Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Preventing Teen Pregnancy
The rate of teen pregnancy in the United States has fallen dramatically over the last two decades -- 52 percent -- though in the developed world, it still remains the highest. In 2008, the last year for which in-depth data are available, nearly 750,000 young women under 20 became pregnant, including some 236,000 teenage girls ages 15-17. The overwhelming majority of them were unmarried. The good news is that the numbers of teen pregnancies have declined so significantly for two reasons: First, fewer teens are having sex and second, more teens who are sexually active are using birth control.
Upside-Down Ratings Games
The Motion Picture Association of America put the modern movie-ratings system in place in 1968 for parents to protect children under 18 from ultraviolent or sexually explicit material. Since 1968, avant-garde leftists have been trying to knock this voluntary system down. The most recent example came with the raging ten-minute lesbian-sex scene that wowed the Cannes Film Festival (and won their Golden Palm) in "Blue Is the Warmest Color." The IFC Center in New York's Greenwich Village decided to shred the NC-17 rating for this movie because "it is our judgment that it is appropriate for mature, inquiring teenagers who are looking ahead to the emotional challenges and opportunities that adulthood holds."
Obama in the Dark on Healthcare.gov
Watching President Obama's press conference Thursday, I almost started humming the old ditty the "Farmer in the Dell" because all I could think was: "The cheese stands alone." The president did his level best to explain that he was as in the dark as anybody about the problems with his signature legislation.
Obama's Stumbling Bumbling Fumbling News Conference
We learned a few interesting things from President Barack Obama's rambling, analogy-filled news conference Thursday. We learned that there was a fumble. We learned that technology is hard. In fact, the president went on for an extended period of time explaining government's historical struggles with IT issues. Considering that the entire backbone of the law is dependent on this technology and expertise, how can anyone truly believe that the Nov. 30 deadline set for HealthCare.gov to work properly is going to be met? And why should anyone trust that IT will work better in the future?
No Real Mea Culpa in Obama's Litany of Dodges and Excuses
I don't know how President Obama could get more surreal. At this point, it's hard to tell whether he's more dishonest or delusional. At Obama's news conference Thursday, CBS' Major Garrett pressed him, essentially, to admit he'd flagrantly lied when he promised Americans that with the advent of Obamacare, they could keep their health care plans and their doctors if they liked them.
Why Liberals Are Panicked About ObamaCare
So the former president asserts that the current president continues to dishonor his "you like your plan, you can keep your plan" pledge. And calls for the Affordable Care Act to be changed, despite furious White House resistance to the very idea. Coming from the dean of the Democratic Party, this one line marked the breaching of the dam. It legitimized the brewing rebellion of panicked Democrats against Obamacare. Within hours, that rebellion went loudly public. By Thursday, President Obama had been forced into a rear-guard holding action, asking insurers to grant a one-year extension of current plans.
Does the U.S. Rank Below Cuba?
The World Economic Forum has issued its annual report on the gender gap worldwide, and it has received respectful notice from the usual places (PBS, CNN, The Washington Post). But any report that places the United States below Cuba, the Philippines and South Africa deserves a little skepticism. In fact, the WEF places the U.S. 23rd in the world, below the Scandinavian countries, and those just named, but also below Lesotho.
Colorado a Microcosm for American Politics
Colorado, writes National Journal's always insightful Ronald Brownstein, is "America, writ small." "A microcosm," he goes on, "of the forces destabilizing American politics." Of course, Colorado is not entirely typical of the nation. It has America's lowest rates of obesity, for example -- because of a young population and because most Coloradans live a mile or more above sea level. You burn more calories there just getting out of the car and walking to the mall.
Coulter, Krauthammer & Me
As many of you know, I spent a good part of 2012 trying to get the Mitt Romney campaign to give me a shot at writing, co-writing or re-writing his speeches. Alas, I never managed to scale the castle wall. So it wasn't my fault that the only things he said that anyone ever remembered were that 47% of the people would never vote for him and that 20 million illegal immigrants should self-deport.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
The Shameful Deceit on Haiyan
The people claiming that climate change is the cause for what has been labeled by the meteorological centers as a *category 4 landfall of Typhoon Haiyan* in the Philippines are either ignorant of the facts or lying about them. Earth to AGW alarmists: What you see is what category 4s do to buildings that can't withstand winds close to 150 mph.
Obama's Judges: Par for the Courts?
At a private event last Wednesday, President Obama bragged that he was "remaking the courts." And if his nomination of controversial professor Cornelia Pillard had succeeded, he would have taken a major step toward that goal. Despite her nauseating statements on everything from abstinence to motherhood, the President insisted on nominating Pillard to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second most important bench in America. Unlike so many appellate courts, the D.C. Circuit has historically been one of the more balanced benches in the country -- a reputation that would certainly be in jeopardy if Pillard had joined.
America Jumps Off the Tiger's Back
The United States has ridden -- and tamed -- the wild global tiger since the end of World War II. The frantic ride has been dangerous, to us, but a boon to humanity. At the same time, America's leadership role has been misrepresented and misunderstood abroad and at home, including by some of our country's own leaders. Accordingly, our current president, Barack Obama, has decided to climb down from the tiger, with the certain consequence that it will run wild again.
Kennedy, Huxley and Lewis
Three famous men died on Nov. 22, 1963. The one getting the most attention, understandably, is John F. Kennedy. Less so the other two: Aldous Huxley, author of the futuristic novel "Brave New World," and Clive Staples Lewis. Of the three, it was Lewis who not only was the most influential of his time, but whose reach extends to these times and likely beyond. His many books continue to sell and the number of people whose lives have been changed by his writing expands each year.
To Speak to a Nigerian Prince About Your Health Care, Press '1' Now
In a weird confluence of the nation's two most pressing issues -- Obamacare and our insane immigration laws -- this week we found out that the tens of thousands of "navigators" hired by the government to enroll people in Obamacare will include convicted felons. Despite some "navigators" having already been exposed as having arrest warrants against them, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has no plans to screen out the criminals. (But rest assured: If your identity is stolen as a result of trying to sign up for Obamacare, no one will be more upset about it than President Obama.)
Typhoon Haiyan and the Old, Old Problem of Evil
Horrific disasters like Typhoon Haiyan, which slammed into the Philippines last week with such devastating and lethal effect, have always raised the most excruciating questions: Why is the world so full of grief and cruelty? Why must bad things happen to good and innocent people? What philosophers of religion call "the problem of evil" is the greatest emotional obstacle to faith in God. How can a God of love and justice permit so much savagery and suffering?
'Salvation Is From the Jews' -- Even in a Worldly Sense
Christians are certainly familiar with Jesus' words to the woman at the well. "Salvation is from the Jews," he tells her in John 4:22. And this has always stood as a stumbling block to anti-Semitism in the Church. It is hard to imagine how one can be a true Christian and be an anti-Semite, too. But this wonderful phrase is also true in a worldly sense -- and especially so in the nuclear age. In August 1939, Albert Einstein's letter warning President Roosevelt of Nazi capabilities in atomic weapons research was hand-carried to the White House. Having fled Hitler Germany for Princeton, Einstein was the world's most celebrated scientist and a leading member of the Jewish community.
A Need for Compromise on Immigration
One reason Washington makes so much bad history is that so many people here know so little history. This helps explain why "comprehensive" immigration reform is foundering: Too few of today's legislators know what happened 163 years ago. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell does know. The most important Kentuckian since Henry Clay, McConnell knows how his hero Clay, who was called "the great compromiser," failed to engineer Senate passage of a comprehensive compromise in 1850. McConnell, who wrote his senior thesis at the University of Louisville on the Compromise of 1850, knows that this was achieved by the canniness of Stephen A. Douglas. His is a name not much mentioned on Capitol Hill since he died in 1861 at age 48.
PunditFact/PolitiFact: Media Bias Strikes Again -- At Me
When PunditFact -- the new offspring from the folks at PolitiFact -- contacted me, they wanted sources for "all of the claims" in the following statement I made Nov. 4 on CNN's "Crossfire": "In 1900, at all three levels of government -- federal, state and local -- government took less than 10 percent of the American people's money. Now, we're talking about 35 percent, and when you add a dollar value to mandates, we're talking almost 50 percent."
What Is So Polarizing About Chris Christie?
They are at it again. They are again telling Republicans and conservatives how dreadful their political condition really is. I am speaking, of course, of the voices of the Kultursmog, and to hear them tell it we are in a hell of a heap. We lost the governorship of Virginia. Even worse, we won the governorship of New Jersey. What dreadful news. Of course, in Virginia the Republicans lost to a congenital liar, backed by the most famous congenital liars in American politics, the Clintons. It is only a matter of time before he is in deep do-do. Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe's campaign was an amalgam of lies as flagrant as his lie in his memoirs.