Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
When Washington Was Really Grim
WASHINGTON -- "When I first met Richard Nixon," Robert Bork says in the book he completed a few weeks before his death in December, "I could see in his expression the conviction that someone had blundered badly." With the dry wit that, together with his mastery of the dry martini, made him delightful company, Bork says the president, who "almost visibly recoiled," evidently considered his red beard emblematic of Ivy League left-wingery. Nixon probably thought the barbarians were within the gates. They were. On Nixon's staff.
Spending Cuts May Be Answer to Slow Economic Growth
The Dow set a new high on Tuesday, but the larger economy is a different story. What if today's sluggish economic growth turns out to be the new normal? That's the unsettling question asked by some of our most creative economic thinkers. And the people asking it are not necessarily partisan opponents of the Obama administration. They argue that economic growth rates were disappointing even before the financial collapse and recession of 2007-09. Take Tyler Cowen, author of the e-book (belatedly published in print) "The Great Stagnation." Economic growth is the product of increases in the labor supply and productivity, he argues uncontroversially.
Maybe Republicans Should Try Being Popular
Republicans don't control the U.S. Senate and they don't have the presidency. Instead of wasting time and energy in doomed efforts to defeat President Obama's Cabinet nominees or sucking up to illegal aliens, why not focus on issues where Republicans can be off-the-charts popular while forcing Democrats into taking stupid positions? After the slaughters at Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and Newtown, Conn., every sentient person knows we need to do something about institutionalizing the mentally ill and -- at the very least -- keeping guns out of their hands. That happens to be impossible right now. Involuntary commitments even for the severely psychotic went the way of vagrancy laws. Although federal law technically requires background checks to include records of mental illness, the states and mental health industry refuse to provide that information.
Stupidity as a Birthright
In case you missed it, on his first mission as Secretary of State, John Kerry boasted to a group of Germans "In America, you have a right to be stupid." A right?! For years now, the Democrats have relied on it to win elections. As for horse-faced John Kerry, were it not for the terminally stupid, he would have spent the last 30 years not in the Senate, but in a stable. Speaking of stupid, I believe that Barack Obama has badly miscalculated the aftereffects of the Sequester. Perhaps it's because he, himself, is always campaigning that he has confused 2013 with an election year. If the results of his notion of across the board cuts in various federal agencies are half as terrible as he's been warning, it's he who will be blamed. And not just because Bob Woodward said that it was all his idea, but because his waging war on Congress is a truly dumb strategy.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
North Korea Threatens War
Another global hotspot festers, while American leadership wanes.
Obama Drops His Family Friendly Mask
Just four years ago, candidate Barack Obama said he believed that marriage was between a man and a woman. "And God is in the mix." Who moved? Say what you will about President Barack Obama's policies, millions of Americans voted for the man in no small part because his family represents a much yearned-for ideal. How much happier Americans would be if all our children lived in a stable, loving, married family with a mom and a dad -- like the Obama family. Many writers expressed the hope that having these real-life Huxtables in the White House would turn around many devastating pathologies in America's cities -- and in our rural areas, too.
Americans Speak Every Language, but Only English Unites Us
Gabriel Gomez, one of three Republicans vying for the US Senate seat vacated by John Kerry, speaks Spanish like a native and seems intent on making sure every voter knows it. The Cohasset businessman, a former Navy SEAL commander, announced his candidacy last month in an online video that opened in Spanish: *"Me llamo Gabriel Gomez, y yo estoy anunciando que voy a correr para ser senador de los Estados Unidos."* Then he switched to English: "For those of you who don't speak Spanish, today I'm announcing my run for US Senate." He did the same thing as he hit the campaign trail for the first time last week. At an American Legion post in Quincy, he began by introducing himself *en español*, only afterward acknowledging "those of you who don't speak Spanish."
Boehner Plans to Permit and Fund Obama's Attack on Religious Freedom
When the Obama administration finalized its regulation requiring health care plans to provide cost-free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs, House Speaker John Boehner -- as this column noted last year -- was one of those who correctly argued that the regulation was an attack on religious freedom and that Congress must not let it stand. On Wednesday, in craven contradiction to that position, Boehner plans to lead the Republican-controlled House in enacting a continuing resolution that will fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2013 and that will provide the administration with the money to carry out its attack on religious liberty while leaving Barack Obama's claimed authority to do so unchallenged.
The Coddling of College Hate Crime Hoaxers
American college campuses are the most fertile grounds for fake hate. They're marinated in identity politics and packed with self-indulgent, tenured radicals suspended in the 1960s. In the name of enlightenment and tolerance, these institutions of higher learning breed a corrosive culture of left-wing self-victimization. Take my alma mater, Oberlin College. Please. This week, the famously "progressive" college in Ohio made international headlines when it shut down classes after a series of purported hate crimes. According to the Oberlin Review (a student newspaper I once wrote for), anti-black and anti-gay vandalism/"hate speech" have plagued the campus since Feb. 9. "'Whites Only' was written above a water fountain, 'Nigger Oven' was written inside the elevator, and 'No Niggers' was written on a bathroom door" at one dormitory, according to the publication.
The Malicious President Tries to Make America Pay
For years, conservatives have been split on whether President Barack Obama is incompetent or whether he is malicious. Mitt Romney ably made the argument for incompetence during the 2012 election cycle, when he stated that President Obama was ---. Romney's view symbolized the majority view on the issue. Until now. With the advent of sequestration, it is now clear that President Obama is willing to throw Americans under the bus in pursuit of his vision of a transformed America. He is more than content to break eggs to make his utopian omelet. That uncomfortable reality became clear during the sequestration debate when Obama showed zero predilection for actual negotiation, and instead decided to roam the countryside babbling about the End Times should the 2.4 percent reduction to future spending he originally proposed take place.
Spare the Hype of 'Budget Armageddon'
Barack Obama's strategy going into the scheduled sequestration was to hit the panic button, over and over again, putting the very Obama-friendly media into a heavy rotation of disaster metaphors. "Hours, now, until massive government cuts go into effect that could impact every American. Jobs vaporizing, flights delayed, even criminals walking free," warned ABC morning anchor Josh Elliott. On screen were the words "BUDGET ARMAGEDDON." The only people being released from jails were about 2,000 illegal immigrants who were facing deportation. The Department of Homeland Security released them, citing "looming budget cuts." That's just more gamesmanship. Put another quarter in the panic jukebox.
Sequester: Not Even a Cut
If you're reading this, you've survived the "sequester" cuts! That may surprise you, since President Obama likened the sequester to taking a "meat cleaver" to government, causing FBI agents to be furloughed, prosecutors to let criminals escape and medical research to grind to a halt! The media hyped it, too. The NBC Nightly News said, "The sequester could cripple air travel, force firefighter layoffs -- even kick preschoolers out of child care!" The truth is that the terrifying sequester cuts weren't even cuts. They were merely a small reduction in government's planned *increase* in spending. A very small reduction.
Economic Mobility
Most people are not even surprised any more when they hear about someone who came here from Korea or Vietnam with very little money, and very little knowledge of English, who nevertheless persevered and rose in American society. Nor are we surprised when their children excel in school and go on to professional careers. Yet, in utter disregard of such plain facts, so-called "social scientists" do studies which conclude that America is no longer a land of opportunity, and that upward mobility is a "myth." Even when these studies have lots of numbers in tables and equations that mimic the appearance of science, too often their conclusions depend on wholly arbitrary assumptions.
Mandated Wages and Discrimination
Let's work through an example. Suppose 100 yards of fence could be built using one of two techniques. You could hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each, or you could hire one high-skilled worker for $40. Either way, you get the same 100 yards of fence built. If you sought maximum profits, which production technique would you employ? I'm guessing that you'd hire one high-skilled worker and pay him $40 rather than hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each. Your labor costs would be $40 rather than $45. Suppose the high-skilled worker came into your office and demanded $55 a day. What would be your response? You'd probably tell him to go play in the traffic and hire the three low-skilled workers. After all, hiring the three low-skilled workers for $45, to get the same 100 yards of fence, would be cheaper than the $55 a day now demanded by the high-skilled worker.
It's 'I Told You So' on Obamacare
"What we've learned through the course of this program is that this is really not a sensible way for the health care system to be run." That was Gary Cohen, director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. He was talking about the apparently surprising need to halt enrollments in a program designed as a temporary bridge for people with pre-existing conditions who couldn't wait to be covered by the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) when it fully kicks in next year. The program was allocated $5 billion, but some estimate it would take $40 billion to fund the effort. Such surprises are becoming routine. The New York Times has reported that many small and midsize firms may be opting out of Obamacare entirely. "The new health care law created powerful incentives for smaller employers to self-insure," Deborah J. Chollet of Mathematica Policy Research told the paper. "This trend could destabilize small-group insurance markets and erode protections provided by the Affordable Care Act."
The Constitutional Perils of Recognizing Gay Unions
When President Obama endorsed gay marriage last year, he said the issue should be left to the states. Last week, he said it shouldn't. To be more precise, a Supreme Court brief filed by the Obama administration last Thursday argues that California's ban on gay marriage denies homosexuals the "equal protection of the laws" guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Although the brief focuses on Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that overturned a California Supreme Court decision requiring the state to recognize gay marriages, its logic suggests that a policy Obama himself rejected less than a year ago is constitutionally mandatory. For many years, Obama said he supported equal rights for gay couples, except for the right to call their relationship a "marriage." That is exactly the policy he now says is unconstitutional.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Obama’s Billion-Dollar Giveaway to the Muslim Brotherhood
After sequester hysteria, John Kerry sends millions to Islamists in Egypt and Syria.
A Lesson in Education Hyperbole
Dire predictions about the fate of certain government programs hardly have been in short supply as sequestration-related budget cuts loomed. It was hardly a surprise, then, when Education Secretary Arne Duncan got in on the act. "It just means a lot more children will not get the kinds of services and opportunities they need, and as many as 40,000 teachers could lose their jobs," he said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation." "There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can't come back this fall." It turns out, though, that it isn't true. Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post confirmed this in a fact-check column that awarded Mr. Duncan no fewer than four "Pinocchios" for this whopper.
An Interview With Denmark's Salman Rushdie
"The Left Now Seems to Have Reverence for Fanatics"