Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Forecast: No End in Sight to AGW Excuses
You can't make this stuff up. The climate change "authority" has published several articles on how global warming is resulting in an increase in Southern Hemisphere ice, while the northern ice cap is supposedly set to disappear by 2050 -- even as global sea ice is back above normal. I do not believe it's a coincidence that the articles are being released as the Northern Hemisphere fights its way out of what seems to be a never ending winter in some places. Here in the States, the plains are having the opposite weather of last spring, with record cold and snow so late in the season. Last spring was touted as an example of global warming with the record warm March here in the US, even though the *globe was .106C below normal!* Let's take this one at a time.
Gosnell's Clinic of Horrors
Did you catch The Rev. Jesse Jackson the other night on CNN demanding a Senate hearing into why regulators never cracked down on that gruesome abortion clinic in Philadelphia? Did you hear Al Sharpton on MSNBC saying that if Dr. Gosnell had been killing white babies in Bryn Mawr, his women's clinic would have been shut down 30 years ago? Did you see the tears in Oprah's eyes when she read that passage from the grand jury report describing Gosnell's abortion mill as "a baby charnel house" that "regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy -- and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors"? Didn't think so.
Why the Romeikes' Fight Is Our Fight
The members of the Romeike (roh-MIKE-uh) family are refugees from Germany. They came here in 2008 and sought asylum. They claimed they were being persecuted in Germany. Father Uwe and his wife Hannelore have documented what happened in their native land. Their story was corroborated in an important law review article by Miki Kawashima published in Boston. Imagine this scene: In October 2006, "German police officers entered the Romeike home without a written court order, forcibly removing the Romeike children, and escorted them to a public school." German authorities laid heavy fines -- upwards of $10,000 -- on the Romeikes. They threatened to take the children away. The Romeikes fled to America, this home of freedom.
If Rubio's Amnesty Is So Great, Why Is He Lying?
When Republicans start lying like Democrats, you can guess they are pushing an idea that's bad for America. During his William Ginsburg-like tour of the Sunday talk shows last weekend, Sen. Marco Rubio was the Mount Vesuvius of lies about his immigration bill. Here is how Rubio explained the powerful border-enforcing mechanism in his bill on "Fox News Sunday," which he denied was merely a meaningless goal: "Basically, Homeland Security will have five years to meet that goal. If after five years, Homeland Security has not met that number, it will trigger the Border Commission, who will then take over this issue for them."
America's Enemies Are Colorblind
Investigators cannot yet tell whether the bombings at the Boston marathon, which so far have killed three and wounded more than 170, are the product of domestic or foreign terrorist(s). But whether foreign or domestic, America's enemies are colorblind. In supporting President Barack Obama's re-election, The New York Times editorialized about how his smarter, more respectful foreign policy helped to re-brand America in the eyes of the world: "(Obama) introduced a measure of military restraint after the Bush years and helped repair America's badly damaged reputation in many countries from the low levels to which it had sunk by 2008." Our enemies don't care.
Applying for Third World Status
If the U.S. isn't yet a third world nation, it's not because we're not trying. As if the Congressional Black Caucus isn't bad enough, there is an even larger group calling itself the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It has even more members, including the entire Black Caucus. Its co-chairmen are Keith Ellison, who chose to be sworn into office with his hand on the Koran, and Raul Grijalva, whose resume includes having been a leader of both the racist Raza Unida Party and the Chicano Liberation Committee. As if that's not bad enough, the Vice-Chair is Sheila Jackson Lee, the Whip is Barbara Lee, and Bernie Sanders, the only left-winger honest enough to identify himself as a Socialist, is the lone Senate member. This group is so far to the Left, that even Henry Waxman, one of a minority of House Democrats who actually voted to continue funding ACORN even after those scandalous videos were made public by the late Andrew Breitbart, *isn't* a member.
Not Such a Hot Idea: Liberal and Conservative Parties
"More tears are shed over answered prayers," the 16th century nun St. Teresa of Avila is supposed to have said, "than over unanswered ones." So it may be appropriate to shed a tear for two or three generations of American political scientists whose prayers have been answered -- in a way that most political scientists today regret. The prayers of the political scientists in the 1940s, 1950s and into the 1960s was that our party system would evolve into one with one clearly liberal party and one clearly conservative party.
Coming Up Short on Dr. Gosnell
The trial of notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell -- as close to a demonic presence as anything this country will ever see -- was almost a month old when the network blackout finally ended. CNN broke its silence, as did CBS. National newspapers sent reporters to the trial for the first time. They started covering it only because of a national outrage that they would so deliberately withhold this horror story from the public -- for political reasons. Kirsten Powers in USA Today insisted: "This should be front page news. When Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, there was non-stop media hysteria ... Yet, accusations of babies having their heads severed -- a major human rights story if there ever was one -- (don't) make the cut."
Bombed in Boston
President Obama rightly asked us not to "jump to conclusions" about motives or responsibility for the two bombs that exploded Monday at the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 170. That request was pre-emptively ignored. Some couldn't wait to project their biases and political agendas on this latest act of terror. In a tweet Monday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof blamed Senate Republicans for blocking confirmation of a new ATF director. MSNBC's Chris Matthews said, "Normally, domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right..." Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, echoed Matthews on "The Lead" with Jake Tapper.
Postmodern Prudes
More than 500 people were murdered in Chicago last year. Yet Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel still found time to berate the fast food franchise Chick-fil-A for not sharing "Chicago values" -- apparently because its founder does not approve of gay marriage. Two states have legalized marijuana, with more to come. Yet social taboos against tobacco smoking make it nearly impossible to light up a cigarette in public places. Marijuana, like alcohol, causes far greater short-term impairment than does nicotine. But legal cigarette smoking is now seen as a corporate-sponsored, uncool and dirty habit that leads to long-term health costs for society at large -- in a way homegrown, hip and mostly illegal pot smoking apparently does not.
From Boston to Haymarket to Bill Ayers
WASHINGTON -- When asked on left-leaning MSNBC why President Barack Obama refrained from describing the Boston bombings as a "terrorist attack" David Axelrod, Obama's longtime political advisor, readily saw a political opportunity. The blood had not yet been washed away from the streets. We had yet to count up the casualties. Yet Axelrod saw a political opening, an opportunity to advance one or another of his pet political issues. So he said, "I'm sure what was going through the president's mind is -- we really don't know who did this -- it was tax day." Yes, tax day! This is not the response of a normal mind. A normal mind would not, given the promiscuity of public bombings in the Middle East and now another bombing here in America, think it was provoked by "tax day." Conceivably the bombs in Boston were the work of small-government libertarians or of Tea Partiers. They could even be the work of vegetarians, but that was not the question. Axelrod was asked why the president was not describing the bombings as a terrorist attack. It certainly looked more like the work of terrorists -- either left-wing lunatics or right-wing lunatics -- than tax protesters.
Political Kin, and Politically Dangerous
WASHINGTON -- The regulatory, administrative state, which progressives champion, is generally a servant of the strong, for two reasons. It responds to financially powerful and politically sophisticated factions. And it encourages rent-seekers to exploit opportunities for concentrated benefits and dispersed costs (e.g., agriculture subsidies confer sums on large agribusinesses by imposing small costs on 316 million Americans). Such government inevitably means executive government and the derogation of the legislative branch, both of which produce exploding government debt. By explaining these perverse effects of progressivism, the Hudson Institute's Christopher DeMuth explains contemporary government's cascading and reinforcing failures.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Things Will be the Same Again
Scarcely had the terrible news from Copley Square broken when the somber prediction began to be heard everywhere: Boston will never be the same. The Marathon will never be the same. Patriots Day will never be the same. After such a gory and public atrocity on what is normally such an upbeat, festive day, that was a wholly understandable reaction. "There goes another piece of our freedom, another sacred and oh-so-local institution," wrote the Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy in his column yesterday. The horrifying images and grisly details of the first successful terrorist bombing on US soil since Sept. 11, 2001, are now indelibly etched into Boston's memory. The dead will soon be laid to rest, the shattered glass and blood will be cleaned up. But the heartbreak and shock of this week's attack will cast a shadow over the city for a long, long time -- never more so than on each Patriots Day to come.
Toxic Government by Democrats: Detroit
Minorities and the poor have suffered the most under decades of progressive rule.
The Thin Veneer of Civilization
The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary defines the word "civilization" thus: >An ideal state of human culture characterized by complete absence of barbarism and non-rational behavior. In the United States, we pretend to live our entire lives in a constant "State of Positive Assumptions." The central assumption is we DO live in a country "characterized by complete absence of barbarism and non-rational behavior." In truth, the normal Assumption should be: We're never far from trouble, as trouble seems to come our way just about every 20 years.
Falling Gold Is a Good Thing
In the last two days, gold has plunged so deep that it's being called the worst drop -- at least in percentage terms -- in 30 years. That brings us back to the early Ronald Reagan period, when falling gold was regarded as a *good* thing. Back then, lower gold showed inflation coming down after the horrible 1970s. It also showed confidence in the economy recovering and greater respect for the dollar. Over the next two decades, in the '80s and '90s, gold basically dropped in round numbers from $800 an ounce all the way to $250. Stocks soared. So did jobs and the economy. It was one hell of a good period.
The Boston Bombing and the Nature of Evil
In the aftermath of the murderous terrorist attacks on the Boston Marathon this week, commentators across the landscape have rightly praised the heroic first responders and police, the civilians who ran to help and the civilians who ran to give blood. Many have also suggested that the presence of these heroes shows that America will never give in to evil, that the presence of good in our world outweighs the presence of evil. Nothing could be more wrongheaded. Everyday good will generally outweigh everyday evil. Finding people to respond with goodness to magnificent tragedies is not difficult -- most people will, if faced with the carnage of a young child maimed by a bomb, try to help regardless of circumstance. Finding people willing to maim children is a far more difficult task than finding people willing to give blood for that same child.
America's Empty Slogan: 'See Something, Say Something'
In brief remarks to the nation yesterday on the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama said that "we all have a part to play in alerting authorities. If you see something suspicious, speak up." In Washington, D.C., electronic signs urged commuters to be on guard. Law enforcement, big-city mayors and security experts all echoed that famous post-terrorism refrain: "If you see something, say something." But who really means it? In post-9/11 America, the truth is that our politically correct guardians only want you to see, say or do something if it can't be construed by grievance-mongers as racist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, nativist or any other "-ist" or "-ic."
Hillary Clinton: Al-Qaida Got Arms Out of Post-Revolutionary Libya
After President Barack Obama decided to intervene militarily in the Libyan revolution -- and after he reportedly signed a finding authorizing covert action there -- weapons went from Libya to Syrian rebels, Algerian terrorists and al-Qaida in Mali. We know this because of things Reuters, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported in March 2011 and because of something then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her final testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January. Obama announced he had ordered the U.S. military to intervene in Libya's revolution on March 19, 2011, stressing that U.S. military involvement would come exclusively via air.
Checking the Logic of Background Checks
Would a Broader Screening Requirement for Gun Buyers Reduce Violent Crime?