Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Supreme Court Slaps Down the Obama Administration
Seldom in American history has the Supreme Court unanimously rejected positions advocated by presidents' administrations. But in this respect at least, President Obama has produced the fundamental transformation he promised in his 2008 campaign. Over the last three years, the Court has rejected Obama administration positions repeatedly in unanimous 9-0 decisions. A review of these cases reveals much about the governing philosophy of the Obama administration.
Something to Celebrate
This week marks not only the 238th anniversary of the founding of our nation, but also the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The principles contained in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, took nearly 200 years to find their fulfillment in the Civil Rights Act. The declaration that "all men are created equal" was a radical one, more aspirational than real at a time when slavery was not only practiced but would soon be legitimated in our Constitution. It took a Civil War, with its 750,000 dead, and decades of legal and political struggle and more deaths for those words to be given full meaning. But on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the hard-fought legislation that would turn an abstract principle into the law of the land.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Mr. President: Keep Your Promises to Camp Liberty!
One hundred years ago this summer, the German Chancellor reacted with shock and dismay when the British ambassador brought him news of his country's declaration of war. Germany had invaded Belgium, a country whose independence Germany had pledged by treaty to respect. The Chancellor was distraught. He said he could not believe Britain would go to war over "a scrap of paper." Americans this summer are not so much war weary as war wary. We certainly do *not* want any further entanglements in the Mideast. But we do know that great countries keep their word. If they don't keep their word, they cease to be great countries. Our pledges must not be "a scrap of paper."
For the Love of the Weather
I will be in Las Vegas for the 9th International Conference on Climate Change July 7-9. I enjoy attending these because everyone I come in contact with is someone I can learn from. My father and mother taught me to surround myself with people I could look up to. I adapted that attitude in my training, in my work, and in the person I married. And when I go to these events, I am in awe of the people I get to talk with. I bring some of them up quite often in these pages. One has to be careful, given the situation today, to not let your reasons for doing what you do stray. I often feel bad for a lot of people in the anthropogenic global warming camp. How can they possibly walk back their position? It's the reason why, no matter what metric goes the other way, they either ignore it or create a reason they never had before because they did not forecast it to happen. But what else can they do? Look at the people from their camp that have started to disagree. They are chastised and demeaned. There is a simple reason: Their goal, whatever it is -- be it self-esteem, money, power, control, or all of the above -- is their god. It's what they are forever in pursuit of. And when it becomes your god, you can not defy it.
The Underappreciated Eric Cantor
Eric Cantor must have woken up this morning feeling like the Rodney Dangerfield of American politics: I get no respect. In the aftermath of his stunning loss, Mr. Cantor has been attacked from all sides by political Monday-morning quarterbacks -- for supposed arrogance, for ignoring his constituents, for being too moderate, too pro-business, not free-market enough, weak on the border issues, and so on. There is probably an element of truth to each of these criticisms, but now that it is fashionable to treat Mr. Cantor as the piñata for everything that is wrong in Washington, I'd like to take a moment to do something no one else has done: Defend him.
Declare Your Freedom
At some point in every man's life, he hears a voice of conscience (perhaps it is a faint whisper from God Himself) urging him to break loose from the suffocating bonds of lust or fear, which hold him against his will in either the endless search for more -- more wealth, more excitement, more control -- or the legalistic monotony of what some might call "religion." When a man hears that voice, he often thinks he knows what it will take to break free, yet simultaneously feels as though he has lost his way. (He wouldn't know what to do with himself if he were to break free.)
Getting Hobby Lobby Right
Hillary Clinton called the Hobby Lobby decision "deeply disturbing." The White House reacted like the world had just ended. Harry Reid promised that Democrats in Congress would "fight to preserve women's access to contraceptive coverage and keep bosses out of the examination room." All this liberal hysteria followed the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday that for-profit employers who have religious objections cannot be forced to provide their employees with contraception coverage under the rules of ObamaCare.
Nazis at the Beach
BOSA, SARDINIA -- That is right, you read "Bosa, Sardinia." Well, you might ask, how did I get into this place high atop vertiginous hills along the Temo River in western Sardinia with not another Yank for miles and only the Internet to keep me abreast of the Obama terror? My Italian adventure began last summer in Rome. There my wife and I were sitting, having dinner with an Italian friend of 40 years, Antonio Martino, and his wife Carol. In his distinguished career he began teaching his Italian countrymen free market economics, which had he learned at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman. Eventually, Italy came alive, and he served in the Berlusconi government as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense. Through the evening we had much to talk about, and when we shut down he invited us back to his summerhouse this summer.
America's DNA: 'The Federalist Papers'
There are many ways to lose freedom -- conquering armies, surrendering without a fight. Unfortunately, we are currently surrendering our freedom, not to a foreign power, but to our own government. The growth, reach, and cost of big government is happening before our eyes and eroding our liberty, largely because too many Americans are not familiar with the brilliant system of government our Founders established. Progressives prefer a "living Constitution," which is constantly changing to conform to their ideology. What it is not is the Constitution established by the Founders.
Obama's Supporters Said 'Go Gangsta' – Too Bad He Listened
Obama's poll numbers dropped below those of former President George W. Bush. By the end of Bush's term, focus groups were telling pollsters they despised the very four-letter word B-U-S-H. When John McCain faced Obama in 2008, Democrats gleefully slammed McCain's quest as the "third Bush term." Given Obama's light resume and see-no-flaws cheerleading by an adoring media, Obama's fall was inevitable. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, absolute adoration comes close. In practically anointing Obama, our "watchdog" media ignored a thin resume full of red flags. So in four years, Obama shoots from unknown state lawmaker, with little private sector and no executive experience, to president -- all in a nanosecond by political standards.
The Stolen Job Myth
If anyone ought to appreciate the power of immigration to stimulate employment, it is America's energetic anti-immigration advocates, whose jobs wouldn't exist if it weren't for the influx of immigrants they spend their days seeking to curtail. Then again, appreciating anything about immigration -- least of all the ironies of our endless debate on the subject -- goes against the restrictionists' grain. Fulminating about immigrants is one of America's enduring pastimes, and it doesn't leave a lot of room for wry humor. Or for logical consistency. Which helps explain why immigrants can be depicted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as indolent leeches who flock to the United States to go on welfare -- and condemned on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for taking away jobs that would otherwise go to Americans.
Curse of Judicial Minimalism
Even when Supreme Court decisions are unanimous, the justices can be fiercely divided about fundamental matters, as was demonstrated by two 9-0 rulings last week. One overturned a Massachusetts law restricting speech near abortion clinics. The other invalidated recess appointments that President Obama made when the Senate said it was not in recess. In the first, four justices who concurred in the result rejected the majority's reasoning because it minimized the law's constitutional offense. In the second, four justices who concurred with the court's judgment that Obama had exceeded his powers argued that the majority's reasoning validated the Senate's long complicity in practices that augment presidential power by diminishing the Senate's power to advise and consent to presidential nominations.
Soccer: Part Deux
Soccer fans have decided to prove me wrong about soccer being a fruity sport by spending the last week throwing hissy fits. This, in defense of a "sport" where the losing players cry on camera. The massive and hysterical response to my jovial sports piece proves how right I was. Nothing explains the uniform, Borg-like caterwauling, but that soccer is a game for beret-wearers. Most of the articles attacking me are verbless strings of obscenities, their subject matter identified only in the title. Consequently, I've decided to emulate The New York Times, which runs the exact same column, year after year, "Soccer Catches On, Take 27," by re-running mine on how excruciatingly boring soccer is.
Obama Seeks an Escape From the Middle East
In his first term, Barack Obama all but declared victory in America's Middle East struggles. As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own "Mission Accomplished" moment when declaring the country "stable," "self-reliant" and an "extraordinary achievement." Those claims echoed Vice President Joe Biden's earlier boast that Iraq somehow would prove Obama's "greatest achievement." After the death of Osama bin Laden, and during Obama's re-election campaign, the president also proclaimed that al-Qaeda was a spent force and "on the run."
Billy Wilder, the Pope & Me
My two favorite movie writer-directors were Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. Both worked at Paramount Studios in the 40s, which was fortuitous for Wilder. That's because they were both successful screenwriters when Sturges persuaded the studio to let him direct his own scripts. That decision led to a flurry of such classic, huge-grossing, comedies as "The Great McGinty," "The Lady Eve," "The Palm Beach Story" and "Hail the Conquering Hero." It also led Wilder to plead his own case. "The bosses at Paramount," he once told me, "gave me permission, assuming I would do something artsy-fartsy, which would flop, and that I'd then go back to being a nice little screenwriter. Instead, I made the comedy, "The Major and the Minor," which was a big success."
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Mad Libs: Dems Search for Words to Describe Outrage
If you wanted to see fireworks in D.C., you didn't have to wait for July 4th. Monday's decision on the HHS mandate exploded on the media scene, lighting a fuse under the radicals of the Left. While most Americans watched with pleasure as a pillar of ObamaCare fell, liberals sulked at another loss for lawlessness. Democrats couldn't fire off their press releases fast enough as they vowed to push their assault on faith in the marketplace by ending justices' opt-out. Promising a legislative fix, Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) insisted that Americans' "right" to sex-on-demand trumps a company's deeply held beliefs on contraception and abortifacients.
The Hobbled Hobby Lobby Decision
Looked at from a distance, it may seem as if the Supreme Court struck a mighty blow in defense of religious liberty in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which it decided this week. Yes, the court ruled that a law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could apply to "closely held" corporations, and under its terms the federal government could not force the Christian family that owns Hobby Lobby to provide insurance coverage for certain drugs and devices that violate the family's religious beliefs. But looked at more closely, the case shows how profoundly the Supreme Court has distorted our Constitution and how tenuous is our current hold on the most fundamental of all freedoms -- the freedom of conscience.
Inside the VA's Spin-'N-Stonewall Machine
The Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is very concerned. No, the communications specialists in the agency are not concerned with veterans in need. They're not concerned with citizens and public officials requesting public information. They're not concerned with journalists seeking the truth. What these entrenched government employees care most about, above all else, is the business of spin and stonewalling. The VA mouthpieces are preoccupied with covering their ample bureaucratic backsides, withholding data, monitoring critics, fending off watchdogs and running constant interference for their corrupt, negligent agency.
A God-Given Right to Break the Law
In 1878, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Mormon's First Amendment challenge to the federal ban on bigamy. Because marrying more than one person is a crime, the court reasoned, allowing it for religious reasons would be akin to allowing human sacrifice by someone who sincerely believes his deity demands it. The court had a point, but only if you accept the analogy between polygamy and murder. Likewise, critics of this week's Supreme Court decision concerning religious objections to Obamacare's birth-control mandate have a point, but only if you accept their argument that declining to pay for something is the same as "blocking access" to it.
'Crapitalism!'
There's capitalism, and then there's "crapitalism" -- crony capitalism. Capitalism is great because it lets entrepreneurs raise money so they can scale up and get their products and services to more people. If there is free competition, innovators with the best ideas raise the most money, and the best and cheapest products spread far and wide. But it's crapitalism when politicians give your tax money and other special privileges to businesses that are "most deserving of help." Often those businesses turn out to be run by politicians' cronies.