Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Complex Inferiority
This year, for the first time in more than a decade, I ventured outside the reassuring realm of TurboTax while preparing my return, looking for a late-arriving form at the IRS website. It's scary out there. Staring at bewildering forms and instructions, I flashed back to the days when I did my taxes by hand, based on my uncertain understanding of what was required, and hoped for the best -- "the best" being a future free of audits, interest on back taxes, liens, fines and prison. Although clever software has helped shield me from the infuriating, nerve-wracking complexity that the Taxpayer Advocate Service identifies as "the most serious problem facing taxpayers," it has not changed the underlying reality.
Second Thoughts on the Goldstone Report
Richard Goldstone is a retired justice of South Africa's Constitutional Court. He is Jewish and a Zionist. So, when this distinguished jurist issued a report commissioned by the UN's Human Rights Council, it was known that the Goldstone Report would gain worldwide attention. It did. That's because this September 2009 report condemned both Israel and Hamas for "possible crimes against humanity." This is the first time a credible figure like Goldstone lent his name to such an explosive allegation. To place Israel on a par with known terrorist groups like Hamas was gravely damaging to the Jewish state. But Justice Goldstone's reputation for integrity and his attention to detail caused even some Israelis and defenders of Israel's conduct in the Gaza War (2008-09) to have second thoughts.
President's Call to Inaction to Be Withdrawn
The great American engine of democracy is beginning to build up a head of steam, and it remains the finest device created by man to organize collective human action. Two months ago, the conventional wisdom held that Washington would do nothing of consequence to start dealing with our fiscal crisis. Certainly, that was the political baseline for the president's Feb. 14 budget proposal for 2012, which, while roundly condemned as a call to inaction, was seen as politically "shrewd."
Into the Fourth Era of Space Exploration
April 12, 2011, marked the anniversaries of two extraordinary historical events. One hundred fifty years ago, on April 12, 1861, rebels in Charleston, S.C., fired on Fort Sumter, igniting the American Civil War. That war had complex economic, political and social origins, but taking seriously the Declaration of Independence's premise that "all men are created equal" was definitely one of those complexities. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's space flight on April 12, 1961, is the other extraordinary anniversary. Fifty very short years ago, Gagarin, in a Vostok 1 spacecraft, made a one-orbit trip around the Earth, and became the first human being to fly into space and return.
Cut Off Its Water
Let's see if I've got this right. According to NPR's official line, the greatest hope for objective news reporting on the American airwaves will be lost if its federal subsidy is eliminated. And it's quite a bargain for the taxpayers, too, for only 2 percent of its budget is federally funded. But like much of NPR's news, any such claim is incomplete at best, misleading at worse. My first question is why, if NPR gets only 2 percent of its budget from the feds, or a measly $5 million out of its $145 million in revenues, it couldn't make up that mere 2 percent from private sources -- if its programming is as good as it says it is.
The Magic of Donald Trump
For well over a year, I, along with the rest of the conservative base in America, have lamented the lack of decent possible Republican presidential candidates. Despite the fact that he has run the most incompetent administration in history, President Obama remains a solid bet for re-election in 2012. Obama's frontrunner status springs from two crucial facts: first, by overexposing himself in the public eye, he has made himself larger than life; second, the Republican field is pathetically weak.
Taxes and Politics
Someone once said that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. That may have been true when he said it, but today taxes are mostly the price we pay so that politicians can play Santa Claus and get reelected. That's not the worst of it. We may think of taxes as just a source of government revenue. But tax rates are a big political statement on the left, whether they bring in any revenue or not.
Eat the Rich
I've often said that I wish there were some humane way to get rid of the rich. If you asked why, I'd answer that getting rid of the rich would save us from distraction by leftist hustlers promoting the politics of envy. Not having the rich to fret over might enable us to better focus our energies on what's in the best interest of the 99.99 percent of the rest of us. Let's look at some facts about the rich laid out by Bill Whittle citing statistics on his RealClearPolitics video "Eat the Rich."
No Shutdown for Biased Media
The ominous threat of a government shutdown dominated the news last week. The media weren't wrong to cover it as a dramatic debate, but all of the hype and horror looked a little bizarre by the weekend -- like wide-eyed, screaming hurricane warnings on the Weather Channel followed by a sunny calm. When the deal was struck, the TV pundits quickly moved on to how there were sharper, harsher battles ahead over much larger chunks of federal spending. That's true. But in hindsight, the entire shutdown fight looks by comparison like a war over who was splitting the pizza delivery bill tip. The $38 billion in spending cuts is a bit of an achievement when Obama didn't want to cut anything -- but it's still the drop in the proverbial $3.7 trillion bucket.
Obama Said 'Nope' -- So Republicans Caved
"Nope. Zero." According to a story in Sunday's New York Times, that is what President Barack Obama told House Speaker John Boehner last week when Boehner, as the Times put it, "was demanding a provision to restrict financing to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions." Boehner asked again, the Times reported, and Obama again said: "Nope. Zero." The bottom line: Boehner agreed to a deal to fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2011 that will permit continued federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a group that says it did 332,278 abortions in 2009 -- or about 910 per day.
Welcome Budget-Cut Talk
Finally. A serious budget plan. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's proposal has the head-in-the-sand crowd horrified . A Washington Post columnist called it "radical ... irresponsible ... extreme." Ryan's plan offers some great things: less spending than President Obama wants; a path to a balanced budget; repeal of Obamacare; an end to corporate welfare. And it would make the social safety net sustainable rather than open-ended and going broke. It even inspired President Obama to say he'd come out with his own deficit plan, although he reportedly "will not offer details," just "goals." And of course his plan will "raise revenues." That means more taxes. Ryan's plan is better.
Free Speech and Burning Korans
"Since American liberals don't have the guts to say it, allow me: The Rev. Terry Jones hasn't done anything wrong. Nothing." So writes my friend and conservative radio host Michael Graham in the Boston Herald. And on this, I think Michael's nuts. Graham is referring to Jones, the pastor of a tiny fringe church in Florida, who held a Monty Pythonesque "trial" for the Koran and, to the surprise of no one, found the book guilty and then set it on fire. While the stunt got blessedly little attention in the United States, foreign media picked it up, and some radical clerics overseas used the incident to foment murderous pogroms against Westerners.
Make 70 the New 65
It's time for a 21st-century retirement age. If 40 is the new 20 and 50 is the new 30, why shouldn't 70 be the new 65? The last time Washington politicians tinkered ever so gingerly with the government-sanctioned retirement age, Ronald Reagan was in office and Generation X-ers were all in diapers. Since then, American life expectancy has increased by half a decade and continues to rise -- while the "traditional" retirement age (established eight decades ago) has only recently begun phasing up to 67 and the official "early" retirement age (established four decades ago) remains stuck at 62. There is simply no good reason 21st-century workers should operate under obsolete 1930s-era expectations and 1970s rules. We're living longer, working longer and, in general, holding down jobs that are far less physically taxing than those of previous generations.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Moral Monsters in Afghanistan and Moral Idiocy in America
Given the preoccupation of the American media with the possible closing down of the American government, and the preoccupation of American and world media with Japan's travails and the revolts in the Arab world, many Americans may have missed the news about the April 1 massacre of United Nations employees in Afghanistan. That is unfortunate because it was as significant as it was instructive.
Easter: Ad Execs Say No to Jesus
Culture Challenge of the Week: Jesus on Trial at Easter "Did it Really Happen?" That's the question at the heart of a short, tasteful ad created by a Christian church in California. As part of its annual Easter outreach, the Compass Bible Church created a video advertisement that it planned to run in several Orange County movie theatres.
Mr. Obama's Muddle East
President Obama came into office pledging a new approach to the Middle East. We were told that his middle name -- Hussein -- would give him unprecedented entrée to the corridors of power in that troubled region -- and to the Arab street. We thought a Mideast policy could not be more confused, more feckless than Jimmy Carter's. Carter acceded to if he did not welcome the ouster of the Shah in 1979. The Shah was horrible in Carter's eyes. Well, the Ayatollah Khomeini and his mullahs who replaced the Shah were horribler. And still are.
Another Spending Cut Plan
Since everybody else seems to be coming up with plans on how to cope with the skyrocketing national debt, let me try my hand at it too. The liberals' easy solution is just to increase taxes on "the rich." But, if you do the math, there aren't enough of "the rich" to cover the huge and record-breaking deficit. Trying to reduce the deficit by cutting spending runs into an old familiar counter-attack. There will be all kinds of claims by politicians and sad stories in the media about how these cuts will cause the poor to go hungry, the sick to be left to die, etc.
The Arab Street and Lies
Dear Arab protesters, From Tripoli to Sanaa, and from Cairo to Damascus, you are taking to the streets to topple your governments. The fabled "Arab street" has, after many predicted eruptions that failed to materialize, at last been heard from. There is still a great deal we don't know about you -- though we do know that you've displayed tremendous courage, particularly in Libya and Syria, where the regimes are firing on and murdering peaceful demonstrators by the score. Some of you are Islamists, who would usher in even worse regimes than the ones you hope to replace. Some of you are clearly hoping for economic change.
Academic Mission or UCLA Speech Code?
If you think that academia is not the exclusive playground of the academic left, consider the fate of UCLA epidemiologist James Enstrom. In 2008, Enstrom thought that a report on the health effects of diesel emissions presented by the California Air Resources Board was faulty. As it turns out, CARB's nitrous oxide emission estimates were overstated by 340 percent. Enstrom and others had trouble believing that a Ph.D. statistician would make up some of CARB's findings. They dug around and found that CARB researcher Hien Tran had falsely claimed to have a doctorate in statistics from UC Davis. In fact, Tran had a master's degree from UC Davis, but his doctorate came from an unaccredited school.
The Doctor Who Saw What He Did
The good doctor could have stepped out of a Louis Auchincloss short story. A fashionable but conscientious professional on the Upper West Side, his ideas, like his Brooks Bothers suits, were tailored to fit in. His ideals were those of the enlightened, modern urban America of his time, which was the mid- to late 20th century. And he was always doing what he could to further them. The doctor's political, medical and social convictions were much what one would have expected of a New York liberal, as clear as his curriculum vitae. The son of a secular Jewish ob/gyn, he would follow his prominent father's footsteps, graduate from McGill Medical College in Montreal, and start his practice in Manhattan. He was a quick study, whether absorbing the latest medical knowledge or political trend. Especially when it came to abortion.