Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Back to Our 20th-Century Future
We may be in the era of Facebook and fracking. But 2013 is still beginning to look a lot like the cataclysmic century we just left behind. More people probably died from the wars of the 20th century than from the battles of the prior 2,500 years combined. The bloodiest century saw the rise of fascism, Nazism, communism and jihadism. Capitalism almost collapsed during the Great Depression. What followed was a Big Government antidote not unlike our own experience after the panic of 2008.
Mr. President, Let Us Move On
WASHINGTON -- The reaction to President Barack Obama's highly personal speech last Friday, ostensibly on race but actually on himself, has been surprisingly subdued. Some would have thought he was going to tone down the rhetoric. Instead his rhetoric was inflammatory. I think he caught the country off guard. The vast majority of Americans were going about their business, and then -- whammo -- the president was in the White House pressroom emoting. Still, over the weekend things were relatively quiet. Most Americans wanted it that way.
Losing Faith in Gov't
Now for some good news, and it has nothing to do with the birth of the royal baby. According to a USA Today/Bipartisan Policy Center poll, "Americans by more than 2-1 say the best way to make positive changes in society is through volunteer organizations and charities, not by being active in government." Even better news: People under 30 are especially put off by politics and are "significantly less likely than their parents to say participating in politics is an important value in their lives."
Anthony Weiner: Danger Is His Middle Name
It takes a fair bit of gall to accuse the media of lying about a sex scandal. It takes even more gall to then admit to the sex scandal, resign, claim you've redeemed yourself and decide to run again. And it takes the most gall to do all of those things, even as you're engaged in a continuation of that sex scandal. But when your name is Anthony Weiner, gall is your middle name.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Open Mike: Lee Sounds Off on ObamaCare
After a nudge from President Obama, Hollywoodis learning its lines -- on ObamaCare. Desperate to get more Americans on board with its increasingly unpopular law, the White House is meeting with celebrities about a new script on health care before the state insurance exchanges kick off on October 1. According to CNN, senior advisors have already met with Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson, Oprah Winfrey, Jon Bon Jovi, Alicia Keys, Will Farrell, and others who "expressed an interest in helping to educate the public about the benefits of the new health law."
Deliverance
America's Texter, Anthony Weiner (D-NY), has been caught doing it again -- delivering of lewd text messages. If you've forgotten, Weiner was a Congressman from New York who got caught "sexting" underage girls. At first he claimed his account might have been hacked but when a photo surfaced of him sending out what is now called a "selfie" from the Members' gym, he 'fessed up and resigned from the House.
ObamaCare Will Bring About a Two-Tiered System
President Obama's health care law is supposed to insure 32 million additional people by this time next year. These newly insured will try to consume nearly twice as much medical care as they have been, and most of the rest of us will be forced to have more generous coverage than we previously had. There will be a long list of preventive services that all plans will be required to cover, without deductible or copayment, along with many new services. These changes will boost the demand for medical care considerably.
Stalled Motor City
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry -- the same TV commentator who said Americans need to stop raising kids as if they belong to individual families -- had an extraordinary explanation for why the city of Detroit sought to declare bankruptcy last week: not enough government. "This is what it looks like when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub, and it is not a pretty picture." She says budget-cutting Republicans threaten to transform all of the U.S. into Detroit.
Obama's Terrifying Vision of a 'Smarter' Government
What happens if government gets so smart, it becomes self-aware -- like Skynet?
Profiling
Police Capt. Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains in the 1942 movie "Casablanca," in the wake of the shooting of a Nazi officer, ordered his men to "round up the usual suspects." Was Renault engaging in some sort of profiling? He may have been, but what is profiling? Let's look at it. We can think of profiling as a method to economize on information costs by using easily observed physical characteristics as a proxy or a guess for some other characteristic more difficult or costlier to observe. For example, say you seek to hire people to manually unload trucks containing heavy merchandise. I'm guessing that most would use sex as a proxy for strength and select men over the women. That can be called sex profiling. Of course, if you assumed that men and women have equal strength, you'd hire randomly.
Insulating Obama From His Corrupt IRS
President Obama is announcing for the umpteenth time he's going to "pivot" to fixing the economy -- as if that's ever worked before, since it is he who broke it. That said, Obama will pivot to tiddlywinks if that's what it takes to get out from under his mountain of scandals. On the White House website, Obama flack Dan Pfeiffer posted a blog post demanding everyone pay attention to Obama's latest speech in Galesburg, Ill., expressing tender concern for the middle class. Meanwhile, he lamented, "Too many in Congress are trying to score political points, refight old battles and trump up phony scandals."
Ray Kelly's 'Extraordinary Job'
Obama Talks About Racial Profiling in Florida, Not in NYC
Nancy Pelosi, Creep Enabler
The most powerful female Democrat on Capitol Hill has turned her back on women. Again. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, entrenched 13-term incumbent, refuses to say whether creepster San Diego Mayor Bob Filner should resign amid an avalanche of longstanding sexual harassment allegations, staff resignations and now a lawsuit. "What goes on in San Diego is up to the people of San Diego. I'm not here to make any judgments," declared the very same feminist crusader who has spearheaded unabashedly judgmental nationwide attacks on the so-called "Republican War on Women."
The Real Helen Thomas
In the movie "Animal House," the Deltas are put on trial for their antics. When offered a chance to defend themselves, the best argument the fraternity's president can come up with is, "But sir, Delta Tau Chi has a long tradition of existence to its members and to the community at large." The line came to mind as I read through the obituaries for Helen Thomas, the longtime White House correspondent for UPI and, for a decade, a left-wing columnist for the Hearst newspapers.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Don't Rush to Judge
A lot can happen between now and Congress's August recess -- and that's exactly what conservatives should be concerned about. Senate Democrats seem to be banking on the fact that Americans are on vacation and not paying attention, because liberal leaders are trying to slip in a quiet confirmation hearing for Cornelia "Nina" Pillard. A Georgetown law professor, Pillard is the President's latest nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals -- and only the second one since President George W. Bush to wait less than two months for a hearing.
IRS Scandal: One Step Removed From the White House
The administration's story goes down in flames. Who will be next to fall?
Fire Created and Stoked by the Left
The George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin issue has been manufactured by the left -- the black left and the white left -- and by the left-wing (mainstream) media. For most Americans, their entire informational and intellectual universe is shaped by the left -- from elementary school through graduate school, and of course, in the news media. They rarely, if ever, encounter non-left viewpoints. As Diana Mutz, a professor of communication and political science at the University of Pennsylvania, has written: "Those with the highest levels of education have the lowest exposure to people with conflicting points of view."
Detroit and the Tale of Tomorrow
Just ahead of Congress as it takes an August recess, the president fares forth to "chart" -- in the words of his communications director -- " a course where America needs to go ... to restore this country's basic bargain for the middle class." Let us see whether we can anticipate: Congress (assuming the President gets his way) will pass some laws, raise some taxes, spend some money. We'll restore the bargain. And maybe the Democrats won't take the licking that circumstances seem to predict, what with Obamacare causing mass public confusion, the president's approval ratings down in the mid-40s and Democratic control of the Senate threatened in 2014.
Obama Should Help America Heal
It seems to me that almost every time President Obama talks publicly about race, he stirs things up rather than calms them down. Whether intentional or not, it's unfortunate -- and damaging. It's difficult to express opinions on race that don't conform to the politically correct narrative, because race baiters are always lying in wait to denounce as a bigot anyone who dissents from their assessment. Indeed, many leftists who call for a national dialogue on race routinely brand conservatives as racists -- merely because they are conservative -- even when they remain silent on racially sensitive issues.