Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Hispanic Voters and the American Dream
An off-year election is an opportunity for the winning party to learn the wrong lessons. Such an opportunity beckons for Republicans. They are poised to win elections, and may possibly gain control of the Senate, in part because the most loyal Democratic constituencies -- single women, blacks and Hispanics -- tend not to participate as energetically in non-presidential years. (Though the spending bomb that Democrats are about to detonate may minimize Republican gains.) Few of the states featuring close Senate contests have large Hispanic populations. Among key races (Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan and North Carolina), only the Centennial State has a significant number of Hispanic voters.
Ebola and Obama
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is both a danger in itself and a wake-up call for Americans -- about President Obama, about the institutions of this country and, most important, about ourselves. There was a time when an outbreak of a deadly disease overseas would bring virtually unanimous agreement that our top priority should be to keep it overseas. Yet Barack Obama has refused to bar entry to the United States by people from countries where the Ebola epidemic rages, as Britain has done. The reason? Refusing to let people with Ebola enter the United States would conflict with the goal of fighting the disease. In other words, the safety of the American people takes second place to the goal of helping people overseas.
ISIS, Ebola -- Americans Can Handle the Truth
The Ebola virus is not a threat, but ISIS is. That's what some of our leaders tell us. Should we believe them? Do they have a track record for truth-telling that would lend them credibility? ISIS hasn't (yet) invaded America, but Ebola has. We are bombing ISIS in Syria, but treating Ebola here as an interloper that can be controlled. There is nothing to worry about. No need to panic. Pay no attention to the disease behind the curtain. Experts are in charge and we must always trust our experts. Do you? I sure don't. Sometimes it seems the priority of our elected officials and experts is self-protection rather than the protection of the public, which they are supposed to serve. We only know what they tell us. We presume they have access to accurate information, but we only get their version of the truth.
It's Not Unnatural for Republicans to Want the President Protected
"Even opposition lawmakers who have spent the last six years fighting his every initiative have expressed deep worry for his security." So wrote the New York Times' Peter Baker in the lead paragraph of a story on the congressional hearing on the Secret Service. Baker is an excellent reporter and a good writer, and so it's useful to consider the implications of his framing of the story. And let's leave aside his hyperbole about Republicans opposition "every initiative" -- some presidential initiatives are uncontroversial and widely supported -- and look at that word "even." Contained within that word and in the snarky tone of the story is the assumption that if you are politically opposed to a president, you won't mind seeing him or his family murdered. After all, you're against him, so why would you feel "deep worry for his security"?
Democrats Will Pay the Price for Obama in November
Democrats are panicking, and rightly so. Going into the November congressional elections, voter opposition to Obama is worse than it was for George W. Bush and for Bill Clinton at their respective six-year marks, and Democrats can't unyoke themselves from him. It's not just that Gallup's latest polls show Obama's policies are unpopular but that voters are planning to make a statement to that effect in November. Since 1998, Gallup has included a question to determine whether the voters are intending to use their vote to "send a message" that they either support or oppose the sitting president.
Enterovirus D68: A Call to Arms
This column is a public call to arms: it is time anyone with an iota of investigative journalistic integrity, in combination with a team of dedicated epidemiologists, to determine beyond a reasonable doubt whether the current outbreak of Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68)—which is killing and paralyzing American children—is directly related to the Obama administration's decision to allow 66,000 illegal alien children and their families virtually unfettered entry into America. As of now, only two reporters, Sharyl Attkisson, and "Sundance" at the conservativetreehouse.com website, have broached the possibility. As Attkisson reveals, "at least 538 people in 43 states and the District of Columbia have become ill with EV-D68. Most of them are children and some developed limb paralysis." And she suspects the number is higher than that because "some state health officials are not testing every suspected case."
Veterans Deserve Choice of Quality Higher Education
Historically, Democrats have been politically vulnerable on military issues. The recent missteps President Barack Obama has made in dealing with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the situation in Syria are hurting his party's chances for keeping control of the Senate in the next Congress. Another problem for the President and Congressional Democrats, is having to spend the 2014 election cycle explaining to voters why our Veterans Hospitals are government-run healthcare disasters. In Phoenix, Veterans Administration secretary Robert McDonald acknowledged that secret waiting lists and bad care needlessly "caused the death of veterans." Why is such an outrage possible? Answer: because Democrats reflexively favor government bureaucracy over the free marketplace. Sadly, at no point will the President's suggested reforms for veterans involve private hospitals or voucher-based coverage, even though that could mean better outcomes for the brave men and women who have served our nation in the armed forces. And while it is not life-and-death, the same can be said for efforts to educate active-duty military and younger veterans.
Jumping the Fence
Recently, Omar Gonzalez and Kevin Carr were arrested for hopping over the White House fence. Gonzalez made it all the way inside, proving that Ronald Kessler wasn't just whistling Dixie when he wrote in "The First Family Detail" about all the corners the Secret Service has been cutting over the past several years, just so that the directors can take bows for cutting costs. On the other hand, when you realize how Obama and the Democrats have conspired to erase our borders, it seems hypocritical that they can encourage millions of aliens to trespass in America, but feel entitled to throw the book at a couple of guys for daring to trespass in Obama's temporary digs. Some people have been astonished at the ease with which Gonzalez and Carr carried off their stunt. But that's nothing compared to the ease with which Barack Hussein Obama managed to sneak into the White House.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Fracking Could Save the Planet
President Barack Obama raised a lot of eyebrows last week when he declared in his United Nations climate change speech: "Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution by more than any other nation on Earth." That's absolutely true. And it's remarkable because we as a nation didn't ratify the Kyoto Treaty, pass a carbon tax, or enact Mr. Obama's cap and trade agenda. It's all the more remarkable because Americans have been scolded nearly every day for being a major source of all these satanic gases that are allegedly burning up the planet. Instead, since 2005, our emissions are down by roughly 10 percent and almost twice that amount on a per capita basis. Not bad.
Focusing Our Eyes on the Real Threat
The world is imploding and the Left's focus is ... birth control? The Middle East is in turmoil, East Asia is erupting, West Africa is battling a growing plague that threatens to go global, and Democratic leaders think the future of the world hinges on contraceptives. Some Republicans, who've been wrongly accused of wanting to ban birth control, have suggested it be made available over the counter. Although FRC hasn't taken a position on birth control or contraceptives that don't harm human embryos, we do question the wisdom of making it available over the counter to young girls.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Branding Sacred Cows
I confess I'm at a loss when it comes to deciding when it's okay to brand someone a villain and when it's not. For instance, it seems to be acceptable for some people to label conservatives, Tea Party members and even white people in general, as good-for-nothings. However, it's regarded as bad manners, insensitive and racist, if you point out that Muslims create an inordinate amount of trouble in the world and that blacks cause a disproportionate amount of havoc in America. Even today, when Muslims are responsible for violence all around the globe, we're all expected to pretend that it's just a few bad apples, and that most followers of Islam are gentle, loving individuals. Nonsense! They are a bloodthirsty lot who have contributed little to the world in 1500 years, aside from suicide bombs, a degenerate view of Paradise and clitorectomies.
Inequality Explained
Why does the left care about income inequality? University of Chicago economist, John Cochrane asked that question the other day and could only settle on one answer: they like big government. But first things first. What do you think would be more helpful to people at the bottom of the income ladder: redistribution of income from the rich or getting a good education and acquiring the habits of self-discipline and self-control?
A Bell-Ringer in New Jersey
Every 36 years, it seems Jeff Bell disturbs New Jersey's political order. In 1978, as a 34-year-old apostle of supply-side economics and a harbinger of the Reagan Revolution, he stunned the keepers of the conventional wisdom by defeating a four-term senator, Clifford Case, in the Republican primary. Bell, a Columbia University graduate who fought in Vietnam, lost to Bill Bradley in the 1978 general election, but in 1982 he went to Washington to help implement President Reagan's economic policies that produced five quarters of above 7 percent growth and six years averaging 4.6 percent. Bell, now 70, is back. He won the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Cory Booker, 45, the Democratic former mayor of Newark who last October won a special election to serve the last year of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg's term.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
From The Comedy Store
Hong Kong students skipped classes and marched in protest demanding democratic elections like we have in the United States. Relations are tricky between Hong Kong and the United States. It's a self-ruling former British colony that's owned by China, and so is Hong Kong.
Now Is Not the Time to Turn the Country Around
Maybe just slowing down the damage a bit until 2016, when some actual change is possible, is the best we can hope for.
Friday, October 3, 2014
Opposing Illegal Immigrant Warehousing Is 'Racist'?
The Obama administration’s lawsuit against one small town -- and how leftists will profit from it.
Efficiency vs. Availability
A sick woman snuck her way through the crowd, reached out, and took what she didn't even ask for. She stole a bit of healing power from Jesus. Though on a mission to save a child on the verge of death, he stopped in his tracks. He stopped to give that power-stealing woman a blessing -- much more than she came to take. And the sick little girl, who was first in line, died because the Great Physician took his time getting to her. He spent precious time caring for the woman who wasn't even on his schedule. And that little girl's family grieved. Didn't Jesus know how urgent the job he agreed to was? Didn't he know he was letting the young girl die when he stopped to talk? That the sick woman who waited 12 years to be healed would be satisfied without the added blessing?
'Security Breaches 'R Us'
The White House sprayed by bullets. A hospital guard with a criminal record and a gun the Secret Service didn't know about riding on an elevator with the president in Atlanta. The fence-jumper who made it all the way into the East Room of the White House. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson had no choice but to resign on Wednesday afternoon. She did it a week or two late, but she did the right thing.
Women Lying to Women
There's really only one thing that progressives get wrong: human nature. This leads them into error on economics, where they imagine they can micromanage billions of individual decisions every day; foreign policy, in which they overestimate the appeal of "talks" and underestimate the ferocity and opportunism of aggressors; and sex, in which, well, where to begin? California proposes to stop campus rape and sexual assault with a law redefining consent. Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation last week specifying that verbal consent must precede all sexual activity. Further, consent cannot be given if someone is incapacitated by drugs or alcohol. Twenty years ago, Antioch College promulgated similar standards requiring verbal consent to each and every sexual act, starting with "May I kiss you" and moving on. Antioch, which closed its doors a few years later, was universally mocked, but it seems it was ahead of its time.
A Hidden Threat
It's easy to ignore, rarely making headlines or causing the average American lost sleep, but North Korea deserves our attention. This week, the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University released a report showing satellite images of construction of what appears to be an intercontinental ballistic missile launch site. The facility was previously used to launch an orbiting space satellite, but images now show heavy construction at the site, which analysts believe are consistent with plans to launch an ICBM now in development. The progress on North Korea's nuclear program is remarkable given the general state of deprivation in the nation. A famine devastated the country in the mid-1990s, and it never fully recovered. North Korea's 25 million people must still rely heavily on foreign assistance for basic food staples, mostly from China. One 2011 study of North Korea's energy consumption shows that the entire country consumes less energy than Washington, D.C., a point made famous by nighttime satellite photos that depict a black hole on the northern end of the Korean peninsula, while the prosperous south shines brightly.