Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
The Democratic Party Runs on Empty
As the Republicans settle into the House of Representatives and the Senate, with in the House's case their largest margin in 86 years and in the Senate's case about as healthy a margin as they could have gained in 2014, the talk in major media is of the Republicans' many problems. As the Washington Post put it in a front-page headline, "Rancor in GOP flares ..." The Democrats should suffer from such "rancor." I wonder how the local press is handling the Republicans' takeover across the nation. The Republicans have gained control of 24 state governments, from the governors' mansions to the state legislatures. The Democrats have only managed to hang on to similar dominance in seven states down, down from 13 in 2014. Any way you look at it, these are palmy times for the Republicans, unless you are looking through the bloodshot eyes of a Democrat or a camouflaged Democrat, say, a member of the press corps.
Bill Clinton and the Company He Keeps
It is from an Aesop fable we get the phrase, "A man is known by the company he keeps." The British and American media are carrying salacious stories about Prince Andrew keeping company with registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, now accused of keeping underage girls as "sex slaves" for prominent men. The investigation is ongoing. Buckingham Palace issued a vehement denial on Andrew's behalf.
The Pontiff and 'Climate Change'
Move over, radical Islam. Step aside, poverty and political oppression. Pope Francis is expected to soon issue a rare papal encyclical, an official statement about what the pontiff believes is the world's most pressing issue -- "climate change." A month ago, during the U.N. climate change conference in Lima, Peru, the Pope warned of the dire consequences of climate change and declared that the "time to find global solutions is running out." Last October, the Pope said: "An economic system centered on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.
Have Liberals Lost the Middle Class?
Democrats for over a century were associated with the American middle class. Working-class voters once believed that Democratic-inspired intervention into the economy -- minimum-wage laws, overtime pay, Social Security, Medicare, workers' compensation -- protected their interests better than unfettered free-market capitalism. Republicans often had trouble selling the argument that an unleashed economy and new technology would relegate poverty to a relative, not absolute, condition -- something like suffering with a cheap outdated iPhone 4 while the better-off afforded an iPhone 6.
Climate Change's Instructive Past
We know, because they often say so, that those who think catastrophic global warming is probable and perhaps imminent are exemplary empiricists. They say those who disagree with them are "climate change deniers" disrespectful of science. Actually, however, something about which everyone can agree is that *of course* the climate is changing -- it always is. And if climate Cassandras are as conscientious as they claim to be about weighing evidence, how do they accommodate historical evidence of enormously consequential episodes of climate change not produced by human activity? Before wagering vast wealth and curtailments of liberty on correcting the climate, two recent books should be considered.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Boehner Survives
Embattled speaker retains position after historic defection of House conservatives.
Young Workers Hurt Most by Minimum Wage Hikes
On New Year's Day, the minimum wage increased in 20 states and the District of Columbia. This follows a year in which protesters hit the streets in major cities, camping in front of fast food stores and demanding a hike in the minimum wage. Last summer, Seattle raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018. In December, San Francisco followed suit, approving a $15 minimum wage by 2018. Likewise, Chicago just mandated a $13 hourly wage by 2019. Meanwhile, President Obama storms around the country moaning that Scrooge-like congressional Republicans are refusing to give the American worker a raise.
The Black Brunch Brats
America's social justice movement has reached a critical turning point. The left's bravest young warriors for change have turned ... back to 1989 and borrowed costumes from Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" music video. Clad in black-ops black from head to toe with fists held high, stylin' members of the so-called "Black Brunch" brigade look like they're ready to break into some old-school New Jack Swing dance moves. And 5, 6, 7, 8! But seriously, all you hate-mongering, racist oppressors. You must banish your colonialist, imperialist and patriarchal impulses to mock. The "comrades" (yes, they really call themselves that) who don the solidarity-enhancing Black Brunch costume are sending a revolutionary, transformative message: This is war!
Will There Be a 2016 Lame-Duck Disability Bailout?
If you thought the lame-duck Congress that met in December -- in which House Speaker John Boehner cut a deal with President Barack Obama to fund almost all of Obama's programs through the rest of the current fiscal year -- was a bad deal for America, wait until the next lame-duck Congress convenes after the 2016 election. That could be the "bipartisan" moment for a bailout of the federal disability program -- and perhaps Social Security with it. The very dry, very long Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of Social Security, released in July, included two crucial predictions. Social Security's Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which pays Social Security retirement benefits, can survive another 20 years. But the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which pays disability benefits, will last just two.
Al Sharpton's Magical Mystery Tour
During the Christmas season, the national media hoped to once again dip the entire Republican Party in the mire of David Duke and other racists, to spread that taint across the political landscape. Republicans fought back with Obama's long association with his racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which the media worked hard to erase as utterly irrelevant. But here's someone who hasn't been removed from the spotlight around Obama. We recently found an amazing video The New York Times made about Al Sharpton, the unrepentant racial hoax-exploiter. Sharpton has never suffered from ruining reputations and causing strife over teenager Tawana Brawley's made-up stories of rape and racist mistreatment at the hands of white cops in the late 1980s.
Legal Pot Slips Through a Loophole
Why an Anti-Drug Rider Failed To Keep Cannabis Criminal in the Capital
Self-Love vs. Self-Betterment
On Dec. 31, as 2014 began to fade into the past, New York Times columnist Charles Blow tweeted out some deep thoughts from his new book, "Fire In My Bones." "Daring to step into oneself is the bravest, strangest, most natural, most terrifying thing a person can do," Blow wrote regarding his acknowledgement of his own bisexuality, "because when you cease to wrap yourself in artifice you are naked, and when you are naked you are vulnerable. But vulnerability is the leading edge of truth. Being willing to sacrifice a false life is the only way to live a true one." He then added, "It takes more courage to be yourself than it does to do almost anything else. Being yourself, your whole self, without compromise or apology, is a revolutionary act!"
Trust
Trust -- society depends on it. For most of history, our ancestors lived in clans with other family members, or in small villages. Everyone pretty much knew who was trustworthy. People behaved better because they wanted good relationships with family members and neighbors. It's one reason that today we trust friends and family more than strangers. Only recently have humans interacted with lots of people. Today, "50 percent of the population lives in cities," points out entrepreneur Julien Smith. "We're surrounded by strangers, and you end up with these systems in place that progressively get built (to determine:) 'should I trust this person?'"
Why Is Jeb Bush Smiling?
Jeb Bush is starting the new year with a smile. Former Arkansas governor and, until last weekend, Fox News host Mike Huckabee announced he would "explore" running for president. By the way, these "exploration" announcements are yet another example of the government encouraging politicians to lie. Exploratory committees disguise the fact that a candidate is running about as well as glasses conceal Superman's real identity. They require a willful suspension of disbelief on the part of everyone watching. Politicians like this loophole because it drags out the time in which they are allowed to conceal their donors and provides another round of headlines when they "formally" (and inevitably) announce their candidacies.
AGW Forecast: More of the Same
In the wake of another year of useless energy spent, another year of claims and rebuttals to anthropogenic global warming is already beginning. The Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin comes to mind. I find myself at odds with both sides of the debate, for I am coming to the uneasy conclusion that this is one of the greatest wastes of time and energy in which I have ever been involved. As far as what I do for a living, the argument really means nothing. If it goes away tomorrow, I won't change what I have researched and used climate for one iota. The only reason I got involved was because a lot of people who never make forecasts decided they were going to tell other people why something was happening after the fact. To an operational meteorologist, you have no business dictating to the guy that is taking a stand beforehand why something happened. You want to do that, get out in front and be right.
The Speaker Survives a Squeaker
This first snowfall of 2015 may have put the brakes on D.C. drivers, but there was no stopping Republicans from taking the wheel of the 114th Congress. While schools and roads were closing, the House and Senate were officially open for business, swearing in more than 70 new members in the first GOP-controlled Congress in eight years. After classes on everything from the Capitol floor plan to parliamentary procedure, this class of freshmen will hit the ground running on votes for everything from the Keystone Pipeline to ObamaCare eligibility. With the largest majority since 1928, hopes are high for Republicans to help right a ship that's been adrift in a sea of lawlessness.
Liberals' Use of Black People, Part II
Last week's column focused on the ways liberals use blacks in pursuit of their leftist agenda, plus their demeaning attitudes toward black people. Most demeaning are their double standards. It was recently reported that Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House majority whip, spoke at a 2002 gathering hosted by white supremacist leaders when he was a Louisiana state representative. Some are calling on Scalise to step down or for House Speaker John Boehner to fire him. There's no claim that Scalise made racist statements. Hardly anyone blinks an eye at the Rev. Al Sharpton's racist statements, such as: "White folks was in the caves while we (blacks) was building empires. ... We built pyramids before Donald Trump ever knew what architecture was. ... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it."
Civil Disobedience
What Barack Obama has done to America is so vile that one can only hope that he will receive his just comeuppance in the hereafter. After all, we know that as an ex-president, he will, like Bill Clinton, make tens of millions of dollars in book deals and speaking fees. He and Michelle will live in a mansion, fly between Chicago and Hawaii on a private jet, protected by the Secret Service, and hobnobbing with the show biz glitterati who adore him and see him as super cool and the fount of all wisdom. Ultimately, only God will have the ability to punish him for trashing our Constitution, along with our traditions and values. It's of small comfort to those of us who think he has single-handedly undermined American power and influence in the world by coddling our enemies, betraying our allies and turning a blind eye to the existential threat posed by Islam. Even on those rare instances when he has been forced to acknowledge the evil done in its name, he has referred to it as workplace violence or dismissed it as a generic form of terrorism.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
The Unsustainability of Federal Spending
The new Republican Congress must begin trimming budgets
Leading Questions for Boehner
Americans picked their leaders back in November -- and [today], it's the House's turn to decide who leads *them*. For the 114th Congress, the first vote may be their most important one: choosing the chamber's Speaker. For two terms, that job has belonged to Ohio Congressman John Boehner, a man who's had a difficult job trying to lead a diverse majority. But as his party grows more conservative, a number of Republicans think he's compromised too much too soon in key debates over government spending, illegal immigration, and ObamaCare. Now, after three weeks at home with angry voters (who couldn't believe the GOP's capitulation to the White House after the election rout), what seemed like a done deal -- the Speaker's re-election -- is anything but.