Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Obama vs. Christie and the Future
WASHINGTON -- Whose job would you want to have? Would it be President Barack Obama's or Governor Chris Christie's in the great state of New Jersey? Would it be President Obama's, whose budget woes are getting graver, or would it be Governor Christie's, whose budget is at least looking to be survivable? Now Obama is facing the choice in his budgetary decisions. Does he raise taxes only on families making $1 million a year? Or does he, as he has heretofore promised, raise taxes on families making $250,000? Governor Christie has had an easier choice. He has promised a 10 percent cut on every New Jerseyan's income. He has stopped the bleeding in New Jersey. He has cut 375 government programs. He has capped property taxes. He has confronted public employees with reasonable cuts in their bloated health care and pension benefits.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Don't Trust Your Instincts
Simple answers are so satisfying: Green jobs will fix the economy. Stimulus will create jobs. Charity helps people more than commerce. Everyone should vote. Well, all those instinctive solutions are wrong. As Friedrich Hayek pointed out in "The Fatal Conceit," it's a problem that in our complex, extended economy, we rely on instincts developed during our ancestors' existence in small bands. In those old days, everyone knew everyone else, so affairs could be micromanaged. Today, we live in a global economy where strangers deal with each other. The rules need to be different. Hayek said: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."
Presidential Nonsense
Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, "We can't go back to this brand of you're-on-your-own economics." Throughout my professional career as an economist, I've never come across the theory of "you're-on-your-own economics." I'm guessing what the president means by -- and finds offensive in -- "you're-on-your-own economics" is that it's a system in which people are held responsible for their actions, that they take risks and must live with the results, that people can't force others to pay for their mistakes, and that they can't live at the expense of other people.
Misguided Efforts Gave Us the Pretense of 'Independent' Campaign Spending
Winning Our Future, a "super PAC" that supports Newt Gingrich's bid for the Republican presidential nomination, is spending more than $1.2 million on ads in South Carolina, which holds its primary on Saturday. That fact requires some explanation. First, why would anyone want Newt Gingrich to be president? Second, what is a super PAC? While the former question remains a mystery, the answer to the latter reveals how the vain crusade to curb the influence of money on elections has made talking about politics needlessly cumbersome and complicated.
ET and Politics: The Search for Meaning
In his book, Lost in the Cosmos, Walker Percy asked "why is Carl Sagan so lonely?" Percy's question was prompted by the popular scientist Carl Sagan's insistence that ET must be out there somewhere, despite the lack of any evidence to back it up. Percy believed that this insistence said more about Sagan and people like him, than it did about the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. According to Percy, Sagan and others who reduced everything, including man, to soulless atoms, were desperate for something to transcend this purely-material existence. Not believing in God, they hoped a phone call from ET would do the trick.
Ron Paul and America's Alleged Racism
In the Republican presidential candidates' debate on Jan. 7, Congressman Ron Paul said: "I'm the only one up here ... that understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system." He said this racism has to do with "enforcing the drug laws" and then added: "They (blacks) get the death penalty way disproportionately." Two groups immediately defended Paul -- his supporters and commentators on the left. The former support anything Paul says, and the left supports anything that Paul says that portrays America as ugly (see, for example, the defense of Paul by left-wing USA Today columnist Dwayne Wickham, whose columns are regularly devoted to how much blacks suffer from American racism).
Missing From Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial: God
Four days after police arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to surrender her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. explained the Christian foundation of the civil rights movement he was about to lead. "I want to say that we are not here advocating violence," King said in a Dec. 5, 1955, speech at the Holt Street Baptist Church. "I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation that we are Christian people," King said. "We believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest."
Scott Walker for President?
While second- and third-rank Republican presidential aspirants snort over front-runner Mitt Romney's liabilities, one of the truly large issues in present day politics emerges in Wisconsin. To wit, can anything be done to corral the excesses of public labor unions? The Wisconsin unions' answer is a smug no -- though of course they don't put it that way. What they say is voters should recall Gov. Scott Walker in a special election this year for limiting the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. On Tuesday, the unions presented stacks of signed petitions they say will lead to Walker's early dismissal from government. (He assumed the governorship only in January 2011.) The petition signers seek also the ouster of the state's Republican lieutenant governor and four Republican senators.
The Emperor Barack
Much like one of his predecessors, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barack Obama has all but declared war on the United States Supreme Court. It will be remembered that in 1937 FDR was angry over the high court's refusal to put a stamp of approval on much of his New Deal agenda, and sought to bend the court to his will by adding new members to the existing court membership. Contemptuously calling the court's members a collection of "nine old men," FDR sought to "pack" the high court with up to six additional members more likely to do his bidding. The proposal lost steam and, thankfully, failed.
The Bank of (Democratic Party) America
Well, isn't this rich? And I do mean rich. President Obama, man of the people, will deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. -- so that Democratic Party fundraisers can reward big donors with skyboxes and other lavish perks. As usual, the White House and its allies are trying to camouflage naked partisan money-grubbing in populist garb. "I think this would be a great opportunity to have tens of thousands of North Carolinians and others outside of the state to see and participate in the convention process," one North Carolina Democratic Party flack told the Charlotte Observer.
Yes to Downton Abbey
Simon Schama holds a place of honor in our home. Preparing for a trip to London in 2005, we watched his video series "A History of Britain" over the course of several weeks. Our boys loved it so much that they would chant "Britain! Britain!" after dinner. His history of the French Revolution, "Citizens," was masterful. So it's with the greatest respect that I disagree with him about "Downton Abbey," the first television series to keep my interest since, well, "The Sopranos." Schama thinks he detects the "clammy delirium" of nostalgia in the Tea Party's "ache for a tricorny country," "radio ranters" selling Americans on a false paradise of pre-Social Security and Medicare America, and now viewers are racing to their TV sets on Sunday nights to catch "Downton Abbey" -- a "steaming, silvered tureen of snobbery."
Mark Levin Deserves a Turn on TV
It's a crying shame that in today's network "news" media only books written by gabby left-wing celebrities generate interest. When those left-wing screeds are written by left-wing, celebrity clowns such as Michael Moore, Bill Maher or Ed Schultz, then somehow it's A-list booking. That's when the "Today" show and "The Tonight Show" roll out the red carpet. It's a sad indictment of the industry that serious books about ideas are rarely discussed, and if the serious book is written by a serious conservative, then rarely becomes never. Not even when there is a screaming market demand for such a book will the TV bookers relent.
People Inc.
"Corporations are people, my friend," Mitt Romney declared in a testy back-and-forth with hecklers last summer in Iowa. It was among the first of what appears to be a growing list of gaffes Democrats will use to hang around Romney's neck in the less than certain but more than likely eventuality that he is the Republican nominee for president. Much like his more recent statement about how he likes to "fire people," the corporation remark has been taken grossly out of context. The "fire people" line simply referred to the fact that he likes to use his power as a consumer to deny his support to firms -- specifically insurance companies -- that don't provide good service. Who doesn't like doing that? Let me know who you are and I will gladly sell you a lifetime supply of unicorn repellent. No refunds, of course.
Time to Purge the Republican Party
A blonde finds lipstick on her husband's collar. Suspicious that he's cheating on her, she heads to a local gun shop and buys herself a pistol. That night, she hides in her bedroom closet. Sure enough, the husband comes home with his redheaded secretary on his arm and leads her to the bed. As they began to caress, the wife jumps out of the closet and holds the gun to her head. "Sweetheart," the husband pleads, "don't do it! Don't shoot yourself!" "Shut up, Johnny!" she cries. "You're next!" That blonde now runs the Republican Party. Hence, the GOPs dedication to their latest "it's-his-turn" candidate, Mitt Romney.
An Ignored 'Disparity': Part II
One of the ways of trying to reduce the vast disparities in economic success, which are common in countries around the world, is by making higher education more widely available, even for people without the money to pay for it. This can be both a generous investment and a wise investment for a society to make. But, depending on how it is done, it can also be a foolish and even dangerous investment, as many societies around the world have learned the hard way. When institutions of higher learning turn out highly qualified doctors, scientists, engineers and others with skills that can raise the standard of living of a whole society and make possible a better and longer life, the benefits are obvious.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Back With a Vengeance: The EU Debt Crisis
On Friday the 13th, ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgraded the credit status of nine European nations. The ratings of Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain were lowered by two notches while Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were lowered by one. Italy's rate cut from A to BBB+ reflects the second S&P downgrade since September 19th, and Portugal's debt has now reached "junk" status. "Today's rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policy makers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the euro zone," said S&P in a written statement.
Three Conservative Victories
While most attention is focused on the presidential race and Republican hopes to oust President Obama from office, some significant steps were taken last week on issues dear to the hearts of conservatives. In Texas, a federal appeals court upheld the state's sonogram law, which requires that women seeking abortions view a picture of their baby before having the procedure. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling, which had issued an injunction, preventing the law from taking effect. The decision allows the state to begin enforcing the law, mandating doctors to give pregnant women "truthful, non-misleading and relevant" disclosures before they have an abortion.
Gay Rights and Freedom of Religion: A Bad Trend
It started as a drip, drip, drip. Then the flow increased, and now it's a gusher: The Obama Administration has decided to promote and emphasize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rights -- and it is doing so at the expense of God-given freedom of religion. Those are tough words, but regrettably, true words. In December 9, 2009 in a major address entitled, "Human Rights Agenda for the 21st Century," Secretary of State Clinton said people "must be free to worship, associate, and to love in the way that they choose." Did you catch that? In one sentence, little noticed at the time, Mrs. Clinton showed the Administration's true priorities. In one fell swoop, she changed our God-given right to freedom of religion, a public act, to a much more restricted "freedom of worship," a private act, which any Chinese official could go along with. And at the same time, Mrs. Clinton, speaking for the administration, elevated the quote "right to love in the way they choose" as a fundamental human right.
An Ignored 'Disparity'
With all the talk about "disparities" in innumerable contexts, there is one very important disparity that gets remarkably little attention -- disparities in the ability to create wealth. People who are preoccupied, or even obsessed, with disparities in income are seldom interested much, or at all, in the disparities in the ability to create wealth, which are often the reasons for the disparities in income. In a market economy, people pay us for benefiting them in some way -- whether we are sweeping their floors, selling them diamonds or anything in between. Disparities in our ability to create benefits for which others will pay us are huge, and the skills required can develop early -- or sometimes not at all.
Mark Levin's 'Ameritopia'
Mark Levin's hard work in researching, organizing and writing his new book, "Ameritopia," will be a blessing for all who read it. Countless books chronicle the forward march of the liberal agenda and attempt to deconstruct the fallacies in modern leftist thinking. Many critique the statist policies the left has imposed on us the past half-century and their disastrous effects on our culture, our economy and our national security. Few modern books, however, direct our attention to first principles, perhaps assuming people implicitly understand the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of conservative thinking, and even fewer truly explore the anatomy of the liberal vision.