Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Liminal Christians: Christianity Without the Church?
In his 1985 book, Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah and Richard Madsen introduced the world to "Sheila Larson." Sheila described her belief system this way: "I believe in God. I'm not a religious fanatic. I can't remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It's Sheilaism. Just my own little voice ... It's just trying to love yourself and be gentle with yourself ..."
Obama's Big Trayvon Lie
The facts of the Trayvon Martin case are still unclear. But that hasn't stopped the all-knowing, all-seeing President Obama from voicing his opinion of the situation. "You know," said Obama, "if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon. All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen." Leave aside the fact that Obama's race is completely irrelevant to the situation -- when French Jews were killed in Toulouse last week, Joe Lieberman didn't see fit to announce that those Jews looked like his relatives. Leave aside the media's insane portrayal of Trayvon as a saint, despite his record of graffiti, probable jewelry theft and violence, and drug possession. Leave aside the fact that while Obama's theoretical son may have looked like Trayvon at age 12, he would likely look nothing like Trayvon at age 17, what with the tattoos and gold grill.
Playing the Race Card Again
"White Hispanic." That's how the New York Times, Reuters and other media outlets have opted to describe George Zimmerman, a man who would simply be Hispanic if he hadn't shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The term, rarely if ever used before this tragedy, is necessary in telling the Martin story in a more comfortable way. What's the comfortable way? It's the way the blame for Martin's death belongs squarely at the feet of "the system." And "the system" is a white thing, don't you know.
Profiling
Right now, there isn't enough known about the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a black, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old part-Hispanic, during his neighborhood watch tour in an Orlando, Fla., suburb. If evidence emerges that Zimmerman's actions were not justified, he should be prosecuted and punished; however, there's a larger issue that few people understand or have the courage to acknowledge, namely that black and young has become synonymous with crime and, hence, suspicion. To make that connection does not make one a racist. Let's look at it.
Judicial Review
Everything I know about Constitutional law I learned in one three-hour class at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750 taught by Dr. Robert Hill. It turns out I learned a lot. In fact, had I known you could learn that much in college by actually going to class, I would have spent much more time on campus and much less time ... recovering (if you know what I mean and I think you do).
Job Killers
Politicians say they "create jobs." In fact, only the private sector generates the information needed to create real, productive jobs. Since this current post-recession job recovery is the slowest in 80 years, you'd think that even know-it-all politicians would want to sweep away the labyrinth of government regulations that hinders job creation. Successful job creators like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Staples founder Tom Stemberg tell me there are so many new rules and taxes today that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to create the thousands of jobs they once made.
Conspiring With Russia
Wouldn't you like to have been in the White House Situation Room when the president decided to take out Osama bin Laden? Thrilling, right? You'd have been part of history and have stories to tell your grandchildren. Well, you can't. Not even if you donate a million dollars to the Obama re-election campaign. Sorry, Bill Mocker, you'll have to wait for the movie. It's Top Secret. Nor can you listen in when the President is at one of his G-8 Summits (or is it G-20 by now?) It would doubtless be interesting to learn what the Big Wigs are deciding about international trade and technology issues. It would be valuable, too, as you are filling out your own stock portfolio. Sorry, no entry allowed. Authorized Personnel only. And you are not authorized.
Atheists Darken D.C.
What if the atheists declared they were about to throw "the largest atheist event in world history" on a Saturday in Washington and few people showed up? Reason Rally organizer David Silverman estimated that "99 percent of all atheists are closeted." The closet must still be full, because they sure weren't in Washington. The Washington Post story on Sunday guessed there were "several thousand" people in the intermittent rain. But Paul Fidalgo of the Center for Inquiry told the Post, "We have the numbers to be taken seriously. ... We're not just a tiny fringe group."
Back to the Future?
When a 1942 Supreme Court decision that most people never heard of makes the front page of the New York Times in 2012, you know that something unusual is going on. What makes that 1942 case -- Wickard v. Filburn -- important today is that it stretched the federal government's power so far that the Obama administration is using it as an argument to claim before today's Supreme Court that it has the legal authority to impose ObamaCare mandates on individuals.
What Will Obama Give Russia If He's Re-elected?
President Barack Obama would like to do some things for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President-elect Vladimir Putin that he does not want American voters to know about before they decide whether to re-elect him in November. That was the intended-to-be-secret message Obama gave Medvedev in South Korea on Monday. But Obama was caught delivering the message on tape -- and, no matter how the liberal media try to spin it, the moment is destined to become emblematic of Obama as a man and as a president.
Isn't That Nice?
President Obama wants his dear friend Vlad the Russian not to worry about the details of how the American missile defense system in Europe will be designed and implemented. Once he gets re-elected, the president said, he'll have more "flexibility" to deal with Moscow's concern that the missile system, which is intended to guard Europe from attack by rogue nations like Iran, is a threat to Russia's strategic security.
The ObamaCare Penalty That Isn't
On Monday, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told the Supreme Court the "shared responsibility payment" required of Americans who fail to obtain government-approved medical coverage is not a tax. On Tuesday, he said it is. In the first instance, Verrilli was urging the Court to address the constitutionality of the individual health insurance mandate in spite of an 1867 law that ordinarily bars legal challenges to taxes that have not been collected yet. On the following day, he was arguing that, even if the mandate cannot be justified as a regulation of interstate commerce, it is a legitimate exercise of Congress's tax power.
The War on Wisconsin
Now is the time for all good tea partiers to come to the aid of Wisconsin. Fiscally conservative leaders in the Badger State are under coordinated siege from Big Labor, the White House, the liberal media and the judiciary. The yearlong campaign of union thuggery, family harassment and intimidation of Republican donors and businesses is about to escalate even further. This is the price the Right pays for doing the right thing.
Geraldo's Point
It is not often that I agree with Geraldo Rivera, but recently he said something very practical and potentially life-saving, when he urged black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies. There is no point in dressing like a hoodlum when you are not a hoodlum, even though that has become a fashion for some minority youths, including the teenager who was shot and killed in a confrontation in Florida. I don't know the whole story of that tragedy, any more than those who are making loud noises in the media do, but that is something that we have trials for.
Obama's Biggest Lies
Americans have endured many politicians with a capacity for "embellishing" the truth. Yet as the last three years have revealed, with a special emphasis on the current election campaign, president Barack Obama is in a class by himself. He has lied so often and with such ease, it is impossible to catalogue them all.
What's Different About Trayvon Martin?
If you watch the news in any large city you are probably desensitized to stories about crime involving young black men. Most nights there are reports about several of them getting shot; often, more than one dies. It might be a gang fight, a revenge killing, robbery or a drive-by. Someone is likely killed for their cellphone, or simply because they talked to the wrong girl at a party. Tragedy has become routine. Too many young black men die on our streets; too many rot in our prisons. Two weeks ago, the Chicago Tribune reported that at least 10 people, including a 6-year-old girl, were killed in weekend shootings in Chicago.
Are the 'Less Fortunate' Less Fortunate?
In his front-page-of-the-business-section "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times last week, Eduardo Porter wrote, "The United States does less than other rich countries to transfer income from the affluent to the less fortunate." Think about that sentence for a moment. It ends oddly. Logic dictates that it should have said, "transfer income from the affluent to the less affluent," not the less fortunate. But for Porter, as for the left generally, those who are not affluent are not merely "less affluent," they are "less fortunate."
Paul Ryan, Crusader
The reason U. S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan should be president -- now, if not the day before yesterday -- is the same reason the country may eventually lick its budgetary problems. He bows his neck and keeps acomin' -- knowing intuitively that everything hard, from the building of Rome to the taming of the federal budget, requires not merely time but the services of someone willing and able to mix the mortar. Ryan seems up to the job, and who knows, under his -- or comparable -- leadership, we might get something done. "I gave up fear for Lent two years ago," he recently told The New York Times' James B. Stewart.
Priscilla Buckley, RIP
When I see Priscilla Buckley, who died over the weekend at age 90, in my mind's eye, she is roaring with laughter. That's how you would find her much of the time during her 43 years as managing editor of National Review. She so reveled in a good story or a bon mot. Her chin would tilt up, and her sunbeam grin would turn her blue eyes into little half moons of mirth. It was particularly true when brother Bill was around. The two spent a lifetime chortling over the lighter side of life. And when you were around them, the world seemed altogether brighter.
How Will the Court Decide? Arguments on Obamacare
It has been a long time since I've seen crowds this big protesting outside the Supreme Court. They're all there: Tea Partiers and Obamacare supporters marching, praying, chanting, carrying signs. The marching band was an interesting touch! The occasion of course is the three days of oral arguments in the case that may decide the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- or at least critical pieces of it. The question is, will the demonstrations matter? The textbook answer is no: The Court consists of judges who have been appointed for life, who are not subject to public opinion; their supreme obligation is to the Constitution of the United States.