percentage of smokers has declined, and rather drastically. Growing awareness of the health risks of tobacco helped bring a sharp drop in public acceptance.
Rand Paul and 10 Heedless Hawks
The Kentucky Senator Offers a Desperately Needed Alternative to the GOP's Mindless Militarism
Donald Amongst the Eggheads
Hold on to your toupees, the conservative intellectuals are in a stew. One candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination is not playing by the rules. He is rude and crude and having a very good time of it. Oh, and by the way, he is leading the field by a lot. He has 29 percent of the vote among Republicans, according to an NBC online survey the other day. His next closest opponent is Dr. Ben Carson, with 14 percent, and after that Carly Fiorina, with 11 percent. Both, incidentally, are new to politics, as is the target of the conservative intellectuals' wrath, Donald Trump. Interestingly, the intellectuals are markedly out of touch with the conservative rank and file.
Senate Stalls Late-Term Abortion Bill
The Senate had an opportunity [yesterday] to show the world what a humane and compassionate country we are. Unfortunately, it failed miserably when Senate liberals voted to filibuster legislation saving unborn babies from late-term abortions. This should not be a controversial issue. The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is so named because studies indicate that children at an advanced stage of pregnancy are capable of feeling the pain inflicted by the abortionist's instruments. Only seven nations permit abortions under most circumstances past 20 weeks. Polls show that the American people — especially women — overwhelmingly oppose late-term abortions.
Another Cynical Democratic 'Citizenship USA' Voter Drive
There's only one time when you can depend on the chronically backlogged, recklessly inefficient Department of Homeland Security to perform smoothly: election season. While hundreds of thousands of visa overstayers and deportation fugitives remain on the loose, federal bureaucrats at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are hastily recruiting tens of thousands of foreigners for the Obama administration's new "U.S. citizenship and immigrant civic integration" campaign.
Still Defending 'Christian' Obama
The Obama years may be winding down, but our President Obama-loving media never stops being hypersensitive about the man. CNN's latest poll asked respondents "Do you happen to know what religion Barack Obama is?" and "Where was Barack Obama born, as far as you know?" A major American media outlet asking these basic biographical questions after Obama's been president for six and a half years seems to be asking "How inadequate are we?" But what they're actually fishing for is a "crazy conservative fringe" argument now that Donald Trump is on top of the GOP presidential race.
A Pope Who Explained the Blessings of Private Property
In 1818, when only 8 years old, Gioacchino Pecci began his studies with the Jesuits at a school in Italy. Seventy-three years later, as Pope Leo XIII, he published Rerum Novarum, an encyclical letter simultaneously defending the rights of working people and private property. As this pope saw it, they were inseparable. "It is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive for his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his own," he wrote.
Senators Prove Chronic Pain for Life
This week, senators were treated to the company of energetic little Micah Pickering, a thriving three-year-old who was born prematurely at 20 weeks post-fertilization. Micah's story first caught public attention earlier this year when his story was told in a New York Times piece, causing Americans to grapple with the reality that premature babies are surviving at younger and younger ages of gestation. Micah and his parents flew all the way from Iowa to the nation's capital to advocate for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The Pickerings sought to give the Senate living proof for why standing up for pain-capable babies is not only humane but compassionate and commonsense. They, along with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), FRC's Arina Grossu, and other Senators and pro-life leaders participated in a press conference in advance of [yesterday's] Senate vote on the bill. Micah's life is living proof that babies at 5 months gestation are living human beings that can feel pain. In the NICU, Micah was routinely administered pain medication, because the physicians knew his little body was in pain as he struggled to live.
Liberal Reasoning: Idiotic or Dishonest?
Many people argue that liberals, socialists and progressives do not understand basic economics. I am not totally convinced about that. Take the law of demand, for example, one of the fundamental principles of economics. It holds that the lower the cost of something the more people will take or do of it. Conversely, the higher the cost the less people will take or do something. By their actions, liberals fully understand the law of demand. Let's look at some proof. The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to establish a tax on gun and ammunition sales. Hillary Clinton has called for a 25 percent tax on gun sales. In Chicago, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle proposed "violence taxes" on bullets to discourage criminals from buying guns. Let's ignore the merit of these measures. They do show that gun grabbers acknowledge the law of demand. They want fewer gun sales and thus propose raising the cost of guns.
Dr. Carson Is Right About Islam
Dr. Ben Carson is now under fire for suggesting the values of Islam are not consistent with those of the United States. NBC's Chuck Todd asked Dr. Carson if the faith of a candidate for president of the United States matters. Carson responded that it depends on what that faith is. "If it's inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter," said Dr. Carson. Todd then asked Dr. Carson if he thinks that Islam is consistent with American values and Carson responded, "No, I do not." He then expanded to say, "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation."
Government: Here to Help!
Government wants you to think it helps you at every turn. Every time you make a decision, a purchase, government wants to be there, looking essential. But it's a trick. Most government "help" creates new problems. Students once went to private banks to get college loans. Banks, since they had their own money on the line, tried to lend only to students who were likely to succeed and then pay them back. Politicians then said, "Banks don't lend enough, so we'll guarantee loans or make loans ourselves! After all, college is essential for success."
It's Not Fiorina Who's Wrong in the Planned Parenthood Fight
"Anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.' This is about the character of our nation, and if we will not stand up and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us." —Carly Fiorina, GOP presidential debate, 9/16/2015. The videotape in question was put out by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group that went undercover to record Planned Parenthood officials discussing the buying and selling of organs and tissue from aborted fetuses — some just shy of 20 weeks — to medical research companies. Fiorina's description of what takes place in the videos has come under withering attack. Sarah Kliff of Vox.com labels Fiorina's version of the scene as "pure fiction." PolitiFact says it is "mostly false."
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Press Plays 'Gotcha' With Trump and Carson
The mainstream media is waging a journalistic jihad on Republicans. While the rest of the country is concerned about the economy and border security and the war on terror, reporters have been lobbing gotcha bombs at Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Dr. Carson is under fire because he doesn't believe a Muslim should be president. "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," Carson told NBC's "Meet the Press." He told The Hill that the next president should be "sworn in on a stack of Bibles, not a Koran."
Pa. Democrat Attorney General Has License Suspended
In a historic move, all five justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have voted to temporarily suspend the law license of the state's attorney general, Kathleen Kane, based on the recommendation of the court's 13-member disciplinary board. This leaves the office of the state attorney general in limbo, since Pennsylvania's constitution requires that the attorney general have a law license, and is prompting the state senate to research "a never used constitutional provision that allows a two-thirds vote of senators to remove" her from office.
The U.S. Shouldn't Feel Migrant Guilt
The U.S. has joined the global bidding on Syrian refugees. At first it said it would take 10,000 Syrians. Now it says it will increase the annual U.S. overall refugee intake from 70,000 to 100,000 during the next three years to help deal with the migrant wave deluging Europe. The Obama administration's attitude used to be that Syria is a faraway country of which we know nothing, and it stood by while Syria descended into mayhem and madness. It turns out that Syria is not so far away that some of its nearly biblical exodus — half of the country's population is displaced — won't touch our shores. You can only have pity for people who have seen their country destroyed. Yet Syrians are only part of the European migration crisis. It should be understood, at the highest level of abstraction, as people fleeing some of the poorest, worst-governed, most strife-torn places in the world for some of the richest, best-governed and peaceful ones.
I Have the Nine … a Retrospective on the Charleston Church Shooting
On June 17, 2015, a young man entered Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina and was welcomed by members of the Bible study and prayer group. He sat with them for most of an hour and then got up and went on a tirade about how African-Americans were destroying the white South he loved. Brandishing a handgun, he began to fire at the crowd. By the end, he had killed nine people. He was soon taken into custody and charged with nine murders and related crimes. This event, of course, made headlines all over the nation. Now, a few months later, it has all but disappeared from public consciousness. Other events, like the increasingly frequent shooting of on-duty police officers, have replaced it in news headlines. Yet, people still want to know what causes horrific events, like the Charleston church tragedy. Why do they happen? Pundits, politicians, pastors, and many others all have ready explanations for such events. Thus, in the days following the Charleston church murders, many explanations were offered. Consider the following.
Bernie's Favored 'One Percenters'
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is having the time of his life. At 73, he is already as old as Ronald Reagan was when he ran for re-election in 1984. But Sanders is undoubtedly — as our friends are family are increasingly calling us — *spry*. And what a lark. He is leading Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire (his neighboring state) and is gaining on her in Iowa. What's up with this? Everyone who tells a pollster Bernie is the guy is poking a finger in Hillary's "inevitable" eye. A year ago, former Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick (D) warned Hillary that "inevitable" was not good for the party or good for her. He was right. President Lyndon B. Johnson was inevitable in 1968, the pundits and the pols all said. But anti-war activist Allard Lowenstein ran around Capitol Hill knocking on senators' doors until he found one — Gene McCarthy of Minnesota — who was willing to take on the man he presented as an ogre, Lyndon. We soon learned that the Inevitable LBJ had feet of clay. Does Hillary have a glass jaw?
The Character of a Nation
Holly O'Donnell is hardly a household name. If the GOP-controlled Congress had an ounce of political backbone, she'd be the most famous woman in America. Ms. O'Donnell is a former procurement technician at StemExpress, one of Planned Parenthood's (PP) most reliable customers, until they cut ties with the organization in August. "We value our various partnerships but, due to the increased questions that have arisen over the past few weeks, we feel it prudent to terminate activities with Planned Parenthood," the company said in a statement at the time. "While we value our business relationship with Planned Parenthood, that work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries."
The Left Has Its Pope
Pope Francis has created political controversy, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, by blaming capitalism for many of the problems of the poor. We can no doubt expect more of the same during his visit to the United States. Pope Francis is part of a larger trend of the rise of the political left among Catholic intellectuals. He is, in a sense, the culmination of that trend. There has long been a political left among Catholics, as among other Americans. Often they were part of the pragmatic left, as in the many old Irish-run, big city political machines that dispensed benefits to the poor in exchange for their votes, as somewhat romantically depicted in the movie classic, "The Last Hurrah."