Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The Spread of Rocky Mountain Jihad
Something's fouling Colorado's crisp air -- and I'm not talking about the pot smoke. In my adopted home state, the toxic fumes of Islamic jihad have penetrated the most unlikely hamlets and hinterlands. Obama administration officials are vehemently denying plots by ISIS operatives to cross our borders. But the lesson here is clear: Thanks to laptop recruitment, reckless visa policies and homegrown treachery, the U.S.-based jihad export-import business is and has been thriving. Last week, 19-year-old Shannon Conley of Arvada (a Denver suburb once known as the "Celery Capital of the World") pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Guilty As (Sur)charged...
[Tuesday], the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan government agency, released a report confirming what FRC's said repeatedly about ObamaCare: It subsidizes abortion. The exchange plans lack transparency, do not comply with the law on the abortion surcharge, and fund elective abortion with taxpayer funds. The report outlines state-by-state abortion coverage in healthcare plans sold on ObamaCare state exchanges, revealing that over 1,000 plans nationwide cover elective abortion. In fact, in eight 8 states, 95-100 percent of the plans cover abortion-on-demand. In New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Hawaii *every* plan includes elective abortion. Further, every plan that includes elective abortion coverage contains an abortion surcharge, which costs at a minimum of $12 per enrollee annually (everyone enrolled in such a plan is required by law to be billed separately from the overall healthcare premium).
Census: Real Household Income Peaked in 20th Century
So far, if measured by household income, the 21st century has not been a good one for the United States of America. In its annual report on "Income and Poverty in the United States," released on Tuesday, the Census Bureau described real median household income as stagnating for two years after declining for two. "Median household income was $51,939 in 2013, not statistically different in real terms from the 2012 median of $51,759," said the Census Bureau. "This is the second consecutive year that the annual change was not statistically significant, following two consecutive years of annual declines in median household income."
Obama Is Carter, Not Reagan
The late Lloyd Bentsen is sorely needed when President Barack Obama tries to compare himself to Ronald Reagan. Mr. President, you're no Ronald Reagan. The New York Times recently captured Obama speaking inside the White House in an off-the-record meeting with liberal journalists. He lamented with an "edge of resentment" that he's seen as weaker than Reagan after an Islamic suicide bomber drove a truck into a Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, killing 241 Americans. "Mr. Obama noted acidly that President Ronald Reagan sent Marines to Lebanon only to have hundreds of them killed in a terrorist attack because of terrible planning, and then withdrew the remaining ones, leaving behind a civil war that lasted years. But Reagan, he noted, is hailed as a titan striding the earth."
Obama's Dumb, Rash & Unilateral War
Don't Buy the President's Lame Excuses for Attacking ISIS Without Congressional Approval
Pimping for the President
There are any number of jobs that I couldn't handle physically, such as being a professional athlete or a bouncer at a nightclub; and some I wouldn't consider because of moral objections, such as being a criminal defense attorney. But, after reading Ron Kessler's latest book, "The First Family Detail," there's one I couldn't handle for any number of reasons, and that's being a Secret Service agent on a presidential detail. I mean, imagine swearing to take a bullet or several bullets intended for Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. From having read Kessler's earlier "In the President's Secret Service," I already knew that being assigned to protect Jimmy Carter, John Kerry or Hillary Clinton was tantamount to a prison sentence because of their blatant contempt for those sworn to sacrifice their lives for them. But when it came to guys like Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton, the day-to-day job had less to do with protecting them against assassins than it did with making sure the First Ladies didn't trip over their various bimbos.
Immigration Is American
Conservatives rightly point out that America is a nation of laws. No one should be exempt. That's why many oppose amnesty and other paths to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are here now. "If they want to be in America," the argument goes, "they ought to return to their own countries and apply for a visa legally. America should not reward law breaking." That sounds sensible -- but what happens when the immigrant does that, goes to the U.S. embassy and says, I'd like to work in America legally?
Obama Is Rushing Into War Against Islamic State
By all means, let's destroy Islamic State, but let's talk about it first. We are in a very strange place right now. President Obama is rushing into a war he doesn't want to fight. He can barely bring himself to call it a war. Obama didn't merely ignore the threat of Islamic State for the better part of a year, he ridiculed the notion the terror group was anything but a "jayvee team." Now suddenly, he wants to go to war.
Multiculturalism Is a Failure
German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that in Germany, multiculturalism has "utterly failed." Both Australia's ex-prime minister John Howard and Spain's ex-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar reached the same conclusion about multiculturalism in their countries. British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that multiculturalism is fostering extremist ideology and directly contributing to homegrown Islamic terrorism. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said the United Kingdom's push for multiculturalism has not united Britons but pushed them apart. It has allowed for Islam to emerge despite Britain's Judeo-Christian culture. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the roots of violent Islamism are not "superficial but deep" and can be found "in the extremist minority that now, in every European city, preach hatred of the West and our way of life."
The Conversation We Won't Have About Raising Men
On Thursday night, the Baltimore Ravens took on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The event carried national significance thanks to the Ravens' public-induced decision to cut running back Ray Rice after tape emerged of Rice clocking his then-fiancee in the head, knocking her out cold. CBS sportscaster James Brown utilized his pregame show to draw attention to the problem of domestic violence -- and suggest widespread culpability for domestic violence. "Our language is important," Brown suggested. "For instance, when a guy says, 'You throw the ball like a girl' or 'You're a little sissy,' it reflects an attitude that devalues women, and attitudes will eventually manifest in some fashion." Brown wasn't the only commentator to blame "The Sandlot" for Ray Rice's horrifying Mike Tyson-esque blow to his future wife's head. ESPN commentator Kate Fagan explained, "This is behavior that is happening at the grassroots level that is born through years of our culture like raising men to want to not be like women and using language like 'sissy' and 'you throw like a girl' that demean women. ... [We need to focus on] really reprogramming how we raise men."
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Why Are Doctors So Unhappy?
Only 6 percent of doctors are happy with their jobs, according to one survey. They commit suicide at twice the rate of the general population. Over half are unsure they would recommend the practice of medicine to young people. So what's going on?
Isolating the Islamic State
Assembling an allied coalition is difficult but necessary
O, Say Did You See?
Two hundred years ago, an up-and-coming attorney never thought the words he scribbled on a piece of paper near Baltimore would turn into the most important lyrics his young country would ever sing. "Frank," as he was known to friends, had witnessed one of the most remarkable military upsets in U.S. history at Fort McHenry -- and the swell of pride he felt led him to pen the words that would later become our Star Spangled Banner. Sunday night, with our good friends Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the Benham Brothers, and coalition partners, we stood in the shadow of the stars and stripes he honored at First Baptist Church of Charlotte, as the nation was once again facing an uncertain future. From a packed sanctuary in North Carolina to hundreds of churches and homes across the country, we explained why that star-spangled yet waves.
What? We Don't Expect to Win?!
According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, just 28 percent of Americans are "confident" that the president's plan to destroy the Islamic State will succeed. Sixty-eight percent say they aren't confident at all. We are talking here, my friends, about *Americans*. What must be the reaction in the Islamic State? "I tell you, Mustafa, the Yankees will never finish this game. They will swat and swat; they will grow tired; they will withdraw while pretending not to withdraw." Would the Islamic State reaction be something like that? Countries are like ball clubs or rock groups. They develop reputations: in the case of countries, a reputation for firmness in the face of challenge, or a reputation for climbing out of windows, ahead of the cops, to avoid unpleasantness; a reputation for promise-keeping, a reputation for reducing the firmest pledges to mere theories. Guess which reputation Americans see as operative presently in White House affairs.
Ted Cruz's Speech to Arab Christians
Last week at the inaugural summit of the organization, In Defense of Christians, founded to help the most persecuted religious communities in the world today, Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world, Senator Ted Cruz was heckled and booed, and decided to walk off the stage. This is how he began his speech: "Today we are gathered at a time of extraordinary challenge. Tonight we are all united in defense of Christians. Tonight, we are all united in defense of Jews."
Prickly Narcissist
"Oh, it's a shame when you have a wan, diffident, professorial president with no foreign policy other than 'don't do stupid things.'" So griped President Obama to a select (and loose-lipped) group of dinner guests the other night. The president is annoyed that critics cannot see the wisdom in his prudence. "I do not make apologies for being careful in these areas, even if it doesn't make for good theater." Obama's tendency to caricature his critics -- in this case suggesting that they're looking for "theater" rather than solid accomplishment -- may be remembered as one of his most damaging traits. It betrays a prickly narcissism that precludes honest self-assessment.
Hillary's 'Steak' Is Not Well Done
Prior to his annual steak fry, retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said this about Hillary Clinton to Dan Balz of The Washington Post: "...she is much more progressive in her thoughts and her inclination than most people may think." Liberals have embraced the word "progressive" because it sounds more forward-looking than "liberal," which has a track record voters periodically reject when the ideology doesn't live up to its declared goals (think Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, John Edwards and Al Gore, among others).
Obama Forced by Events to Reverse Course -- and Disillusion Base
Iraq, immigration, inversion. On all three of the issues referred to, President Obama finds himself forced by events to do something he dislikes -- and he's in trouble with much of his Democratic Party base for doing so. Obama seemed ill at ease before the camera and teleprompter on the evening of Sept. 10. Sending troops into Iraq and Syria is probably the last thing he expected to do when he set out running for president in 2007. He still insists that he will send in "no ground troops," though it appears that hundreds of U.S. military personnel are literally on the ground in Iraq. He seems still not to understand that publicly ruling out an alternative means that your enemies know your plans -- and can take advantage of them.
Late-Talking Children
Anyone who knows what anxiety, and sometimes anguish, parents go through when they have a child who is still not talking at age two, three or even four, can appreciate what a blessing it can be to have someone who can tell them what to do -- and what not to do. That someone is Professor Stephen Camarata of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, whose recently published book, "Late-Talking Children" gives parents information and advice that they are not likely to find anywhere else. And it does so in plain English.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Max De Pree Has the Answer to Ferguson
This is my third consecutive column about the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black youth, by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. I have focused on this because the circumstances that led to this tragedy point to more than narrow, parochial concerns of low-income minority communities. They point to things fundamentally wrong in America that are dragging us all down. Hopefully, remedial measures will be adopted that will lower the likelihood that a police officer will reduce a black youth to a racial stereotype and kill him. But even with such measures, we cannot continue to ignore circumstances that practically guarantee ongoing intergenerational poverty and the dysfunctional behavior that accompanies it. The costs of not addressing and changing what has failed in low-income communities and the whole country are enormous.