Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Obama and the Shifting Ground of Race
Princeton's Cornel West, one of the most famous black intellectuals in America, says that President Obama is afraid of "free black men." Because of Obama's atypical upbringing, West says, "when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a de-racination." With whom does the rootless cosmopolitan-in-chief find himself most comfortable? Jews and rich white men, says West. No surprise given the professor's view that Obama is a "black mascot" and a "black puppet" for Wall Street and corporate America.
Artificial Panic Behind the Rush to Extend the Patriot Act
Just before midnight last Thursday, a White House autopen signed legislation extending controversial provisions of the Patriot Act that were scheduled to expire the next day. President Obama authorized the use of a machine to produce a facsimile of his signature because he was traveling in Europe. But it was oddly appropriate, given the facsimile of congressional debate that preceded the bill's passage. The extension was rushed through Congress based on a false sense of urgency, much like the original Patriot Act, which legislators did not even have time to read.
Out of Deficit, More Democracy
While Western media continue to rhapsodize about the "Arab Spring democratic revolutions" in the Middle East, it may be that the real democratic revolution is beginning to occur in the European Union and the United States. And if the timing is right, the crisis in the European Union may play a decisive part in tipping the American electorate against President Obama and the Democrats in our 2012 elections. Both by their votes and their demonstrations, the semi-enfranchised citizens of nations under the rule of the European Union are beginning to fight back against both the social welfare/debt and immigration/border policies that have been imposed on them.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Seductive Beliefs
One of the painfully revealing episodes in Barack Obama's book "Dreams From My Father" describes his early experience listening to a sermon by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Among the things said in that sermon was that "white folks' greed runs a world in need." Obama was literally moved to tears by that sermon. This sermon may have been like a revelation to Barack Obama but its explanation of economic and other differences was among the oldest -- and most factually discredited -- explanations of such difference among all sorts of peoples in all sorts of places. Yet it is an explanation that has long been politically seductive, in countries around the world.
John Walker Lindh Is Guilty
American Taliban John Walker Lindh's father wrote a piece in the Sunday New York Times. Frank Lindh writes that his son was apprehended "unarmed and wounded." He also writes that his son "had no involvement with terrorism."
On Celebrating the Death of Evil People
Osama Bin Laden -- a man whose purpose in life was to inflict death and suffering on as many innocent people as possible -- was finally killed, and much of the Western world's religious and secular elite have expressed moral objections to those who celebrated this death. Pastor Brian McLaren, named one of Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" in 2005, expressed this objection. Reacting to television images of young Americans chanting "USA! USA!" the night bin Laden's death was announced, the pastor wrote, "I can only say that this image does not reflect well on my country. ... Joyfully celebrating the killing of a killer who joyfully celebrated killing carries an irony that I hope will not be lost on us. Are we learning anything, or simply spinning harder in the cycle of violence?"
Pro-Obama Media Always Shocked by Bad Economic News
Unexpectedly! As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy.
Obama: American Idol
DUBLIN, Ireland -- Observing the start of Lord and Lady Obama's (aka president and Michelle) grand European tour and the fawning press coverage, one might conclude they were imbued with royal blood. The normally reserved and thoughtful columnist for the London Times, William Rees-Mogg, gushed about the president's speech before members of Parliament, comparing him to Winston Churchill. Obama is to Winston Churchill as Lady Gaga is to Ella Fitzgerald. Both are singers, but that's where the comparison ends.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Conducting Guerrilla Warfare
In America, where the major networks and some of the minor ones, together with most dailies and news magazines, along with 90% of the actors, writers and directors in Hollywood, are dedicated to disseminating left-wing propaganda, it is quite natural for those of us on the Right to feel like we're waging war behind enemy lines. Fortunately, we still have a major presence on talk radio and the Internet. In a way, it's reminiscent of the bad old days when the Iron Curtain was in vogue and it took Radio Free Europe to boost the morale of those in Soviet-dominated countries like Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, and let the oppressed people know they weren't alone and forgotten.
Remembering, We Forget
Today we remember not just heroes but the cannoneers who didn't have time to learn their guns before they died in the mud, the troops whom disease took before the enemy could, the nurses blown apart while administering to the wounded and dying, the young conscripts -- ill-trained, ill-clothed and ill-prepared -- sacrificed in America's forgotten war in Korea. No, let no one think on this Memorial Day that war is all derring-do. It is disaster and chaos and death multiplied. You who read this in freedom, and I who write it in the safety and comfort of a clean, well-lighted office, can do so only because, in a thousand places at a thousand times, grimy, terrified, unsure young soldiers in the fullness of life were willing to give theirs. That is the price of our forgetful freedom.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Above the Law
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. intervention in Libya's civil war, intervention that began with a surplus of confusion about capabilities and a shortage of candor about objectives, is now taking a toll on the rule of law. In a bipartisan cascade of hypocrisies, a liberal president, with the collaborative silence of most congressional conservatives, is traducing the War Powers Resolution. Enacted in 1973 over President Nixon's veto, the WPR may or may not be wise. It is, however, unquestionably a law, and Barack Obama certainly is violating it. It stipulates that a president must terminate military action 60 days after initiating it (or 90, if the president "certifies" in writing an "unavoidable military necessity" respecting the safety of U.S. forces), unless Congress approves it. Congress has been supine and silent about this war which began more than 70 days ago.
Soft-on-Crime Cycle Repeats
The good news: Last year, California's homicide rate dropped to its lowest level since 1966. Violent crimes were down from the year before. The bad news: Federal judges and California lawmakers juggling to run a state government despite a huge budget deficit are making decisions that threaten to dismantle a system that has made California a safer place to live. If they get their way, today's state prison population of 162,000 inmates could drop by more than 40,000 within two years. Are you afraid yet?
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Liberals and Islamists Sitting in a Tree
Even though it's been a while since Osama bin Laden was deep-sixed by the Navy, I continue to hear from those tenderhearted schlemiels who took umbrage at my suggestion that his remains should have been wrapped, not in a white sheet, but inside a pigskin.
Eric Cantor's 5 Percent Growth Strategy
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor turned the policy temperature down on austerity this week by rolling out a strong economic-growth agenda. Headlined by a 25 percent top tax rate for individuals and business, the Cantor package includes regulatory relief, free trade and patent protection for entrepreneurs. It's job creation and the economy, stupid. Sounds Reaganesque? Well, Eric Cantor has a lot of Reagan blood in him. Back in 1980, while Cantor was still in high school, his father was the Virginia state treasurer of the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign. So the apple never falls far from the tree.
Names in the News
Well, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK as he's known to those who follow politics in France or the doings of Big Money anywhere, did promise to give the International Monetary Fund a "totally different" face.
From The Comedy Store
The TSA ran a fake bomb through the Minneapolis Airport security checkpoint in a drill. The screener found the bomb and notified the police, who didn't know it was just a drill so they shut down the airport. Now that bin Laden is dead we have to be our own enemy.
Friday, May 27, 2011
We're the Problem
The Democrats' victory Tuesday in a special election in New York's 26th Congressional District is being touted as proof that Republicans have overreached on Medicare reform. But the facts are more complicated. Many analysts considered the victor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, a better candidate than Republican Jane Corwin. Hochul had a longer track record in the district and more connection with voters. Plus, a third-party candidate -- former Democrat and faux tea party representative Jack Davis -- spent millions on his campaign and pulled 9 percent of the vote. But excuses notwithstanding, Republicans should learn a few lessons from their loss.
What Obama Did to Israel
WASHINGTON -- Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace while America balances things by giving assurances of U.S. support for Israel's security and diplomatic needs. It's on the basis of such solemn assurances that Israel undertook, for example, the Gaza withdrawal. In order to mitigate this risk, President George W. Bush gave a written commitment that America supported Israel absorbing major settlement blocs in any peace agreement, opposed any return to the 1967 lines and stood firm against the so-called Palestinian right of return to Israel.
Exploiting Domestic Violence?
In 2009, the pop star Rihanna told ABC anchor Diane Sawyer she finally broke it off with her violent pop-star boyfriend, Chris Brown. For the children, of course. "When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result into some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn't be held responsible." She added, "I just didn't realize how much of an impact I had on these girls' lives until that happened. It was a big wake-up call for me."
The Die Is Cast
Alea iacta est. That's what Julius Caesar proclaimed as he crossed the Rubicon river in 49 B.C. It means "the die is cast." By crossing the Rubicon with his army, against Roman law, Caesar guaranteed a head-on conflict with the overconfident Roman ruler Pompey. Outnumbered, Caesar was presented with the choice: win or die. The recent special election in the 26th congressional district of New York was a political Rubicon. The Democrat, Kathy Hochul, ran against the Republican budget, specifically Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to save Medicare by turning it into a voucher program starting 10 years from now (excluding all current beneficiaries).