Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Random Thoughts
Random thoughts on the passing scene: The great boxing champion Joe Louis once said about one of his opponents, who was known for his speed: "He can run but he can't hide." In the Congressional elections this year, many Democrats are running away from Barack Obama, but they can't hide their record of voting for Obama's agenda more than 90 percent of the time. Now that the Western democracies have learned the hard way what the consequences are when you admit all sorts of people into your country -- including people who hate both the principles and the people of your society -- will that cause zealots for open borders and amnesty to have some second thoughts, or perhaps first thoughts?
Reagan's Campaign Speech Continues to Reverberate 50 Years Later
On Oct. 27, 1964, 50 years ago Monday, a movie actor and television host delivered a 30-minute speech on primetime national television in support of the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater. There were no visual diversions, and the production values by today's standards were primitive. Few if any viewers realized it, but they were watching a future president of the United States. But perhaps Ronald Reagan, the man on screen, had an inkling. Higher-ups in the Goldwater campaign didn't want him on the air, for fear he would distract attention from the current candidate. But Reagan, using the negotiating skills he developed as president of the Screen Actors Guild, promised not to go on if Barry Goldwater called him and asked.
Idaho Town Bridling in their Religious Discrimination?
Coeur d'Alene, a small town in northern Idaho appears to be trying to rein in their earlier threat to put two ministers in jail for refusing to conduct same-sex weddings. As I outlined last week, Don and Lynn Knapps, two Evangelical ministers, own The Hitching Post, a wedding chapel in Coeur d' Alene. The Knapps, who have been operating The Hitching Post for over a quarter of a century, are ministers in the Foursquare denomination that holds to the biblical and historical definition of marriage. FRC's allies at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) quickly came to the Knapps' defense. Originally Coeur d'Alene city attorney Mike Gridley told ADF attorneys that the Hitching Post would have to become a not-for-profit to be "exempt" from the city's ordinance requiring compliance with its "anti-discrimination" law.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Good Reason for Mary Landrieu to Be Concerned
Prospects that three term Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu will return to the US Senate to represent Louisiana for a fourth term are looking increasingly bleak. Senator Landrieu has good reason to be concerned. One reason is disenchantment among Louisiana's black population, which amounts to 32 percent of the population of the state -- the nation's second largest black population percentage-wise. Justification for black disillusionment is eloquently and explosively captured in the ad being run by Republican State Senator Elbert Guillory's FreeAtLast PAC. Guillory shook things up in 2013 when the then conservative black Democrat announced he was switching to the Republican Party.
Meet the New Class Warrior in Chief
We learned last week that new Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is not so much our nation's central banker as class warrior in chief. In a widely publicized speech Ms. Yellen parroted all of the left's talking points on the divide between rich and poor. "The extent of and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concern me," she lectured. "It is no secret that the past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority." Actually, that's a factually dubious claim given that the 1980s and 1990s saw wide gains for the middle class and even those at the bottom of the income pyramid. Middle income families saw a more than 30% inflation-adjusted rise in income in those years. From 1982-1997 those who started out as poor actually saw faster income gains than those who started out as rich, according the U.S. Treasury Department study on income mobility. Upward mobility defined that era of broad-based prosperity.
California ups the Abortion Ante
In a stunning move, California has upped the abortion ante by forcing churches to pay for elective abortion coverage. California's Department of Managed Health Care has ordered all insurance plans in the state immediately to begin covering elective abortion at the urging of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which pushed for abortion to be considered a "basic health service". California bureaucrats no doubt feel emboldened by the Obama administration that has all but declared open season on people who seek to live their lives according to orthodox biblical teachings. On its face, this is clearly an illegal act by the state of California and violates the federal Hyde-Weldon Amendment, which bars states receiving federal funds from discriminating against people who object to paying for abortion coverage. One of FRC's Watchmen on the Wall pastors, Jack Hibbs, Senior Pastor of Cavalry Chapel Chino Hills, along with pastors from six other churches are now working with Alliance Defending Freedom and Life Legal Defense Foundation and have filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Same-Sex Weddings, and the Right Not to Perform Them
On October 7, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Idaho's ban on same-sex marriage. On Oct. 15, county clerks in the state for the first time issued marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Then, five days later came startling news out of the Idaho resort town of Coeur d'Alene: Two Christian ministers, owners of the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, had reportedly been told by local officials that they were now required to perform same-sex weddings, or risk fines of up to $1,000 and as much as six months in jail if they refused. Under the city's antidiscrimination ordinance, the Hitching Post is considered "a place of public accommodation," and refusing to marry couples on the basis of sexual orientation was no longer a legal option.
Ebola & Other Epidemics
I hope that the Republicans gain control of the Senate, but I don't expect any miracles. I just want to wrench the reins away from Harry Reid, and force Obama to veto all those bills that the House has been sending along since 2010 that Reid has killed, thus sparing the Senate Democrats from ever having to cast an embarrassing vote. After all these years, the public would finally have a chance to see a real obstructionist in action. Some of my readers have likened Obama to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but that's hardly fair. For one thing, the snake didn't keep running off to play golf and attend fund-raisers. For another thing, the snake didn't require the services of a Teleprompter in order to utter a coherent sentence. And for yet another, the snake only lied once.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Done in by John Doe
The early morning paramilitary-style raids on citizens' homes were conducted by law enforcement officers, sometimes wearing bulletproof vests and lugging battering rams, pounding on doors and issuing threats. Spouses were separated as the police seized computers, including those of children still in pajamas. Clothes drawers, including the children's, were ransacked, cellphones were confiscated and the citizens were told it would be a crime to tell anyone of the raids. Some raids were precursors of, others were parts of, the nastiest episode of this unlovely political season, an episode that has occurred in an unlikely place. This attempted criminalization of politics in order to silence persons occupying just one portion of the political spectrum has happened in Wisconsin, which often has conducted robust political arguments with Midwestern civility.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
In Politics, Patience Isn't Overrated -- but Loyalty Often Is
Over on the Metro page, my Boston Globe colleague Yvonne Abraham coaxed the Massachusetts gubernatorial hopefuls into taking the Proust Questionnaire, a survey of personality and values regularly featured in Vanity Fair magazine. The responses she received from Republican Charlie Baker, Democrat Martha Coakley, and independents Evan Falchuk and Jeff McCormick weren't as daring as those of some of the luminaries who have submitted to the questionnaire over the years, but they were more revealing than you might have expected from political candidates with an election scant weeks away. The whole series is worth reading, but I was particularly struck by the fact that three of the candidates gave essentially identical answers to two important questions. Asked what they consider "the most overrated virtue," Baker, Coakley, and Falchuk all nominated patience. And when asked "what quality do you most value" in friends, all three replied: Loyalty. (McCormick's very different answers: Physical appearance is most overrated, and honesty is what he values most in others.)
The Optimistic GOP Story Everyone Is Missing
The vast majority of political journalists -- and I include some of my conservative colleagues -- are missing a very big story. The Republicans are going to recapture the Senate, picking up more seats than most any forecaster expects. And the House GOP is going to add to its majority. But then comes the big story: The beginning of a new conservative revolution. The idea that nothing much will change if the GOP captures the whole Congress is just plain wrong. The politics and policies in Washington are about to change in a major way.
Liberals: An Endless Source of Amusement
Liberals, I hasten to add, are also an endless source of aggravation, terror and sheer nausea. But, really, if you can't laugh at them, you not only lack a sense of humor, but even the most basic of coping skills required to survive the current administration. For instance, Joe Biden, who can nearly always be counted on to be unintentionally hilarious, recently told a crowd of sycophants in Joplin, MO, that we should never forget the 161,000 Missourians who lost their lives during the 2011 tornado that ravaged their town. Because everyone in the crowd and on the stage with him was a liberal, nobody pointed out to the Vice President that the actual number was 161. Joplin's entire population is only 50,150 and, no, Mr. Biden, it wasn't 211,150 before the tornado hit.
From The Comedy Store
Obama was shown on TV voting at a polling place in Chicago when a guy told him to stay away from his girlfriend. She was standing next to Obama voting. The guy wasn't afraid Obama was hitting on her, it's just that she is a Democratic candidate up for re-election.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Releasing Criminally Convicted Illegals Onto Our Streets
Killers and sexual predators let loose in America.
Profile, or Die
We all know what an act of Islamic terrorism is -- except for our lame duck-in-chief, that is. Now the Canadians know it, too. On Wednesday one of their fellow citizens who had just converted to Islam and wanted to go overseas and join ISIS donned a dark jacket and an "Arabic scarf" and attacked their Parliament. He — the suicidal terrorist -- shot one unarmed ceremonial guard to death.
Courage! What Makes the Elephant Charge...
"In Kansas, we are not in culture war-fearing territory anymore, Toto." That's how U.S. News and World Report kicks off an interesting new piece about the importance of social issues in the heartland -- and how embracing the moral and social issues could be the deciding factor for candidates like Gov. Sam Brownback (R). For the mainstream media, it's a head-scratcher. While moderates treat life and marriage like radioactive material, the press seems surprised that real conservatives refuse to retreat. Unlike the Scott Walkers of the GOP, neither Sen. Pat Roberts nor Gov. Brownback are following the Establishment's retreat from fundamental values issues, rather they have the courage to stand up for what is right.
The Terrorist-Sympathizing Opera
The Metropolitan Opera in New York City is hardly a site for hundreds of angry protesters. But they have erupted over their current selection, an opera called "The Death of Klinghoffer." Leon Klinghoffer was the 69-year-old paralyzed New Yorker who in 1985 was aboard the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro, then executed by Islamic terrorists because he was a Jew. The terrorists forced the ship's barber and a waiter to throw his body and his wheelchair overboard off the coast of Egypt. Klinghoffer's daughters, Lisa and Ilsa, have objected to this opera for decades. In the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, they recently proclaimed, "Terrorism is irrational. It should never be explained away or justified. Nor should the death of innocent civilians be misunderstood as an acceptable means for drawing attention to perceived political grievances. Unfortunately, 'The Death of Klinghoffer' does all of this and sullies the memory of our father in the process."
Where Was President Obama?
President Obama says he's "shaken" by this week's violent attacks on three soldiers in Ottawa by an Islamic jihadist. He immediately phoned Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to offer support and "solidarity." He vowed to "remain vigilant." Too bad Obama didn't show the same resolve after multiple attacks and plots against *our* troops by Muslim terrorists on *our* soil. And I'm not just talking about the "workplace violence" of jihadist Nidal Hasan, whose Koran-inspired Fort Hood rampage took the lives of 13 American servicemen and servicewomen and one unborn baby.
The Nonissue in This Campaign
One of the surprising and welcome shifts in the political landscape this election cycle is that high-profile Republican candidates, by and large, have not made opposition to immigration reform a major focus of their campaigns. With the exception of incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts in Kansas and challenger Scott Brown in New Hampshire, most GOP candidates haven't been beating the anti-illegal immigration drum to drive their base to the polls. But even these notable exceptions suggest that immigration doesn't carry quite the punch it once did. Both Roberts and Brown invoked the specter of illegal immigration when they became desperate to turn around flailing campaigns -- a tactic Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes has also tried in Kentucky, claiming Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pro-amnesty.
Michael Brown and Race Hoaxes
Back in August, when news first broke of a shooting in Ferguson, Mo., the media world, perpetually tingling with eagerness for white-on-black violence stories, plunged into delirium. An unarmed, black 18-year-old "gentle giant" had been shot in the back while running away from a white police officer! He was just preparing to enter college in the fall. He had been assassinated while holding his hands in the air in a gesture of helplessness. "Hands up; don't shoot," chanted protesters. The "hands up" gesture immediately achieved iconic status among demonstrators from Boston to New York to San Francisco. If the early reports of the tragedy had been accurate, I would have been happy to jump on a plane and march with the protesters. I wouldn't have set fire to any convenience stores or beauty parlors -- nor would I, as Missouri's governor and U.S. attorney general did, imply that "justice" would mean the "prosecution" of the officer -- but I would have demanded a full investigation and, if the evidence supported it, an arrest.