Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
DHS: Mall Shook Up
Over the weekend, the ISIS debate stretched from the shopping mall to the National Mall. While the President is busy finding the terrorists better jobs, most Americans wish he would just do his own -- and confront the threat he refuses to verbalize. The Obama administration, which seems to contract laryngitis whenever the subject of radical Islam is broached, is becoming a punch line to the very extremists it hopes to appease. "If you can't admit the problem, you can't fix the problem," wrote a frustrated Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.). "We demand a leader who is going to spend less time criticizing America and more time hunting terrorists down and killing them." As the White House hides behind a foolish strategy of political correctness, an unchecked ISIS is growing bolder and more audacious by the day.
The President and 'Violent Extremism'
Regarding Islamic violence -- the greatest world evil since Nazism and Communism -- the president of the United States, his administration, and the left generally live in a make-believe world, a world of denial. In their world, Islam is today, and has always been, a religion of peace; Muslims are threatened by Islamophobia; Christians are wiped out by "violent extremists;" European cartoonists incite radical Muslims to murder them; fundamentalists of all religions are equally problematic; the hundreds of millions of Muslims who support violent Islamists have nothing to do with Islam, but the Inquisition was conducted by normative Christians; and slavery was defended in the name of Christ, but no mention is made of the far more ubiquitous (and ongoing) slavery in the name of Allah or of the fact that the movement to abolish slavery in the West was due entirely to Christians. Nothing better reflects those Orwellian beliefs than President Barack Obama's speech last week at the conclusion of the absurdly named Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.
Mayors Drink the Ex-Im Kool-Aid
There's an old saying that all politics is local. If that is the case, it should follow that local politicians should be among the best informed, armed with iron-clad facts as they weigh in on issues that affect not only their areas, but the nation as a whole. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, however, has generated some confusion recently by throwing their support behind the embattled Export-Import Bank of the United States – apparently on the strength of some questionable data. The group has supported the bank in the past and passed a resolution in favor of renewing Ex-Im's charter last June as the debate over the it's reauthorization raged in Congress. At that point, politicians from both parties along with a number of groups and individuals outside government were questioning the necessity of this eighty-year-old institution to the American people.
Yes, the Academy -- Again!
Neil Patrick Harris mocked the, shall we say, non-diversity of the Oscars lineup, but more clamorously received in the political theater of the moment was Patricia Arquette's summons to get with the equal-pay-for-women cause. Which you might have assumed had slipped from causiness after 52 years of effort in Washington, D.C., to eradicate the imputed pay gap. Not so. Because, look, "inequality" continues to vex and disgrace the progressive ideal of an America where variations among citizens, as to income, looks, tastes, intelligence and the like, are the result of nefarious Old Guard plots. The Equal Pay Act of 1963, by Ms. Arquette's reckoning, seems not to have worked out; nor anything meant since then to "equalize" men and women -- the civil rights laws, the Lilly Leadbetter Fair Pay Act, the National Equal Pay Task Force, etc. One federal action after another -- and still the pay gap persists! The usual reproach along this line is that full-time women workers take home only 77 percent of the bacon carried off by their male counterparts.
The Media's Slimy Assault on Gov. Walker
I'm not sure which is more absurd, for the media to be up in arms about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's statement that he doesn't believe that President Obama loves America or for them to mug Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for declining to weigh in on the subject. Many of us have been speculating for years about Obama's affinity for this country as founded. He promised to fundamentally transform this nation -- something he wouldn't have done if he embraced the American idea. There is so much evidence that Obama has a different feeling about America than all of our past presidents that it borders on disingenuous to pretend otherwise. What other president has ever denigrated the Founding Fathers as "men of property and wealth"? What POTUS has repeatedly apologized for the United States and its record?
The GOP Will Stand or Fall on These Two Issues
Dear GOP: The American people handed you a landslide victory in 2014. Not because they like you, but because they want Obama's determination to turn America into an impotent, Euro-style socialist welfare state stopped dead in its tracks. Currently there are two issues on the table that are going to define you as fighters for ordinary Americans, or as the go-along-to-get-along, elitist, ruling class wimps you have been for quite some time. And if such spinelessness leads to your ultimate demise, all well and good. A nation where millions of Americans have *no one* speaking for them in Washington, D.C. is no nation at all. Issue one, U.S. Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, or as the relevant information reveals, Eric Holder, the Sequel. What relevant information? In a country with two distinct political parties, the idea that the women who'd be in charge of the nation's premier law enforcement agency believes illegal aliens have as much right to work in America as legal immigrants and American citizens would be more than enough to DQ her.
The 2016 Political Environment Has Shifted
Like it or not, the 2016 presidential race is now well under way. Republican candidates are flocking to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, while Hillary Clinton, in-between $200,000 speeches at universities, is reported to be in seclusion developing her economic policies. It's easy to get overwhelmed by minutiae, but sometimes a twist of events turns out to be important, even 12 months away from the first caucuses and primaries. And of course, always keep in mind that most minutiae turn out to be trivial. Amid all this, it's important to keep in mind changes in the broader political environment -- changes which could make this electoral cycle different in some non-trivial way from the small number of electoral cycles in the recent past. I see two broad developments which could make 2016 different.
Flying Under False Colors
It seems that Brian Williams is a victim of his own pathology. It's not as if anyone put a gun to his head and told him to lie about events in Iraq. But he didn't want to be dismissed as merely an observer. He wanted to be seen as heroic. We'd all like to be seen that way, but he was willing to lie for the glory. In fact, he was so desperate that as a member of his town's volunteer fire department, he once claimed to have rescued a kitten from a burning building. Another time, he mentioned saving two kittens. Unfortunately, lies are commonplace these days and there is little if any shame in being caught in the act. If Obama doesn't tell 10 or 12 whoppers a day, he gets Josh Earnest, Jen Psaki or John Kerry, to go out and tell them on his behalf.
Giuliani Versus Obama
The firestorm of denunciation of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, for having said that he did not think Barack Obama loved America, is in one sense out of all proportion to that remark -- especially at a time when there are much bigger issues, including wars raging, terrorist atrocities and a nuclear Iran on the horizon. Against that background of strife and dangers on the world stage, it may seem as if Barack Obama's feelings, or Rudolph Giuliani's opinion about those feelings, should not matter so much, especially when it is hard to know with certainty how anyone feels. Yet when someone is the leader of a great nation at a historic juncture, it is more than idle curiosity to know what drives him.
Who Loves America?
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, is taking some heat -- and winning praise in some quarters -- for remarks he made at a private dinner last week at which he questioned President Obama's love for America. Speaking at Manhattan's upscale "21 Club" at a gathering of economic conservatives hosting potential Republican presidential candidates (Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker attended this one), Giuliani said: "I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn't love you. And he doesn't love me. He wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country." The White House fired back, agreeing with Giuliani that it was a horrible thing to say.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Black Christians Love Israel
In April 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. landed in jail in Birmingham, Alabama for violating a local injunction against demonstrations. Sitting in jail, he learned that local white clergy advised against "outsiders coming in," calling King's activities "unwise and untimely." In response, King wrote his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." In the pages long, handwritten letter, he lays out the logic and theology of his activities. He explains that, like the prophets and apostles, he was compelled "to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my home town."
Georgia Peaches a Fit Over Senate Bill
Same-sex "marriage" is tying the knot -- right around Christians' freedoms. While the Left cries "discrimination" for their cause, grandmas like Baronnelle Stutzman are actually the victims of it. Out in Washington State, the long-time shop owner could lose her home just for telling two men that she'd be happy to sell them flowers but couldn't -- in good conscience -- arrange them for a ceremony that violated her faith. And she isn't alone. The clash between religious liberty and same-sex "marriage" continues to explode in businesses across America, where shop owners, B&Bs, and other vendors try to come to grips with the government's twisted definition of "tolerance." Faced with losing their jobs, businesses, and life savings, most Christians want to know: isn't there anything we can do?
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Obama’s ISIS Policy: 'Above US Only Sky'
The increasingly desperate attempts of the Obama administration to figure out what motivates ISIS and other Islamist terrorists are wearing thin. Now, even liberals think this administration has lost the bubble. Take State Department Spokeswomen Jen Psaki and Marie Harf as two examples. They daily put us in graver danger by their juvenile responses to serious questions. Marie Harf was at pains to name the KONY rebels in East Africa as examples of Christian terror groups. So we shouldn't single out Islamists, she was arguing.
Teachable Moments
Barack Obama keeps telling us that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are wonderful, peace-loving, people who oppose terrorism. I would love to believe that, but I only have his word for it. And by now, I believe we all know what his word is worth. All the evidence happens to point in the opposite direction. Although most Muslim nations are dictatorships run by royal families or mullahs, we have seen free elections on occasion. In so-called Palestine, the people elected Hamas, a terrorist group dedicated to the elimination of Israel. In Egypt, until the military fortunately took control, the people chose to replace Hosni Mubarak with the terrorists known as the Muslim Brotherhood.
How ObamaCare Is Destroying Health Insurance
The health insurance market is changing. And the changes are not good. Even before there was Obamacare, most insurers most of the time had perverse incentives to attract the healthy and avoid the sick. But now that the Affordable Care Act has completely changed the nature of market, the perverse incentives are worse than ever. Writing in the New York Times Elizabeth Rosenthal gives these examples: - When Karen Pineman of Manhattan sought treatment for a broken ankle, her insurer told her that the nearest in-network doctor was in Stamford, Connecticut – *in another state.* - Alison Chavez, a California breast cancer patient, was almost on the operating table when her surgery had to be cancelled because several of her doctors were leaving the insurer's network.
Tweeting Against Terrorism
"We're here today because we all understand that in dealing with violent extremism, that we need answers that go beyond a military answer. We need answers that go beyond force." -- Vice President Joe Biden at the Countering Violent Extremism Summit, Feb. 17 The Obama administration's semantic somersaults to avoid attaching the adjective "Islamic" to the noun "extremism" are as indicative as they are entertaining. Progressives who believe that dialogues, conversations, engagements, conferences and summits are keys to pacifying the world have a peculiar solemnity about using certain words that are potentially insensitive. This mentality is perhaps especially acute in digitally drenched people who believe that Twitter and other social media have the power to tame turbulent reality.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
What Scott Walker Actually Said
Yes, believe it or not, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker actually spoke at some length at the dinner this past week where Rudy Giuliani charged that President Obama doesn't love America. All the hullabaloo went to Giuliani, but in terms of the Republican presidential race, a number of Scott Walker's pointed comments about policy and politicians are not to be missed. First a word about the dinner itself, which was generously backed by John Catsimatidis. It was the second event sponsored by the Committee to Unleash American Prosperity, a new group founded by Arthur Laffer, Steve Moore, Steve Forbes and myself. Just as the Committee on the Present Danger -- formed by Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, and Irving Kristol -- worried about the decline in American foreign policy in the late 1970s, we are worried about the decline in American economic growth over the past 15 years.
Shovel-Ready Jobs for Beheaders?
Stung by criticism that he has no strategy for confronting ISIS, President Obama told his hastily convened "summit on violent extremism" that what these young men need is jobs. Presumably, there are shovel-ready jobs these young terrorists could readily perform. Like grave-digging? Has there ever been a more fatuous response to murderous savagery? Yes. At the beginning of World War II, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ordered the Royal Air Force (RAF) to bomb Nazy Germany -- with leaflets. He ordered young RAF flight crews to risk their lives in order to drop German-language appeals to the people in Hitler's Reich. When one bombardier failed to cut the strings tying up one of these propaganda bundles, he was sharply rebuked: "That bundle could have killed someone on the ground!"
From The Comedy Store
The Jackie Robinson Little League team in South Chicago was stripped of its U.S. championship title. It was found they played ringers from outside their district and cheated to win. When the kids graduate high school, they'll begin college with six credits toward a degree in Chicago Studies.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Judge Nips Florist's Freedom in the Bud
How will same-sex "marriage" affect your home? A lot, if you don't have one to come home to. That's the stunning predicament Barronelle Stutzman finds herself in after a judge found the Christian florist guilty late yesterday. The popular grandmother, who's been a fixture in her Washington community for 37 years, knows the cost of conviction -- and if the state gets its way, she'll be paying it. Benton County Superior Court Judge Alexander Ekstrom has officially made Stutzman's house, assets, and life savings fair game in the fierce debate over religious liberty. In a lengthy 60-page opinion, the court argues that Barronelle's "relationship with Jesus Christ" doesn't give her the freedom to turn down business -- even if that business violates her personal beliefs.