Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
The Choices We Have on Iran
In his disproportionate praise of the six-month agreement with Iran, Barack Obama said: "For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program." But if the program, now several decades old, had really been "halted" shortly after U.S. forces invaded neighboring Iraq, we would not be desperately pursuing agreements to stop it now, as about 10,000 centrifuges spin to enrich uranium. If Denmark wanted to develop nuclear weapons, we would consider that nation daft but not dangerous. Iran's nuclear program is alarming because Iran's regime is opaque in its decision-making, frightening in its motives (measured by its rhetoric) and barbaric in its behavior.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Is ObamaCare Barack's Vietnam?
When Vice President Lyndon Johnson returned to Capitol Hill after his first White House meeting with the new team assembled by President John F. Kennedy, he rushed to talk with his mentor, House Speaker Sam Rayburn. LBJ told his fellow Texan how impressed he was with Kennedy's "best and brightest." He was especially taken with Defense Sec. Robert Strange McNamara, the ex-CEO of Ford Motor Company. Lyndon described that "feller with the sta-comb in his hair" as being the brightest of the brightest.
What Happens in D.C. Should Stay in D.C.
I keep hearing that Obama's poll numbers have never been worse, and I realize that as a conservative, I should be reveling in the news. The reason I'm not as gleeful as I might be is because they remain so damn high. For instance, a recent poll reported that whereas 52% of us think Obama is dishonest, 44% of us continue to believe in his veracity. How is that possible? The man spent the better part of four years telling us that ObamaCare wouldn't infringe on our freedom to keep our insurance policies and our doctors when he knew that was a lie he had to keep repeating if he was going to push the Affordable Care Act down our throats. And yet 44% of Americans continue to take him at his word? Are they simply unclear as to the meaning of the word "honest"?
From The Comedy Store
The State Department admitted it spent half a million dollars last year on liquor. There's an explanation. The Secretary of State was married to Bill Clinton and her assistant was married to Anthony Weiner so the liquor expense was written off under humanitarian aid.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Liberals Try in Vein to Change U.S. Blood Ban
Are you willing to risk contracting HIV to prove how tolerant you are? If the FDA repeals its blood bank policy, you may not have a choice. At Thursday morning's HHS hearing in Maryland, liberal activists did their best to persuade the government to overturn its ban on blood donations from homosexuals. Ironically, this latest push happens to coincide with the agency's latest report that the demand for blood donations is not only dropping -- but becoming more selective.
The Challenge Is Growth, Not Inequality
Either President Obama needs a new speechwriter, or he needs a new set of economic policies. Actually, he needs both. Can anyone think of a more boring, banal, irrelevant or stale speech than the one he gave this Thursday in D.C.? The speech was allegedly on the economy, but more likely it was to divert attention from the Obamacare catastrophe. Whatever the motive, his idea that the defining challenge of our time is to reduce income inequality is completely wrong. In truth, the defining challenge is to restore more rapid economic growth, create substantially more jobs and significantly reduce unemployment.
It's the Family, Stupid
The president tried changing the subject this week from Obamacare to income inequality. It's no surprise. Despite White House claims that Healthcare.gov is now working as intended, reports of major failures -- from inaccurate enrollment data being sent to insurers to dangerously inadequate security -- continue. And the president's critics include those on the left, as well as the right, which is why President Obama has returned to campaign mode.
Kanye, Go Away
The rapper Kanye West is known as one of the Western world's largest egotists, which is really saying something in the boastful world of rap. He's appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in a crown of thorns, and if that wasn't obvious enough, his latest album is titled "Yeezus." In one song, he said Jesus was "the most high," but he was "a close high." Now he's offending the Jews. In a radio interview with MTV personality Sway Calloway in New York City, he came to President Barack Obama's defense, asserting, "Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black people don't have the same connection as oil people." Still no comment from liberals -- except to maintain that criticism of West is driven by racism.
ObamaCare's Perilous Protection Plan for Debtors
"Uh-oh." That's the sound being uttered in doctors' offices and hospitals across the country as medical providers realize they're getting stuck with another bottomless Obamacare bill. While the White House desperately tries to pivot from the havoc wrought by the "Affordable Care Act," its hidden regulatory bombs keep exploding. I heard about the latest problem this week from an eye doctor friend who received a letter from a Colorado-based insurer informing her that she's essentially on the hook for Obamacare's payment grace period for debtors. The optometrist is bracing for a flood of similar letters from other insurers. Like countless other independent providers, she's extremely concerned about the potential liability, uncertainty and fraud the rule imposes on her business.
It's Time to Take America Back
President Obama has shown he is absolutely unconcerned that the American public is firmly opposed to his calamitous Law of the Land that is destroying our health care system and harming millions of innocent people, many of whom foolishly trusted him. In the face of his cratering approval ratings, he grows ever more defiant, as if he's almost ready to publicly unmask himself as the person who is as contemptuous of America as discerning observers have long known him to be. From the moment he uttered his disingenuous apology about the website rollout disaster, he has been speechifying nonstop about the glories of his law, which he says "is working" and whose website problems he claims are under control.
Obama's Never Run a Lemonade Stand
If President Barack Obama has entertained an economic insight that wasn't fashionable in 1933, I haven't heard about it. It's doubtless he's for recycling glass and plastic, but he's even more wedded to recycling ideas that were fresh and interesting during the New Deal era but have since been discredited. All of this was clear when he became the Democratic Party's pinup in 2008 (just by way of example, I wrote then that while Obama was "shiny, bright and new," his ideas were "suffering from senility"). What's dumbfounding now is Obama's detachment from his own presidency. He continues to campaign (well, speak, but it always sounds like a stump speech) as if someone else were sitting in the Oval Office, as if someone else's policies were responsible for the state of things and as if someone else should shoulder the blame.
What the Pope Gets Wrong About Capitalism
Pope Francis' first apostolic exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), is a beautiful document and a joy to read. I'll leave its theological implications to those who live in the Roman Catholic Church. What's got many people praising the pope today, though, is not his plea for good works but rather his critique of capitalism. You could always detect a pinch of socialistic seasoning in the church's theological stew. But in this case, the pope doesn't simply point out that the wealthy aren't doing enough to help alleviate poverty. He uses the recognizable rhetoric of the political left to accuse free market systems of generating and nurturing that poverty.
Coming to Grips With Rise of the Machines
After you heard President Obama's call for a hike in the minimum wage, you probably wondered the same thing I did: Was Obama sent from the future by Skynet to prepare humanity for its ultimate dominion by robots? But just in case the question didn't occur to you, let me explain. On Tuesday, the day before Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage, the restaurant chain Applebee's announced that it will install iPad-like tablets at every table. Chili's already made this move earlier this year.
Woe to U.S. Allies
Three crises, one president, many bewildered friends. The first crisis, barely noticed here, is Ukraine's sudden turn away from Europe and back to the Russian embrace. After years of negotiations for a major trading agreement with the European Union, Ukraine succumbed to characteristically blunt and brutal economic threats from Russia and abruptly walked away. Ukraine is instead considering joining the Moscow-centered Customs Union with Russia's fellow dictatorships Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Obama Uses IRS to Eliminate His Enemies
"The power to tax involves the power to destroy," the Supreme Court wrote in 1819, shortly after America began. Now in 2013, President Barack Obama is launching a frightening attack on free speech, using one of the most feared agencies in all the federal government: the Internal Revenue Service. One of the most roundly-condemned aspects of Richard Nixon's malfeasance in office was his use of the IRS to target his political enemies with audits. If people shudder at Nixon's abuses with the IRS, what Obama is doing should drive them to convulsions.
O'Care's Architects Plugged Their Ears and Misled Public
In 1970 the eccentric but insightful economist Albert Hirschman published a book called "Exit, Voice and Loyalty." It explored how people respond when a private firm's or a government agency's performance is deteriorating. Some people choose to leave, buying another product or service or leaving the government's jurisdiction. Others use voice, complaining about defects or lobbying for change. Hirschman tended to deplore exit and exalt voice, and urged firms and governments to nurture loyalty so consumers and citizens would stick around and improve things.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Liberals Talk Race and Crime -- and Hilarity Ensues!
On a break from pretending to believe they live in a country bristling with violent white racists, the Non-Fox Media have been trying to debunk stories about the "Knockout Game," in which young black males approach random strangers and try to knock them out with one punch. The left's leading line of defense against the Knockout Game is to argue that young black males have always been violent, so, hey, this is nothing new.
Detroit's Decline Didn't Have to Happen
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes has ruled that Detroit, Mich., may seek to protect itself from its creditors under Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection, thus making this once proud city the largest municipality in American history to go bust. The city is $18 billion in the hole thanks to its debt and long-term liabilities, such as pensions it could not afford and people abandoning the city in droves, which led to an erosion of the tax base.
Earning Our Trust
Trust ain't what it used to be in America. Back in 1972, when the folks conducting the General Social Survey first asked a sampling of Americans if they trusted their countrymen, about half said they did. Last year, when the same research outfit asked the same set of questions, only a third of our fellow Americans said they trusted one another. The GSS folks found that Americans -- black and white, rich or poor -- are more leery, suspicious and mistrustful of others than ever before.
Regarding Obama & Other Turkeys
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Obama, having heard that there were still a few extra bucks lying around waiting for him to vacuum up, jetted out here to California. While standing next to Dream Works studio boss/Obama hand maiden Jeffrey Katzenberg, Obama gazed out at the studio employees and, proving that his magical powers are more than a rumor dreamed up by Jay Carney, said: "I can see by looking at you that some of you weren't born here." Assuming that by "here," he meant the United States, and not the studio, just exactly how did he come by that conclusion? And if he has that capability, isn't it just possible that when other people look at him and decide he wasn't born in Hawaii, they might be right?