Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, January 25, 2013
The Teenage Horror of 'Parenthood'
The NBC series "Parenthood"' has drawn raves from TV critics this season for a storyline about a 40-something mother fighting cancer. Then on Jan. 1, NBC asked viewers to tune in the following Tuesday for an "unforgettable" new episode. A teenager would get an abortion at Planned Parenthood. Such is NBC's definition of "parenthood." Drew, one of show's leading teenager characters, has an ex-girlfriend named Amy who comes back to tell him "I'm pregnant." The high school seniors go to the Planned Parenthood clinic, and the scene plays like a political commercial. The counselor says, "If you decide to continue the pregnancy, we'd be happy to refer you for prenatal care. Of course, there are resources for teen moms who decide to raise a child. Adoption is also an option for you to consider. Now, if you decide to end the pregnancy, you have two options." But then NBC swells the sensitive guitar-strumming music up. They don't really want viewers to hear the abortion pitch. Oh, the irony.
Women in Combat Spells Trouble
With little discussion or fanfare, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat that has been in effect for as long as there has been a U.S. military. Feminists and some women serving in the military are applauding the move as a victory for equal rights. They claim that justice requires nothing short of opening all positions to females, regardless of the consequences to combat effectiveness, unit cohesion, or military readiness, factors whose importance they minimize in any event. What is perhaps most striking about Secretary Panetta's action is that it reverses the combat exclusion policy that was last reviewed thoroughly during the Clinton years -- and which even Democrats embraced.
Hillary Clinton's Dodgy Testimony
A lot of people in Washington apparently forgot how good Hillary Clinton is at not telling the truth. Wednesday, in her testimony before both the Senate and, later, the House, Clinton brilliantly fudged, dodged and filibustered. Of course, she's a pro. Clinton was slow-walking depositions, lawyering up and shifting blame when many of her questioners were still civilians down on the farm. Aided by a ridiculous format, she outfoxed most of the Republicans with ease.
Does Poverty Still Matter?
The Republican Party is picking up the pieces. Speaking of the ticket's loss for the first time since the election, Rep. Paul Ryan noted that many voters "don't think or know that we have good ideas" on fighting poverty and "helping people move up the ladder of life." It's not surprising that Ryan, who got his start working for Jack Kemp and William Bennett at Empower America, sees the world this way. Though it's a total secret to members of the press and the Democratic Party, conservative intellectuals have been grappling with the problems of poverty in America for several decades and have arguably advanced more reforms (including school choice, charter schools, enterprise zones and community policing) than liberals have. Some of those reforms, such as those adopted by Rudolph Giuliani in New York, profoundly improved the lives of the poor by, among other enhancements, making their neighborhoods far safer.
Half-Plaudits to Phil Mickelson
Welcome to an America with liberalism in full ascendancy as golfer Phil Mickelson apologizes for doing nothing wrong while the Obama administration lambasts its opponents for justly demanding it apologize for doing plenty wrong on Benghazi. Welcome to a land where the gravest problem threatening the nation is spending, where the Democratic president refuses to cut, where the Democratic Senate lawlessly refuses to pass a budget and where Democrats thwart congressional GOP efforts to enact spending and entitlement reform, yet the public is conned into believing that Republicans are the problem. Welcome to a culture in which the political left is frighteningly intolerant toward dissenting views yet convinces many that right-wingers are the close-minded ones.
Obama Unbound
WASHINGTON -- The media herd is stunned to discover that Barack Obama is a man of the left. After 699 teleprompted presidential speeches, the commentariat was apparently still oblivious. Until Monday's inaugural address, that is. Where has everyone been these four years? The only surprise is that Obama chose his second inaugural, generally an occasion for "malice toward none" ecumenism, to unveil so uncompromising a left-liberal manifesto. But the substance was no surprise. After all, Obama had unveiled his transformational agenda in his very first address to Congress, four years ago (Feb. 24, 2009). It was, I wrote at the time, "the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president." Nor was it mere talk. Obama went on to essentially nationalize health care, 18 percent of the U.S. economy -- after passing an $833 billion stimulus that precipitated an unprecedented expansion of government spending. Washington now spends 24 percent of GDP, fully one-fifth higher than the postwar norm of 20 percent.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
... but Ask What You Can Do for Your Country
The president's Inaugural Speech contained many references to climate change and how he plans to combat it. Is that what he really wants to do for his country?
Big Government 2.0
Bill Clinton isn't often wrong when it comes to politics, but his assertion in his 1996 State of the Union Address that "the era of big government is over" was a bit premature. In light of President Obama's Second Inaugural Address, the era of big government has just begun. The reliably liberal columnist Dana Milbank of The Washington Post exhibited refreshing honesty when he wrote of Obama's speech, "...it failed to rise to the moment." The president's address was more campaign rhetoric than visionary. He even lowered himself to reference Mitt Romney's inelegant remark about "takers" versus makers. Obama's comment was petty and beneath the grandeur of the moment.
Obama Ignores Deadly Risks to Women in Combat
Gender radicalism's attack on the military claims another victory.
Mickelson Chokes
Phil Mickelson choked on a gimme putt this week, but it wasn't on a golf course. According to the AP's golf writer, America's most popular golfer "put his popularity on the line with polarizing comments about how much he has to pay in state and federal taxes." "Polarizing comments"? Good grief. Now it's "polarizing" for an American to hint that because of the higher federal and state income tax rates on millionaires leveled by Sacramento and Washington, he might have to migrate to Florida or Texas?
Ending Gun Violence Requires Commitment, Not All of It Voluntary
The good news is: Obama and the Senate Democrats have no intention of passing more idiotic gun legislation in response to the Newtown massacre. The bad news is that they also have no intention of passing any legislation about the mentally ill, which would actually do something to reduce these mass shootings. Instead, the Democrats will jawbone about "assault weapons" and other meaningless gun laws for the sole purpose of scaring soccer moms into hating the National Rifle Association. Expect to hear a lot about Republicans preferring "the gun lobby" to "children." (Which is evidently not at all like preferring the teachers lobby to children.) Democrats are hoping to pick up another dozen congressional seats in 2014, so they need terrified women.
Black Families Hurt by Magazine's War on Conservatives
Dear Ebony, I do not have high hopes, given the way Ebony treats black non-liberals, that you will review my new book, "Dear Father, Dear Son: Two Lives, Eight Hours." It is, in the end, about the importance of fathers -- and the damage done to a child who grows up without one. Why do I know you will ignore my book despite its examination of the most important issue facing "black America"? Your magazine treats black conservatives as if they were the enemy, that they bring *nothing* valid to the discussion. Ebony magazine, a monthly staple of American black life since 1945, publishes an annual list of the 100-plus (now 150) "Most Influential Blacks in America." Why not rename it the "Most Influential *Liberal* Blacks in America"?
Weapons of Mass Distraction
We all know that whenever liberal politicians start insisting that guns are evil, it's for the same reason that stage magicians employ patter, top hats and silk capes. It's done in order to distract us. At present, Obama would like us to ignore the fact that thanks to the end of the payroll tax holiday and ObamaCare everyone's taxes have shot up. That's not to say the liberals wouldn't love to disarm us and make the Second Amendment null and void. But even they know that's not going to happen. If they were serious about reducing gun violence, they'd quit yapping about guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens, and go after the people who use them not for hunting or for defending their homes and families, but to murder.
A Penalty for Harry
WASHINGTON -- A couple of weeks ago, I elaborated on how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had at the time failed for three straight years to write up a budget in the Senate, thereby breaking the law three -- now four -- years running. I said that he should write up a budget in part to inform the citizenry how their tax dollars were being spent. How much was going to the Pentagon and our nation's security? How much was going into green fantasies like Solyndra and payoffs to the Democratic Party's friends. That would be friendly fascism, the left's post-liberalism evolutionary stage. Some call it Obamaism. Where is the accountability? Failing to write up a budget is a dereliction of duty. At the time, I speculated ever so gently about what sort of crime Harry was committing. Everyone agrees that not writing up a budget is crime. Is it a felony or a mere misdemeanor? I innocently joked that senators from Nevada are not known for committing mere misdemeanors. Now having spent two weeks studying Harry's case and counseling with members of Congress -- past and present -- I think I am closer to excogitating a penalty for the wretched Harry.
Sign Code as a Weapon
NORFOLK, Va. -- A drearily familiar dialectic is on display here: Government is behaving badly in order to silence protests of other bad behavior. It is violating the Constitution's First Amendment, stifling speech about its violation of the Fifth Amendment, as it was properly construed until 2005. Founded in 1934, Central Radio maintains communication, sonar and camera equipment on vessels at Norfolk Naval Station. The business is located in a building designed for its needs near the waterfront. Company Vice President Kelly Dickinson says, "We can drive five minutes and be on board a ship."
Europe's Wishes Came True
Almost a decade ago, Europeans and many progressive Americans were lamenting how the United States was going to miss out on the 21st-century paradigm symbolized by the robust European Union. Neanderthal Americans were importing ever more oil while waging a costly "war on terror" and fighting two conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our budget deficit in 2003 hit $374 billion. The EU avoided foreign conflicts and embraced soft power. Its declining military budgets and centralized transnational government ensured that it could address global warming and fund ever-expanding entitlements. Even the poorer Mediterranean nations reached new heights of prosperity. The Greek economy soared. Spain's real estate market was to become the hottest in the world. Italy seemed to resemble Germany more than Portugal.
Obama Inaugural: Full of Audacity, but Little Hope
Commentators both left and right agree that Barack Obama's second inaugural speech Monday was highly partisan, with shoutouts to his constituencies on the left and defiance of his critics on the right. Obama quoted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and made brief reference to Abraham Lincoln's sublime Second Inaugural ("blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword"). But there was not much in the way of "with malice toward none, with charity for all." There were more references than in many inaugural speeches to specific programs and policies. One interesting question is what the practical effect they will have in the next few years.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Obama's New Audacity
When he stood before the world to deliver his first inaugural address four years ago, President Barack Obama proudly declared, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers." Early in his presidency, he repeated various permutations of this phrase, always reserving the resonant final spot for the "non-believers." During his first term, Obama also occasionally edited the Creator from the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," he said, for example, in a Sept. 15, 2010, speech, "that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Obama 'Cements His Legacy'
Newsweek stopped its print edition at the end of 2012, but they still tried to scandalize the country by producing a fake cover honoring Obama's second inauguration as "The Second Coming." This absurd attempt at myth making is a natural progression. The "cover" story was written by Evan Thomas, who proclaimed on MSNBC a few years ago that Obama was "sort of like God" in being above the gritty political fray. It was just as absurd when Newsweek writer David Frum, the formerly conservative Bush speechwriter, tweeted this piece of media-elite nonsense: "First term Obama: punchee, 2nd term Obama, puncher." No one calling himself a "political observer" can say Obama was some sort of mute victim, consistently under fire, on defense over the last four years. Quote Obama from anywhere, and he's fiercely bashing the GOP. In April 2011, he said the House GOP budget plan would force "poor children," "children with autism" and "kids with disabilities" to "fend for themselves." In another 2011 speech, he described the Republican plan as "let's have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance."
Hard a-Port
One hundred years, and 100 pounds ago I was the coxswain on the freshman crew at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750. During that year I learned that "starboard" means right facing forward, and "port" means left facing forward. President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Monday was a clear signal that he intends to steer the ship of state hard a-port. During the speech I Tweeted that it was "1/3 Gettysburg, 1/3 FDR, and 1/3 State of the Union." The speech didn't have the traditional reach across the aisle to the other political party suggesting Republicans and Democrats are smart enough, dedicated enough, and patriotic enough to find common ground and make America a better place.