Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
A Few Odds & Ends
Some people continue to assert that Richard Nixon was a very good president. Even if you overlook Watergate, which I am willing to do because I regarded it as an act of political stupidity, not really a threat to America, I don't see that he scored any great accomplishments. Some point out that he opened the door to China, a door he had helped slam shut in the first place. But four decades later, China remains an enemy to us and a threat to our allies in Southeast Asia. In the meantime, we boost their economy enormously by buying their shoddy goods and their toxic dog food. One lasting legacy of Nixon is the Endangered Species Act, a piece of legislation that provides the government absolute power over land use. The law is less about saving endangered animals and insects and more about the feds doing the dirty work on behalf of outfits like the Sierra Club. The fact is that 99% of all the species that have ever existed on earth are now extinct, thanks to Mother Nature performing very late-term abortions on millions of her offspring. And I, for one, will frankly admit that I'm overjoyed that dinosaurs, pterodactyls and sabre-tooth tigers, aren't hanging around outside, just waiting to pick us off as we race down the driveway to get our newspaper.
Things I Don't Understand
There are things that really puzzle me. Some life insurance companies charge lower premiums if you haven't made a life-shortening lifestyle choice. Being a nonsmoker is one of them. Actuarially, that makes sense because the life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. Insurance company policies charge higher premiums to those who are obese. The National Institutes of Health reports that those with a body mass index greater than 40 have a six- to 14-year lower life expectancy. Again, actuarially, that makes sense. Indeed, there's a strong advocacy for higher life insurance, as well as health insurance, premiums for those whose lifestyle choices impose a greater financial burden on society, which obesity does. But there's one important exception.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
If You're Elected to Govern, Then Govern!
The month of August 2014 came near to producing the libertarian ideal -- next-to-no government. Some might argue that August favored the anarchist ideal -- no government at all; nothing going on at the highest levels, what with Congress out of town and the President on the golf course. Ah, good, somnolent days reminiscent of Augusts in the Taft era: fireflies, lemonade, front porches, the distant scritch-scratch of a Victor phonograph emitting "Alexander's Ragtime Band." There being just one problem: During August 2014, much of the world appeared to be falling apart -- Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Christians getting run out of their historic homelands, Americans getting their heads cut off; the country's borders conspicuously unsecured; stuff like that. And no one was doing much about it. Certainly not the President, who clearly had other things on his mind, such as raising money for fellow Democrats and, naturally, turning up for his tee time.
The President Who Is Uninterested in Other People
Some time ago I contrasted the reaction a conservative would get if he were in the same room with the two most consequential politicians of the 1990s, Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. If you were in a room with Bill Clinton, he would discover the one issue out of 100 on which you agreed; he would probe you with questions, comments, suggestions; and he would tell you that you enabled him to understand it far better than he ever had before. If you were in a room with Rudy Giuliani, he would discover the one issue out of 100 on which you disagreed; he would ask pointed questions and pepper you with objections; he would tell you that you are wrong on the facts and wrong on the law, and that you needed to admit you were utterly mistaken.
The Encouraging Rise in School Choice
Children’s education shouldn’t be a take-it-or-leave-it commodity
We're All Islamophobes -- Until the Next Attack
>*"So now, in the new multiculti Britain, the child sex trade is back, as part of the rich, vibrant tapestry of diversity - along with Jew-hate, and honor killings, and decapitation porn. The solutions to the internal contradictions of multiculturalism are (a) David Cameron's expanded security state; (b) Afsun Qureshi's universal prostration before Islam; or (c.) an end to mass Muslim immigration. The last is too obvious for any viable western politician ever to propose it."* --Mark Steyn, August 29. Steyn was writing about the Rotherham [scandal](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28974336) in which 1,400 girls from children's homes, including some as young as 11, were sexually exploited for more than a decade and a half by men "of Pakistani heritage," as the BBC so delicately reports it. Why so delicate? Try this snippet on for size:
Irresponsible Choices
The latest Gallup poll indicates that 14 percent of the people "moderately disapprove" of Barack Obama's performance as president and 39 percent "strongly disapprove." Since Obama won two presidential elections, chances are that some of those who now "strongly disapprove" of what he has done voted to put him in office. We all make mistakes, but the real question is whether we learn from them. With many people now acting as if it is time for "a woman" to become president, apparently they have learned absolutely nothing from the disastrous results of the irresponsible self-indulgence of choosing a President of the United States on the basis of demographic characteristics, instead of individual qualifications.
Our Freedoms Are Slowly Slipping Away
As Americans celebrated Labor Day and the freedom to provide for their families, let's hope they didn't spoil the holiday yesterday by pausing to consider whether government today is making their lives easier or more difficult. To wit, the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, which ranks countries based on four main factors -- rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, open markets -- has the US is headed in the wrong direction. "The U.S. is the only country," the survey states, "to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years."
Winooski, Vermont and the Dismantling of America's Values
As a talk show host, I have no choice but to keep up with what's happening in America and the world. I am therefore submerged in depressing and often angering fare. It is hard to read about and discuss the progressives who dominate American media and academia who morally equate Israel and Hamas; who describe America -- the most tolerant multi-ethnic country in the world -- as racist; and who characterize American universities as a "rape culture." But there was a barely reported story that came out of a small city in Vermont last week that, for reasons to be explained, really got to me. The story isn't comparable to the beheading of innocent people or as dramatic as the rioting in Ferguson, Missouri. But if it typifies what is happening in America, it is difficult not to be pessimistic about America's future.
'Finding Your Roots' with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.
From 1948 to 1961, there was a show called "This Is Your Life," hosted by Ralph Edwards. In it, an unsuspecting celebrity was lured to a place by a friend or family member where Edwards would surprise them. People from the celebrity's past would then come out one by one and tell stories of the celebrity's early life. A modern-day version of that program is "Finding Your Roots," the latest in a brilliant series about race, identity and heritage hosted by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Scheduled to air September 23 through November 25 on PBS. Check your local listings.) In the aftermath of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and renewed calls for a serious "conversation" about race, which always seems to end up with the races talking over one another, Gates' program travels a different road. It is exceptional television and again demonstrates what can be when the medium lives up to its full potential.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Paul Ryan Has Answer for Ferguson
Economist Milton Friedman said "The economic race should not be arranged so everyone arrives at the finish line at the same time but so that everyone starts at the starting line at the same time." Those on the left and the right have always contended whether economic outcomes for any given set of individuals is the business of government. But few, on the left or right, dispute that government should work to assure that every American starts the game under fair conditions. It's the latter point, fairness at the beginning of the game, that defines the motivation behind Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's vast and sweeping new set of ideas for taking on poverty in our nation.
I'm Unenrolled. I'm Conservative. Which Democrat Should I Vote For?
With an all-Democratic congressional delegation, an all-Democratic roster of statewide officeholders, and the most lopsidedly Democratic state legislature in America, Massachusetts deserves its reputation as the bluest of blue states. Yet most registered voters in Massachusetts don't have a "D" after their names. Unenrolled voters -- those not affiliated with any political party -- have outnumbered Republicans and Democrats for nearly three decades. Of the state's 4.26 million voters, more than 2.2 million, or 53.1 percent, do not specify a party affiliation. Judging by results, of course, most of the state's unenrolled voters lean Democratic, even if they decline to wear the party label. But not all tilt leftward. Some -- like me -- incline distinctly the other way. And since Massachusetts permits unenrolled voters to participate in either party's primary, it's a safe bet that some of those choosing the Democratic nominee for governor in next week's election will be conservatives or libertarians apt to vote for Republicans in a general election.
Trayvon Martin, Meet Michael Brown
All it took for Al Sharpton and the other race hustlers to rush off to Ferguson, Missouri, was for a 6'4," 300-pound gangbanger named Michael Brown to be shot while struggling for a cop's gun. That's also all it took for Eric Holder to decide to send the F.B.I. in to investigate what he decided within mere hours was a federal crime. My question is why none of these actions are ever taken when, as is usually the case, it's some black thug who's killing other black people in Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia and L.A. Perhaps it's because if they did, Mr. Sharpton wouldn't have the time left to host his MSNBC show and even Eric Holder would have to start skipping meals if he wanted to keep calling white people "racists" on what seems to be a daily basis.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Paul Ryan's Way Forward
To take the measure of this uncommonly interesting public man, begin with two related facts about him. Paul Ryan has at least 67 cousins in his Wisconsin hometown of Janesville, where there are six Ryan households within eight blocks of his home. And in his new book, "The Way Forward: Renewing the American Idea," he says something few politicians say, which is why so many are neither trusted nor respected. Ryan says he was wrong. At a Wisconsin 4-H fair in 2012, Ryan encountered a Democrat who objected to what then was one of Ryan's signature rhetorical tropes -- his distinction between "makers" and "takers," the latter being persons who receive more in government spending than they pay in taxes. He had been struck by a report that 60 percent of Americans were already -- this was before Obamacare -- "net receivers." But his encounter at the fair reminded him that, for a while, he and many people he cared about had been takers, too.
ObamaCare Is Affecting Everyone
Millions of people are out of work and can't find a job. Many of those who have jobs are being forced to work part-time instead of full-time. And those who have full-time jobs are in for a nasty surprise. Next year's take home pay is like likely to be smaller than what they earn right now. In all cases the reason is the same: Obamacare. Why can't people find a job? Three Federal Reserve Banks -- in Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta -- have released business surveys that confirm what many of us have been predicting. The new health law is discouraging a significant number of firms from hiring and is also pushing workers into part-time, rather than full time jobs.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Libertarians + Liberals = Lunacy
I keep hearing that libertarian candidates are just about the only things standing between the GOP taking control of the Senate and Harry Reid's continuing to run it as his own private fiefdom. What is wrong with these people? Libertarians know they can't possibly win any Senate seats and yet they don't mind acting as spoilers on behalf of Obama and his leftist henchmen. Just how arrogant and self-absorbed can people be? Perhaps if he weren't his father's son, Rand Paul would consider speaking some sense to his base. Unfortunately, he of the eternal smirk appears to be almost as goofy as his old man.
From The Comedy Store
Egypt's foreign minister issued a communique from Cairo calling on the United States to show respect for the protesters and rioters in Ferguson, Missouri. That completely makes it official. After six years of Hope and Change you can't tell the Mideast from the Midwest.
Friday, August 29, 2014
An Honest Conversation on Race
After weeks of national angst generated when a white police officer shot an unarmed black man on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., perhaps it is time we have an honest discussion about race in America. But if we do so, the voices should not be restricted to those who carry a sense of racial grievance and blame racism as the root cause of all the problems that afflict the black community. Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and author of "Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks To Succeed," is certainly one man who should be listened to.
Build Better Teachers
For the past half-century, and particularly since the 1983 "Nation at Risk" report, Americans have been heaving great sacks of money at schools. Federal spending alone has tripled since the 1970s. The New York Times calculates that the federal government now spends $107.6 billion on education yearly, which is layered over an estimated $524.7 billion spent by states and localities (source: National Center for Education Statistics). Reformers have urged -- depending upon where they stand ideologically -- smaller class sizes, more accountability, merit pay for teachers and educational choice. Each year seems to bring a new fad: child-centered learning, new math, cooperative learning and so forth. The No Child Left Behind reform focused on testing. There have been proposals to repeal teacher tenure and to provide every child with a laptop. And always there are fights over curriculum -- the Common Core being the controversy du jour.