Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Handshake Delusion
The Syrian crisis is in a frenzy, Egypt's political system is imploding, a new wave of Sunni terrorism is bloodying Iraq, post-Qaddafi Libya is collapsing into lawlessness and ruin, and Iran is edging closer to the nuclear threshold. Yet Secretary of State John Kerry goes on flogging the dead horse of the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process."
Fox Sports Sacks Outspoken Christian
As a former quarterback, Craig James isn't used to being on the defensive. But unfortunately, that's exactly where Fox Sports is putting him in a story that should rock the football world. The retired Pro-Bowler became the latest face of the war on religious liberty, when -- after one day on the job -- Fox Sports gave James the boot for his conservative views on marriage. And here's the kicker: he made the comments, not at the sports desk, but during last year's Senate campaign!
Benghazi, Censored or Spun
When we last checked in on Barack Obama discussing Benghazi on the network news, he was reassuring Brian Williams on the Oct. 25 "Rock Center" that "we're going to do a full investigation." It's a year later, and it's still "we are going to." Last fall, Williams and Obama posed as curious for answers on how this disaster happened. Neither of them has demonstrated any noticeable curiosity since. A new Media Research Center study of Benghazi coverage in 2013 on ABC, CBS and NBC shows there are two routine modes of operation: (a) praising Team Obama's public relations and (b) silence.
A Vote to Fund Obamacare Will Fund Deliberate Destruction of Life
At the end of this month, members of Congress will face a binary choice. The House and Senate will pass a bill to fund the government past Sept. 30, the last day of the fiscal year. That bill will either permit or prohibit funding for implementation of Obamacare. Members will need to vote for it or against it. There will be no middle ground.
9/11: America's Unfinished Business
Before we head to Syria to avenge the mass murder of their kids, how about we finish avenging *ours*? When I say "finish," of course I really mean "start." A dozen years after the 9/11 attacks, the trials against the jihadist plotters who incinerated pregnant women, firefighters, grandparents, newlyweds, toddlers and schoolkids on their first-ever plane rides have yet to begin. Justice not only has been delayed and denied. Justice has been demoted, disowned and deserted. Justice for the 9/11 victims and families isn't blindfolded. She's gagged and hogtied.
Obama's Munich
In August 2012, President Obama inadvertently set America up for war: He said that if Syria crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapons, that would amount to a "game changer". In August 2013, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad apparently did just that, gassing some 1,429 people in Damascus. On Sept. 1, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry made a compelling case for American action in Syria. He did so by comparing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler. Labeling Assad a "thug and a murderer," he said, "Assad now joins the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein (who) have used these weapons in time of war." A few days later, he told a conference call of Democrats that if Congress didn't authorize action against Syria, the United States would face a "Munich moment". By this, he meant that the U.S. would be in danger of appeasing a dictator bent on aggressive behavior, just as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler after Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938. Chamberlain declared "peace in our time" after Munich; within months, World War II began. That, Kerry declared, could not happen again.
The Grand Myth of Live-and-Let-Live Liberalism
In Washington, D.C., the city's department of health wants to subject people seeking a tattoo or body piercing to a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before they can go through with it. That's just one of the regulations in a 66-page proposal of new rules for the tattoo and piercing industry. Reasonable people may differ on the wisdom of these proposals, but as someone whose interest in such establishments begins and ends with keeping my daughter away from them, I can't get too worked up either way, save to say D.C. has bigger problems to worry about.
Does Opposing War With Syria Mean Withdrawing From the World?
According to a recent New York Times poll, just 30 percent of Americans think the United States should launch air strikes against Syria to punish its government's use of chemical weapons, while twice as many oppose the idea. Evidently, America is overrun with isolationists. Or so the politicians and pundits agitating for an attack on Syria claim, aided by the supposedly evenhanded reporting of major news outlets. If you oppose this particular intervention, they say, that means you want to withdraw from the world -- a plainly crazy position that shows how wrong you are.
Special Needs Children Are a Gift Wrapped in Love
Sarah is a beautiful three-year-old. She loves Honey Nut Cheerios, nursery rhymes, and playing on the playground. But lately, it almost breaks her mother's heart to see Sarah out there with the other kids. Newly diagnosed with autism, Sarah's playground time is less a time of carefree play and childhood "firsts" and more a marker of how quickly 'normal' has slipped away.
You Don't Have to Stay Poor
No one can blame you if you start out in life poor, because how you start is not your fault. If you stay poor, you're to blame because it is your fault. Nowhere has this been made clearer than in Dennis Kimbro's new book, "The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires." Kimbro, a business professor at Clark Atlanta University, conducted extensive face-to-face interviews, took surveys and had other interactions with nearly 1,000 of America's black financial elite, many of whom are multimillionaires, to discover the secret of their success. Kimbro's seven-year study included wealthy blacks such as Byron E. Lewis, Tyler Perry, Daymond John, Bob Johnson, Cathy Hughes and Antonio Reed. Kimbro says that many of today's black multimillionaires started out poor or worse. So what were their strategies?
Syria and Obama: Part II
Chickens are coming home to roost for Barack Obama, both at home and overseas. When he first entered the White house, to worldwide acclaim, and backed by huge majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, he could do whatever he wanted -- and could do no wrong, in the eyes of the mainstream media. People believed whatever he said, whether about how he would cut the federal deficit in half during his first term or how people could keep their current insurance and their current doctor under ObamaCare, which would also insure millions more people and yet somehow lower the costs at the same time.
Road to Damascus
Some things you just *have* to do, in spite of great uncertainty. Launching missiles at Syria isn't one of them. Many pundits talk about going to war as if all we have to do is make up our minds about what "ought" to happen -- who the bad guys are -- and the rest is just details. If we decide we must punish a tyrant, let the military worry about how to get it done.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
TL2
The White House chief of staff during the reign of President Richard Nixon was a guy named H.R. Haldeman who was not known for being a terribly patient man. The story goes that he would put the letters "TL2" atop memo that he thought were weak. TL2 stood for "Too little, too late." That pretty much sums up the Administration's frenzied attempt to gain support for an attack on Syria.
Stopping the ObamaCare 'Train Wreck'
Only last-minute defunding can prevent a health care disaster. Imagine your family's next trip to the dentist. You, your spouse and your children are covered by an insurance plan purchased through one of the new health exchanges opening next month. It was sold to you as a no-deductible plan, so it's quite an unpleasant surprise when the dentist asks you to pay.
The Obama Doctrine: Call It USLKOE
Readers are undoubtedly familiar with the various "doctrines" named after American presidents. Those named after James Monroe, Harry Truman and George W. Bush are among the best known. Well, we have a new one, announced this week by Secretary of State John Kerry. It is a new doctrine of war -- so new, in fact, that it is not only new to America; it is new in the annals of military history.
Monk Breaks Silence on Air Force Persecution
The military can order its troops to do a lot of things -- but insisting they hold a certain worldview is not one of them. Unfortunately for Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk, his commanding officer never got that memo. Now, after a clash of opinions on marriage, the lesbian major is on a personal mission to destroy Monk's career.
Unserious About Syria
On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry drew what amounts to yet another red line, warning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he has one week to hand over his entire stock of chemical weapons, or he will face a military attack. What kind of military attack? "We're not going to war," Mr. Kerry assured reporters. "We will be able to hold Bashar al-Assad accountable without engaging troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort, in a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria's civil war. That is exactly what we are talking about doing; an unbelievably small, limited kind of effort." The only thing unbelievably small and limited here is the Obama administration's competence and credibility.
Syria and History
Perhaps if America had a successful track record in the Middle East, President Obama's appeal for a "limited" attack on Syria might carry more weight. But because our attention span in the region increasingly resembles that of a fidgety 4-year-old, an examination of recent history is in order. Consider Iran. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter supported toppling the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Whatever the shah's shortcomings, who believes the theocratic government of the ayatollahs, which replaced him, was better than the one we helped overthrow? At least the shah was not pursuing nuclear weapons or fighting proxy wars like Syria.
A Constitutional Moment
In London exile in 1940, Charles de Gaulle decided "it was up to me to take responsibility for France" ("*c'etait a moi d'assumer la France*"). No U.S. president should assume he is, as de Gaulle almost mystically did, the nation, or is solely responsible for it. Remember this tonight when Barack Obama defends his choice to attack Syria. U.S. power and security are somewhat dependent on a president's stature, which should not be diminished unnecessarily. Neither, however, should America's well-being be equated with a president's policy preferences or political health. The real but limited importance of presidential prestige, and the real but limited diminution of it that would result from blocking Obama's attack, both matter. But so do the manifest and manifold weaknesses of his argument.