Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
History's Complexity Should Discourage Retroactive Morality
Some Democratic Party groups are renouncing their once-egalitarian idols, the renaissance genius Thomas Jefferson and the populist Andrew Jackson. Both presidents, some two centuries ago, owned slaves. Consequently, the two men have been suddenly deemed unworthy of further liberal reverence. In Connecticut, for instance, the state Democratic Party has removed the two presidents' names from an annual fundraiser previously known as the Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey Dinner. There are lots of strange paradoxes in the current frenzied liberal dissection of past sins.
Obama Keeps His Promises on Carbon
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama said: "...if somebody wants to build a coal power plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them..." He added that under his now defeated Cap and Trade bill, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." In 2010, Cap and Trade died in the Senate, but the president's goal of bankrupting the coal industry never waned. Monday he announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will impose new regulations throughout the country limiting carbon emissions from power plants powered by fossil fuels.
Democrats: They're All Socialists Now
Socialism, according to Dictionary.com, is defined as: "A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole." Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, recently appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews." Matthews asked, "What is the difference between a Democrat and a socialist?" Wasserman Schultz laughed, looked stunned, and began hemming and hawing.
Washington's Millennial Betrayal
Candidates running for president should take the following warning seriously: Years of bad government policies catering to interest groups have created a generation of young people facing tremendous challenges in the labor market and little chance to experience the good old American dream. We can hope that someone will put this government-created generation of disinherited at the center of his or her platform. The challenge faced by young Americans and the root cause of their tragic situation are perfectly described in a recent book by two scholars at the Manhattan Institute, Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Jared Meyer, called "Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America's Young." If you aren't convinced that millennials, unlike past generations, are in a bad way, they have a few facts for you.
Donald Trump: Still Right About Mexican Rapists
There's a cultural acceptance of child rape in Latino culture that doesn't exist in even the most dysfunctional American ghettoes. When it comes to child rape, the whole family gets involved. (They *are* family-oriented!) In a 2011 GQ magazine story about a statutory rape case in Texas, the victim's illegal alien mother, Maria, described her own sexual abuse back in Mexico.
Bodies of Evidence Don't Deter Abortion Allies
It didn't take long for a federal judge to block some of the Planned Parenthood footage — and now we may know why. According to records, federal Judge William Orrick has an interesting political connection to the man who once said, "God bless Planned Parenthood." Not only was he appointed by this President but, as documents show, raised $200,000 for Obama's campaign.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Legal and Academic Equality Nonsense
A particular act or policy might not have a discriminatory intent, but that doesn't let you off the hook. If it has a disproportionately negative impact on so-called protected classes, it is said to have a disparate impact and risks being prohibited by law. The uninformed assumption made by judges, lawyers and academics is that but for the fact of racial and sex discrimination, we all would be distributed across occupations, educational backgrounds and other socio-economic characteristics according to our percentages in the population. Such a vision is absolute nonsense. There is no evidence, anywhere, at any time, that but for the fact of discrimination, there would be proportional representation among various socio-economic characteristics. Let's look at some disproportionalities, with an eye toward discovering the causes and then deciding what to do about them.
Biden's Blundering vs. Clinton's Confusion
Which Candidate Has a More Embarrassing Record of Gaffes and Misstatements?
The Age of the Demagogue
Last week, President Obama visited the set of Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" for the third, and presumably final, time. Obama has set records for the most late-night talk show appearances. He's also appeared alongside YouTube star GloZell Green, in the online series "Between Two Ferns," and Miami radio host DJ Laz, aka "The Pimp with the Limp." Obama has treated the White House like his own personal concert venue, complete with selfie-stick video. After all, as they say, you only live once.
Mega-Rich Hillary Cares Oh So Much for Nation's Poor
Hillary Clinton just spoke, along with Republican presidential contender and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, at the National Urban League Conference. She preceded Bush on stage and used the moment to seize his campaign slogan, "Right to Rise," and give it her own spin to attack the governor before he could speak.
Life Is Not a 'Line Item'
It's bound to be an uncomfortable day for 45 senators, now that another Planned Parenthood video is reminding voters who the politicians are standing with. Hours after they voted to protect the abortion giant's half-billion dollars in taxpayer funding, the Center for Medical Services showed the world another instance of Cecile Richards's group selling off intact babies like cattle at auction.
Gun Lies
My town, New York City, enforces rigid gun laws. Police refused to assign me a gun permit. The law doesn't even let me hold a fake gun on TV to demonstrate something. But New York politicians are so eager to vilify gun ownership that they granted an exception to the anti-gun group States United to Prevent Gun Violence. New York allowed States United to set up a fake gun store, where cameras filmed potential gun customers being spoofed by an actor pretending to be a gun-seller.
Mark Levin Worries About the Young
Arrogant liberal journalists naturally assume that conservative talk radio only succeeds in making Americans dumber. They reach this conclusion by avoiding conservative talk radio entirely. The overwhelming majority would never dare appear on one of these shows and debate the conservative host. If one of them ever entered the ring with Mark Levin, they'd invoke the "mercy rule" before the first commercial break.
Mark Levin to Rising Generation: Will You Choose Freedom?
Will the children and grandchildren in America today have the same chance to live in prosperity and freedom as previous generations of Americans? "Can we simultaneously love our children but betray their generation and generations yet born?" Mark Levin asks in the first sentence of his new book, "Plunder and Deceit."
Houston Wants to Bulldoze One Black Church, Condemn Another
In a repulsive demonstration of hostility towards Christians, the City of Houston wants to bulldoze one church and condemn the property of another so they can build affordable housing and a public library. Attorneys representing the Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church and the Latter Day Deliverance Revival Center were in court Tuesday asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the city from taking their property.
Obama Plots to Thwart Justice for U.S. Victims of Palestinian Terrorism
The administration considers intervening in landmark case against Palestinian terrorists.
Defunding Planned Parenthood Not the Same as Repealing Abortion
The GOP-controlled Congress is taking up the cause, once again, of defunding Planned Parenthood. This latest effort comes in response to macabre hidden-camera videos shot by the Center for Medical Progress of staff at Planned Parenthood talking about the grisly practice of chopping up fetuses for parts. There's a debate over whether the videos prove the center's claim that Planned Parenthood is ghoulishly trying to make a profit selling baby lungs, livers and hearts.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
TCU Student Punished for Criticizing Islam, Baltimore Riots
All it took was 140 characters for Texas Christian University to suspend a conservative student who posted a series of social networking posts that insulted the Islamic State, the Baltimore rioters and Mexicans. TCU banned Harry Vincent from most campus activities, ordered him to perform 60 hours of community service and attend a diversity training class. The 19-year-old, who is a member of the College Republicans and the Young Americans for Freedom, said he was told by the university that his conservative views were "inappropriate." "They're trying to make me out to be the classic bigoted hateful white male," Harry told me in a telephone interview from his home in Maryland. "That's the complete opposite of what I am."
Arrogant, Incompetent, Criminal Government
"All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters" —Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a letter to Luther C. Steward, President, National Federation of Federal Employees, Aug. 16, 1937
Will Senate Wish Planned Parenthood a Fund Farewell?
The summer weather is no match for the heat on Planned Parenthood. Two weeks and four incriminating videos later, the stress on Cecile Richards's group is starting to show. With some of the most shocking footage tied up in court, Planned Parenthood and its baby part buyers are desperately trying to keep the lid on the latest bombshell — that the abortion giant sometimes ships out *fully intact infants* to its clients. Just when Americans thought the most stomach-turning details were already released, the Center for Medical Progress's David Daleiden told CNN that there's a reason Planned Parenthood and company are working so frantically to keep the fifth video under wraps. "In a meeting with their top leadership," Daleiden explained, "they admitted that they sometimes get fully intact fetuses shipped to their laboratory from their abortion clinics they work with, and that could be prima facie evidence of born-alive infants." For now, the grisly confession, taped over lunch with high-ranking StemExpress officials, is in the hands of federal judges who will decide when and if the footage is released.