Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Reality May Be Optional
One of the wonders of modern times is that reality is often seen as a social construct and therefore optional. Thus, if one finds a particular reality offensive or inconvenient, he just "changes" it. Say that one is born a male or a female but believes that nature made an error. Some believe that nature's "error" can be corrected by calling oneself another sex. Possibly a medical procedure on one's genitalia can correct nature's error. However, Mother Nature is ruthless. Sex determination is strictly chromosomal. Females are XX, and males are XY. There is no medical procedure that can change that. Once a male or female, always a male or female.
Freedom of and From Religion
Religious oppression was one reason many of our ancestors came to America. They wanted to escape rulers who demanded that everyone worship their way. In Ireland, Catholics couldn't vote or own a gun. I assumed that because many of America's founders came here to escape such repression, they were eager to allow religious freedom in America. After all, the very First Amendment in the Bill of Rights says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." But I was wrong. On my TV show this week, Chapman University economist Larry Iannaccone explains that many American settlers were just as tyrannical about insisting that everyone follow *their* religion: "In the Northeast, it was Puritanism or Calvinism. In New York and Virginia, Anglicanism, the Church of England. Elsewhere, it was Catholicism."
Congress' Stand Against the Obama-Iran Nuke Deal
Lawmakers vote to review the accord with the Islamic Republic — but will the “review” have any teeth?
The Frequently Flouted Right That Implicated Walter Scott's Killer
A Police Shooting Highlights Illegal Harassment of Camera-Carrying Bystanders
Obama Coalition Isn't a Coupon That Hillary Can Redeem for Votes
In news only slightly more surprising than this morning's sunrise, Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she is running for president again. The announcement came in the form of a clever video in which Clinton says she wants to be a champion for "everyday Americans" -- an obviously focus-grouped term intended to replace "middle class." I like it, but unless they're very careful, "everyday" has a condescending tinge that could backfire (synonyms include: "dull," "unexceptional" and "commonplace"). One can already imagine a "Saturday Night Live" version of Clinton looking out the window of her private jet: "Wow, those everyday Americans look like ants down there."
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
America Gives Libs a Pizza Their Mind
When Memories Pizza reopened late Thursday afternoon, everyone wanted a slice of the action! The Walkerton restaurant became the biggest story of the Indiana religious liberty debate when its Christian owners were asked a hypothetical question about catering a same-sex "wedding" ceremony. When Kevin and his daughter Crystal O'Connor answered truthfully that they wouldn't, the tiny town was overrun by protestors. The threats from the "tolerant" Left were so vicious — everything from burning down the pizza parlor to killing its owners — that the O'Connors closed the store and went into hiding. Fortunately, the Blaze got a hold of the story and rallied tens of thousands of people to their side. Through a GoFundMe account, donations started pouring in to the family at a pace no one expected. In just 48 hours, supporters blew past the original $25,000 goal into an $842,000 explosion of generosity for the O'Connors — stunning the mainstream media and turning the narrative of marriage and the notion of nationwide acceptance on its head.
A Modern Golfer With Old School Class
It's a rare moment in modern-day America to encounter a person with genuine class. It's even rarer when that person is all of 21 years old. Throw in the fact that he's a professional athlete and we have reached a trifecta of improbability. Nonetheless it is worth taking time off from chronicling the usual assortment of morally-jaded creeps, crooks, narcissists and egomaniacs to acquaint non-golfing Americans with a young man named Jordan Spieth. Last weekend, Spieth realized a goal he had set for himself at the age of 14. "My ultimate goal when I came here, Cam (golf instructor Cameron McCormick) asked me and I said that I want to win The Masters," Spieth revealed during an interview in 2008. On Sunday he did just that, capturing the title in the first of golf's four annual Majors (the U.S Open, the British Open and the PGA are the other three) that define the difference between a good golfing career and a great one. Yet winning the Masters, the only Major held at the same Augusta National Golf Club every year, is a victory most golfers see as the game's ultimate triumph.
Hillary Clinton's Candidacy Is Depressing
Hillary Clinton has announced that she is running for president of the United States. What her likely nomination says about the Democratic Party and tens of millions of Americans is depressing. Other than Barack Obama — whose resume consisted of being a charismatic black — it is hard to come up with a less accomplished individual who has run for president in our lifetime. And, unfortunately, that is saying something. Moreover, at least Barack Obama had the excuse of having been in public life for only a few years, as a state senator and then a two-year U.S. senator. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has been in public life most of her adult years, as a very politically active first lady, a U.S. senator, and secretary of state.
Of Jordan Spieth and Hillary Clinton
I'm. Just. So. Excited. That. Hillary. Clinton. Is. Ready. To. Be. My. Champion. I mean, she says she's ready, what with "the deck ... still stacked in favor of those at the top." Oh, ma'am, we "everyday Americans," I can tell you, have had it up to here with the "top" people running everything. We're ready for a president with a family net worth of only $13 million: somewhere in the Clinton range, we're informed. Something else we're ready for is a president whose speech-giving fees, pre-campaign, were a modest $200,000: $10,000 a minute or thereabouts; no more than your Aunt Bessie would spend on a new Lamborghini Gallardo.
Hillary Candidacy Doesn't Worry Me
Please forgive me, but I'm singularly unimpressed with Hillary Clinton in general, but especially as a Democratic presidential candidate. I'm neither smug nor complacent about the likelihood of defeating her, but I am incautiously optimistic. I hope I'm not wrong; the country can't take four more years of the same disastrous policies. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that Hillary appears to be the anointed candidate with virtually no one in the party surfacing to challenge her for the nomination. If she was ever a good candidate, her time has clearly passed, because the mythical image that she has invested so much energy cultivating for herself has mostly been shattered by reality. Perhaps the main reason the Democratic Party can't come up with anyone to challenge her is that for six or seven years, it has put all its eggs in the Obama basket. Live by the sword, die by the sword. The dirty little not-so-secret secret about Barack Obama is that whatever personal popularity he enjoyed (past tense), it never spread throughout the party.
The New Inquisition
How long will this country remain free? Probably only as long as the American people value their freedom enough to defend it. But how many people today can stop looking at their electronic devices long enough to even think about such things? Meanwhile, attempts to shut down people whose free speech interferes with other people's political agendas go on, with remarkably little notice, much less outrage. The Internal Revenue Service's targeting the tax-exempt status of conservative groups is just one of these attempts to fight political battles by shutting up the opposition, rather than answering them. Another insidious attempt to silence voices that dissent from current politically correct crusades is targeting scientists who do not agree with the "global warming" scenario.
The 'New' Hillary Clinton
In the video announcing her presidential candidacy, Hillary Clinton says the economic deck "is still stacked in favor of those at the top." She should know because she has gobbled up a lot of cash for speaking fees and the Clinton Foundation. The video also includes the word "reinventing," a kind of self-reset button (it didn't work with the Russians, but she apparently thinks it will work for her). After 67 years on this earth, the last 23 of which have been in the political spotlight, Hillary thinks the public may not know who she is. In fact, we do and this video is an attempt to apply tinted glass to her campaign wagon in hopes of obscuring the real Hillary.
A Very Fluid Race for the Republican Nomination
Two weeks ago, Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for president at Liberty University, and last week, Rand Paul announced at the Galt House hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Marco Rubio is expected to announce this week at the Freedom Tower in Miami. Others will follow. So what have we learned about the race for the Republican nomination for president so far? 1.) Nobody is running away with it. In no national poll of Republican primary voters this year has any one of the dozen or so candidates tested received more than 20 percent of the vote. And only twice has any candidate received more than 20 percent in the multiple polls conducted in the four early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Conservatives Embrace Cronyism at the Expense of American Innovation
Republicans have been in control of both ends of Capitol Hill for nearly four months and one would be hard-pressed to notice any change. Apart from votes on Keystone and overtures to tax reform, most lawmakers have adopted a status quo, business as usual attitude. It's frustrating but not entirely unpredictable. In the innovation sector, however, some Republicans have cozied up to Obama's campaign contributors and to big business and have sold out small inventors and entrepreneurs by embracing a proposed overhaul of the U.S. patent system. The so-called Innovation Act is a gift to large, multi-national tech giants seeking to weaken the intellectual property rights found in our Constitution. And, rather than speak up against this monstrosity, many conservatives have embraced what I believe is the equivalent of Obamacare for innovation.
Vanity & Venality
Recently, there was an event held in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of honoring excellence in American journalism. (Stop laughing, I'm being serious.) And what's more, the keynote address was delivered by Hillary Clinton, who was clearly looking to curry favor by saying – with a straight face, apparently – "We need more than ever smart, fair-minded journalists to challenge our assumptions, push us towards new solutions, and hold all of us accountable." Then, in spite of the fact that she refused to answer any questions, the assemblage gave her a standing ovation. Only in Washington could a candidate for president pretend to mean such utter hogwash and a group of 300 left-wing propagandists pretend to believe she meant it. On her way out the door, Mrs. Clinton rubbed their little pink bellies and handed out doggy treats.
Barbra Streisand Thinks the Obama Economy Is Great. What She's Missing.
Poor Barbra Streisand. Just last month the renowned economist (who also describes herself as a "singer," "actress," and "activist") penned an opinion piece titled "Have You Heard the Good News?" about how well the economy is performing under Barack Obama. It was a pep rally of sorts, and all that was missing were the pom-poms. "President Obama's administration, with only opposition from the Republicans," she gushed, "has steadily helped put more than 11 million Americans back to work in the private sector." Then two days later the dismal jobs report for March was released. Bad timing, for sure. The statistic Streisand failed to mention was 6.6 million jobs. This is the deficit of payroll increases compared with the number at this point — five and a half years in, roughly the same duration of the Obama administration to date — in the Reagan administration, which oversaw the recovery of the 1980s. Where are those jobs? Yes, we've created 11 million jobs, but that number should be closer to 18 million. Of course, this gap of 6.6 million is even more startling when we take into consideration the population increase over the past 30 years. The jobs boom under Reagan dwarfs the meager Obama recovery even though Obama started with a jobs base nearly 50 percent higher!
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Are People Getting More Health Care Because of ObamaCare?
By one estimate, 14 million people are newly insured because of the Affordable Care Act. In addition millions of others have more generous insurance, promising new benefits. So you might expect that doctors' offices would be flooded with a host of new patients seeking more care than they had before. It's not happening. To avoid the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, the recession, and the slow recovery, John Graham compared the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with their survey from a decade ago. The result: "The proportion of people of all ages with a 'usual place to go for medical care' was 87.8 percent last year, the same as it was in 2002-2003. Further, 5.7 percent reported that they failed to obtain needed medical care due to cost last year, the same as it was in 2003-2004."
The Greatest Setback for Cancer Research Is ObamaCare
Nearly everyone is thinking about cancer these days thanks to the Ken Burns film on PBS, "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies." All of us, including Burns himself, who as a child lost his mother to cancer, know a family member or a close friend who has died of the Killer C. The film tells us the magnitude of the murderous disease we are up against: "Cancer is a worldwide scourge. The fastest growing disease on earth. By 2030 there will be as many as 22 million cases worldwide. Cancer afflicts 1.7 million Americans each year and kills 600,000 of them. More will die from cancer over the next 2 years than died in combat in all the wars the United States has ever fought — combined." That's terribly true, but it hides the good news that doesn't get enough play in this film. And that is the astonishing progress that has been made in diagnosing and treating cancer. No, there isn't a cure. But we are getting there and the treatments since Brian Piccolo's famous bout with cancer nearly half a century ago are nearly miraculous. In twenty years, nearly 1.5 million lives have been saved because of medical know-how and highly effective new treatments.
Containing Iran's Nuclear Intoxication
Next week brings a constitutional moment illustrating a paradox of Barack Obama's presidency. The catalyst of the drama is legislation proposed by Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, asserting Congress' foreign policy responsibilities and prerogatives. The paradox is this: Obama's disdain for constitutional etiquette — his contempt for the institutional self-restraint that enables equilibrium under the separation of powers — has been primarily in domestic policy. His anti-constitutional actions have involved the Affordable Care Act, environmental, education, welfare and immigration policies, Internet regulation and judicially rebuked recess appointments, among other matters. Now, however, Congress' revival comes regarding foreign policy, where constitutional logic and historical precedents are most supportive of presidential discretion.