Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Liberals, Like Fish, Are All Wet
One of the many things that make liberals so obnoxious is their hypocrisy. For instance, when campaigning against Christmas symbols, they make a mantra of "separation of church and state," although those words never appear in the Constitution. They appeared in a letter that Thomas Jefferson addressed to the members of the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist Association. While insisting that a person's religious beliefs were a personal matter, he did not expand upon the Constitution's very specific wording, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare
It's highly unusual in a presidential debate for two Republican candidates -- the two leading in current national polls -- to heap praise on a liberal Democratic senator. But in the Fox News debate in Sioux City, Iowa, Thursday night, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had very good words to say for Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. The subject was the Medicare reform plan put forward in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that morning by Wyden and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.
An 'End Point' for Race-Based Admissions
When the Supreme Court, in the 2003 case of Grutter v. Bollinger, narrowly upheld the use of racial preferences at the University of Michigan Law School, it emphasized that such preferences were barely tolerable under the Constitution. They could be used only as a last resort, the court ruled, they must not unduly harm non-minorities, and public universities had to start finding ways to phase them out. ... But eight years later, race-based admissions show no sign of moving toward "a logical end point." If anything they are more entrenched than ever. Far from using skin color as a last resort, many universities make it an explicit condition -- as Abigail Fisher, a white high school senior, discovered when she applied to the University of Texas in 2008.
The Economics of Life and Marriage
Iowans are strongly pro-life and supportive of traditional marriage. These remain strong "bridge" issues that unite economic conservatives with social conservatives whenever questions like abortion funding or overturning true marriage are put on the ballot. When pollsters find that Iowa's likely caucus-goers -- including large blocks of Evangelicals, Catholics, and Lutherans -- are citing the stricken economy as their greatest concern, this does not mean social issues have been forgotten. First, most of the GOP candidates are already on board for the defense of human life and true marriage. So it makes sense for Iowa voters to tell pollsters and focus group moderators that their primary concern is the economy. This does not mean they don't care about abortion or attempts to undermine marriage. It just means that after numerous candidate debates, those who advocate "civil unions" as a supposed compromise on the marriage issue have difficulty even making the cut to be on the stage. Iowa's Caucus-goers voters aren't buying this obvious ploy.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Testing the Waters of Economic Liberty
WASHINGTON -- In 1927, seven years before the board game was created, Washington state decided to play monopoly. It gave a private interest the exclusive right to operate a ferry on 55-mile long Lake Chelan in the northern Cascade Mountains. The state apparently will defend this folly until Judgment Day, when state officials will get an earful from the Creator who -- we have Jefferson's word for this -- endowed everyone, including Jim and Cliff Courtney, with the rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Courtney brothers' happiness would be enlarged if they could operate a competing ferry. But 84 years ago Washington state asserted a principle much favored by all of America's governments, the principle that it may parcel out certain economic liberties sparingly and only to those who can prove to government that their exercise of their liberty will satisfy some government-concocted criteria.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
From The Comedy Store
President Obama told CBS's 60 Minutes Sunday he sees himself as the captain of a ship that's going through a violent storm. The captain has a solution. He wants the people in first class to give their tickets to the people in third class so that we can all die second class.
Blue Collar Intellectuals
In his latest book, Blue Collar Intellectuals, author Daniel J. Flynn reminds us of a time when Americans engaged in far more elevating pursuits than they do today. "For much of the twentieth century, there was a concerted effort among intellectuals to spread knowledge and wisdom far and wide," Flynn writes. "Correspondingly many regular people took full advantage of the great educational effort." That effort was led by Flynn's "blue-collar intellectuals," people from working-class backgrounds determined to make great works and high-minded concepts accessible to mass audiences. The book focuses on six such people, all of whom left an indelible mark on the American landscape.
Countering an EMP Attack
When Americans think about the threat from foreign missiles, it's nearly always the catastrophic effect of a conventional nuclear blast that comes to mind. We think of the doomsday scenarios that have played out in so many movies and TV shows: a nuke explodes over a large city -- leveling buildings, crushing houses and creating a swath of destruction. But that's not the only threat that can come from a missile fired from a rogue nation, or one that has fallen into the hands of terrorists. We could also fall victim to the devastating effects of an electromagnetic pulse. With an EMP, almost everything powered by electricity would be effectively wiped out -- not physically, but practically. They would simply cease to work.
The Christmas Grinch Revisited
Nothing that I have ever written has provoked as huge a response as a piece I wrote some years ago called "The Jewish Grinch That Stole Christmas." In the article, which brought me roughly ten times as much e-mail as I'm accustomed to receiving, I suggested that my fellow secular Jews (aka atheists and agnostics) were at the forefront in waging war on the values and traditions of Christian Americans.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tebow Critics Put Their Own Bigotry on Display
Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has been a controversial sports figure ever since he agreed to do an ad for the conservative organization Focus on the Family; the spot aired during the 2010 Super Bowl. Feminists and other groups, who feared the ad would be overtly pro-life and anti-abortion, tried to keep it from running. In the end, the message turned out to be pretty innocuous, and those who tried to censor it looked downright silly. Now Tebow is once again a target for illiberals who find his evangelical Christianity somehow threatening and offensive. The latest episode involves a recent column for The Jewish Week that bashed Tebow for symbolizing intolerance. But it was the writer, Connecticut Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, who put his own astonishing bigotry on display. Hammerman titled his piece "My Tebow Problem," and indeed it is Hammerman's problem -- not Tebow's.
The Wages of Appeasement
WASHINGTON -- Fair enough. Barack Obama didn't appease Osama bin Laden. He killed him. And for ordering the raid and taking the risk, Obama deserves credit. Credit for decisiveness and political courage. However, the bin Laden case was no test of policy. No serious person of either party ever suggested negotiation or concession. Obama demonstrated decisiveness, but forgoing a non-option says nothing about the soundness of one's foreign policy. That comes into play when there are choices to be made. And here the story is different. Take Obama's two major foreign-policy initiatives -- toward Russia and Iran.
The Next Trillion Dollar Bubble
One of the oldest economic maxims, "if you subsidize something, you get more of it" has created the next trillion dollar-plus bubble for which American taxpayers will be on the hook. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education discovered that published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, while median family income rose 147 percent. What is driving those costs? The idea that every high school graduate should attend college, and that government -- meaning taxpayers -- will guarantee loans made to those students.
Nancy Pelosi, Down and Dirty
As a rueful Queen Elizabeth once said of a particularly rough year for the royal family, 2011 is "not a year on which" Queen Nancy Pelosi "shall look back with undiluted pleasure." The former House Speaker relinquished her crown -- er, gavel -- in January. It's been an epic downhill ski crash ever since. Most recently, Pelosi faced questions from liberal "60 Minutes" and conservative investigative author Peter Schweitzer about a 5,000-share Visa stock purchase she made with her husband as the House was considering credit card regulations. She made a "killing" off the highly sought-after initial public offering. The stock holdings more than doubled in a few weeks; the credit card regulations were put on ice somewhere in the back of Pelosi's fridge.
Keystone Blue-Collar Blues
The payroll-tax-cut debate is not really about the payroll tax, which is a very weak-kneed economic stimulant and a lackluster job creator because of its temporary nature. Without permanent incentives at lower tax rates, these rebates don't do anything for growth and jobs. Instead, the key to understanding the payroll-tax debate is to grasp President Barack Obama's leftist vision of taxing successful earners (the millionaire surtax) and his obsession with clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels. These are ideological positions. They support the Obama vision of class warfare and his attachment to radical environmentalism.
About Those Self-Evident Truths
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident..." What truths? What has happened to our passion for liberty? I am concerned that we conservatives, instead of making our case as fearless champions of liberty, are too often on the defensive, preoccupied with trying to prove we aren't the demons the left says we are. In the GOP primary contest, you'll hear one candidate scolding the others for lacking compassion, another demagoguing a rival for advocating essential entitlement reform, and another shaming an opponent for being too wealthy. Shouldn't our side do a better job of proudly proclaiming our case for what we believe in rather than have our tails tucked between our legs, apologizing for conservatism and all too often neglecting our first principles?
Iraq -- Victory or Defeat?
WASHINGTON -- They are coming home. For the first time since March 19, 2003, there are no U.S. combat or combat support troops in Iraq. There is still a contingent of U.S. Marines guarding the biggest American embassy in the world and the largest military attache's office at any diplomatic mission. But there is no doubt in anyone's mind -- ally or enemy -- that the war in Iraq is over. The only uncertainty now: Who won? Short answer: America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines -- and the American people whose sons and daughters served in Iraq. Though our commander in chief cannot utter the word "victory," it is. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta -- in Baghdad for a ceremonial "casing of the colors" for U.S. Forces-Iraq -- came close when he said of all who served during eight years and eight months of war: "You came to this 'Land Between the Rivers' again and again and again. You did not know whether you'd return to your loved ones. ... Your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to cast tyranny aside and to offer hope for prosperity and peace to this country's future generations."
Yes, There Are Christmas Haters
In this special season of giving, Hollywood is willing to give people what entertainment executives think the country needs: a vicious, bloody takedown of Christmas. The Dec. 11 episode of "American Dad" on Fox exemplified those with a complete absence of Christmas spirit; it was titled "Season's Beatings." Father Donovan announces he is running a Christmas play at the mall, so Stan Smith, the conservative Christian CIA agent/idiot dad, expects to play Jesus Christ on the cross. He says, "I'm the most devout member of the church," and he also says, "When it comes to Christianity, that's the money shot." Stan is told he's too fat and is cast as Santa Claus. When he discovers that the part of Jesus has gone instead to the show's bisexual space alien character, Roger, who boasts he's working on his "savior bulge," Stan beats Roger senseless.
Wedging Both Ways
Wedge issues are back. What are wedge issues? Well, a lot depends on whom you ask. Political consultants usually define them as issues that unite the base but split the opposition. The most familiar examples are guns, God and gays. But they can include everything from the Pledge of Allegiance to crime. Traditionally, conservatives are cast as the villains in the wedge-issue story. And there's some truth to the tale. What initially offended liberals was the way Republicans made race and civil rights issues for national discussion (ironic considering how liberals are always clamoring for a "national conversation" on race). Liberals will tell you that Republicans shattered the consensus on civil rights by running on racially charged issues. Conservatives will say that liberals invited a so-called "racial backlash" by going too far on issues like quotas and being soft on crime.
NTSB: The Banning Nannies
A few months ago, tooling along in my brand new Honda (aka "cute car"), I came to a stop at a red light. On my right, a police cruiser with lights flashing was investigating a fender bender. A total of three cars, the two that were in the accident plus the police car, were off on the shoulder. I was waiting for the light to change when -- bam -- someone crashed into me from behind. One of the police officers instructed us to pull over to the side of the road near the other two cars. "Everybody OK?" My husband and I nodded. "I saw the whole thing," the officer said. "So this won't take long."
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Obama's Latest '60 Minutes' interview
President Obama doesn't suffer from amnesia, but apparently he hopes the public does. In his latest in a series of interviews on "60 Minutes" last Sunday night, the president took positions that are the polar opposite of what he was saying as recently as last spring. One wishes all of those "fact-checkers" who point out supposed mistakes by the Republican candidates were as committed to noting even worse flaws in the president's promises.