Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Enemies Foreign and Domestic
Every Member of Congress and commissioned officer (civilian and military) in federal service as well as every enlisted service member takes an oath that requires they promise to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic ..." This oath is required by statute. The Presidential oath, the only oath in the Constitution, does not contain that language: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Planned Parenthood Targets Black Women
In 1854, Abraham Lincoln confronted America's first "pro-choice" Senator, Stephen Douglas, in a speech in Peoria, Illinois. "Choice" then was about slavery, not abortion. Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which addressed the sticky question of how to deal with the legality of slavery in new territories entering the union. The Kansas-Nebraska Act resolved this by "choice." Residents would vote to decide if slavery would be legal in their territory.
Can Gabriel Gomez Crack the Code?
It's the holy grail that Massachusetts Republicans have been seeking for years: the blueprint for getting candidates with an "R" after their names get elected to statewide office. There were those who thought Scott Brown had solved the riddle after his electrifying special-election victory in 2010 -- only to see him lose decisively to Elizabeth Warren less than three years later. Now comes another special Senate election, and Republicans have another intriguing standard-bearer. Can Gabriel Gomez crack the code? Broadly speaking, there are two contending theories of how the GOP can win in deep-blue Massachusetts. One school holds that Republicans here do best when they run as reach-across-the-aisle moderates, taking liberal stands on social issues and distancing themselves as much as possible from the national party's more conservative brand. The other holds that in an environment dominated by liberals, Republicans can succeed only by creating a contrast: Rather than hold themselves out as a paler shade of Democrat, they should focus on the values that made them Republicans in the first place.
So Much BS, So Little Time
Over 30 states have voted against recognizing same-sex marriages, and of the few states where it's legal, most have had it mandated by judicial bullies, not through the election process. But in spite of all that, gays and other leftists insist that within a few years, homosexual marriages will be legal in all 50 states. They base that conclusion on the polls that show that young people favor the silly notion. What these seers ignore is that as people mature, get married, have children, as often as not, they discard the faddish beliefs they held in their twenties. After all, many of today's parents experimented with drugs, booze and sex, in their own youth. That doesn't mean they approve of their own sons and daughters doing the same. Not even if they're named Clinton, Bush or Obama.
Fewer Border Crossings, E-Verify System Justify Bill
Many loud voices in the debate over immigration have been insisting that effective border enforcement must precede any steps that legalize the status of current illegal immigrants.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Why Judicial Activism Matters
WASHINGTON -- But under today's regulatory state, which Madison could hardly have imagined, the legislature, although still a source of much mischief, is not the principal threat to liberty. Suppose a federal executive department flagrantly abused its regulatory powers for the unmistakable purpose of suppressing truthful speech that annoys the government. If you assume the Supreme Court would rectify this assault on the First Amendment's core protection, you would be mistaken. The government has done this and the court has declined to do its duty to enforce constitutional limits. Herewith an illustration of why conservatives must abandon their imprecise opposition to "judicial activism" and advocate for more vigorous judicial engagement in protecting liberty from the vortex of the regulatory state.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
April Jobs Aside, We're Falling Behind
The really good news from April's employment report is that all the pessimistic, end-of-the-world, spring-swoon forecasters were wrong. It wasn't a fabulous report. But it handily beat Wall Street expectations. Stock markets soared on the news. The bad news, however, is that the U.S. continues to fall further behind its own long-term trends for jobs and economic growth. And lately, hours worked -- a key labor measure -- have begun to fall. First the good: Nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 last month, with private payrolls up 176,000. And the prior two months were revised higher by a net 114,000. The unemployment rate fell slightly, from 7.6 percent to 7.5 percent.
A Lot of Dollars and No Sense
Even though everyone knows that canceling White House tours to prove the severity of the Sequester cuts was a scam perpetrated by Obama, it didn't prevent Joe Biden from blowing 460,000 of our tax dollars for one day in London and another $585,000 on a one-day stopover in Paris. The arrogance of this administration is seemingly unlimited. When the French revolted against their royals in the 18th century, they did so with less justification than we have. George Washington was offered the kingship of America and he refused the crown. But that hasn't prevented future presidents, as well as vice-presidents, Republicans and Democrats, from behaving like royalty.
From The Comedy Store
Bill Clinton spoke at the Bush Library opening. He joked that he's so close to the Bushes he's become the black sheep son of the family. It wasn't enough for Bill Clinton to be the first black U.S. president, now he has to be the first black in the Bush family.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Unravelling the Boston Terror Plot
The administration's "lone-wolf" theory takes one devastating blow after another.
Less Is More
In spite of a lot of talk and promises, President Obama is one pick away from filling out his Cabinet-level team for his second term. The scorecard? According to the Washington Post's Emily Heil and Al Kamen, "The number of white men in Cabinet-level jobs increased from eight in the first round to likely 10 in this term ... and one fewer woman than there were in his first." Moreover, according to the two writers, the President didn't do very well in "maintaining diversity," "And for those who expected more minorities -- especially Latinos -- not good at all."
Don't Capitulate to North Korea
The sentencing of an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea's infamous prison camps has escalated the cold war between the totalitarian regime and the United Status. Since assuming his role of head of state following his father's death, Kim Jong-un has repeatedly ratcheted up tensions between his nation and ours. Since he became North Korea's "supreme leader," Kim has ordered nuclear and missile tests and made bellicose threats against the United States and South Korea. But his latest action shows that he is growing increasingly desperate to provoke a response from the U.S. What Kim wants is not war with the U.S. or South Korea. Unless both he and his top military officers are totally deluded, they know they cannot win such a conflict. What Kim wants is aid from the West -- and for good reason. His people are starving again, and the country's economy is in shambles.
PC and the NBA
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III started tongues wagging when he posted this cryptic message on Twitter: "In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness." This was in response to liberal activists showing their rabid intolerance by demanding, so obnoxiously, that the Washington Redskins be renamed the "Redtails." But the sentiment absolutely fits the reaction to professional basketball player Jason Collins proclaiming, "I'm black and I'm gay" in Sports Illustrated. What? A gay athlete? Stop the presses!
The Left's Sick Fetish for Cop-Killing Radicals
There's a stomach-turning segment of the American population that sees surviving Boston bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a romantic maverick. The New York Times mused about the accused jihadist's "Holden Caulfield-like adolescent alienation." Pop singer Amanda Palmer wrote a fan girl "Poem for Dzhokhar." An adoring "Free Jahar" movement thrives on social media. Fringe, you say? Think again. The fetish for cop-killing fugitives and cop-hating radicals is a mainstay of Hollywood, academia, the liberal media and Democratic Party circles. It has persisted for decades. It reared its head on May Day with rock-hurling anarchists in Seattle and D.C. shouting "F**k the pigs" and kicking cops. And consider the exaltation of the woman just named to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list, Joanne Chesimard.
Muslims Versus Islamists
The Obama administration is quite worried about stereotyping Muslims as violence-prone terrorists. They fear that any acknowledgment that some Muslims commit acts of terror because they are religiously motivated (however twisted the terrorists' interpretation of Islam may be) is to encourage a backlash of intolerance (at best) and violence (at worst) against Muslim Americans. It's not crazy to worry about anti-Muslim violence. There have been vicious attacks on innocent Muslims. Last November, a Queens, N.Y., man was stabbed six times as he stood outside his mosque by an attacker who shouted "F------ Muslim, I'll kill you." In the wake of the Boston bombing, a drunk Northern Virginia man reportedly attacked and broke the jaw of a cab driver (an Army reservist who served in Iraq and at Guantanamo) after snarling "If you're a Muslim, you're a (expletive) jihadist. You are just as bad as the rest of them."
Being Presidential
WASHINGTON -- On April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York, George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. He and the members of both houses of Congress then assembled in the unfinished Senate chamber, where Washington took less than 20 minutes to deliver the first inaugural address. Precisely 225 years later -- at the same time of day -- the 44th president of the United States wandered into the Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House for a surreal 48-minute exchange with members of the media. The difference between those two presidential presentations is stark -- and alarming -- for what was said, what was left unsaid and the manner in which they were conveyed. Observers described Washington's delivery as "humble," even "anxious." Some -- noting more than a dozen references to "prayer," "divine blessing," "providence," the "Almighty Being" and the "Great Author of every public and private good" -- said the new president was "reverent." None of those matches the demeanor of Barack Obama during this week's seance. Instead of invoking the favor of God, our head of state sought to fix blame for his failures.
Obama: The Fall
WASHINGTON -- Fate is fickle, power cyclical, and nothing is new under the sun. Especially in Washington, where after every election the losing party is sagely instructed to confess sin, rend garments and rethink its principles lest it go the way of the Whigs. And where the victor is hailed as the new Caesar, facing an open road to domination. And where Barack Obama, already naturally inclined to believe his own loftiness, graciously accepted the kingly crown and proceeded to ride his re-election success to a crushing victory over the GOP at the fiscal cliff, leaving a humiliated John Boehner & Co. with nothing but naked tax hikes.
Is the Hard Left at War With the American Idea?
I think the current controversy over immigration reform points to a larger issue in America today, which is that Americans are essentially split on the very idea of what America is and should be. It used to be that Americans mostly agreed that in order to attain citizenship, immigrants had to not only come to this country legally but also demonstrate, after training and study in the American system, that they believed in the unique United States Constitution and embraced what it means to be an American. Though that still occurs in the naturalization process, we seem to have abandoned it altogether in connection with the immigration debate. What sense does it make that we seek to instill a love of America in those earnestly seeking to acquire legal citizenship through the proper procedures but ignore it altogether in our rush to legalize 11 million illegals?
Sanitized Society Puts Hygiene Hypothesis to the Test
Is the American body politic suffering from an autoimmune disease? The "hygiene hypothesis" is the scientific theory that the rise in asthma and other autoimmune maladies stems from the fact that babies are born into environments that are too clean. Our immune systems need to be properly educated by being exposed early to germs, dirt, whatever. When you consider that for most of human evolutionary history, we were born under shady trees or, if we were lucky, in caves or huts, you can understand how unnatural Lysol-soaked hospitals and microbially baby-proofed homes are. The point is that growing up in a sanitary environment might cause our immune systems to freak out about things that under normal circumstances we'd just shrug off.