Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Still Thankful
As millions of us gather at tables to offer thanks during this uniquely American holiday (OK, Canada has one, too, but without our Pilgrims), most will express gratitude to God for freedom and material blessings. This year, as in every year since 1989 when she escaped with other "boat people" from communist Vietnam, Kim Vu will offer thanks borne out of a deep gratitude for what America has meant to her since she and so many others risked their lives for something they regarded as even more valuable: freedom.
President Barack Obama: Job Killer
President Barack Obama walked into the Oval Office in January 2009 during a severe economic downturn led by a meltdown in housing prices -- and promptly made things worse. By bailing out banks, insurance companies and auto firms -- done to a lesser extent by the previous administration -- Obama rewarded poor performers and punished their better-managed competitors. Prevented from pouncing on wounded rivals and thus increasing market share or buying the assets of the wounded at fire sale prices, Ford, for example, watched GM and Chrysler get a cash infusion from taxpayers. Despite GM's recent "successful" public offering, taxpayers lost billions of dollars.
Pelosi Could Guarantee Destruction of Democrats in 2012
It was the dumbest thing the Democratic members of the U. S. House could have done. And it is already jeopardizing the chances of President Obama to reverse the fortunes of himself and his party. "It" was making Nancy Pelosi the minority leader of the House, and thus the head of what is now an even more liberal delegation of lawmakers.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Save Our Troops From Futile Death in Afghanistan
The administration's Afghanistan War policy seems to be settling into a dismal combination of confusion and cynicism. Before the November elections the administration was adamant that the troops would start coming home by July 2011. This, it is presumed, was to keep the president's liberals calm.
Happy Starvation Day
Had today's political class been in power in 1623, tomorrow's holiday would have been called "Starvation Day" instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, most of us wouldn't be alive to celebrate it. Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. But the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen.
Health Tyrants
Do federal, state and local governments have a right to intervene in our lives when it comes to choices affecting our health? Recently, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to forbid restaurants from giving gifts with meals that contain too much fat and sugar, a measure aimed at McDonald's Happy Meals. The reasoning of these tyrants is to prevent McDonald's from using toys to lure children into liking foods the board deems non-nutritious. Fortunately, San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, by no means a libertarian, has threatened to veto the measure saying, "Despite its good intentions, I cannot support this unwise and unprecedented governmental intrusion into parental responsibilities and private choices."
The Korean War Continues
Why did North Korea lace a South Korean island with artillery fire this week, then threaten further escalation? Because sensational attacks are a vicious form of advertising that reap significant political and economic dividends. Deadly fits of violence followed by diplomatic tantrums advance the interests of North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-Il and his Stalinist regime. Since the Cold War ended, Pyongyang has played a calculated game with South Korea and its allies, Japan and the United States. The North launches a military attack or terrorist foray, which is followed by vicious bluster.
Giving Thanks for American Ingenuity
One of my favorite television programs is "How It's Made" on the Science Channel. The documentary series shows "how the everyday objects people use become the things they are." From ketchup and flip-flops, to nail clippers and snare drums, to NASCAR engines, hydraulic cylinders and motor homes, the show takes viewers on wondrous autobiographical journeys of the mundane products we too often take for granted.
Working Out the Terrorist Watch Lists
Before it started inflicting full-body pat downs on passengers who declined to pass through full body scanners at some domestic airports, the Transportation Security Administration decided to allow some terrorists to board airplanes unscreened because, among other things, it did not want to inconvenience travelers.
Loco Over Four Loko: The Moral Panic Behind the Ban
Timothy Leary noted that "psychedelic drugs cause panic and temporary insanity" in people who have never tried them. The same can be said of Four Loko, the drink that federal regulators banned last week amid a nationwide fit of hysteria about "a toxic, dangerous mix of caffeine and alcohol" that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., warned was "spreading like a plague across the country." A fruity, bubbly, neon-colored plague.
This Pope Plays It Right
In the spring of 2005, Pope John Paul II died. My father, who passed away that summer, watched the funeral and the coronation of the current pope, Benedict XVI, from his hospital bed. My dad, a Jew, loved the spectacle of it all. (The Vatican, he said, was the last institution that "really knows how to dress.")
Bush's 'Gulag' Now Acceptable
Our liberal scribes and pundits savaged the Bush administration as being a privacy-shredding, terrorist-suspect-abusing tyranny on the march. Now that President Obama is in charge, they lamely suggest that "the government" has failed, but with no president's name attached in the blame game.
The Day Before
It's the busiest day of the year at the nation's crowded airports. And in many a kitchen. Imagine the hubbub that preceded the first Thanksgiving in American history. As every good Southerner knows, that festive occasion took place not in New England's harsh climes but in beautiful, lush Virginia. To be specific, at the Berkeley Plantation outside Williamsburg on December 4, 1619. You can look it up, as Casey Stengel used to say.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Save Us From the Intellectuals
Super-genius political science professor Charles H. Franklin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison recently gave loud voice to a widely held liberal belief: Ordinary Americans, especially conservative ones, are stupid. At a conference by the Society of Professional Journalists, alternative newspaper editor Bill Lueders asked Franklin why "the public seemed to vote against its own interests and stated desires, for instance by electing candidates who'll drive up the deficit with fiscally reckless giveaways to the rich."
Not TSA Pat-Downs, but Freedom Fondles
The latest controversy over Transportation Security Administration body scans and enhanced body pat-downs leaves no doubt: America truly is a nation of whiners. A CBS News poll found that 81 percent of Americans support full-body airport scanning. That reasonable view is being drowned out by elements on the left and the right who love nothing better than to proclaim that they are victims.
Is the American Dream Over?
For generations, parents have told their children about "The American dream." Basically it has meant building a life based on the foundational principles that created and have sustained America for more than 200 years. By doing so, one might reasonably expect a new generation to achieve a better life than their parents and grandparents experienced. But what defines "better"? In modern times it has been defined as achieving greater prosperity and consuming more material goods.
Air Travel: One Step Behind Terrorists
Not everyone has reacted the same way to the Transportation Security Administration's aggressively intimate new frisking technique. Air traveler John Tyner created a minor sensation when he recorded himself warning a TSA screener in San Diego: "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested." Journalist Emmett Tyrrell, on the other hand, says he would "welcome a soothing pat-down. . . especially if the patter-downer is a cute little number on the order of, say, Sarah Palin." It takes all types to fill a passenger plane.
Search for Terrorists Not Weapons
Back in January, the Obama administration announced a new policy for airline safety -- country-based profiling. Travelers from 14 countries known to harbor terrorists would automatically receive extra scrutiny including additional pat-downs or full body scanners. The named states were: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Why Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals
According to polls -- Pew Research Center, the National Science Foundation -- and studies such as Professor Arthur Brooks' Gross National Happiness, conservative Americans are happier than liberal Americans. Liberals respond this way: "If we're unhappier, it's because we are more upset than conservatives over the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves." But common sense and data suggest other explanations.
The Palin Perplexity
Sarah Palin is the best thing that's happened lately to the right and the left, both at the same time. Much of the right pays her obeisance for mobilizing the troops and smart-alecking the left -- which in turn loves her for splitting (so the left hopes) the right over her personality and track record. The best way for a conservative to incur a black eye and a "country club Republican" label is to suggest that the mother of Bristol Palin and host of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" hasn't it in her to lead the world's -- still, we hope -- leading nation.