Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, December 13, 2013
O'Care's Rocky Rollout Improves GOP's '14 Outlook
Democratic National Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says that Obamacare will be a vote-winner for Democrats in 2014. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the same thing. Perhaps they really believe that. But the numbers in polls conducted since Oct. 17, when the end of the government shutdown put the spotlight on the rollout of Obamacare, tell a different story. Democrats currently hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win a majority there.
Black Ineptitude
For several decades now, black Americans have been indulged like toddlers and treated like China figurines, and not just by liberals, although it seems to me it began under Lyndon Johnson, with Hubert Humphrey serving as the main enabler. It was under LBJ that new welfare laws pretty much booted black men out of the house by denying welfare to black families if there was a male adult under the roof. As for Humphrey, he was the loon who said that if Affirmative Action led to racial quotas, he would sit down and eat the bill for breakfast. Inevitably, it led to quotas, and, naturally, as is always the case with a liberal's promises, Humphrey never even ate a little crow.
It Gets So Quiet So Fast
"Our house is as quiet as a tomb." So said a friend who's at the same stage of life -- that is, a mother of three with only one child still living at home. Her youngest, unlike mine, is an introvert, but like my Ben, he is exceedingly busy in his last years of high school, thus leaving the house echoing with emptiness. As a college sophomore, I visited my academic adviser with a problem. "I don't know what I'm going to do after graduation," I confessed. He cocked his head sideways. "Most people don't come to me with this until senior year." I've always liked to get a head start on fretting.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
ObamaCare's Date With Destiny Approaches
Is America being set up for a bailout of the insurance companies?
Up on the Hill, There Arose Such a Clatter...
Senator Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) party got a bench for Christmas -- a federal one. That's the unfortunate effect of the Left's latest power grab, which this week yielded its first prize: a radical appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court. Two months ago, the nomination of Patricia Millett, an anti-Christian, anti-marriage ideologue, was a nonstarter under the chamber's historic 60-vote threshold. That all changed before Thanksgiving when the Left steamrolled the Senate's rules and unleashed the majority on a confirmation system that, until recently, gave both parties a say in the process. Now, in this "post-nuclear" world, the Senate that most Americans complained was moving too slowly is suddenly shifting into high gear to give the President's picks lifetime jobs.
Words With Fiends
Whenever liberals are in a tight spot, they adopt the scorched-earth policy of argumentation. With no answer, they start demanding that you define words: *What do you mean "liberal"? What do you mean "democracy"? What do you mean "patriotism"?* They retreat from argument, burning the English language as they go. Accustomed to playing the role of Soviet commissar censoring the news when it comes to black violence, the Non-Fox Media are in a panic now that the alternative media can post videos of young black males punching out random strangers.
Income 'Inequality'
In a December 4 speech, President Obama declared income "inequality" to be "the defining challenge of our time." It is time for me to come clean; to own up to a dark secret I have been hiding most of my life. It is embarrassing to admit it, but I suffer from income inequality. Yes, there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people who make more money than I do and it has affected my life in ways too numerous to recount.
Intervention to Cure Black Friend's Addiction to Liberalism
At an out-of-town memorial service for my dear friend and mentor, Alan Schonberg -- a business titan known for his warmth, grace and generosity -- I saw "Paul," a man I've known some 30 years. It had been a long, long time. Paul, like me, is a black attorney. Unlike me, he is a Democrat, active in local politics. While introducing me to someone, Paul made some casual crack about my "conservative" politics, something like, "Of course, we don't always agree ... " Usually, I have neither the time nor the energy to unravel the decades of slop in the heads of most liberals/leftists/collectivists/progressives. But sometimes, I can't help myself.
An American Tragedy
A superb report in the Wall Street Journal by that inimitable journalist, James Taranto, moves me to reflect on the modern university and things sexual. Taranto has come across another of those poor saps, a male student as fate would have it, who fell into the clutches of a predatory female student.
Nuclear Gangbangers Have Upper Hand on Global Police
The gangster state of North Korea became a nuclear power in 2006-2007, despite lots of foreign aid aimed at precluding just such proliferation -- help usually not otherwise accorded such a loony dictatorship. Apparently the civilized world rightly suspected that if nuclear, Pyongyang would either export nuclear material and expertise to other unstable countries, or bully its successful but non-nuclear neighbors -- or both. The United States has given billions of dollars in foreign aid to Pakistan, whose Islamist gangs have spearheaded radical anti-American terrorism. Since a corrupt Pakistan went nuclear in 1998, it has been able to extort such foreign payouts -- on fears that one of its nukes might end up in the hands of terrorists
Obama's Epiphanies About Governing
The education of Barack Obama is a protracted process as he repeatedly alights upon the obvious with a sense of original discovery. In a recent MSNBC interview, he restocked his pantry of excuses for his disappointing results, announcing that "we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly": "We've got, for example, 16 different agencies that have some responsibility to help businesses, large and small, in all kinds of ways, whether it's helping to finance them, helping them to export. ... So, we've proposed, let's consolidate a bunch of that stuff. The challenge we've got is that that requires a law to pass. And, frankly, there are a lot of members of Congress who are chairmen of a particular committee. And they don't want necessarily consolidations where they would lose jurisdiction over certain aspects of certain policies." The dawn is coming up like thunder as Obama notices the sociology of government. He shows no sign, however, of drawing appropriate lessons from it.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
New Cold Record Probably Not What It Seems
Satellites have detected a temperature of -135.8 degrees Fahrenheit in Antarctica, which is the coldest ever recorded. What I'm about to say isn't going to be popular with people on my side of the climate issue. We shouldn't be depicting the new record as anything but what it is: evidence that we're able to detect data in a way we couldn't before. By trying to construe this as something beyond that -- implying that it means it's the coldest *ever* -- is wrong. It's the coldest ever *recorded*. We could not see such things in years past.
The Government's War on Poverty Reduction
What the crusaders against American "income inequality" won't tell you.
Raising the Bottom Rung on the Success Ladder
Hiking the minimum wage punishes unskilled workers
O Come, Let MSNBC Adore Lord Obama
The most defining moment of how MSNBC sees President Barack Obama came when a positively giddy Chris Matthews stated the night before his interview with the president, "I got the Christmas Eve excitement brewing right here at 'Hardball' because tomorrow night at precisely this time ... the president of the United States is going to join us." This means that to Matthews, Obama is either the Christmas gift he's always wanted or still the messiah figure to die-hards at MSNBC. Either way, this should not be seen as an interview that counts in anyone's book as a press interview holding the president to account -- for anything.
Four Decades Eroding the Foundation of Liberty
The Supreme Court over the past four decades has issued some decisions that not only defied the Constitution, but imposed changes on our society that go so far as to challenge fundamental principles of our civilization. For example, our Founding Fathers believed all men are endowed by their creator with an inalienable right to life -- a principal derived not only from natural law, but also from the commandment thou shall not kill.
Nelson Mandela and the Dangers of Deification
The death of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela prompted torrents of gushing praise from world leaders and media this week. Mandela was widely depicted as a near-flawless human being. BBC presenter Evan Davis said Mandela ranked near Jesus in the "pantheon of virtue"; Bono said Mandela was "stubborn 'til the end for all the right reasons, it felt like he very nearly outstared his maker." But the truth about Mandela is somewhat more shaded. He will be remembered for his magnificent legacy of racial unification in the aftermath of his release from prison in 1990. Mandela's critics worried, not unreasonably, that the committed leader of the African National Congress could lead a race war in revenge for the horrors of apartheid. Instead, Mandela took the leadership of his country with an open hand, and in the process, set a global example of forgiveness on both a personal and national stage.
Obama's Cash for Universal Preschool Clunkers
It's elementary: When Democrats find themselves in political trouble, they reach for your wallets. After squandering billions on an ineffectual stimulus, failed green energy boondoggles and the disastrous Unaffordable Care Act, the Obama White House wants to dump $75 billion more into "free" preschool for all. That'll solve everything. Government-funded universal pre-K is a moldy oldie of the progressive left, recycled perennially by Democratic presidential speechwriters in need of State of the Union address padding. But this time, the Fed Ed crowd is redoubling its efforts with support from big-business statists and academic shills.
Doc the Halls with Fewer Health Plans...
The weather may be chilly, but it's nothing compared to people's reactions to ObamaCare. This month, the only thing falling faster than the temperature is the number of the new law's supporters. Making matters worse, the policy's biggest defectors seem to be the ones most crucial to it: the medical community. Thousands of doctors are walking away from the exchange in a large-scale mutiny over the government's reimbursement rates. In California, where 70% of the 104,000 physicians are refusing to participate in ObamaCare, practices stand to lose millions of dollars under the state's bargain basement insurance rates.
I've Got Email
Recently, a friend, Mel Calvert, suggested that in light of the fact that I respond to comments from my readers, it would be a good idea if I shared some of the exchanges with others. It seemed like a swell idea. The best thing about it is that, for once, I wouldn't have to start from scratch. (Inasmuch as I didn't bother getting anyone's permission to reprint their messages, I will either make up names or use their own designated tags.)