Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Sex and 'Super Mario'
Most parents think of video games as a child's pursuit, especially the innocent ones. Many people who bought a Nintendo Wii video game system would consider this the most innocent of them all. They watch their children play "Super Mario Bros." on it, or join the family in playing tennis, golf or baseball with their little childlike "Mii" characters on Wii Sports. I never imagined this game system would also be an orgy enabler.
Gingrich: Crazy Like FOX
ATLANTA -- The media filled the office of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. Reporters were already buzzing about how crazy the week's worth of press stories had been. There had been assorted reports that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would announce the formation of an exploratory committee for president -- and do so in Deal's office. Then came word that he wouldn't announce yet. Then that he would, and then that he might. Both the national political media and the press in Georgia, Gingrich's longtime political home base, have been none too pleased with the way they believe they've been led to water by Gingrich but not offered anything to drink.
Reckless, Quixotic Fantasies
At what point do environmentalist liberals become accountable for the results of their policies instead of their allegedly good intentions? Why isn't President Obama held accountable for his ideologically based interference with lower oil prices? Obama has repeatedly shown his willingness to use his executive authority discriminatorily to implement his preferred environmental policies. On the presidential campaign trail, he bragged that he would ensure that any company that built a coal-fired plant would go bankrupt. By charging coal-powered plants "a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted," he would "generate billions of dollars that we (could) invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches."
Drawing a Line Between Garbage and Gold
Fred Phelps, the deranged pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church -- which is more like a family entourage of psychos -- has devised a scheme for getting attention: He desecrates military funerals. His group shows up chanting hateful slogans and carrying signs reading "God Hates Fags," "Thank God for IEDs" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." They claim that these tragic deaths are divine punishment for social acceptance of homosexuality. Albert Snyder, the father of a fallen Marine, sued Phelps for protesting his son's funeral. He won millions. The Supreme Court overturned that verdict Wednesday.
Stocks Diss Oil, for Now
Big economic-growth stats are trumping oil prices and the Mideast tinderbox. In optimistic trading on Thursday, stocks soared nearly 200 Dow points. Oil barely fell to just under $102 a barrel. Know what? The market may be shouting out that the recent oil spike is not going to derail economic recovery. Of course, nobody can predict events in wartorn Libya and other hotspots -- or, for that matter, in Saudi Arabia. Sure, if Saudi Arabia erupts into violence on its so-called "day of rage" on March 11, oil prices will spike like we've never seen before, causing incalculable damage to the U.S. and world economies.
An Expeditionary Force in Readiness
WASHINGTON -- In 1794, during George Washington's second term as president, Congress finally got around to appropriating funds to build six wooden-hulled frigates that were "sufficiently armed" to protect American shipping from pirates and fast enough to evade British and French "ships of the line." It wasn't enough. America needed an expeditionary force in readiness. It still does. Just a decade after our first fleet was built, President Thomas Jefferson had to beg Congress for funds to deploy ships, sailors and Marines in adequate numbers to force pirates from Tripoli -- the present-day capital of Libya -- to stop them from seizing American merchant vessels and enslaving their crews. Now President Barack Obama faces a similar quandary -- too few ships and troops to protect American citizens and interests -- off the same coastline.
From Baghdad to Benghazi
WASHINGTON -- Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gaddafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the U.S. has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance and imperialism. A strange moral inversion, considering that Saddam's evil was an order of magnitude beyond Gaddafi's. Gaddafi is a capricious killer; Saddam was systematic. Gaddafi was too unstable and crazy to begin to match the Baathist apparatus: a comprehensive national system of terror, torture and mass murder, gassing entire villages to create what author Kanan Makiya called a "Republic of Fear."
America's College Obsession
Andy Ferguson, one of America's most engaging and perspicacious journalists, has not -- as Andre Malraux said of Whittaker Chambers -- returned from the hell of college admissions with empty hands. In "Crazy U," his chronicle of his son's senior year of high school -- a year of college visiting, application, essay writing, open-house attending, interviewing, financial aid seeking, and waiting, waiting, waiting -- is by turns hilarious, shrewd, and revealing. The "crazy" in the book's title refers to our national obsession with college -- a little piece of insanity to which Ferguson is more prone than most. Preoccupied by his son's prospects of being admitted to a good college, Ferguson devours advice books, college guides, and, in weak moments, websites like College Confidential, prompting this reflection about anonymous advice websites:
Obama Irrelevant on World Stage
Two years into his presidency, the man who promised to restore America's standing in world public opinion has rendered himself personally irrelevant on the world stage. President Obama came into office more popular abroad than he was even at home, where he won a resounding election victory. European crowds thronged his speeches; leaders complimented him on his cultural sensitivity; the foreign press praised his cosmopolitan roots. The cognoscenti were so enamored of Obama that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize barely nine months into office. The move embarrassed even Obama. But as the world faces a cataclysm of popular revolt stretching across North Africa and into the Middle East, Obama stands mostly on the sidelines. He did nothing to support the brave Iranian demonstrators who flooded the streets of Tehran after fraudulent elections there in 2009. He waited too long to weigh in on the side of Egyptians who demanded an end to autocratic rule in their country.
Bargaining Over a Flawed Product
If the teachers unions would use their collective bargaining rights to do good for their students rather than doing well for themselves, they could make a stronger case for themselves. The good teachers, if they provide a little evidence, might even make a credible argument for getting paid more money. But nooooooo. They're talking "me, me, me." Unions were originally formed as a protection against exploitive employers, but teachers unions are often trying to exploit their employers -- the taxpayers -- even though most of us aren't happy with what we're paying for. The problem has many causes, but negotiating for ever-bigger salaries and more expensive pensions won't resolve any problems.
A Perfect Blendship
One of the pleasures of an earthly transition is that you can write nice things about a person while they are still around to read them. And so, I rise to praise my friend and favorite newspaper writer, Frank Rich Jr. as he leaves The New York Times for New York magazine. What, you say? You are a conservative and he is among the most politically liberal people in journalism. Or, as someone asked me one night when they heard I was going to dinner with former Senator George McGovern, "How can you eat with a man like that?" "Easy," I replied. "He's my friend." And so was Ted Kennedy, I am happy to say. After all, Jesus was "a friend to sinners" and if they were good enough for Him, they are certainly good enough for me.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Uncivil Unions
As Obama rakes in historic campaign contributions from Wall Street money, liberals claim Republicans are beholden to "the rich." However that may be, it is far more true, and far less remarked upon, that the Democratic Party is the party of public sector unions. And now, the nation watches helplessly as public sector unions and their Democratic allies say to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Nice state you got there, governor. Be a shame if something bad happened to it.
Government Shutdown No Longer a 'Train Wreck'
Sometimes you get an idea of the way opinion is headed by the phrases you don't hear. Case in point: In all the discussion and debate these past weeks about a possible government shutdown if Congress and President Obama fail to agree on funding bills, I don't recall having heard the phrase "train wreck." I think that's significant, because back in the 1990s, when then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republicans and President Clinton failed to reach agreement and the government actually did shut down, "train wreck" was a common term.
Who Wants to Be Charlie Sheen?
This week, Charlie Sheen owns network news. No wonder Americans hate the media. In a rush for ratings, TV news shows have been clamoring for sit-downs. The goal, of course, is to get Sheen to say something nutty that makes news. But no one wants to look like a vulture, so from their high horse, interviewers try to prod the bad boy to admit that he needs help.
She Touched You Where?
WASHINGTON -- A frotteur is someone -- usually male -- who takes aberrant pleasure in rubbing his fully clothed groin area against someone else -- usually female -- generally in a public place, say, a subway, perhaps a funeral parlor. The frotteur is a pretty weird duck. The word is obviously French in derivation, and it unsurprisingly has an arty origin. Frottage is "the technique or process of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "to form the basis of a work of art."
The Immigration Enforcer
WASHINGTON -- During his first 18 years in Congress, the view from Lamar Smith's office was of a parking lot. Now, in his 13th term, he looks out upon the Capitol dome. Seniority confers perquisites. Today he chairs the House Judiciary Committee that has custody of the immigration issue. When first elected, his Texas district -- then 42,000 square miles, five times larger than Massachusetts -- included 400 miles of the border with Mexico. His district has meandered north and now is 150 miles from the border. It includes portions of San Antonio and Austin. But Smith still looks south, toward the flow of illegal immigration, which he considers a uniquely comprehensive problem, affecting schools, health care, employment and the culture.
The Washington Circus
When you live about 3,000 miles west of the Potomac, it's impossible not to feel as if you're watching the antics of people who should be wearing big floppy shoes and big red noses on the job. The upside is that 20 of them could use a single jalopy in order to carpool to work. For instance, leading up to Mubarak's departure, we kept hearing members of the administration refer to the Muslim Brotherhood in terms more appropriate to the Brownies and the Girl Scouts. It was almost comical to hear Joe Biden and James Clapper speak so much nicer about this gang of Islamic terrorists than anyone in the Obama administration had ever spoken about the members of the Tea Party. They even called the Brotherhood "secular and non-violent," two things they have never once said about Sarah Palin.
This Isn't Mere Duplication; It's Unbridled Idiocy
Uncle Sam is spending a lot of your tax dollars on programs that do the exact same thing as other federal programs, and you are paying the tab, a shocking new report shows. According to a report by the watchdog Government Accounting Office (GAO), Uncle Sam hosts 47 job-training programs, 44 of which do the same things. The federal government also runs 80 programs for what it calls the "transportation disadvantaged." Count 'em: 80 -- paid for by your tax dollars.
How Obama's Alma Mater Treated an Iraq War Vet
"Racist!" shouted some Columbia University students at an Iraq War vet. Other students reportedly "hissed and booed." Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who spoke at Columbia three years earlier, received better treatment from the audience. The subject of the students' scorn? Former Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Maschek. The 28-year-old Columbia freshman and Purple Heart recipient served in Iraq. During an attack, he was shot 11 times, suffered two broken legs and sustained injuries to his abdomen, arm and chest. He spent two years at Walter Reed, where one leg was amputated. He uses a wheelchair.
Redundancy the Government Way
Most of us have had the experience of viewing an item in a store and thinking, "I don't need another one of those. I already have one at home." That is not how the federal government thinks. Its refusal to do so is why our deficit and debt are at record levels. If real people behaved like the government, they'd be broke too. As The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, there are "15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development." Maybe getting rid of those redundant programs could actually spur economic development.