Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
From The Comedy Store
President Obama delayed implementation of ObamaCare until after House elections. The program got off to a great start. Andy Griffith demonstrated how much money the program would save by doing TV commercials for it and then dying immediately.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Delaying the ObamaCare Disaster
Obama’s devious new ploy to get Democrats through the next election.
The Mindset of the Left: Part IV
At the heart of the left's vision of the world is the implicit assumption that high-minded third parties like themselves can make better decisions for other people than those people can make for themselves. That arbitrary and unsubstantiated assumption underlies a wide spectrum of laws and policies over the years, ranging from urban renewal to ObamaCare. One of the many international crusades by busybodies on the left is the drive to limit the hours of work by people in other countries -- especially poorer countries -- in businesses operated by multinational corporations. One international monitoring group has taken on the task of making sure that people in China do not work more than the legally prescribed 49 hours per week.
Obama's Global-Warming Folly
WASHINGTON -- The economy stagnates. Syria burns. Scandals lap at his feet. China and Russia mock him, even as a "29-year-old hacker" revealed his nation's spy secrets to the world. How does President Obama respond? With a grandiloquent speech on climate change. Climate change? It lies at the very bottom of a list of Americans' concerns (last of 21 -- Pew poll). Which means that Obama's declaration of unilateral American war on global warming, whatever the cost -- and it will be heavy -- is either highly visionary or hopelessly solipsistic. You decide:
'We Don't Live in That World Anymore'
Harry Anderson, a magician and comic (made famous by his stint as the judge on the old sitcom "Night Court"), used to have a routine where he'd promise to juggle George Washington's ax. I'm quoting from memory here, but he'd say something like: "I have here George Washington's original ax -- the one he used to chop down the cherry tree." He'd wait a beat, and then add: "Of course, a few years ago the blade broke and had to be replaced. And about a decade before that it got a new handle. But in spirit this is George's ax." Maybe that's a weird way to get into it, but that bit keeps coming to mind as I listen to pundits, reporters, politicians and activists try to compare every cause under the sun to Jim Crow, slavery and the black experience in America generally.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Gang Warfare
Ever since I first heard about the Gang of Eight, I knew that, as with the Arab Spring, nothing good would come of it. It didn't take Nostradamus to make such an obvious prediction. For one thing, the group was supposed to be bi-partisan, consisting of four Democrats and four Republicans. But one of the latter was John McCain, a lunkhead who's never met an amnesty bill he didn't like.
The Press and Dr. Faustus
In the old Dr. Faustus story, a young scholar bargains away his soul to the devil for promises of obtaining almost anything he wants. The American media has done much the same thing with the Obama administration. In return for empowering a fellow liberal, the press gave up its traditional adversarial relationship with the president. But after five years of basking in a shared progressive agenda, the tab for such ecstasy has come due, and now the media is lamenting that it has lost its soul.
The Mindset of the Left: Part III
The fundamental problem of the political left seems to be that the real world does not fit their preconceptions. Therefore they see the real world as what is wrong, and what needs to be changed, since apparently their preconceptions cannot be wrong. A never-ending source of grievances for the left is the fact that some groups are "over-represented" in desirable occupations, institutions and income brackets, while other groups are "under-represented." From all the indignation and outrage about this expressed on the left, you might think that it was impossible that different groups are simply better at different things.
Liberals vs. Imaginary Monsters
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently informed us that a national movement is afoot "to punish the unemployed." Remarkably, he went on to write, conservatives think the world is far too easy on those who can't find work, so they're on a mission to make it worse. The right, you see, is not just perpetuating flawed ideas or misguided policies or dumb economics but driven by an inexplicable desire to inflict pain on the innocent. Now, as it happens, I am acquainted with a few conservatives. And though it's hardly a scientific sampling, I've yet to hear any of them express a desire to punish the unemployed -- or minorities or women, for that matter. They may not want to offer the unemployed exactly what Krugman might. They may believe, as Krugman once did, that promising infinite relief isn't feasible or constructive. But by assigning a fiendish objective to a conservative policy, Krugman, as he often does, takes a deceitful shortcut to play on your emotions.
Independence Day Plus 237
"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." -- John Quincy Adams Freedom is not the default position of humankind; otherwise more would be free. In much of the world, dictatorship, religious persecution and the suppression of women are the norm. Freedom has a price. Its currency is the blood of those who paid the bill. They can be found at Arlington, Normandy and scores of other places of rest where Americans died so that others might live in freedom.
I Got 30 Million Reasons
We keep hearing insistent claims that if Republicans don't pass amnesty *yesterday* it will be the end of the party. Can I see the math on that? I can see why bringing in 30 million new Democratic voters would be good for the Democrats, but how does it help Republicans? Maybe conservatives shouldn't blindly trust the calculations of the guy who graduated fifth from the bottom of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy. If I were a Democrat, I would have tried to sneak this bill past Republicans by proposing amnesty only after reaching some easily rigged benchmarks. But, apparently, Chuck Schumer knows elected Republicans better than I do.
Obama Will Make Blacks Vote Republican
Back in 2008, a black conservative friend, a college professor, said he voted for then-Sen. Barack Obama for president. "Obama," he said, "is post-Jesse Jackson. No more race card. And, with a black president, young blacks will start hitting the books a lot harder. They will see that racism is no barrier to the highest possible achievement." I saw but one possible silver lining. When Obama's tax/spend/regulate policies fail to achieve the expected results, many blacks will do some soul-searching. "I always thought our 'plight' had to do with the President really not caring about us," some black voters will begin to ask. "But not any more because Obama most assuredly cares. But unemployment has gone up."
A Conversation About Race
Half a century after King spoke, it has never been clearer that the "content of one's character" is virtually irrelevant. Does racism exist in America? You betcha -- on *all* sides of the color line. Are there people with a vested interest in making sure that racism is stoked to the max? Absolutely -- their incomes and careers depend upon it. Are you ever going to convince me, or millions of other Americans, that people of different colors should be held to different standards? Even King wasn't buying that garbage.
A Nation of Dummies
I've seen the future of America -- and it's going to be dumber. I saw a glimpse of where America is headed last week when prosecutors in the George Zimmerman case put Trayvon Martin's "not-girlfriend," Rachel Jeantel, on the stand. Jeantel was on the phone with Martin only minutes before he was shot and killed in his fight with neighborhood watch volunteer Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla.
Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Dizziness of Reform
WASHINGTON -- I am immersed in research on the life of he who was called the Lion of the Senate, Edward M. Kennedy, known by one and all as Teddy. Readers of this column will be surprised to hear that I do not think his life was totally devoted to mischief. Oh, yes, there was the Chappaquiddick mishap. And one cannot ignore the slandering of Judge Robert Bork, which was at once ignorant and unconscionable. Judge Bork at the time of Teddy's outburst against him was probably indifferent to abortion and at any rate would not have made the elimination of abortion his obsession if he were raised to the Supreme Court. Obviously it was one of Teddy's obsessions, despite the teachings of his church.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Putin, Obama, and Churchill's Ghost
In one of his first actions on entering the Oval Office, President Obama famously tossed the bust of Winston Churchill out into the snow. Well, only figuratively. But he wanted to make the point that Sir Winston was no longer in favor in the U.S. Too bad. Had the young president been less vindictive, he might have learned a lot from Churchill about working with Russians. As president, Mr. Obama has tried in every way to "re-set" our relations with the Kremlin. He has given way to Putin-Medvedev-Putin on almost every side. And yet, as George Will archly notes, you only have to look at Putin's body language at their recent Belfast G-8 Summit to see that Putin has contempt for Mr. Obama.
In ? We Trust
How hard is it to lose $30,000 in government funding? Invoke God's name and find out! Louisiana Sheriff Julian Whittington had done so for 10 years as part of his local Young Marine's initiative. After a decade of voluntary prayers, the only complaint he's received is from the U.S. Justice Department -- which unfortunately happened to be funding the project.
Oh for 20
America's Traitor, Edward Snowden has allegedly applied for asylum in 20 countries. None have granted it.
Zimmerman's Fate and Looming Race Riots
With the prosecution's case unraveling, authorities nervously eye violence and carnage on the horizon.