Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
One Man's Hitler Fascination
Here's a story you probably haven't heard, unless you read Drudge or Breitbart. The Independent in the U.K. has published a story (from which I pull freely), as have a couple of Jewish outlets. That's all I can find. You tell me if it qualifies as "news" that the "news " media should be covering. It involves a young man who would someday become one of the best-known and most powerful men in the world. A new book is out. It explores recently uncovered diaries kept by this young man. The journal entries document his fascination with Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
Obamacare 'Navigators': Another Sebelius Snitch Brigade?
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius controls a $54 million slush fund to hire thousands of "navigators," "in-person assisters" and counselors who will propagandize and enroll Obamacare recipients in government-run health insurance exchanges. This nanny-state navigator corps is the Mother of all Community Organizing Boondoggles. It's also yet another Obama threat to Americans' privacy. A reminder about Secretary Sebelius' sordid snooping history is in order here. In August 2009, HHS and the White House Office of Health Reform called on their ground troops to report on fellow citizens who dared to criticize their federal health care takeover. Team Obama issued an all-points bulletin on the taxpayer-funded White House website soliciting informant emails. Remember?
The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie
The alleged butcher of the off-duty British soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, defended his carving up of a living human being by claiming that he was engaging in "an eye for an eye" because the British army is killing Muslims in Afghanistan. Normally there is no reason to respond to the justifications offered by terrorists and other murderers of the innocent. But in this case it is important to do so because much of the Muslim world resonates to this argument and because much of the world's left offers this argument.
It Takes Two to End a War
They say all is fair in love and war (I'm skeptical), but that doesn't mean war and love have much in common. When it comes to love, both parties need to be in on it. In war, all it takes is one to tango. Sure, if the non-belligerent party doesn't want to fight, it can try to talk, or cut a deal, or even surrender. But it's up to the guys willing to kill to decide how things will proceed. This is particularly relevant when two parties are at war and one side wants to stop. As legendary Marine Gen. James Mattis has said, "No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote."
Americans Deserve the IRS
Individually, Americans do not deserve to be subservient to such a fear-mongering, intimidating and powerful agency as the Internal Revenue Service; but collectively, we do. Let's look at it. Since the 1791 ratification of our Constitution, until well into the 1920s, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product never exceeded 5 percent, except during war. Today federal spending is 25 percent of our GDP. State and local government spending is about 15 percent of the GDP. That means government spends more than 40 cents of each dollar we earn. If we add government's regulatory burden, which is simply a disguised form of taxation, the government take is more than 50 percent of what we produce.
Of Sexual Assault and the Price of Cultural Decay
Score another triumph for modern American culture -- the sexual assault scandal now racking the military. A "scourge," Defense Secretary Charles Hagel called it, speaking at West Point. "A national disgrace," says Speaker John Boehner, reacting to the Pentagon's estimates of 26,000 assaults typed as sexual last year. Naturally, President Obama had plenty to say, lecturing Pentagon leaders on the matter: a crime made worse by making the military "less effective than it can be." The elements of the matter have been all over the news: Ironically enough, in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, when ancient convention calls for Americans to celebrate, rather than deplore, their warriors. Of whom, yes, a distinct minority are at the center of the scandal.
Obama Declares War on Terror Over
In a hallmark speech last week, President Obama unilaterally declared the war on terror over. The end of that war, Obama stated, meant we could return to the halcyon days of the Clinton-era law enforcement, during which America experienced a spate of terrorist attacks ranging from the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 to the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 to the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 to the USS Cole bombing in 2000. What justified Obama's announcement?
Obama Debates the War on Terror With Himself
Last week, a guy named Barack Obama gave a speech in which he expressed appropriate concern about the abuse of government power in the name of fighting terrorism. Too bad he's not in a position to do anything about it. Obama, who used to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, quoted James Madison's warning that "no nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." Yet by declaring war against al-Qaida and its shifting and proliferating allies and offshoots -- groups that will not disappear or surrender anytime in the foreseeable future -- he has reinforced the rationale for a never-ending military struggle that sacrifices civil liberties on the altar of national security.
Gas Myths
Plan to drive more this summer? Annoyed by the price of gas? Complaining that oil companies rip you off? I say, shut up. Even if gas costs $4 per gallon, we should *thank* Big Oil. Think what they have to do to bring us gas. Oil must be sucked out of the ground, sometimes from war zones or deep beneath oceans. The drills now bend and dig sideways through as much as 7 miles of earth. What they discover must be pumped through billion-dollar pipelines and often put in monstrously expensive tankers to ship across the ocean.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
The Bullying Pulpit
We have truly entered the world of "Alice in Wonderland" when the CEO of a company that pays $16 million a day in taxes is hauled up before a Congressional subcommittee to be denounced on nationwide television for not paying more. Apple CEO Tim Cook was denounced for contributing to "a worrisome federal deficit," according to Senator Carl Levin -- one of the big-spending liberals in Congress who has had a lot more to do with creating that deficit than any private citizen has.
Two Prime Ministers
Following the hacking death of a British soldier by two alleged Islamic extremists, Prime Minister David Cameron said, "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act." Winston Churchill thought otherwise, but he lived in a time before political correctness ran amok and drew on his personal experiences serving in the Sudan and in the Crimean War. In his 1899 book "The River War," Churchill described what he witnessed in countries where Islam ruled: "Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith."
Obama's Minimum Wage, Insurance Mandates Will Create Labor Market Tsunami
President Obama recently proposed raising the federal minimum wage. If the president gets his way, the mandate will jump from its current $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour and be indexed for inflation. In addition, next January the employer mandate goes into effect, which will increase labor costs even more -- all thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of the minimum benefit package that everyone will be required to have will be $4,750 for individuals and $12,250 for families. That translates into a minimum health benefit of $2.28 an hour for full-time single workers and about $3 an hour for someone working 30 hour a week. For family coverage, the cost will be $5.89 an hour for a 40-hour-a week employee and $7.85 an hour for a 30-hour-a-week employee.
Monday, May 27, 2013
More Benghazi Whistleblowers Ready to Step Forward
An administration stands on the brink of disgrace.
E.W. Jackson and the Republican Party
Some 25 years ago I changed my life. A visit inside a church opened my eyes to the destructive life I was living, financed by welfare checks generously provided by American taxpayers. I got off welfare, went to work, got politically active and became a Republican. I didn't become a Republican because of what the party looked like. I became a Republican because of what the party stood for.
Memorial Day - 2013
[This is the 12th anniversary of this edition of Mullings which was first written for Memorial Day, 2001 -- four months before 9/11. Our son, Reed, was a member of the team in charge of President George W. Bush's visit to Arlington Memorial Cemetery on that day.]
The Most Useless Job in the State
Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray is quitting his job next week, and I know how deeply worrying this must be to the good people of Massachusetts: How can we hope to survive the next 19 months with a vacancy in the lieutenant governor's office? As Governor Deval Patrick said when Murray announced his resignation on Wednesday: "His departure leaves a very big hole in our team.... This is no small loss."
Why the Left and the Right Can't Talk to Each Other About Health Care
Josh Barro is the latest in a long line of left-of-center critics who fault Republicans for not being real partners in the health care debate. He writes: >Liberals are tired of being lectured by conservatives about what's wrong with their approach to health policy because conservatives haven't been a productive partner in seeking a fix. Josh is half right. Yes, the left gave us a "fix" in the form of ObamaCare. But I believe it's fair to say that no serious effort was made to work with Republicans. Remember: ObamaCare didn't get one Republican vote on final passage. That's not surprising. A few years back, when the Republicans pushed through the Part D drug benefit under Medicare, I don't think a single Democrat offered to help with the legislation.
Implausible Deniability
Generally, when it comes to White House scandals such as Watergate and Iran-Contra, the relevant questions are what the president knew and when he knew it. However, when it comes to Obama and Benghazi; the monitoring of the AP reporters; the targeting of Fox's James Rosen; and the IRS's intimidation of conservative groups; the questions appear to be what did Obama *not* know and when did he *not* know it? Again, most presidents want to at least appear to be on top of things; Obama wants us to believe he's merely a bystander just waiting for Jay Carney, dressed up as a cop, to come along and say, "Let's just move along. Nothing to see here."