Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Welcome to Mai World
Their business is called UrLoved, but owners Nang and Chris Mai sure didn't feel much love after a brush with same-sex "marriage." The California photographers, a husband-and-wife team from the Bay area, became a popular pick for local couples who appreciated the Mais' artistic eye. Sadly, that talent is off the table for other brides and grooms after a dust-up with two homosexual men. Although Nang and Chris didn't come right out and cite their religion for turning down the ceremony, they did explain that "Photographing a gay wedding is not the best match for us. However," [they said](http://live105.cbslocal.com/2014/11/17/bay-area-photographers-close-shop-after-refusing-to-shoot-local-gay-wedding-urloved/), "we can refer you to a colleague who would make a great match…" The men were so outraged that they launched a Facebook movement to shame UrLoved into submission.
The Feminist Freakout Over the Scientist's Gaudy Shirt
The European Space Agency's Rosetta project accomplished one of the most impressive scientific feats in our lifetime. They essentially moved a clunky machine from one speeding bullet onto another, by remote control, from 310 million miles away. It's hoped this achievement will help usher in a new era of space exploration by teaching us how to exploit the raw materials swirling around the solar system. Also, it was really cool. But it wasn't cool enough for some feminists who found the shirt worn by Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, to be a bigger deal. Taylor's shirt, designed by a female friend, depicts a bunch of attractive, scantily clad women drawn from comic books holding guns. (Slate's Amanda Marcotte oddly described their stances as "pornographic poses.")
The Ferguson Days of Rage
This week, America held its collective breath as it waited on the grand jury indictment verdict for Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson, you'll recall, had the misfortune to run into 6'5", 289-lb. Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man who had just finished strong-arm robbing a convenience store. Wilson pulled Brown over as he and his accomplice walked in the middle of the street; all available evidence shows that Brown then pushed himself through the driver's side window, punched Wilson, went for his gun, was shot in the hand, ran, turned around, charged Wilson, and was shot to death.
Control Freaks
Control freaks want to run your life. They call themselves "public servants." But whether student council president, environmental bureaucrat or member of Congress, most believe they know how to run your life better than you do. I admit I was once guilty of this kind of thinking. As a young consumer reporter, I researched what doctors said was bad for us and what products might harm us. Then I demanded that the state pass rules to protect us from those things.
Obama vs. Us
Suppose you saw a person driving his car on the wrong side of a highway, against the traffic. Would you call him a stupid and/or incompetent driver? You say, "Williams, what kind of question is that? Of course he's one or the other!" I'd say, "Hold your horses. What are his intentions?" If the driver's intentions are to cause highway calamity, one can hardly call his actions stupid or incompetent. Given his intentions, he is wisely acting in a manner to achieve his objectives. This observation lies at the heart of my colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell's column last week, in which he says, "Pundits who depict Obama as a weak, lame duck president may be greatly misjudging him, as they have so often in the past." After suffering an elective trouncing at the polls, President Barack Obama issued Congress an ultimatum, saying that if it doesn't enact the kind of immigration law that he would like, he will unilaterally issue an executive order to change the nation's immigration laws. This threat, along with other abuses of his office, is not a sign of presidential stupidity or incompetence.
Racial Quota Punishment
If anyone still has any doubt about the utter cynicism of the Obama administration, a recent agreement between the federal government and the Minneapolis Public Schools should open their eyes. Under the Obama administration, both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have been leaning on public schools around the country to reduce what they call the "disproportionate" numbers of black male students who are punished for various offenses in schools.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
How Hiking Taxes Is Working Out for Japan (Hint: Not Great)
Japan is suffering another economic free fall. Following a second quarter GDP decline of an annualized 7.3 percent, this last quarter the economy in Tokyo sank again by another 1.6 percent. The land of the rising sun is looking a lot like the land of the setting sun. There are lessons here for U.S. policymakers if they are paying attention. Japan's economic plunge coincides with the disastrous blunder by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to raise the nation's sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent starting in April.
Rock Enroll: Drumming Up Business for O'Care
It may be the start of a busy shopping season -- but not for ObamaCare. A year after the technical meltdown of the first launch, HHS took a second crack at opening enrollment for 2015. And while it's impossible to have a worse rollout than the nationwide health care collapse of 2014, the sequel isn't exactly drawing big crowds. Thirteen states launched their insurance portals Saturday, along with the federal exchange that serves the other 37.
Poverty Causes Crime?
One of the first clues that this Columbia-educated, liberal, Democrat, New York Jew had that there was something wrong at the heart of progressive/left-wing thought was when I read and was taught over and over that "poverty causes crime." I knew from the first that this was dogma, not truth. How did I know?
The Incredible Shrinking President
For two more years, two very long and, I'm afraid, discombobulating years, the United States is to be served by a president with the emotional maturity of -- shall we guess? A 12-year-old determined to be noticed by everyone in the room? Maybe. Barack Obama doesn't care that his political party lost the election. He doesn't care that his signature achievement -- Obamacare -- earns a disapproval rating of 56 percent in the latest Gallup Poll. He's going to overhaul immigration policy by presidential decree while pushing his own ideas on climate change, in conjunction with the Chinese. He won't commit to the Keystone pipeline.
Unfaithfully Executing the Law
President Obama is soon expected to issue an executive order that would make it possible for some illegal immigrants, many of whom are the parents of children who are American citizens, to live and work in this country without the threat of deportation, in effect granting amnesty to up to five million people. Beyond concerns over the constitutionality of a president deciding which laws to uphold and which to ignore in violation of his oath to "faithfully execute" laws passed by Congress, is the effect these unauthorized immigrants will have on what we know as America.
2016 Is Just Around the Corner
With the next presidential election less than two years away, it's not too soon to get a few things straight. Although Reince Priebus has already mentioned some worthwhile changes in the way we end up with a nominee, including a shorter campaign season, an earlier convention and a ban on liberals moderating the debates, there are a few more items I would suggest. First of all, before allowing any of the GOP hopefuls to take the stage, I would insist they sign a contract vowing to actively support the eventual nominee. Next, I would insist they all honor Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment, not to speak ill of a fellow Republican. After all, when it comes to insulting politicians, none of them do it as well as I, and they should leave it to the professionals.
Where the Polls Were Wrong -- And, Maybe, Why
Were the polls wrong? It's a question asked after every election. Sometimes, as in 1948, the answer seems as obvious as the answer to the question, "Why did Custer lose at Little Bighorn?" Sometimes the answer is less obvious, as it is this year. "The polls were skewed toward the Democrats," writes Nate Silver, who as proprietor of FiveThirtyEight has earned the distinction of being the nation's most assiduous polling analyst. Silver gives short shrift to partisans -- Democrats this year, Republicans in 2012 -- who complained that polls were systematically biased against their side.
A Legacy of Liberalism
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said there were "phrases that serve as an excuse for not thinking." One of these phrases that substitute for thought today is one that depicts the current problems of blacks in America as "a legacy of slavery." New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof asserts that there is "overwhelming evidence that centuries of racial subjugation still shape inequity in the 21st century" and he mentions "the lingering effects of slavery." But before we become overwhelmed, that evidence should be checked out.
Two More Years of 'By Any Means Necessary'
By any means necessary. Americans will be haunted by those four words for at least the next two years, courtesy of the most corrupt Oval Office occupant in recent history, aided and abetted by an equally corrupt Democrat party and their media propagandists. All of them are doing their utmost to upend one of our democratic republic's most cherished assumptions: elections matter. The reliably pathetic New York Times leads the way. "In the 10 days since 'we got beat,' as he put it, by Republicans who captured the Senate and bolstered control over the House, Mr. Obama has flexed his muscles on immigration, climate change and the Internet, demonstrating that he still aspires to enact sweeping policies that could help define his legacy," the paper gushes.
House Republicans Can Stop Obama's Amnesty Agenda
With already dismal approval ratings, this has been the most difficult month for President Barack Obama yet. After voters from coast to coast soundly rejected Obama-supporting Democrats on Election Day, video was leaked of left-wing economist Jonathan Gruber -- the chief architect of Obamacare -- admitting that the sweeping health care bill became law because Americans are "stupid." As if that wasn't embarrassing enough, a source leaked to Fox News copies of Obama's unconstitutional 10-point plan to grant amnesty to 4.5 million illegal immigrants through executive order, which is supposed to be announced this week. After reading just what he has in mind, it's clear Gruber isn't the only one who thinks we're stupid.
Obama Denies Gruber, but Facts Deny Obama
Do President Obama's adamant denials that he misled the American public on various important aspects of Obamacare stand up to scrutiny? No, and it's not even a close call. In the past several weeks, there's been a major uproar in the alternative media -- the liberal media doing their usual best to cover up stories damaging to this administration and the cause of progressivism -- over recordings that have surfaced of MIT economist Jonathan Gruber. Gruber essentially admitted that the administration duped the American people, whom he called "stupid," on certain issues and the Congressional Budget Office as to the cost of the legislation.
Monday, November 17, 2014
How Democrats Defeated Themselves
New Gallup polling on party favorability ratings should be useful reading for leaders of the Democratic Party who are still in denial about the meaning of the Republican sweep in the recent elections. The percentage of Americans giving the Democratic Party a favorable rating is at an all time low -- 36 percent. It now stands below the current 42 percent favorable rating of the Republican Party. Notable is that Democrats themselves are increasingly unhappy with their own party. Whereas now 81 percent of Democrats give a favorable rating to their own party, this is 14 points below the 95 percent where it stood in December 2012.
Fighting Pot a Joint Effort in D.C.
People in D.C. are still on a high after Election Day -- but a handful of congressmen are hoping that high isn't permanent. As part of the District's ballot, voters gave the thumbs up to a marijuana proposal that just made the lame-duck session a little more interesting. Under Initiative 71, locals would have the right to both possess pot (two ounces) and grow it at home. Oregon and Alaska passed similar policies last Tuesday, but unlike the states', D.C.'s measure is subject to Congress's approval. And plenty of conservatives aren't likely to give it. Before the District even planted the policy on last week's ballot, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) was trying to [put the brakes](http://washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/house-republican-vows-to-upend-dc-ballot-measure-legalizing-marijuana/2014/11/05/10304f2c-6508-11e4-9fdc-d43b053ecb4d_story.html) on the push from D.C. Now, with a major funding bill on the docket, Congressman Harris might finally have a way to give the city the oversight it desperately needs.