Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Obama the Blameless
Could there be more convincing proof that President Obama is more concerned about himself than he is about the Americans he is supposed to serve than his Monday morning speech defending the disastrous Obamacare rollout rather than apologizing for it? Could there be more compelling evidence that he is first and foremost a Saul Alinsky agitator than the fact that he took the offense and attacked Republicans for fighting him on the budget -- a fight that in no way caused any rollout problems -- rather than humbly admit these inexcusable and humiliating problems?
Race-Hustling Results
Years ago, someone said that, according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees cannot fly. But the bumblebees, not knowing the laws of aerodynamics, go ahead and fly anyway. Something like that happens among people. There have been many ponderous academic writings and dour editorials in the mainstream media, lamenting that most people born poor cannot rise in American society any more. Meanwhile, many poor immigrants arrive here from various parts of Asia, and rise on up the ladder anyway.
Don't Let Obamacare Crisis Go to Waste
The constipated debut of Obamacare has reduced the president of the United States to the status of TV pitchman. "Act now" to get this great product, he exhorted listeners on Monday, offering testimonials from one of the rare successful purchasers, promising limitless benefits and low prices, and even an 800 number. His operators are standing by, he urged, and they speak 150 languages! (You could sign up in Min Bei and Kazakh, if you could sign up at all.) If Obama had thrown in a free tote bag for the first 100 callers, it wouldn't have seemed out of place.
Unions Turn on Obamacare, but Don't Call Them Hypocrites
It's not just Republicans who are unhappy with Obamacare. Labor union leaders have been complaining too. In July, the presidents of the Teamsters, United Food Commercial Workers union and UNITE-HERE (combined membership: 2.9 million) wrote a letter to congressional Democrats saying that Obamacare will "destroy the very health and well-being of our members along with millions of other working Americans."
Monday, October 21, 2013
We're Not Retreating – We're Advancing in a Different Direction
A number of years ago I was between flights on a business trip and was sitting in an airport restaurant having lunch. It was right after the 2008 presidential election and I knew that the election of America's first black president, a man of the hard left, would make my job bringing a conservative message to black communities much more challenging and difficult. As I ate my sandwich I glanced at the wall and saw a sign with a quote from General Douglas MacArthur. It said, "We are not retreating -- we are advancing in another direction."
Would Democrats Embrace a JFK Today?
As Democrats begin maneuvering for the 2016 presidential race, there isn't one who would think of disparaging John F. Kennedy's stature as a Democratic Party hero. Yet it's a pretty safe bet that none would dream of running on Kennedy's approach to government or embrace his political beliefs. Today's Democratic Party -- the home of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Al Gore -- wouldn't give the time of day to a candidate like JFK.
Don't Sign, Don't Pay the Fine
Recently, there have been many attempts to get a handle on why there is so much public discontent. I think all the reasoning can be boiled down to one idea: Americans feel powerless. Millions of us look at Washington, D.C. and see one thing and one thing only, namely a ruling class that is completely out of touch with ordinary Americans and their concerns. Fortunately that same ruling class, in their unbridled hubris, has made a critical error. They've presented the public with an extraordinary opportunity to give the federal government one of the grander smack downs that any public could give any out-of-control government. And all the American public has to do to give Washington that smack down is.....nothing.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
How the Left Views Health Care
The liberal view of health care is easy to describe: health care is too complex and complicated for individuals to make good choices on their own. Therefore they need bureaucracies -- employers, insurance companies or government -- to make decisions for them. (See, for example, [Austin Frakt](http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/chart-of-the-day-complexity-and-health-care/).) What this view overlooks is that the primary reason why the system is complex is because the bureaucracies are meddling with it in the first place.
The Problem With Being a Republican
There are times when I can't help wishing I were a Democrat. It certainly would have helped my writing career. I mean, look at the folks who make a handsome living for no other reason than that they're liberals. I'm not even referring to politicians. Obviously, the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Henry Waxman and Barbara Boxer, would be begging at freeway off-ramps and sleeping under bridges in a logical world. But I'm talking about all those others.
What Madison Wanted
Much is wrong with Washington these days, including much of what is said about what is wrong. Many Americans say there is "too much politics" in Washington. Actually, there is too little. Barack Obama deplores "politics as usual" here. But recently Washington has been tumultuous because politics, as the Framers understood it, has disintegrated. Obama has been complicit in this collapse. His self-regard, the scale of which has a certain grandeur, reinforces progressivism's celebration of untrammeled executive power and its consequent disparagement of legislative bargaining. This is why Obamacare passed without a single vote from the opposition party -- and why it remains, as analyst Michael Barone says, the most divisive legislation since the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Republicans Must Get Wise to Obama's Hard-Line Fiscal Strategy
As was the case with Obamacare, he won't give in
Can an AGW Climatologist Be Truly Objective?
I would love to debate Dr. Michael Mann. He's a professor at Pennsylvania State University, and I'm a Penn. State Grad (Meteo. 1978). Enough people know me, as well as him, so we could charge a modest admission, fill Eisenhower Auditorium at PSU, and give all the money back to the PSU meteorology department whom I still love dearly in spite of my outcast status on the anthropogenic global warming issue.
From The Comedy Store
House Republicans met in the Capitol to strategize in the chamber guarded by a statue of Will Rogers. It's only right. No one told national jokes better than Will Rogers, and for the last week no one's been a better national joke than House Republicans.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Stop Lying to Us, America!
A recent Rasmussen poll found that 1 in 3 Americans would rather win a Nobel Prize than an Oscar, Emmy or Grammy. Though there's no way to disprove this peculiar finding, I'm rather confident that it's complete baloney. The average American probably can't name more than one Nobel Prize winner -- if that. Even if many could, it's unlikely they would choose a life in physics or "peace" over being a celebrated actor, musician or television star. Put it this way: Any man who tells you he wants the life of Nobel Prize-winning Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, instead of the life of George Clooney is lying. And that includes Ahmet Uzumcu.
What if Obamacare Software Crashes and Burns?
Amid all the tussling over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling, a couple of bombshells went off in the blogosphere that may prove of more enduring importance. They suggest that there is a nontrivial possibility that Obamacare may implode. The first bombshell went off on Tuesday, from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post's Wonkblog.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The drama of the past three weeks has revealed a vein of despair and rage among conservatives. I share their feelings about what is happening to the country, even as I believe their tactics have made things worse (only temporarily, one hopes). Is America gradually becoming a slow-growth, high-unemployment, sclerotic, bureaucratically top-heavy nation like France, Italy and Great Britain? Yes. Was the nation already stumbling under the weight of unsustainable promises made in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and government pensions *before* Obama added another entitlement? Yes. Is the U.S. receding as a world power in favor of Russia and China? Yes. Is the federal government encouraging dependency through prolonged unemployment, welfare and food stamp benefits? Yes, yes, yes.
Redskins and Reason
In the matter of the (Washington) Redskins. I don't like being lectured by sportscasters about ethnic sensitivity. Or advised by the president of the United States about changing team names. Or blackmailed by tribal leaders playing the race card. I don't like the language police ensuring that no one anywhere gives offense to anyone about anything. And I fully credit the claim of Redskins owner Dan Snyder and many passionate fans that they intend no malice or prejudice and that "Redskins" has a proud 80-year history they wish to maintain.
Keep Your Chins Up, Conservatives
Call me Pollyannaish or insincere, but I am not depressed about the so-called "caving" of the GOP -- for a host of reasons. To put this in perspective, let me confess that I did feel totally dejected after Obama's re-election in 2012. How could he possibly have won, I wondered, given the obvious failure of his policies and the wholesale repudiation of his agenda in the 2010 congressional elections?
Tea Party Wasting Energy Hunting an Extinct Species
"We've got to get the Rockefeller Republicans out of the party," a fellow told me in Minnesota recently. Or was it Arizona? Or Wilkes-Barre, Pa.? Actually, I think it was all three. I hear it all the time as I travel around the country speaking to conservative groups. For those of you who don't know, the Rockefeller Republicans -- named after the former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller -- were the liberal, mostly Northeastern wing of the Republican Party.