Right Opinion

Obama's Surrender to Iran Postponed

Negotiations with the Islamic Republic will extend until June -- as Congress prepares to act.

Indiana Groans and the Template of Doom

If anyone looks like a fool this April 1st, it's corporate America. They're not only drawing a line in the sand on religious liberty -- they're standing on the wrong side of it with the intolerant Left! After weeks of spewing misinformation, liberals have managed to whip the entire country into a pointless frenzy over a perfectly reasonable religious liberty bill that is almost identical to one heralded by Bill Clinton. Their propaganda machine has been particularly effective on corporate CEOs, who have spent the last several days firing off indignant press releases about pulling their business from the state -- but not before engaging in some epic hypocrisy of their own. Turns out, the companies most outraged by Indiana's law are the ones contributing to *real* and sometimes deadly discrimination!

The Ghastly Shadow of Munich

The Western capitulation to Adolf Hitler in the 1938 Munich Agreement is cited as classic appeasement that destroyed Czechoslovakia, backfired on France and Britain, and led to World War II. All of that is true. But there was much more that caused the Munich debacle than simple Western naiveté. The full tragedy of that ill-fated agreement should warn us on the eve of the Obama's administration's gullible agreement with Iran on nuclear proliferation. Fable one is the idea that most people saw right through the Munich folly. True, Europeans knew that Hitler had never once told the truth and was already murdering German citizens who were Jews, communists or homosexuals. But Europeans did not care all that much.

The Rough Math Facing Ted Cruz

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was born in 1970, six years after events refuted a theory on which he is wagering his candidacy. The 1964 theory was that many millions of conservatives abstained from voting because the GOP did not nominate sufficiently deep-dyed conservatives. So if in 1964 the party would choose someone like Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, hitherto dormant conservatives would join the electorate in numbers sufficient for victory. This theory was slain by a fact -- actually, 15,951,378 facts. That was the difference between the 43,129,566 votes President Lyndon Johnson received and the 27,178,188 that Goldwater got in winning six states. The sensible reason for nominating Goldwater was not because he could win: As Goldwater understood, Americans still recovering from the Kennedy assassination were not going to have a third president in 14 months. The realistic reason was to turn the GOP into a conservative weapon for a future assault on the ramparts of power.

How RFRA Became Controversial

Disputes About Birth Control and Gay Marriage Undermine Bipartisan Support for Religious Freedom

The Whitewashing of Ted Kennedy

Imagine an eighth grader, presented with a portrayal of Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late patriarch of the "royal family" of American politics. The student would learn nothing but legends about "the greatest senator of all time," as Sen. Ed Markey proclaimed. On the occasion of the opening of an "Edward M. Kennedy Institute" in Boston, "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley oozed, "Another New England superstar was honored today. Politics was his game, and we'll have his story next." There was not one discouraging word -- not even the word "liberal" -- applied to arguably the single most leftwing senator of all time. This is not a bipartisan practice. When President George W. Bush dedicated his library on April 25, 2013, CBS reporter Jim Axelrod insisted that "this library is an intellectual fortress defending one of the most controversial modern presidents, whose time in office saw the (9/11) attack on the U.S., two wars and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."

The Green-Card Racket for Beltway Cronies

Can we stop putting America up for sale to the most politically connected bidders yet? Where is our self-respect? Since 2001, I've warned about the systemic and bipartisan corruption of America's EB-5 immigrant investor visa program. The latest report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general -- which outlines the meddling and pandering of No. 2 DHS official Alejandro Mayorkas, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, Democratic bagman Terry McAuliffe, Hillary Clinton's brother Tony Rodham, former Pennsylvania. Gov. Ed Rendell and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, to name a few -- provides yet more sordid evidence that the green cards-for-sale scheme should be completely scrapped. Created under an obscure section of the expansionist 1990 Immigration Act, EB-5 promised bountiful economic development for the U.S. in exchange for granting permanent residency (and eventual American citizenship) to foreign investors. A few years later, Congress conjured up the idea of EB-5 "regional centers" -- government-sanctioned business groups and corporate entities acting as middlemen to administer the immigrant investments and facilitate the visa peddling.

How Do 'Religious Freedom' Acts Encourage Discrimination?

"I could have handled that better." I don't know if the captain of the Titanic ever said that. But Mike Pence did on Tuesday. The Indiana governor has managed to step on an impressive number of parts of his own anatomy recently and in the process gravely injured what was already a long-shot ambition to run for president in 2016. Earlier this month he signed the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act in a private ceremony. In attendance were prominent opponents of gay marriage.

Liberals Get Indy Way of Freedom

The only March Madness sweeping through Indiana is the hysteria over the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). And in the clash between the facts and fiction, truth is the overwhelming underdog. After 22 years of living under the same legislation Governor Mike Pence (R) just signed, most people want to know what, exactly, has changed? When President Bill Clinton put his name on an almost identical piece of legislation, his party cheered. Now, two decades later, this same concept of religious freedom is sparking a nationwide panic. Businesses are boycotting Indiana; governors are banning state-funded travel there, and the media is giving in to a perfect storm of distortion from national liberal groups -- all because Indiana wants what the Founding Fathers did: to let every American live and work according to their faith.

The Next Bubble

They're doing it again! When the last housing bubble burst, politicians blamed "greedy banks." They said mortgage companies lent money recklessly, making loans to people with dubious credit, for down payments as low as 3 percent. "It will work out," said the optimistic bankers. Regulators didn't disagree. Everyone said, "Home prices will keep going up." And home prices did -- until they didn't. The bubble popped in 2007. Lots of people were hurt, and politicians took more of your tax money to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with reckless banks. They also gave the Federal Housing Administration a $2 billion bailout.

The Fascist Left and Same-Sex Marriage

Last week, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a law with the same name as one signed on the federal level by President Bill Clinton in 1993, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the presumptive next Senate minority leader. Naturally, Pence found himself on the wrong end of a partisan barrage from ABC News' George Stephanopoulos for signing that law the following Sunday. It sure is nice to be a Democrat. What exactly does the law state? The Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana states that "a governmental entity may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability." That rule does not apply only if the government's action "is in furtherance of a compelling government interest" and is also "the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest." If government does act against someone in violation of that person's religious principles, he or she can assert that violation "as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding."

Self-Enforcing Discrimination

Black politicians, civil rights organizations and others who say they are concerned with the welfare of poor black people often support harmful measures. One of the most effective tools for disadvantaged people is to be able to charge a lower price for what they sell and pay a higher price for what they buy. Let's look at this principle first using a couple of nonracial examples. How does chuck steak compete with a more preferred cut such as filet mignon? Everyone knows the answer. It sells for a lower price, say $7 a pound compared to filet mignon's $20. Suppose one wanted to rig the market against chuck steak. He need only lobby the legislature to set a minimum price for steak, say $15 a pound.

Liberal Knuckleheads

Who Trashes Liberal Arts?

An op-ed piece titled "Conservatives, Please Stop Trashing the Liberal Arts" appeared last week in the Wall Street Journal. But it is not conservatives who trashed the liberal arts. Liberal professors have trashed the liberal arts, by converting so many liberal arts courses into indoctrination centers for left-wing causes and fads, instead of courses where students learn how to weigh conflicting views of the world for themselves. Now a professor of English, one of the most fad-ridden of the liberal arts today, blames conservative critics for the low esteem in which liberal arts are held. Surely a professor of English cannot be unaware of how English departments, especially, have become hotbeds of self-indulgent, trendy fads such as trashing classic writings -- using Shakespeare's works as just another ideological playground for romping through with the current mantra of "race, class and gender."

Muzzling the Marketplace of Ideas

Leftists pounce on those who question their worldview

The Ind. of the Road for Religious Freedom?

Indiana is more than the "crossroads of America" -- it's the crossroads of the entire religious liberty debate. The Left made sure of that, fabricating all kinds of baseless outrage over the state's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). What started out as a harmless affirmation of the First Amendment turned into a blow-up of national proportions -- with "truth optional" journalism leading the way. Unfortunately for Governor Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the hysteria started well before last Thursday, when he officially inked the bill into law. Instead, the Left's propaganda machine has been out in full force all month, working to deceive people into believing that this measure will somehow give Christians the ability to "discriminate."

Life Lessons From the German Air Disaster

**It is far easier for an individual to do great evil than to do great good.** That the world isn't fair is known to every human being who thinks. It may be our first insight into life. What child who ever complained, "That's not fair," wasn't told by some adult, "Life isn't fair"? One sad example of how unfair life is concerns how much harder it is to do massive good than massive evil. One psychopath, in one hour, killed 149 innocent people aboard a Germanwings airliner. How many people will ever be able to do nearly as much good for 149 people in a lifetime? With very few exceptions, good can only be achieved one by one by one. That's why, if you want your name remembered by many people, you have a far better chance of accomplishing it by doing evil than by doing good. And that's why most great evils are done by movements that want to change the world. If you really want to change the world for the better, work on making better people, not a better world.

Hey, Kick Those Christians Again!

In the political game -- humanity's reward for forbidden fruit chomping in the Garden of Eden -- all disagreements concern power: Who's No. 1 around here; who gets the final say-so. The ludicrous, and disheartening, dust-up over Indiana's new law on religious freedom shows where growing numbers of Americans think power has shifted with respect to society's fundamental and most important institution, marriage. Critics of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law only last week by Gov. Mike Pence, accuse Indiana of providing citizens legal cover to discriminate against gays -- to deny them jobs or services on "religious" grounds.

Hillary Using Racism Template to Weaponize Sexism?

If Hillary Clinton survives her myriad real scandals and becomes the Democratic presidential candidate for 2016, are we going to be bludgeoned with sexism the same way Barack Obama's supporters have exploited "racism"? If recent rumblings from Clinton supporters are any indication, I'm afraid this could be the case. New York Times reporter Amy Chozick recently received an email from a Clinton-supporting group, called HRC Super Volunteers, warning her, "We will be watching, reading, listening and protesting coded sexism." How feminist of that group. You know, that sure sends a signal that its gal can fend for herself without any John Wayne character's clearing her path before her, doesn't it? "I'm a thin-skinned woman. Hear me purr."

Etiquette Versus Annihilation

Recent statements from United Nations officials, that Iran is already blocking their existing efforts to keep track of what is going on in their nuclear program, should tell anyone who does not already know it that any agreement with Iran will be utterly worthless in practice. It doesn't matter what the terms of the agreement are, if Iran can cheat. It is amazing -- indeed, staggering -- that so few Americans are talking about what it would mean for the world's biggest sponsor of international terrorism, Iran, to have nuclear bombs, and to be developing intercontinental missiles that can deliver them far beyond the Middle East. Back during the years of the nuclear stand-off between the Soviet Union and the United States, contemplating what a nuclear war would be like was called "thinking the unthinkable." But surely the Nazi Holocaust during World War II should tell us that what is beyond the imagination of decent people is by no means impossible for people who, as Churchill warned of Hitler before the war, had "currents of hatred so intense as to sear the souls of those who swim upon them."