Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Random Thoughts
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Stupid people can cause problems, but it usually takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe. President Obama's "agreement" with Iran looks very much like "the emperor's new clothes." We are supposed to pretend that there is something there, when there is nothing there that will stop, or even slow down, Iran's development of a nuclear bomb.
Monday, August 17, 2015
American Politics Needs More Civility, Not Less
In *Rendezvous with Destiny*, his superb chronicle of Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, Craig Shirley quotes a "remarkably candid" assessment that appeared in The Washington Post eight months before the election. It was written by reporter Lou Cannon, who had covered Reagan's political career from the outset and seen the candidate from every angle, at his best and his worst. Reagan had gotten plenty of disparaging press coverage, Cannon acknowledged — some of it under Cannon's own byline. Yet the California governor had never treated him or any other detractor with hostility or rudeness.
Follytics
Whenever liberals defend Planned Parenthood, steam shoots out of my ears when they insist that not a penny of the $500 million they receive from the feds goes towards abortions. Clearly, they assume that everyone is as stupid as they are. Look at it this way: if I have a thousand dollars and you give me $500 on the condition that I don't spend it buying a gun, all I have to do is spend $500 of my own money on the gun. Then, thanks to your generosity, I still have $1,000 ... and a gun!
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Why College Tuition Is Out of Sight: The Federal Government
Our health care system and our system of higher education have a lot more in common than you might think. As I explained in a previous column at Forbes, in both systems a third-party payer pays a good portion of the bill, leaving consumers and producers with perverse incentives to take advantage of it. The financing of both systems is dysfunctional. There is much waste and inefficiency. And low-income families are the least well served.
Encrusted With Subsidies
You probably never knew of the federal funding of museums commemorating America's long-gone whaling industry. The funding existed for nearly nine years, until fiscal 2011, *because* almost no one knew about it. A mohair subsidy continues six decades after it was deemed a military necessity in the context of the Cold War. The subsidy survives *because* its beneficiaries are too clever to call attention to it by proclaiming it necessary, which of course it isn't. To understand these two matters is to understand how American government functions. And why James Madison, whose flinty realism is often called pessimism, was too optimistic.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Kerry Is Clueless, Anti-Semitism In America, Clinton Chaos
Secretary of State John Kerry is the man who negotiated the nuclear deal with the ayatollah's representatives from the Islamic Republic of Iran. It would be reassuring to know that our negotiators are sophisticated and understand the dangers confronting the free world. Critics of the deal have been deeply concerned from the beginning about the extent of the concessions Kerry made to appease the Iranians. An interview Kerry recently did with The Atlantic explains a lot.
Pastor Defends Texas Jewish Neighborhood After Night of Terror
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says they have identified at least one person they believe is responsible for terrorizing a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in San Antonio. Dozens of homes and cars were vandalized August 12 with anti-Semitic graffiti and rocks. Swastikas were spray-painted on Jewish memorials, the letters "KKK" and other racially charged language. The word "Jew" was plastered across an SUV. The attack has been classified as a hate crime but so far no formal charges have been filed, police said.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Isn't Protecting Consumers
When a government agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is created by Congress, one would expect that a few consumers could actually receive protection, but that hasn't been the case with this agency's track record of mismanagement, inefficiency and waste. The CFPB has been operating for four years now and if it were a sports team, its coach, Richard Cordray, would certainly be looking for work.
Sometimes Black Lives Matter
Martin McNally recently laid claim to the title of America's Biggest Wuss when he apologized for suggesting that all lives matter and not just black ones. What he might have pointed out to the black thugs booing his comment was that black lives apparently only have value when they're ended by cops. They certainly don't seem to matter, judging by the response of race pimps like Barack Obama, Al Sharpton and Marilyn Mosby, when it comes to the thousands of black people shot and killed by other black people or to the hundreds of thousands of black babies aborted every year.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Court: Christian Baker Must Provide Wedding Cakes for Same-Sex Couples
A family bakery owned by a Christian cannot refuse to make wedding cakes for homosexual couples, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The court affirmed the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's order that Jack Phillips, the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop, violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act when he refused to make a wedding cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins.
Straight Outta Whitewash
My Instagram and Facebook feeds have been filled with unwitting apologists for racism against Korean-American small-business owners. Heckuva job, Hollywood! Here's how the poison is spreading. A savvy marketing team at Universal/Comcast Corp. developed a web toy that allows social media fans to customize the theatrical poster logo for the media giant's new biopic, "Straight Outta Compton." Hundreds of thousands of clueless users have uploaded photos of themselves and substituted "Compton" with the names of their hometowns.
Health Tip: The Next Time Government Gives You Dietary Advice, Do the Opposite
In "Sleeper," Woody Allen plays Miles Monroe, a cryogenically frozen owner of a Greenwich Village health food store who, when defrosted in the year 2173, finds himself in an authoritarian state filled with giant vegetables, android butlers and Diane Keaton. When an unnerved Miles is first unfrozen, Space Age doctors try to calm him down: Doctor: "He's ranting. We'd better tranquilize him." Miles: "I knew it was too good to be true. I parked right near the hospital." Doctor: "Now here, you smoke this, and be sure you get the smoke deep down into your lungs."
The Racing Form, Third Edition
Both presidential nomination contests having been scrambled by recent events — the FBI taking control of Hillary Clinton's private email server and a raucous, roiling GOP debate — the third edition of the Racing Form is herewith rushed into print. Legal disclaimer: This column is for betting purposes only. What follows is analysis — scrubbed, as thoroughly as a Clinton server, of advocacy. (Unless I simply can't resist.) *Hillary Clinton:* Ever since her disastrous book-launch performance, I've thought her both (1) a weak candidate and (2) the inevitable Democratic nominee.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Incapable of Embarrassment
August is traditionally a vacation month, and East Coast elites, following European tradition, are thick on the ground in the Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard (the Obamas' choice) and Nantucket. But news — in some cases, shattering news — keeps breaking out all over, at home and abroad this August. Actually that's not unusual. Saddam Hussein overran Kuwait in August 1990; Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland in August 1939; the great powers of Europe went to war in August 1914.
Will Computer Equipment Take the Fall for Hillary?
It happened sooner than even the doomsayers predicted. The era of artificial intelligence is here. A computer has become self-aware, a moral agent responsible for its own actions. This breakthrough didn't happen in Silicon Valley or at MIT. It happened, of all places, in Chappaqua, New York. And the person responsible isn't even a computer scientist, but a lawyer and politician: Hillary Clinton. Clinton's critics say a lot of things about her, but who would've believed she was Skynet's mother?
Trump, Trumpies & RINOs Trouble the GOP
Donald Trump did wonders for Fox News' ratings and Megyn Kelly's star power last week. But "The Donald" didn't do himself, the Republican Party or the conservative cause any favors. Millions of viewers saw clear evidence that Trump is not a serious Republican candidate or really a conservative. He espoused no conservative principles or policies. He offered no ideas or specific conservative solutions to any domestic or foreign problem.
Jeb Bush Takes on the Party of Defeat
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush got it right regarding Iraq in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Tuesday night. "That premature withdrawal was the fatal error, creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill," he declared. "Where was the secretary of state, Secretary of State Clinton, in all of this? Like the president himself, she had opposed the surge, then joined in claiming credit for its success, then stood by as that hard-won victory by American and allied forces was thrown away."
Further Thoughts on the Trump Phenomenon
I learned a little bit about the Donald Trump phenomenon after my appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel show this week, as my comments led to galactic feedback on Twitter — some positive, some negative. Hannity showed segments of his interview with Trump and asked me and the other guests to respond to various aspects of it. Some of the Twitter critics were upset with Fox News, alleging that it failed to provide a balanced picture, seeing as all three of us appeared anti-Trump.
Michael Moore Darkens the Cineplex Door
It's been six years since a Michael Moore mockumentary struggled at the box office. "Capitalism: A Love Story" grossed a paltry $14.3 million, less than an eighth the take of his hit "Fahrenheit 911." The long wait for the next Moore spectacle is almost over. The day before the next 9/11 anniversary, Moore's new America-bashing film "Where to Invade Next" will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, where movies about America by an American make their debut.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Now the Cultural Cleansers Want to Ban a Familiar Southern Word
Cultural progressives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina want to change the name of the Dixie Classic Fair. They say the word "Dixie" is offensive. Councilman James Taylor told FOX8 that some folks find the word "offensive" and some folks are "angry" with the name. He said that as a progressive city — they need a name that "everyone can appreciate." The fair is just the latest victim of a cultural cleansing of the Southern States by angry liberals wound up tighter than a pair of Daisy Dukes.