Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Obama Prohibits Kennedy Family from Practicing Catholicism
The Obama administration has prohibited the Kennedy family from practicing its Catholicism, and the Kennedys now intend to ask the Supreme Court to restore their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. Their case could become one of the most consequential in our nation's history. The issue: Will the most fundamental liberty of all -- freedom of conscience -- survive in post-Obama America?
Racial Trade-Offs
Trade-offs apply to our economic lives, as well as our political lives. That means getting more of one thing requires giving up something else. Let's look at some examples. Black congressmen and black public officials in general, including Barack Obama, always side with teachers unions in their opposition to educational vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools and other measures that would allow black parents to take their children out of failing public schools. Most black politicians and many black professionals take the position of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is on record as saying, "We shouldn't abandon the public schools."
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Shutdown Preys Upon Chaplains
Service members regularly tell me that one of the biggest challenges facing them today are the restrictions on religious expression that have become widespread in the military. Just yesterday I was speaking with a family member of a military officer who said the officer has to be very careful that none of their emails include any reference to God or Jesus Christ for fear of reprimand. You'll recall last month, the [U.S. Air Force threatened Master Sgt. Philip Monk](http://www.frc.org/alert/protect-sergeant-phillip-monk-from-air-force-court-martial) with court martial after he refused his lesbian commanders' demand that he endorse same-sex "marriage." Dozens of such religious liberty infringements are documented in FRC's new report [A Clear and Present Danger: The Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military](http://www.frc.org/clearpresentdanger).
Politico's Attack on Minority Student School Choice
A misleading report trashing vouchers -- and what it left out.
Letting the U.N. Target Our Guns
The Law of the Sea Treaty. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. When it comes to international agreements that may seem harmless until you read the fine print, the United Nations' Arms Trade Treaty has plenty of company. Like the aforementioned pacts, this treaty has been signed by the United States, but not ratified by the Senate. Nor is it likely to be. That doesn't mean, though, it won't prove damaging to the United States and its interests.
Why the Left Hates the Old
The latest left-wing tactic to discredit conservative views is to dismiss the age and race of conservatives. "Old white males" and "old white people" are the left's latest favored negative epithets for those holding conservative views. Chris Matthews of MSNBC, Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman of the New York Times, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ("angry old white men") are among the many on the left who have used this epithet.
Why Wendy Davis Won't be Governor of Texas
The governorship of Texas is getting like the governorship of New York and California: a venue for spotting political trends and up-and-coming national leaders. Which helps explain all the media oooh-la-la-ing over Wendy Davis' bid to become the next Rick Perry -- colored blue instead of red. Could Texas, under the witching spell of a future Davis administration, turn from gun-toting, business-loving, Bible-quoting conservatism to cuddly, hand-in-someone-else's-pocket liberalism?
Obamacare: A Hill to Die On
Notwithstanding the naysayers from the left and the right, the bullying White House is running scared, as evidenced by its increasing nastiness, name-calling and petty manipulation of the government shutdown. President Obama must be shocked that his usual demagogic tricks aren't working this time, that instead of the Republicans caving in deference to his dictatorial demands, they are united and holding firm, and that he, not the Republicans, is cratering in the polls.
An American Comeback
With frustration building over Washington's refusal to behave in the public interest, perhaps it's worth noting a drastic solution tried by the Irish. Last Friday, Irish voters cast ballots on a referendum to abolish the country's Upper House, known as the Seanad. Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Ireland didn't need all of its politicians and they should be made to suffer along with everyone else as the country continues to struggle economically.
Republican Cannibals
The Catholic Church came up with the concept of excommunication. But as you may have noticed, such Catholic luminaries as the Kennedy clan, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin and Joe Biden, all spent years promoting abortion on demand and nobody in the Catholic hierarchy even raised an eyebrow, let alone said anything about denying them communion. However, let a Republican take two steps in any direction, and his fellow Republicans want him drawn and quartered. I'm not suggesting that we Republicans should follow the lead of our opponents and turn ourselves into robots. Frankly, I don't know why Senate Democrats even bother going to work. Harry Reid not only decides how they're going to vote, but even decides what legislation they'll be allowed to consider.
Tyler Cowen's Future Shock: No More Average People
"This book is far from all good news." So writes Tyler Cowen at the beginning of his latest book, "Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of The Great Stagnation." Cowen is an economist at George Mason University who is generally classified as libertarian and whose interests range far afield. His most recent books include "The Great Stagnation" and "An Economist Gets Lunch" (his advice: skip fancy downtown places, eat at restaurants attached to Pakistani-owned motels).
America's Cultural Chasm
Denouncing the dysfunction in Washington has become a cliche. For a change of pace, let's decry the putrefaction in American popular culture. (There are bright spots, but those will have to await another column.) Miley Cyrus is America's id. She is all desire -- for fame, for attention, for money - without any mediating influences like conscience, character, prudence or taste. America celebrates her. She gets some criticism, but she can laugh it off, because she knows she's cool. Do you doubt her importance? She hosted Saturday Night Live this week -- the apotheosis of hip.
Inarticulate Republicans
If the continued existence of mathematics depended on the ability of the Republicans to defend the proposition that two plus two equals four, that would probably mean the end of mathematics and of all the things that require mathematics. Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, epitomized what has been wrong with the Republicans for decades when he emerged from a White House meeting last Wednesday, went over to the assembled microphones, briefly expressed his disgust with the Democrats' intransigence and walked on away.
Monday, October 7, 2013
A Battle Worth Fighting
Hey, here's a scoop! I was wrong about when the shutdown would end. I thought it would be last Thursday. My new prediction is: Never. As I think I've made pretty clear in MULLINGS and on TV, I thought -- and still think -- that tying the shutdown to repealing or delaying ObamaCare was a bad idea.
His Highness, King Barack the First
How is it that Obama gets to decide how ObamaCare will be administered? As he keeps saying, it's the law of the land. So where does he get off unilaterally granting waivers to his supporters while forcing everyone else to abide by the rules? And how is it that the GOP hasn't forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of what he's doing? No one is going to convince me that he has the legal authority to grant waivers to big businesses while forcing individuals to toe the line.
Tea Party Is the Solution, Not the Problem
Let's get clear about the political realities behind the budget impasse in Washington and the government shutdown. Nothing captures the distortions being perpetrated more than the headline of a Washington Post column by Anne Applebaum that reads: "The GOP Undermines Democracy." And, according to President Barack Obama, a "faction" of Republicans (read "tea party") is holding the nation hostage to its "ideological demands."
A Cup of Civility
It has been more than two weeks since Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz issued a "respectful request" for customers to stop bringing guns into his company's coffee shops, and the response by and large has been one of courteous compliance. Considering how polarized and emotional America's gun debates usually get, some people were sure Starbucks was in for weeks of controversy. "The backlash and boycott talk has already begun," reported the Los Angeles Times the day Schultz's open letter appeared. Entrepreneur.com's Ray Hennessey, an experienced business editor, warned that Starbucks risked "alienating a large portion of its customer base."
A Thug in the Oval Office
We have a thug occupying the Oval Office. Not a bad president. Depending on your ideological point of view, we've elected men who were cheats and crooks, those who were arrogant and clueless, and many others who were stunningly mediocre. But never a genuine thug. Until now.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Obama in Wonderland
When Alice followed the White Rabbit down the hole, she got to meet a very strange group of individuals. Besides the Rabbit, who was always in a hurry and had a pocket watch to remind him he was late, she encounted a dormouse, a blue caterpillar, the obnoxious Queen of Hearts and a host of other very boring oddities. For the life of me, I never understood why anyone ever claimed to enjoy the book. I always figured those were the same people who pretended they thought the madcap comedies the Marx Brothers churned out for Paramount were funny.
When Liberals Run Cities
Have you ever noticed how often cities where there are very few Republicans elect Republican mayors anyway? Or if they don't elect a Republican, they elect a Democrat who acts like a Republican. New York City is known for being a bastion of liberalism. But the city hasn't had a real liberal mayor for almost 40 years. When Jersey City, New Jersey, elected Republican Bret Schundler as mayor, there probably weren't more than five Republicans living in the whole city. Democrats have outnumbered Republicans in Dallas County, where I live, for quite some time. Yet Dallas has never really had a liberal mayor.