Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
A Primer on Race
Back in the heyday of the British Empire, a man from one of the colonies addressed a London audience. "Please do not do any more good in my country," he said. "We have suffered too much already from all the good that you have done." That is essentially the message of an outstanding new book by Jason Riley about blacks in America. Its title is "Please Stop Helping Us." Its theme is that many policies designed to help blacks are in fact harmful, sometimes devastatingly so. These counterproductive policies range from minimum wage laws to "affirmative action" quotas.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Teens Need Summer Jobs. Too Bad There Aren't Many.
School's out, and I'm terrified my two teenage boys won't get a job this summer and will sit around watching TV, playing computer games or just eating me out of house and home. Idle hands really are the devil's workshop, and at this stage, I'd pay an employer to get the kids out of the house and teach them some practical lifetime skills. My first job was working at a warehouse for $2.35 an hour in suburban Chicago. The first job for me -- and many others -- was one of the most important.
Dissenters in a One-Party Statehouse
By votes so lopsided they were practically unanimous, 144-7 in the House and 38-1 in the Senate, the Massachusetts Legislature last week approved a $36.5 billion budget for fiscal 2015, the largest in state history. The puny band of Republicans who voted against the budget -- Senator Robert Hedlund and Representatives James Lyons, Leah Cole, Geoff Diehl, Shawn Dooley, Ryan Fattman, Marc Lombardo, and Leonard Mirra -- had no hope of changing the outcome. They didn't even represent a majority of the negligible GOP caucus.
Mapping Our Descent Into the Third World
Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. Here is a map that shows the ongoing efforts of the Obama administration to nationalize a border crisis of its own making. It also reveals the shameless duplicity of a mainstream media doing their absolute utmost to make the town of Murrieta, CA appear like Ground Zero in the fight against government-instigated extortion. And no matter home many times I have to repeat it, I will remind my fellow Americans it is nothing other than extortion, and it boils down to one simple idea: you either accept de facto amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens currently residing in the United States, or the Obama administration and its allies will do everything they can to exponentially exacerbate the problem.
Allah Be Damned!
I admit I don't see a sliver of difference between so-called good Muslims and the kind the rest of the world has become all too familiar with, and, what's more, I don't believe anyone who says otherwise is being honest. If there were so many good, decent followers of Allah, doesn't it figure that the law of averages would ensure there would be at least a few civilized Islamic nations? Instead, they're all simply different degrees of rotten. As I sit here, Obama is mulling over the offer from Iran's mullahs to give us a hand in Iraq. I know our glorious leader isn't much of an historical scholar, but even he should recall that the last time we allied ourselves with a tyrannical regime, it was with the Soviet Union during World War II.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
When the Last Republican Leaves
I don't usually write about political parties and when I do, I don't make broad statements about their intelligence, character, etc. This is in contrast to Paul Krugman at The New York Times, who routinely tells us that Republicans are cruel, heartless, selfish and responsible for almost all our public policy problems. If only they would go away … well … hmmmm … what would happen if all the Republicans went away? There are places where there aren't any Republicans -- or at least there are very few. And I've noticed that one of two things happens. Fearful of how bad things might get, voters in some Democratic cities vote for Republicans anyway. That is, they elect mayors who either are Republicans or at least govern like Republicans.
The Court's Indispensable Role
Two 5-4 decisions last week on the final decision day of the Supreme Court's term dealt with issues that illustrate the legal consequences of political tactics by today's progressives. One case demonstrated how progressivism's achievement, the regulatory state, manufactures social strife, and can do so in ways politically useful to progressives. The other case arose from government coercion used to conscript unwilling citizens into funding the progressives' party. Under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, any government action that substantially burdens religious practices will be subject to strict judicial scrutiny to determine if it, rather than some less intrusive measure, is necessary to achieve a compelling government interest. The Affordable Care Act, *as supplemented by regulations*, requires for-profit employers to provide health care coverage that includes all 20 FDA-approved birth-control methods.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Blinders and Buffer Zones
Had the Supreme Court struck down the Massachusetts abortion clinic buffer-zone law over a strenuous dissent from the four liberal justices, the truculent reaction from many state politicians -- who promptly vowed to find some new restriction that would get around the ruling -- might have been easier to justify. But all nine justices agreed that the Massachusetts law indefensibly violated the First Amendment. Even the court's staunchest defenders of abortion rights -- three of them women -- had to remind Beacon Hill that citizens have a right to speak on public sidewalks. That's a pretty basic component of American liberty. It would have been reassuring to hear Bay State officials acknowledge as much.
Under the Good Jobs-Report Hood
Good news for the American worker: Employment in June surged 288,000, with a 262,000 gain in the private sector, easily beating the consensus forecast of 215,000 new payrolls. This marks the fifth consecutive monthly increase of 200,000 or more jobs, the best five-month stretch since early 2006. As for the unemployment rate, it dropped from 6.3 to 6.1 percent. Stocks surged on the news, with the Dow closing above 17,000 for a record high. And the good news doesn't end there: The small-business household survey gained a big 407,000 while the number of unemployed fell by 325,000. These job gains were spread wide across the economy, as the diffusion index jumped from 62.9 to 64.8 percent. And although lower-paying retailers counted for a big 40,000 jump, higher-paying professional and business services increased 67,000.
'Where, Oh Where, Is Barry Goldwater?'
I realize that the late Sen. Goldwater is anathema to liberals, even to those who only know him as the unfortunate victim of a famous TV spot in which a little girl picking a flower appears to be vaporized by a nuclear bomb. The vile message in 1964 was that Goldwater was a nutburger who was anxious to get us involved in a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union. Because most voters 50 years ago were just as dumb as they are today, 61% of them voted for LBJ, who took that as a signal to sink us even deeper into the quagmire of Vietnam. What more people should remember about Goldwater is based on fact, not a slander perpetuated by a cynical political operative; namely, that he was the man, the Republican senator, who went to Richard Nixon and told him to his face that it was time to resign, that he was an embarrassment not only to the nation, but to the political party to which they both belonged.
From The Comedy Store
The Supreme Court ruled President Obama can't make recess appointments while the U.S. Senate is still in session. As the head of the executive branch, it's now President Obama's duty to enforce the ruling against President Obama. You'd have better luck ordering him to putt out.
Friday, July 4, 2014
ObamaCare: A ‘Signature Achievement’ of Unaccountable Bureaucracy
Massive amounts of “inconsistent data” remain irreconcilable.
Memo to Krugman: Unchecked Liberalism Creates Economic Mayhem
Paul Krugman of the New York Times took a shot at Arthur Laffer and me this past weekend calling us "charlatans and cranks" for advising governors around the country to cut taxes to boost economic growth and jobs. Krugman says it went awry in Kansas, where Republican Gov. Sam Brownback cut the top tax rate from 6% to 4.5% and to zero on small-business income. According to him, "Kansas isn't booming, in fact its economy is lagging." Kansas shows that "tax cuts don't have magical powers," he concludes. Well, it's true, tax cuts don't have magical powers, and it is an often-repeated caricature by the left that Laffer and I and others believe that to be true. There are dozens of reasons why some places grow and others lag behind -- and taxes is only one of them.
Still the Exceptional Nation
Regardless of party or political philosophy, we are Americans first
Resentment Behind the Waning Patriotism of Liberal Americans
You wouldn't think, five years into the Obama presidency, that so many liberal Americans wouldn't like America. A new Pew survey found that 44 percent of Americans don't often feel pride in being an American, and only 28 percent said that America is the greatest country in the world. Respondents who "often feel proud to be American" were overwhelmingly conservative (from 72 percent to 81 percent depending on the kind of conservative). A majority (60 percent) of "solid liberals" said they don't often feel proud to be an American. The polling data only proves what has been obvious for a while.
As ObamaCare Goes, So Goes Obama
It's no accident that Obamacare has become emblematic of the Obama administration overall, because it exemplifies so thoroughly what Obama represents ideologically and functionally. Obamacare symbolizes government largesse, incompetence, inefficiency, arrogance and heartlessness, a government that knows better than you what is good for you. It epitomizes staggering spending, waste and debt. It typifies a government that is too big for its britches, which is crushing your liberties while telling you that it has your best interests at heart and that you can't live without it. It stands for wholesale dishonesty -- something that is entirely different from what it pretends to be and what we were told it would be.
Louis Zamperini and Memorial Day
Prior to Memorial Day, 2011, Louis Zamperini visited Washington, D.C., where I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing him. The man was as sharp as the proverbial tack. He inscribed Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling biography, "Unbroken" to me with "Be Hardy." And he was. This is the column I wrote about him and what he stood for. The film of the book, directed by Angelina Jolie, will be released in December. Perhaps you've heard of him, perhaps not. Louis Zamperini has had fame, lost it and seen it restored more than once. That happens when you are 94 years old and must be re-introduced to succeeding generations.
Happy Fourth Despite It All
On July 4, I plan to celebrate this nation's birth with something approaching devotion. I will so despite the fact that each day's news brings fresh reasons to worry about the future. I could list the things that worry me, but you know what they are. They probably worry you, too, but the Fourth of July is a time to elevate and celebrate rather than fret. So here's a story: Last week, I was in Europe and had dinner with a European gentleman. He is very successful and pretty happy with his lot. As sometimes happens when people of different cultures speak, I didn't understand something he was telling me.
It's Not Surprising More Americans Believe Freedom Is Overrated
A new Gallup poll finds that fewer Americans are satisfied with the freedom in their lives compared with seven years ago -- dropping 12 percentage points, from 91 percent in 2006 to 79 percent in 2013. During that same time, the percentage of Americans dissatisfied with the freedoms available in their lives more than doubled, from 9 percent to 21 percent. The United States now sits in 36th place among the world in our admiration of the idea of freedom. It's fair to mention that the definition of "freedom" has become increasingly pliable. (It is, for example, regularly argued that one person's unwillingness to pay for another person's contraception is a restriction of the latter person's freedom.) What is bothersome, though, is that nearly a quarter of us would feel comfortable telling a complete stranger that our own "freedom," in the broadest sense, is an overrated concept.
A New Evangelizing Foreign Policy
In the George W. Bush years, liberals were routinely shocked and awed that the Bush administration would obliterate their sacred wall of separation between church and state. They frowned on federal faith-based initiatives and worried about the bureaucracy being invaded by frightening people with college degrees from Christian schools like Liberty University, Regent University or Catholic University. Government was no place to be spreading a dangerous Christian majoritarianism with a swaggering certitude that wouldn't tolerate opposing views and respect minority opinions. The media presented the Bushies as -- to quote a slur from NBC anchor Brian Williams -- "anti-gay, pro-Jesus and anti-abortion, and no gray matter in between."