Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, July 15, 2013
A Quintessentially American Hall of Fame
Do you give money to charity? You do if you're a typical American. More than 70 percent of US families contribute every year, and the average household gives at least $1,000. Charitable donations in America add up to about $300 billion annually -- which is more, as Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute points out, than the entire gross national product of Finland, Portugal, or Peru. Americans give 12 times as much to charity each year as they spend on professional sports, and almost 30 times as much as they spend going to the movies. By any yardstick, America is one of the most generous nations on earth.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Why the WH Is Panicking About ObamaCare
Actors. Actresses. NFL football players. Baseball players. Librarians. Mayors. City councilmen. Members of AARP. The Obama administration is looking far and wide, leaving no stone unturned in a relentless search for...well...for help. Help with what? Help with getting people to enroll in health insurance plans this fall. And why is that? Because the administration is facing the very real possibility that its signature piece of legislation may fall flat on its face.
Golden Numbers
WASHINGTON -- When Houston was competing with a Brazilian city to be the site of a Japanese-owned plant, Houston could provide the Japanese with pertinent information about the educational attainments and other qualities of its workforce and the number of Japanese speakers in the area. The plant is in Texas partly because Houston had superior statistics, thanks to an inexpensive federal program currently under attack from some conservatives. They may not know that its pedigree traces to the Constitution's Framers. These Enlightenment figures -- rational, empirical, inquisitive -- believed in the possibility of evidence-based improvements. And they mandated the "enumeration" of the population every 10 years. James Madison soon proposed expanding the census beyond mere enumeration to recording Americans' occupations. And compliance with the survey was compulsory.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Defending Those Who Defend Us
If you go to the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, you will see a moving tableau, a series of statues of the brave young Americans who stormed ashore on June 6, 1944 to liberate a continent from the grip of Adolf Hitler. One of these statues is called "Death on the Shore." It shows a soldier who was cut down as he left his landing craft. His Bible is seen falling out of his rucksack. That Bible included an endorsement from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The body of this young man, one of the many from the little Southwest Virginia town of Bedford, was never found but his Bible was returned to his loving family. Bedford was chosen for the D-Day Memorial because it sacrificed more sons, proportionately, than any other American town on that Longest Day.
Delving Into Foreign Affairs
With so many disasters befalling us domestically, it's easy to take our eye off all the bloody nonsense taking place outside our borders. And of course let it be understood that when I speak of borders, I'm referring to a concept, nothing more than a notion, and not to anything that actually exists in the real world. For instance, a Nazi flag has been seen flying over a mosque near the Palestinian village of Beit Omar, on the outskirts of Hebron. But that won't stop the Jew-haters, both those inside and outside of the rat-infested U.N., from siding with the barbaric Arabs and Muslims against Israel.
The Democrats' Threat to 'Go Nuclear'
Progressives plot to dramatically shift constitutional powers to Obama.
From The Comedy Store
The White House said that people may register for taxpayer-subsidized health care on the honor system. The expense could bust future budgets without tax hikes. The administration prefers to shovel money into a problem because it burns cleaner than coal.
Friday, July 12, 2013
More Life in the House
Last month's successful vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the U.S. House, which restricts abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, appears to have given a boost to pro-life efforts in states like Texas and North Carolina. There's more good news on the pro-life front here in Washington, as House appropriators tackled the funding of abortion in an Obamacare program.
The Anti-Snowdens
Edward Snowden is still, as far as we know, hiding out in the transit lounge of an airport in Moscow, Russia. He is, as President Obama referred to him "a 29-year-old hacker" who leaked damaging information about what the National Security Agency is doing to, according to our government, protect American citizen from foreign attack.
Hookers and Sex Slaves ... and Laughs?
Today's children live and breathe in a popular culture that teaches them to accept the worst kinds of sexual exploitation and violence as a normal part of life. They're even encouraged to laugh at the idea. The Parents Television Council has issued a new report on "TV's Newest Target: Teen Sexual Exploitation." Out of 238 scripted episodes that aired during the study period in 2011 and 2012, 150 episodes (63 percent) contained sexual content in scenes that were associated with females and 33 percent of the episodes contained sexual content that rose to the level of sexual exploitation.
Racial Litmus Test
The jury will soon decide the guilt or innocence of George Zimmerman, the man charged with murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, but a verdict will not end the debate about this case that has raged from the beginning. Like the O.J. Simpson trial nearly two decades ago, the Zimmerman trial has become a litmus test on race. And the media have played a major role in pushing race as the underlying issue, to the detriment of all concerned.
Culture War Has Escalated From Cold to White-Hot
Wake up, conservatives -- and Christians. We're getting our rear ends handed to us, and we'll continue to if we don't do a better job of fighting back. I'm not just talking about electoral politics. Liberal and secular activist groups are as aggressive as ever and winning, energized and enabled by this most radical of administrations -- and equally so by deer-in-the-headlights conservatives. The latest episode in this particular series of unfortunate events involves the Y's rolling over to the relentless bullying of pro-abortion activists to evict Students for Life of America from its facilities.
America's Sociopath Fetish
I would like to declare a war on women -- namely, all those cringe-inducing ninnies who lust after every celebrity criminal defendant with big muscles, tattoos, puppy-dog eyes or Hollywood hair. You know who I'm talking about, right? America's Bad Boy groupies. They're on the courthouse steps with their "Free Jahar" signs, cooing over how "hot" and "cute" the bloodstained Boston Marathon bombing suspect is. He "can blow me up with babies," one moral reprobate quipped shortly after his capture. "I'm not gonna lie, the second bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is hot. #sorrynotsorry," another young girl boasted.
Save the Filibuster!
You know what would make life a lot easier? A direct democracy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the man who once argued that weakening the Senate filibuster would "destroy the very checks and balances our Founding Fathers put in place to prevent absolute power by any one branch of government," is supposedly ready to use the "nuclear option." It would allow a simple majority to change rules to overcome a filibuster. And no matter how narrow Reid says the scope of his power grab would be, in the long run, it would kill the filibuster, and he knows it.
Why Obama's Smart-Gov't Initiative Is Dumb
President Obama wants to make government "smarter." Who could disagree with that? After all, it's unlikely that even the biggest fans of big government believe the way government does what it does is the very best, very smartest way imaginable. Whether you're an anarchist, a Leninist or somewhere in between, everyone can agree that Uncle Sam could afford a few more IQ points. Let's put it another way. If government is going to do X, it should do X the smartest way possible. On that proposition both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party agree.
Way to Go, D.C.
Vincent Orange is one of the members of the District of Columbia City Council currently exulting in victory over the poor people of Washington. In an 8 to 5 vote, the council elected to prevent the "underserved" poor people of the District from getting fresh produce and other food, a wide variety of good quality products at affordable prices, and some 1800 jobs, many of them entry-level.
A Modest GOP Agenda for 2013
WASHINGTON -- The conventional wisdom evolves. Yesterday, Washington was merely broken, gridlocked, dysfunctional. The passive voice spread the blame evenly. Today it's agreed that Republican obstructionism is the root of all evil -- GOP resistance having now escalated to nihilism and indeed sabotage. Sabotage carries a fine whiff of extralegal, anti-constitutional vandalism. This from media mandarins who barely bat an eyelash when President Obama unilaterally suspends parts of his own health care law -- just as he unilaterally stopped enforcing current immigration laws for 1.7 million young illegal immigrants, thereby enacting by executive order legislation that had failed in Congress. So much for faithfully executing the laws (Article II).
Obama Forfeits Trust by Not Enforcing Obamacare
On Obamacare, as on immigration enforcement and welfare requirements, Barack Obama is following the course that cost King James II his throne. He is dispensing with the law. James II was ousted in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, in large part for claiming that he could in particular cases dispense with -- that is, ignore -- an act of Parliament. (Shameless plug: Readers who want more information on this can consult my 2007 book, "Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers.")
Thursday, July 11, 2013
A Cry for HELP from Senate GOP
How many of you would feel comfortable dropping off your kids in a school that encouraged faculty cross-dressing? At least three Senate Republicans would. Today, those leaders -- Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak.) -- threw their support behind a bill that would force sexual confusion on almost every classroom, day care, and summer camp in America. Insisting the legislation is just a harmless little "anti-prejudice" bill, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 15-7 to make employees' bedroom habits a preeminent consideration in hiring, firing, and promotion decisions.