Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
A Democratic Waterloo
The Duke of Wellington said of his close-run victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo that the French "came on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way." Something like that happened to the Democrats in Tuesday's midterm elections, as they lost the Senate, a few more seats in the House and additional governorships. They came on with the same old strategy, but this time they went down with it. Obama and the Democrats chose not to defend the administration's record of the last six years. On foreign policy, no Democratic chorus seconded Obama's 2013 claim that this chaotic period in world affairs has been the most stable time in recent memory.
RINOs Are Not the Enemy
Because it is once again election season, I am hearing from a great many people who sincerely believe RINO is the vilest of all four-letter words. The weird thing is that although I am about as conservative as a person can be, I wind up spending an inordinate amount of time defending them. I understand that people who take their conservative politics and values seriously wish every Republican did the same, and resent those who don't. But we are Republicans and therefore, unlike liberals, we are not all the end result of the cookie cutter. It is easy for Democrats to line up in a very neat row because they all subscribe to the same talking points. For instance, they believe that a massive federal government collecting a massive amount of tax dollars, running up a massive debt and controlling everything from the economy to education, from health care to the climate, is the answer to every problem.
GOP Lands on Its Feat
President Obama has bailed out a lot of things in six years -- but [Tuesday] night, the Democratic Party wasn't one of them. By night's end, his policy failures accounted for one of the largest Republican waves to hit Capitol Hill since World War II, as the GOP won back control of Congress. With a 12-seat cushion in the House and seven-plus gains in the Senate, conservatives sent more Democrats packing than the city has moving vans. The message from an angry electorate was clear: the experiment in lawlessness has gone on long enough. And while Republicans were the beneficiaries of the country's outrage, Tuesday's victories were not so much an endorsement of the GOP as they were a repudiation of Senator Harry Reid's (D-Nev.).
The Challenge: The Hunt for Fulfillment
Where are you looking for your fulfillment? To simple pleasures? To hard work and success? To beauty and art or justice and honor? According to scripture, King Solomon was the richest and wisest man on Earth (2 Chronicles 1:11). He had virtually unlimited resources and tremendous power. And he devoted his life to seeking satisfaction. He pursued every good and pleasurable thing to a greater degree than you or I could ever dream of. If anyone could provide any insight as to how to find fulfillment in life, Solomon is the one.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Another Season of Winter Weather Woes Lurking
Last year, WeatherBELL went out with a cold winter forecast for our clients in July. This year we were out with the cold winter outlook in April, after having forecasted a "Garden of Eden" summer for the nation with a pool of cool over the central part of the U.S., plenty of rain, including in the Southwest, and the second year in a row of relaxation from the extreme heat of the summers of 2010-2012, which were strikingly similar to the summers of 1952-1954. As far as the hurricane season, most of the activity was in the area we described. Our team said it would be a lower than average year with very little activity in the deep tropics, most of it in the western Atlantic. Arthur was the strongest storm to hit the U.S. so early, on the western side of the center of activity which was mainly between the East Coast and Bermuda.
Judge Rejects the 'Disparate Impact' Fraud
Attorney General hopeful Tom Perez’s race-based justice scheme surfers a major setback.
We Worship Our Politicians -- and We Despise Them
Of course it was only by happenstance that former Mayor Thomas Menino died just days before the 2014 election, and that his funeral at Most Precious Blood Parish in Hyde Park coincided with the closing hours of all the campaigns whose outcomes would be decided on Tuesday. But that unplanned juxtaposition couldn't have illustrated more vividly the emotional extremes we resort to when it comes to political figures. A newcomer watching the local TV news broadcasts in Boston early Monday morning might reasonably have concluded that the former mayor had been a hero of mythic proportions, a saint and a superstar whose goodness was unbounded and whose shortcomings were nonexistent.
Marriage, the Surest Economic Stimulus
This may be a surprising statement from a bleary-eyed, number-crunching economist, but the best anti-poverty program in America may not be tax cuts, debt reduction or regulatory relief, but rather that old-fashioned institution called marriage. It turns out that poverty rates are very low among intact families and prevalent among homes without a father. Children who grow up in single-parent households are much more likely to face economic trouble as adults. Those who cheer divorce as a form of women's liberation, or who say that stigmatizing out-of-wedlock births is just right-wing sermonizing, just don't get this intertwined connection between two-parent households and economic success. Sociocultural factors like the decline of marriage are leading causes of the wealth gap and the stubborn poverty trap in many low-income neighborhoods. This isn't to say that children who grow up in broken homes can't succeed -- millions heroically do. It doesn't mean that every marriage was meant to be; many times, divorce is the only option.
Err Canada: P.C. Policies Try to Shutter Campus Plans
Trinity Western University was supposed to make history -- instead, it's becoming a casualty of it. Canada's long tradition of pro-homosexual policies took another victim this month when officials in British Columbia refused to recognize graduates of TWU's School of Law because of its Christian roots. Plans to launch the school in 2016 hit a snag with the accreditation process in September once law societies realized the campus would be a religious one. "Trinity Western is open and welcome to all," said TWU spokesperson Guy Saffold. In particular, the provinces object to the school's biblical stance on homosexuality. Critics say TWU's statement of faith includes a line about reserving sexual intimacy for marriage, which they believe is the union of a man and woman. Unless cooler heads prevail, the school is prepared to go to the mat in court against the liberal-leaning Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Scholar-Athlete Charade
Last year's column "Dishonest Educators" (1/9/2013) reported on the largest school cheating scandal in U.S. history. In more than three-quarters of the 56 Atlanta schools investigated, teachers changed student answers on academic achievement tests. Cheating orders came directly from school administrators. The cheating was brazen. One teacher told a colleague, "I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they're dumb as hell." Atlanta's not alone. Teacher cheating has been discovered in other cities, such as Philadelphia, Houston, New York, Detroit, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Washington.
Electing Liberty
I watch election results to gauge whether America has become freer or more tyrannical. It's hard to know whether Tuesday's results will make much difference. Often, individual liberty erodes in ways that neither major political party much cares about. Last weekend, I suffered through the New York Marathon. I suffered not because I ran 26.2 miles but because I live near Central Park, and at Marathon time, officials turn my neighborhood into a little police state. Four thousand police officers, 20 boats and four blimps "guarded" the Marathon. Barricades, bomb-sniffing dogs and surveillance cameras were everywhere.
Extended Voting Period Has Cranked Up the Demagoguery
It used to be that the first Tuesday in November was Election Day, but now it is the last day of Election Month. Election Month is bad, but it's a symptom of a deeper problem that makes the underlying problem worse. As George Orwell said, "A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, but then fail all the more completely because he drinks." The deeper problem is that we simultaneously expect too much and too little of casting a ballot. See, for instance, actress Lena Dunham's "5 Reasons Why I Vote (and You Should Too)" on Planned Parenthood's website. Reason No. 1: "When you vote, you feel so, so good."
Is GOP Ready for Obama's Attorney General Fight?
Gird your loins, Beltway Republicans. Election Day is barely over, but the progressive left is locked and loaded for battle over President Obama's next U.S. attorney general. Liberals unhappy with the administration's failure to deliver a mass illegal alien amnesty fast enough want a consolation prize. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent Obama a demand letter last week promoting Labor Secretary Tom Perez as Eric Holder's replacement. Mother Jones ran with "Why Picking Tom Perez for Attorney General Would Be a Smart Move for Obama."
Ebola Panic Control
A Nurse's Successful Quarantine Challenge Is a Victory for Reason and Due Process
How Ted Cruz Exposed the Free-Speech Haters
This is the story of how a simple act by Sen. Ted Cruz exposed the hatred many members of the U.S. Senate have for your freedom to speak. The story begins in 2009 in the United States Supreme Court where Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart presented the Obama administration's interpretation of the relevant part of the First Amendment. In case you have not read it recently, that amendment says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
TV Anchors Shouldn't Lecture About Democracy
On the Sunday before the election, CBS "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer unloaded one of those pompously "progressive" end-of-show commentaries about how our democracy is being ruined by money. "The right to vote is our proudest possession, but the way it has become debased by money shames us all." He claimed "Congress hasn't done anything in years, yet these midterm elections will be the most expensive in history, just like the last one -- $4 billion this time around. That's billion with a B," he lamented. On one level, he is correct. Special interests are purchasing candidates right and left and spending money at a dizzying pace. Consider: the North Carolina Senate campaign this year will cost more than all candidate spending in the presidential campaign of 1980.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Making Tax Reform Wallet-Sized
Americans want the effect of an overhaul on their family budgets
Houston Pastors Draw a Line in the Stand
The Alamo may be the site of Texans' most famous stand -- but it wasn't the site of their last. Almost two hundred years later, the proud state is fighting another invasion -- this time, of religious intolerance. [Sunday] night, with thousands of people packing the pews of Grace Community Church -- and tens of thousands more at nearly 800 churches from all 50 states -- Houston sent a message to the nation: "Don't mess with the pulpits of America." For the city, the I Stand Sunday simulcast capped off a four-week roller coaster set in motion by open lesbian and Mayor Annise Parker. It started in May when her office inexplicably trashed more than 30,000 citizen petitions, which would have put her special rights ordinance where it belongs: on the ballot. "For 10 years, I was Governor of Arkansas," Mike Huckabee told the crowd [Sunday] night, "and it never occurred to me I could cancel an election because I thought maybe the results wouldn't be in my favor." When her actions triggered a lawsuit, the Mayor dug in deeper -- subpoenaing 17 forms of communication from area pastors as a tool of intimidation, despite the fact that these five pastors were never part of the lawsuit!
The Left's Tactics -- a Personal Example
Last week, I was a speaker and the emcee at a rally convened by the Republican Party and WLSS, the Sarasota station that carries my radio show. The other speakers were Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. I spoke for about 25 minutes, about two minutes of which drew national attention from the left. I spoke about "the divisions that the Democrats have engaged in making in this country." Then I said, word for word: "On issue after issue, these are manufactured divisions: the black-white division, the male-female division, and the old-young division. These are all manufactured. There is no 'war on women.' It's absurd. It is just an absurdity. It is a lie. It's a gargantuan lie to get votes. It's as big a lie as 'culture of rape' on your campuses. What nonsense. There is a 'culture of rape' on campuses run by the feminist left? Why are you trying to sell me this nonsense?
Why We Don't Like Politicians
"The polls" have it that Americans in 2014 expect virtually nothing from the 2014 style in Washington politicians. Amid the horrors we trip over every morning when evacuating our beds, this revelation may count as very, very, very good news. We don't want to expect much from our politicians, of whatever sex, party, creed, and persuasion. A major roadblock to achievement of the earnest hopes of the past half dozen years -- the Obama years -- is ... well, those same earnest hopes. My brothers, my sisters, it wasn't ever going to happen that a smooth-tongued office seeker was going to set America right -- or whatever it was we supposed he would do, once duly inducted as orator-in-chief.