Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Sci-fi Worthy of Malthus
In the new sci-fi movie "Oblivion," Earth's most precious resource is Tom Cruise. But running a close second (spoiler alert) is water. Aliens want it. All of it. This is old hat, science fiction-wise. In "The War of the Worlds," H.G. Wells had Martians coming to Earth to quench their thirst. The extraterrestrial lizards (cleverly disguised as human catalog models) in the 1980s TV series "V" came here to steal our water too -- though they wanted it in part to wash down the meal they intended to make of us. In the more recent "Battle: Los Angeles," pillaging Earth's oceans was the only motivation we're given for why aliens were laying waste to humanity.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
National Security at Risk with Left at Helm
The deadly "progressive" mindset that caused the intelligences failures in the Boston bombing.
Back to the '50s
Addressing a meeting of Planned Parenthood last Friday, President Obama accused pro-lifers of wanting to "turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century." Like any decade, the '50s had its problems -- racism, discrimination, sexism -- but I'll defend the '50s on other grounds, if the president will defend the decade that followed. In the '50s, for much of mainstream America drugs were something you bought at a pharmacy with a prescription; living together meant getting married first, then having babies; abortion was not legal; our culture wasn't the enemy; metal detectors were instruments one took to the beach to find loose change and schools and the streets were mostly safe.
Why Is There a Hookup Culture?
It is well known that most college students engage at one time or another in what is known as a "hookup" -- an emotionless, commitment-less sexual encounter. Yesterday, I interviewed Donna Freitas, author of "The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy." In our dialogue, we agreed that her book subtitle was accurate, but we disagreed as to the cause. Freitas, who holds a Ph.D. in religious studies, blamed it on peer pressure, the sex-drenched social media of young people and the ubiquity of pornography. I blamed three other culprits: feminism, careerism and secularism.
When 'Bush League' Is a Compliment
Naturally enough, the blowout at the Bush Presidential Center in Dallas last week was all about the Bush who gave the center its name -- George Walker Bush, aka "Bush 43," or, for convenience, Dubya. Another George Bush was on hand nevertheless. We all know him, or at least we once did. In tribute to his son, the man known as "Bush 41" -- otherwise former President George Herbert Walker Bush -- rose from his wheelchair with assistance. He spoke a few simple, direct sentences full of affirmation and pride. Then he resumed the seat to which Parkinson's, or a variation of this life-sapping malady, has consigned him.
PinocchiObama and His Ongoing Sequester Dissembling
PinocchiObama is at it again, using his weekly address to the nation to spin tall tales, demonize and scapegoat Republicans, misidentify the nation's problems, and propose the exact wrong solutions. He opened up this week's fiction with the umpteenth repetition of his empty claim that the nation's top priority "must be growing the economy, creating good jobs and rebuilding opportunity for the middle class." How many times has Obama promised to "pivot" toward a "laserlike focus" on jobs? How interesting that he chose to repeat this very same claim just as the Government Accountability Institute released a report concluding that Obama has spent twice as much time on vacation and golf as he has in economic meetings throughout his entire term in office.
The Art of the Impossible
Someone called politics "the art of the possible." But, in the era of the modern welfare state, politics is largely the art of the impossible. Those people morbid enough to keep track of politicians' promises may remember how Barack Obama said that ObamaCare would lower medical costs -- and lots of people bought it. But if you stop and think, however old-fashioned that may seem these days, do you seriously believe that millions more people can be given medical care and vast new bureaucracies created to administer payment for it, with no additional costs? Just as there is no free lunch, there is no free red tape. Bureaucrats have to eat, just like everyone else, and they need a place to live and some other amenities. How do you suppose the price of medical care can go down when the costs of new government bureaucracies are added to the costs of the medical treatment itself?
Obama's Improving His Act
"Personal charm may be Obama's last best hope" headlined the Washington Post on Monday. That charm was on ample display at the annual vanity fest called the White House Correspondents Association dinner over the weekend. The dinner always features two comedians -- one professional, and the other, the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Skilled joke writers contribute the one-liners, but delivery counts, too, and President Obama has clearly improved over the course of four years. In 2009, some of his jokes were in bad taste. He said Dick Cheney was writing his memoirs, to be titled "How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People." While a few lines were amusing -- addressing the press he said, "most of you covered me and *all* of you voted for me" -- the speech wasn't top-drawer entertainment.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Gas
I've done work for T. Boone Pickens and the Pickens Plan since 2008. I wanted to mention this at the top because we're going to be discussing natural gas. Don't ... don't go on your next email yet, this is actually pretty interesting. New data from the Environmental Protection Agency indicates that drilling for natural gas releases significantly less methane (the main component of natural gas) into the atmosphere than previously thought. Twenty percent less. This is not seen as good news for the ultra-environmentalists who fervently believe that any fuel made from fossilized plant or animal matter (coal or natural gas) is bad.
Law & Disorder
Instead of all the needless nattering about guns and bullets, there is a public safety issue that the states and the federal government could actually do something about. I refer to prisons. Why aren't we building more and bigger ones? Maybe it's just me, but that seems a lot more sensible than releasing felons because some pinheaded bureaucrat decides we should be overly concerned about the discomfort of robbers, rapists and murderers. I mean, these are the most vicious of the vicious, and we're treating them like guests at a hotel. I even know how we could start funding construction of new prisons. I suggest we simply stop providing prisoners with gymnasiums, TV sets and sex change operations. They did not, after all, go on a TV game show and win 10-20 years at a Marriott.
How Abortion Has Changed America
The trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, facing the death penalty for the deaths of four infants and one woman in his clinic, is over. America has moved on. It's exactly what the pro-abortion contingent wants. They want Gosnell out of the news because they want abortion out of the news. Ongoing discussion provokes thought about the status quo. And pro-aborts want to keep things as they are. And, they have reason to be confident.
Benghazi Report Revives Troubling Questions
"What difference, at this point, does it make?" That was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's angry response to a question about the State Department's account of the attack on the Benghazi consulate where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were murdered on Sept. 11, 2012. Her response was cheered by leftist commentators on MSNBC. Righteous indignation is so attractive. But of course it makes a difference. Hillary Clinton is leading in polls for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and general election. It's always legitimate to examine the performance of a front-runner for the presidency. And of the president himself.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Guns, Bombs and Government
If you ever doubted the inability of the federal government to protect you from harm, events of the past few weeks should have been a clincher. While Congress was dithering about a background-check-for-gun-buyers bill, President Obama was out on the hustings -- in full campaign mode -- trying to gin up support for it. Listening to the president, you could easily be misled into thinking that the bill before Congress would actually have prevented the multiple shootings at Newtown, Connecticut, and other shooting tragedies. In fact, none of the bills being considered in Congress would have prevented a single mass shooting in recent years, had they been law at the time of these incidents.
Signs of Grown-Ups in Charge
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, has told Richard Cordray not to bother. This is part of the recent evidence that government is getting some adult supervision. Barack Obama used a recess appointment to make Cordray director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But a federal circuit court has declared unconstitutional three other recess appointments *made the same day* because the Senate was not in recess. So Hensarling has told Cordray not to testify before his committee: "Absent contrary guidance from the United States Supreme Court, you do not meet the statutory requirements of a validly serving director of the CFPB, and cannot be recognized as such."
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Obama & Friends
Some people insist that guilt by association is unfair. They often dredge up Sen. Joe McCarthy as an example of what that sort of thing can lead to. But the fact is that we all judge people by those with whom they choose to associate. That's where the expression about people lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas originated. And the fact is, more often than not, McCarthy was right, although it was his own fault that he usually came off as a buffoon and drunken bully, thereby tainting even those of us who recognized that Soviet spies and apologists had long polluted our State Department, and that it was Alger Hiss and not Whitaker Chambers who was the lying scumbag. In much the same way, Obama discloses a great deal about himself by the people he selects to be his advisors. Who but a dedicated Leftist would have the likes of Valerie Jarrett, Kathleen Sebelius and Tom Perez, in his inner circle? And although I know that Obama is not responsible for electing the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, is it even possible that he's not embarrassed to be supported by a group of ignoramuses who went to Cuba a few years back and came back praising Fidel Castro?
From The Comedy Store
Carnival Cruise Lines announced it will spend three hundred million dollars to buy emergency generators for its two dozen ships. Why didn't they just get them from the White House? They generate an emergency every time they want get a bill passed.
Friday, April 26, 2013
How Would You Handle the Evidence?
Suppose you decide to build a new home. You are presented the plans, and at a considerable cost you agree to have it built. As the house is being constructed, costs overrun development. Pretty soon you are borrowing money to cover the expenses. The situation grows more dire when the builders, who assured you that your dream home would exceed expectations, tell you that the foundation was laid on sandy soil, causing it to sink. In addition the house, half way built, looks nothing like what the contractor told you it would. What would you do?
Obama & Clinton's Benghazi Lies Exposed
New tell-all report unveils the administration’s deceit.
Assaulting Innocuous Christians and Coddling Terrorists
America's political and cultural left is, step by step, demonizing and marginalizing Christians and Christian values, to the point that even the congenitally apathetic should be concerned. Fox News' Todd Starnes reports that the U.S. military has blocked access to the Southern Baptist Convention's website on an undetermined number of military bases because it supposedly includes "hostile content." Just a few weeks before, as noted in this space, an Army briefing labeled evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics as religious extremists. The information about the Southern Baptist Convention's website surfaced when an Air Force officer reported that he was unable to log on to SBC.net and that he had received a message that his Internet usage was being monitored and logged because he had tried to visit a blocked website.