Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
There Is a Method to Obama's Libya Madness
President Obama's decision to bomb Libya is not even so multilateral as President George W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq. Nor is it ultimately driven by humanitarian concerns -- and certainly not by any vital U.S. national interest. Despite Obama's vilification of Bush for his alleged unilateralism, "Obama's 'coalition of the willing,'" according to foreign policy reporter Josh Rogin, "is smaller than any major multilateral operation since the end of the Cold War." Obama's Libyan intervention is more unilateral than Dubya's in another respect, as well: Obama has brazenly refused even to consult Congress, much less seek its blessing.
A Grim Prognosis
Ever heard a doctor talk about the value of "early detection" with certain medical conditions? The idea, of course, is to catch a disorder before it progresses too far, and serious symptoms start to show. That's when it's harder to cure. Well, consider this an early-detection warning for a piece of legislation that became law one year ago -- the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or "ObamaCare."
Of 'Trailblazers' and Just Plain Principled Women
The New York Times marked Geraldine Ferraro's death with the observation that by gaining the Democrats' vice presidential nomination in 1984, she kicked aside ancient barriers to women's acquisition of national political power. Bah, humbug. What barriers? The Ferraro story clicks neatly in place as an installment in the approved narrative of women's rise from oppression to near ubiquity in human affairs: for all that she and Walter Mondale lost the '84 election overwhelmingly, and, further, that no woman since then has won the presidency or vice presidency.
Monday, March 28, 2011
The Eyes of Texas Are Sparkling in the 2010 Census
The Census Bureau last week released county and city populations for the last of the 50 states from the 2010 Census last week, ahead of schedule. Behind the columns of numbers are many vivid stories of how our nation has been changing -- and some lessons for public policy, as well. Geographically, our population is moving to the south and west, to the point that the center of the nation's population has moved to Texas County, Missouri. That sounds like the familiar story of people moving from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt, but that's not exactly what's happening. Instead, the fastest growth rates in the 2000-10 decade have been in Texas, the Rocky Mountain states and the South Atlantic states.
Socialism (Is) for Dummies
Proof that you don't have to live in New York or Hollywood to be a left-wing knothead was the decision by a Chicago high school to boycott a basketball tournament in Arizona because someone -- the principal perhaps -- opposed Arizona's immigration policy. A policy, as we all know, that is the mirror image of federal law. Then, having shown the world what they think of those racists in Arizona, they went off to play an exhibition game in a country that serves as a role model for freedom-loving people everywhere...China!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
College Daze
WASHINGTON -- For many families, this is March madness -- the moment of high anxiety concerning higher education as many colleges announce their admittance decisions. It is the culmination of a protracted mating dance between selective institutions and anxious students. Part agony, part situation comedy, it has provoked Andrew Ferguson to write a laugh-until-your-ribs-squeak book -- "Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course in Getting His Kid into College." He begins in Greenwich, Conn. -- a hedge fund habitat -- watching Katherine Cohen, an "independent college admissions counselor," market her $40,000 "platinum package" of strategies for bewitching Ivy League admissions officers. "Everyone in the room," writes Ferguson, "was on full alert, with that feral look of parental ambition. They swiveled their tail-gunning eyes toward Kat when she was introduced." Kat introduced them to terror:
Gadhafi -- the Mad Dog Who Trumped the World
Every American should look at Libya through the prism of the 1988 Pan Am 103 terrorist bombing that left 270 people dead. Moammar Gadhafi -- the man whom Ronald Reagan called the mad dog of the Middle East -- ordered an attack that killed mostly American civilians in a bombing over British soil. Yet rather than be beaten by more powerful nations, he lived to crow about it. It took more than a decade for international investigators to uncover the crime and the international community to pressure Libya to hand over two suspects for a Scottish trial -- given America's death penalty, Tripoli would never go for a U.S. trial -- conducted in a Dutch courtroom.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
From The Comedy Store
President Obama returned home from a trip to South America Wednesday. While in Chile he paid a surprise visit to a grade-school history class. The children explained to the president the dangers of going into war with no clear goal and no clear exit strategy.
Why the Left Should Be Left Behind
Anyone who wonders why I despise those on the left not only for their politics, but their behavior, simply hasn't been paying attention lately. To begin with, we had the union bullies attempting to overturn the results of a democratic election by a show of brute force. And for what? So that public sector unions, which should never have been allowed to exist in the first place, could continue strong-arming gutless politicians into providing them, at taxpayer's expense, with an endless gravy train.
Friday, March 25, 2011
The Atheist Mormon-Trashing Musical
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the perpetually immature creators of the filthy cartoon "South Park," have spent years delivering product sure to please high school sophomores and L.A. Times film critics. But the problem with toilet humor is that, eventually, the commode is filled. They have crossed so many lines of decency on television and in cinema that they need a new frontier to muck. To great secular media fanfare, Parker and Stone are debuting a new musical on Broadway called "The Book of Mormon." A mocking musical titled "The Koran" wasn't going to find buyers, only fatwas. So they chose the Mormons because they seem so ... harmless and "cheesy."
Rommel Drives on Deep Into Egypt
The world in 2011 seems much like that of the century before, and much unlike it. History doesn't repeat itself, it has been said, but it does rhyme. Not in any simple, clear way. But more like Emily Dickinson's rhymes -- assonant, subtle, on the slant. And sore must be the storm.... Once I tore off dispatches from the teletype machine in a little newsroom, alone in the middle of the night when I couldn't go home, consumed as I was by curiosity, anxiety, desperation about what would happen next in the latest war in the Muddle East. One clattering BULLETIN and FLASH would follow the other as the war approached its climax or anti-climax or neither....
Obama's Libya: Completing His Remaking of America
Everyone seems to have a different theory about why President Obama attacked Libya when he did and what his ultimate purpose is, because he has been so adamantly against similar uses of military force and reluctant even to voice his support for some democratic movements. I don't think it's that mysterious. Commentators have been mystified by Obama's vacillation, his indecisiveness and his apparent apathy about foreign policy. I do think that Obama far prefers domestic policy to foreign policy and that he wants to focus most of his attention on redistributing wealth, administering "economic justice" and otherwise fundamentally changing America. But we should understand that fundamentally transforming America has an essential foreign policy component, as well.
The Professor's War
WASHINGTON -- President Obama is proud of how he put together the Libyan operation. A model of international cooperation. All the necessary paperwork. Arab League backing. A Security Council resolution. (Everything but a resolution from the Congress of the United States, a minor inconvenience for a citizen of the world.) It's war as designed by an Ivy League professor. True, it took three weeks to put this together, during which time Moammar Gaddafi went from besieged, delusional (remember those youthful protesters on "hallucinogenic pills") thug losing support by the hour -- to resurgent tyrant who marshaled his forces, marched them to the gates of Benghazi and had the U.S. director of national intelligence predicting that "the regime will prevail."
Laureates and Leaders
WASHINGTON -- Nobel laureate Barack Obama, fresh from his Latin American spring break, is in serious trouble. Globalists and Utopians who once lauded his constant contrition now want POTUS to return his Peace Prize. Here in Washington, libertarians, progressives and conservatives are outraged that U.S. military forces were committed to combat in Libya without a congressional resolution. The commander in chief's approval ratings are dropping faster than a JDAM. And no matter what happens to Moammar Gadhafi, the turmoil in the Middle East is likely to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. For all of this, President Obama has nobody to blame but himself.
Hispanic Boom
New Census figures out this week show that the Hispanic population in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the last decade. Hispanics now number roughly 50 million nationwide, up from 35 million in 2000. They also are no longer concentrated in just a handful of Southwestern states, as they were for decades, but have spread out across the country. Some of the largest percentage increases have incurred in Southern states, with the Hispanic population more than doubling in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee. Both higher Hispanic birthrates and immigration have driven this trend. But what will this demographic shift in the American population mean in the long term? I've documented the rapid assimilation of Hispanics into the social and economic mainstream for years, starting with my 1991 book, "Out of the Barrio: Towards a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation."
Off to Mecca With Eric Holder's Blessing
The village of Berkeley, Ill., 15 miles west of Chicago, is small enough to proclaim its population (5,245) on its welcome sign. It is also small enough to escape mention in the national news -- most of the time. But the village, which, according to The Washington Post, is majority African-American and Hispanic, has attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice. The department is suing the Berkeley School District on behalf of a former teacher.
Dressing Like Little Hookers
Many Americans were disappointed when President Obama devoted a Saturday radio address to a celebration of the progress of women in society. Most of us were more interested to hear about the progress (or lack of it) in dealing with the crisis that threatens to become a new war in Libya. The president was excited about a new White House report on the status of women, the first such report in 48 years. John F. Kennedy assigned Eleanor Roosevelt to explore the subject on that occasion.
Biden Rails On
What do Yasser Arafat, Jon Stewart and Joe Biden have in common? Well, let's see. Yasser Arafat, the carbuncle who used to run the Palestinian Authority, had a gift for saying what Americans wanted to hear in English and what his own murderous constituents wanted to hear in Arabic. The Western press played along for the most part, pretending that translations weren't available.
Iran Should Be America's Target in Middle East
I can't believe what I'm watching. Nation by nation, the hotbed of the world is melting down. It started with Egypt, now Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and others. A tumultuous region is getting more tumultuous. Is this a cheery debutante's ball for emerging democracies? No way. Anarchy and directionless armed conflict benefits those who are up to no good. Show me a riot, and I'll point out the looters. Find a deadlocked election, and I'll find you some stuffed ballot boxes.
The Weiner Waiver Wormhole
New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner toasted the one-year anniversary of Obamacare this week -- and accidentally spilled his champagne glass all over the disastrous, one-size-fits-all mandate. Ostensibly one of the federal health care law's staunchest defenders, Weiner exposed its ultimate folly by pushing for a special cost-saving regulatory exemption for New York City. If it's good for the city Weiner wants to be mayor of, why not for each and every individual American and American business that wants to be free of Obamacare's shackles?