Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Cello Notes
Seized by some peculiar muse (clearly one with a sense of humor), I have undertaken to learn the cello in middle age. To the amazement of my teacher, my family and myself, I've made incredibly rapid progress. Displaying a fluidity and musicianship that cannot be taught, I burned through the early books and went straight to repertoire that is usually the province of advanced players. Well, no actually, except for the part about trying to learn the cello. It's been 18 months now, and I'm plugging away, attempting to force my hands, arms, body, but mostly my brain, to do things that don't come naturally at all. Yo-Yo Ma's job is safe.
Guns and Pensions
A nation's choice between spending on military defense and spending on civilian goods has often been posed as "guns versus butter." But understanding the choices of many nations' political leaders might be helped by examining the contrast between their runaway spending on pensions while skimping on military defense. Huge pensions for retired government workers can be found from small municipalities to national governments on both sides of the Atlantic. There is a reason. For elected officials, pensions are virtually the ideal thing to spend money on, politically speaking. Many kinds of spending of the taxpayers' money win votes from the recipients. But raising taxes to pay for this spending loses votes from the taxpayers. Pensions offer a way out of this dilemma for politicians.
The Double Threats
Just as Lenin's body remains on public display in Russia, because one never knows when he might be useful to rally the masses, so, too, does the ghost (but thankfully not the body) of the late Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) remain a useful symbol for Democrats in Washington. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) are the latest to summon McCarthy's ghost. After Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), asked defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel whether he had been compensated by foreign interests hostile to the United States for speeches he made in which he seemed to favor their aspirations, Boxer said of Cruz's tenacious questioning, "It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, 'I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,' and of course nothing was in the pocket. It was reminiscent of some bad times."
Monday, February 18, 2013
Amateur Hour at 1600
Quick! What's the name of the White House Chief of Staff? I didn't know, either. It's Denis McDonough. He was only appointed to the post by President Barack Obama January 25, meaning he has been on the job for less than a month, but yesterday, he showed being a foreign policy expert does not a political expert make when he got himself involved in immigration reform. What happened was someone leaked a copy of the Administration's plan which CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante reported "was not a planned leak."
Ben Carson Owes No Apologies
According to Cal Thomas, well-known nationally syndicated columnist, Dr. Ben Carson owes President Obama an apology. Carson spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC this past week -- a bi-partisan annual event held since 1953, attended by members of Congress and usually the President. President and Mrs. Obama were present this year and Thomas feels that Dr. Carson was out of line for including in his remarks comments about areas considered public policy -- our national debt, our tax system, our publics schools, and health care.
After the 'Toughest' Gun Law, Gun Crime Rose
In 1998, Massachusetts passed what was hailed as the toughest gun-control legislation in the country. Among other stringencies, it banned semiautomatic "assault" weapons, imposed strict new licensing rules, prohibited anyone convicted of a violent crime or drug trafficking from ever carrying or owning a gun, and enacted severe penalties for storing guns unlocked. "Today, Massachusetts leads the way in cracking down on gun violence," said Republican Governor Paul Cellucci as he signed the bill into law. "It will save lives and help fight crime in our communities." Scott Harshbarger, the state's Democratic attorney general, agreed: "This vote is a victory for common sense and for the protection of our children and our neighborhoods." One of the state's leading anti-gun activists, John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence, joined the applause. "The new gun law," he predicted, "will certainly prevent future gun violence and countless grief."
For Dems to Win House, Obama Must Rise in Polls
Barack Obama has said that he wants to help Democrats win back a majority in the House of Representatives. He says he looks forward to Nancy Pelosi being speaker again. If he does work hard to elect House Democrats, it will be a change from 2010 and 2012, when he didn't do much at all for them. But let's say he does. What are the chances of success? Certainly not zero. Democrats need to gain 17 seats to win a House majority of 218. That's fewer than the number of seats that changed party in 2006, 2008 and 2010.
The Oscars & Other Travesties
It is once again that time of year when we are told that a billion people around the world will be tuned in to see which of the over-hyped movies and actors get to take home Academy Awards. My wife will be tuned in because she likes to see what everyone is wearing and I'll be watching because I enjoy seeing the winners trying to act humble and I get a kick out of watching the losers pretend to be good sports. The fact of the matter is that as with most elections, the winners have to spend a king's ransom advertising. For months, the same people who will go on stage and pretend they are unworthy have been waging war in the Hollywood trade papers.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Why Is Washington So Polarized?
People who have been around for a while all seem to agree. Never in living memory has the atmosphere on Capitol Hill and in Washington, D.C., generally been so toxic. I don't find this to be true out in the hinterland. The country as a whole is divided politically. But it's not obviously more divided than it was 50 years ago. The toxicity of politics is a D.C. phenomenon. What's more, the polarization is worse among the elites. It seems that the more education they have, the more polarized people become. Why is that?
Night of Nonsense
In the 12 months we have to steel ourselves for the next State of the Union spectacle, let us count the ways that this spawn of democratic Caesarism -- presidency-worship -- has become grotesque. It would be the most embarrassing ceremony in the nation's civic liturgy were the nation still capable of being embarrassed by its puerile faith in presidential magic.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Barack & Hillary, Sitting in a Tree...
There must be something in the air near the Potomac that rots the brains of just about everyone who ventures into our nation's capital. The latest example was Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta insisting that having women fighting in the frontlines would just about ensure that we'd never lose a future war. ... The propaganda would have it that women only want to have the opportunity to compete for the opportunity to serve in the infantry and armor units. People like Mr. Panetta insist that they oppose lowering military standards. To which, I say, with all due disrespect: phooey!
Obama's No-Growth State of the Union
By far the best line from this week's dueling State of the Union messages came from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Nice and simple, and right to the point: "Presidents in both parties -- from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan -- have known that our free-enterprise economy is the source of our middle-class prosperity." That's a brilliant summary of pro-growth policies, on the supply-side and in a free-market context. Kennedy slashed tax rates and held down the budget. So did Ronald Reagan, who borrowed Kennedy's ideas: smaller government, lower tax-rate incentives and a thriving middle class, where the economic pie grows ever larger.
From The Comedy Store
President Obama gave his State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The speech allows a president to stand before Congress and ask both political parties to work together for the good of the country. It's the biggest laugh he gets all year.
Friday, February 15, 2013
An Unhappy Week
The title of MULLINGS following the State of the Union speech Wednesday morning was: "Not a Long, Nor a Long-Lasting Speech." Boy, was I right. Not only did the speech slip into history among the cable chat shows, even President Obama didn't see the need to keep up any momentum as he will be in Chicago this morning then head to Palm Beach, Florida for a mini-vacation over the holiday weekend. The cable chat shows made far more of Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Florida) leaning out of the frame for a sip of water during he rebuttal remarks than they did Mr. Obama's long list of new programs that he said will not cost one dime in new spending.
What Second Term Agenda?
The lesson from the State of the Union address is this: Barack Obama has no second term agenda. Oh, sure, he campaigned furiously for the job, starting in about January of 2011. But his campaign almost never outlined his plans for a second term, focusing instead on interest group payoffs and demonization of his rival. Late in October of 2012, as if recognizing that they'd forgotten to attend to it, the Obama campaign released a 20-page glossy handout called a "blueprint for America's future." It featured splashy photos of the president on nearly every page, along with generic promises like "improve education for middle-class jobs." The president is like the dog that chased a car and caught it. What does he do now? Faced with the necessity of presenting a program in the State of the Union, Obama couldn't rely on his "blueprint," because it was essentially cotton candy. So it appears that he rummaged around in the closet where they keep hoary liberal wish lists. He dusted a few off, renamed them things like "Fix It First," "Smarter Government," "Manufacturing Hubs" and so forth and rolled them out like parade floats.
Liberal Media: Obama's Front Line
It seems the liberal media are more concerned about Sen. Marco Rubio's midspeech sip of water than about President Obama's State of the Union commitment to double down on his disastrous policies. What will it take for once-reasonable people to become alarmed at the state of this nation's fiscal condition, its stagnant economy and its egregious unemployment? Is there no number of irresponsible liberal policies from an extremist liberal president that will exceed their willingness to tolerate? Do liberal media -- and rank-and-file Democrats, for that matter -- believe that this recklessness can go on forever? Knowing President Obama's capacity for fiscal folly and for scapegoating others for problems he's caused, even I find it hard to believe he could stand before the nation and masquerade as a Washington outsider -- as a crusader against the squalid conditions he is engineering and exacerbating.
In Defense of Obama's Drone War
WASHINGTON -- The nation's vexation over the morality and legality of President Obama's drone war has produced a salutary but hopelessly confused debate. Three categories of questions are being asked. They must be separated to be clearly understood. *1. By what right does the president order the killing by drone of enemies abroad? What criteria justify assassination?* Answer: (a) imminent threat, under the doctrine of self-defense, and (b) affiliation with al-Qaeda, under the laws of war. Imminent threat is obvious. If we know a freelance jihadist cell in Yemen is actively plotting an attack, we don't have to wait until after the fact. Elementary self-defense justifies attacking first.
Operation Hubris
One of the great things about American politics is its capacity for punishing hubris. For the ancient Greeks, hubris didn't merely describe god-like arrogance. It was a crime, usually defined as taking too much pleasure in the humiliation of your foes. In its modern usage it usually means the pride that comes before the fall. In the wake of Barack Obama's State of the Union address, both connotations seem at least a little apt. We are well into our fourth month of epidemic thumb-suckery over the question, "Are the Republicans doomed?" The latest New York Times Magazine asks, "Can the Republicans Be Saved from Obsolescence." The wished-for answer doesn't require much reading comprehension.
Democrats Heart Medicare Fraudsters
Hey, remember when President Obama crusaded against Medicare fraud and vowed to crack down aggressively on scammers who've bilked the program out of an estimated $90 billion? Like Archie and Edith Bunker used to sing: Those were the daaaays. While Democrats pretend to protect the elderly and disabled, leaders of the People's Party have pocketed gobs of campaign contributions from fat-cat donors tied to massive Medicare rip-off schemes. Let's talk some more about Dr. Salomon Melgen, shall we? We now know that the jet-setting Florida eye doctor who flew beleaguered Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to several alleged sex romps in the Dominican Republic also overbilled the government by $8.9 million for care at his clinic. That's according to Menendez's own aides. They acknowledged last week that their boss met with federal health bureaucrats at least twice to lobby on Melgen's behalf.