Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
'Do Nothing' Congress
"Meet the Press" featured a segment this week that illustrates the planted liberal axioms that dominate our political culture. The topic was Congress's failure to "get anything done" this term. Political director Chuck Todd set the stage: "New polling from NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and Marist ... shows that three out of four voters agree that Congress hasn't done much this year ... And guess what? The public's right. Congress hasn't been productive. In fact, this Congress ... is on track to be the least productive in history."
Is Thinking Obsolete?
Some have said that we are living in a post-industrial era, while others have said that we are living in a post-racial era. But growing evidence suggests that we are living in a post-thinking era. Many people in Europe and the Western Hemisphere are staging angry protests against Israel's military action in Gaza. One of the talking points against Israel is that far more Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli military attacks than the number of Israeli civilians killed by the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel that started this latest military conflict.
People, Not Politicians, Improve World Economies
William Shakespeare is not known for his economic expertise, but the advice he gives through Polonius in "Hamlet" may be the best counsel ever offered for individuals and governments. After years of debt (90.6 percent of GDP in 2013) and deficit spending, Britain's ruling Conservative Party is crowing about the latest economic figures that show the country has outpaced the developed world in its economic recovery. Reuters reports that the International Monetary Fund recently upgraded Britain's projected economic growth this year to 3.2 percent, leading "the world's big rich economies." According to UK's Office for National Statistics, Britain has recovered all of the ground lost during the recession.
Obama's Unprecedented Impeachment Dare
Tell me: Has any other United States president ever goaded the opposition party to bring impeachment proceedings against himself? Has any other so sneeringly mocked and taunted the other party? President Obama is not only not the uniter he promised to be; he is the agitator in chief. Just consider the contrast with President George W. Bush, who didn't even defend himself often, much less deride, needle and dare Democrats to oppose him.
Big Gov't Worked Better in the Industrial Age; Not So Much in Digital Era
Earlier this week, I was thinking of writing a column about the lying and duplicity of Obamacare backers who argued that the difference between provisions providing subsidies in states with state-run health exchanges and providing no subsidies in states with federal exchanges resulted from inadvertence or a typographical error. Typical among them was MIT health care expert Jonathan Gruber. The folks at the Competitive Enterprise Institute found video of him in 2012 arguing that all or most states would create their own exchanges because they wouldn't get subsidies if they let the federal government run their exchanges. That was just a "speako" (the oral equivalent of a typo), Gruber replied.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Texas Shows the Way on Abortion
We now mark the one-year anniversary since important new regulatory restrictions on abortion were passed into law in Texas that protect life and make this nasty procedure safer for women that choose it. HB 2 was signed into law in July 2013. Its four major provisions require that abortion doctors have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles where they practice, abortion after 20 weeks of fertilization is banned, stricter controls on medically induced abortion, and abortion clinic facilities must meet the same standards as those of ambulatory surgical centers.
They're So Vain, They Probably Think This Bridge Is About Them
Renaming a branch of the Boston Public Library for William Bulger, one of the more sordid Massachusetts politicians in recent decades, may not be the worst idea City Council President Bill Linehan has ever floated, though offhand I can't think of one that tops it. Linehan proposed the tribute to the former president of the Massachusetts Senate and the University of Massachusetts this week, hailing Bulger's "commitment to service, to the people of South Boston, Boston, and the commonwealth."
As Religious Freedom Awakens, U.S. Must Not Snooze
Just last week, the State Department released its 2013 *International Religious Freedom Report*. The report highlights numerous religious freedom violations taking place world-wide throughout 2013, and documents many of these violations in a serious and detailed manner which will be helpful to a variety of interested groups and policy makers. This attention to international religious freedom issues is welcome as news of religious oppression increases worldwide. In recent weeks, all available evidence indicates a genocide is underway in Iraq as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) kills and drives off Christians and exterminates Christian culture. Yet at the same time, we are reminded of our own country's role as a safe haven for the persecuted as Meriam Ibrahim made her way Thursday night to freedom in the United States.
The Other Lethal Virus
The public is worried about a lethal virus gaining a foothold in America. I would make the argument one already has. There is little question Ebola is one of the deadliest killers on earth. But for the most part, it can be contained. Amorality, on the other hand, is thoroughly entrenched, and "infecting" new victims every day. Note I said amorality, not immorality. If America were infected with widespread immorality, it would be easily recognized and likely dealt with. Amorality is far more insidious because it requires no effort whatsoever to "go with the flow" and make no concrete decisions about anything. Thus if an utterly corrupt mainstream media continually repeats some version of the idea that bloodthirsty savages who place weapons in civilian facilities and use their own people as human shields are "no better or worse" than a nation facing an existential threat from those savages, amorality requires no protest, no introspection, no nothing.
Poll Results & Other Matters
When Italian composer and violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini (1784-1840) performed on the concert stage, people were so unprepared to hear the half-notes and exotic harmonics at which he excelled, they often assumed that he had sold his soul to the Devil. When I see what Obama is doing day after day to destroy America and the Constitution, I find myself thinking the same thing about him. It's not often we get to see in a Democratic administration what we can probably expect from a Republican one. In this case, I'm referring to Obama's foreign policy, which seems to reflect what Rand Paul would do if he were in the Oval Office. Sen. Paul might balk at being compared to the man he would like to replace, but so far as I can tell he is an isolationist who subscribes to the belief that we should not concern ourselves unduly with what Russia, North Korea, China or Islam, are up to until the day comes when, say, Kentucky is invaded or Louisville is nuked.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Three Cheers for Ryan's Plan
Representative Paul Ryan has a bold, ambitious proposal "Expanding Opportunity in America," to completely remake the American welfare state. Along the way he would also change the federal government's approach to education, revamp what we are doing in our prison system and much more. Here is a surprise. Although Ryan's approach is based on well-known conservative ideas, some on the left are actually praising parts of the proposal -- including the editorial page of the Washington Post. Ryan's plan shows something I have believed for a long time. All the innovative thinking on how to solve public policy problems for the past 25 years has come from the right. Even ObamaCare started out as a conservative health reform before liberals in Congress completely botched it. Liberals just don't seem interested in solving problems any more.
A Progressive With Punch
If Ohio's senior senator were named Sharon Brown instead of Sherrod Brown, progressives would have a plausible political pin-up and a serious alternative to the tawdry boredom of Hillary Clinton's joyless plod toward her party's presidential nomination. Drop one of Brown's consonants and change another, and a vowel, and we might be spared the infatuation of what Howard Dean called "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" for Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sherrod Brown won't be considered because the Democratic Party's activist core is incurably devoted to identity politics -- the proposition that people are whatever their gender is (or their race or ethnicity or sexual orientation or whatever seems stupendously important at the moment). And the party's base seems determined to nominate and elect a woman, thereby proving that what has occurred in Britain, Germany, Israel, India, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and other nations can happen here. Feel the excitement.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
But Think of the Children
Frankly, I'm sick and tired of thinking about the children. It's not that I have anything against them in general, but it's always a specific group of them over whom I'm supposed to be fretting. For instance, these days, I'm supposed to cry myself to sleep because of the Central American tots who are flooding into the United States. But at the same time, I'm not supposed to give a hoot about what they and millions of other young illegal aliens are doing to our schools, clinics, neighborhoods and economy. And how is it that in TV coverage of the invasion, all you see, even on Fox, are a bunch of adorable little four-year-olds when the fact is many of them are teenage gangbangers?
From The Comedy Store
The National Security Council met in the White House Monday to discuss the Palestinian and Israeli conflict raging into its third week. We may get involved at the highest level. President Obama is keen to fly to Israel and play the new two-thousand-hole golf course in Gaza.
Where Is the GOP's Better Deal?
Businesses created more than 200,000 new jobs for the sixth straight month. Second-quarter gross domestic product rebounded by 4 percent from the winter-weather doldrums. And the Manufacturing ISM Report exceeded all expectations, with big gains in new orders and employment. So on the surface, the economy is looking better. And as a result, the Federal Reserve is on the cusp of a new and less-stimulating policy cycle -- which is a big reason why stocks sold off this week. A lot of investors are wondering what happens when the Fed takes its foot off the accelerator. Will burdensome tax and regulatory policies prevent any sort of economic breakout?
Friday, August 1, 2014
Trouble Ahead
Last week the governors of the six New England states met in an emergency session at Bretton Woods, NH, to discuss what to do about the pending crisis. What crisis? The increasingly likely failure of the electric grid leaving many or all of us in the dark and cold next winter, skyrocketing electricity and fuel costs and supply shortages for natural gas and heating oil. See this American Spectator piece to see why we should be worried…very worried.
Liberal Judges Sacrifice Women's Safety to Abortion Agenda
Earlier this week, in a transparent act of judicial slight-of-hand, two judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a pro-life bill in Mississippi unconstitutional. They enjoined the law not because of what it says -- it merely brings abortion regulations back in line with state standards for ambulatory surgical centers -- but because holding abortionists to standard medical standards would shut down the last abortion facility in the state. In other words, two unelected justices decided that keeping abortionists in business is more important than the safety of women. Even more amazing is that the same Circuit ruled in favor of a very similar law in Texas.
Needed: Housing Reform That Protects Property Rights
A monumental opportunity has presented itself as Julian Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, takes over as the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Congress looks ahead on the critical issue of housing finance reform. After years of tepid growth and false starts, leaders in Washington have the opportunity to give housing finance reform a shot in the arm. This reform is readily achievable even in today's log-jammed Congress, as there is bipartisan consensus that the most prudent reforms would accomplish three essential goals: appropriately and strategically wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a way that strengthens the housing sector, ensure private capital is sustainably attracted to the market, and fairly treat current and future homeowners, taxpayers and investors.
The Environmental Corruption Agency
The lofty motto of the Environmental Protection Agency is "protecting people and the environment." In practice, however, EPA bureaucrats faithfully protect their own people and preserve the government's cesspool of manipulation, cover-ups and cronyism. Just last week, Mark Levin and his vigilant Landmark Legal Foundation went to court to ask federal district judge Royce Lamberth to sanction the EPA "for destroying or failing to preserve emails and text messages that may have helped document suspected agency efforts to influence the 2012 presidential election." The motion is part of a larger Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to force EPA to release emails and related records from former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and others "who may have delayed the release dates for hot-button environmental regulations until after the Nov. 6, 2012, presidential election."