Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Taking It to the Mat in Connecticut
GREENWICH, Conn. -- It has been said that American politics and professional wrestling share a paucity of honest emotions. But Linda McMahon, who as CEO built World Wrestling Entertainment into a billion-dollar company, might think comparing wrestling to politics insults wrestling. As she seeks the Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd, she says the honesty deficit concerns not emotions but facts.
Public Employee Unions Funnel Public Money to Dems
Who is the largest single political contributor in the 2010 campaign cycle? You can be pardoned if you answer, erroneously, that it's some new conservative group organized by Karl Rove. That's campaign spin by the Obama Democrats, obediently relayed by certain elements of the so-called mainstream media.
Proposition 23: Jobs or Wishful Thinking?
I love this quote from clean-tech exec Eric Dresselhuys to the San Francisco Chronicle's David R. Baker: "If California isn't leading the charge on implementing these technologies, why be here? Do you want to be here for the high taxes, the high cost of living? Right now, you want to be here because California is where the action is."
The Coming Struggle
WASHINGTON -- There is an axiom that is adhered to by conservative journalists that explains at least some of what for liberals is this inexplicable election. It is the Taranto Principle. Coined by the inimitable James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal, the Taranto Principle encourages the worst in liberals by reporting politics with a slavish bias. The conservatives can do nothing right. The liberals can do nothing wrong, and besides, they are always more winsome and more intelligent, and moreover they have an aesthetic and philosophical side. Even Vice President Joe Biden has an aesthetic and philosophical side. His malapropisms and goofball pronunciamentos are to be perceived from an artistic and philosophical perspective, as the artiste Chris Ofili's artful uses of elephant dung are to be perceived from an artistic and philosophical perspective.
American Groupspeak
Juan Williams was just fired from NPR. His sin? He confessed to occasional anxiety when Muslims board airplanes, and then went on to explain why stereotyping is wrong. The fate of Williams reminds us that Americans have developed two personas -- one public and politically correct, the other private. Mix the two and big trouble ensues. Here are some reminders about what to shut up about.
Ronald Reagan Was the Tea Party
Liberals and their Democratic Party allies are frightened out of their halfwits by the re-emergence of the dreaded tea party, which began in Boston Harbor in December 1773, when colonists dressed as Indians dumped shiploads of tea into the water, helping to set off what eventually became the American Revolution.
The Morning After
The great "what-if" looks like it is about to happen. With all of the media attention focused on Tuesday's midterm election, Republicans are faced with a greater task than winning a majority in the House of Representatives or getting at least close enough to a majority that they will be able to halt or slow the Obama agenda.
Brass Oldies: Part III
Politics is not the only place where some pretty brassy statements have been made and repeated so often that some people have accepted these brassy statements as being as good as gold.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Taking the Public Out of NPR
First, a confession: I listen to NPR. Sometimes, when I have to explain this fact to my right-wing brethren, I'll forgo trying to make the case that much of what NPR does is simply great radio and instead I'll note that it's more useful to listen to enemy broadcasts than more friendly fare.
Our Contemptible Congress
Most people whom we elect to Congress are either ignorant of, have contempt for or are just plain stupid about the United States Constitution. You say: "Whoa, Williams, you're really out of line! You'd better explain." Let's look at it.
Michelle Obama's $400 Million 'Food Desert' Scam
First Lady Michelle Obama has called on Congress to create a $400 million-per-year program to encourage the establishment of supermarkets in places she calls "food deserts." The situation in these "food deserts," as Mrs. Obama describes it, is quite dire indeed. American children are growing fat because their parents cannot get to a supermarket -- to buy fruits and vegetables -- without undergoing the hardship of boarding a bus or riding a taxi. As a consequence, food-desert-dwelling children are forced to eat fast food and junk procured at chain restaurants and convenience stores.
Why Socialism Breeds Racism
This week's Sports Illustrated featured an article on French soccer star Thierry Henry. Henry, who is black, signed with the New York Red Bulls this season after spending over a decade playing in Europe. What shocks Henry most about America? Whereas European fans routinely insult and slur black players, Americans don't.
Brass Oldies: Part II
Songs that are "golden oldies" have much less pleasant counterparts in politics-- namely, ideas and policies that have failed disastrously in the past but still keep coming back to be advocated and imposed by government. Some people may think these ideas are as good as gold, but brass has often been mistaken for gold by people who don't look closely enough.
Plastic Water Bottles Won't Hurt You
Canada has announced it will ban the chemical bisphenol A -- known as BPA -- which is used to make plastic water and baby bottles. The head of the Canadian environmental group Environmental Defence is thrilled: "Kudos to the federal government. ... We look forward to seeing BPA legally designated as 'toxic' as soon as possible." But the evidence doesn't actually show that BPA is toxic. Europe's equivalent of the FDA concluded: "(T)he data currently available do not provide convincing evidence of neurobehavioral toxicity."
The Left's Voter Fraud Whitewash
Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. It's the Democrats' coping mechanism for midterm election voter fraud. Faced with multiple reports of early voting irregularities and election shenanigans across the country, left-wing groups are playing dumb, deaf and blind. Voter fraud? What voter fraud?
Four Reasons to Vote 'Yes' and Roll Back the Sales Tax
My 7-year-old son knows better than to believe in the Tooth Fairy, but he was happy to act as if he did in order to cash in when he lost three teeth this month. He played his part convincingly, even slipping a note under his pillow asking if he could keep one of the teeth and still get paid for it. ("Dear Micah," said the note he found the next morning, "My name is Tooth Fairy because I keep the tooth. But I will make an exception this time . . .")
Starting Afresh in Pursuit of Liberty
It's largely going to be gridlock. President Obama will veto what he doesn't like. The Republican Congress will not have votes to override the vetoes. The GOP will not destroy itself "shutting down government as the Gingrich Congress did in 1995." Republican congressional leaders will try tactfully to instruct the tea party members on political reality: If unemployment is still above 8.0 percent in 2012, either party might be in a position to take the White House. Below 8 percent, Mr. Obama probably gets re-elected.
Division Dividends: Two-Party Control Is Better Than the Alternative, but Not Much
In my neighborhood of Dallas, not far from where George and Laura Bush moved after he presided over eight years of big-government conservatism, I often see signs that say: "Had Enough? Vote Republican!" They remind me of a bad sunburn I suffered during a camping trip last June.
NPR's Religion Double Standard
National Public Radio's firing of Juan Williams tells you all you need to know about the radical, and thoroughly intolerant, left. Williams is a liberal, but still, he isn't liberal enough. The idea that he would acknowledge a mere thought of discomfort at the idea of people in "Muslim garb" on airplanes in a post-9/11 world became a firing offense. It didn't matter that he prefaced it with all the perfunctory and politically correct disclaimers about not being a bigot and we shouldn't blame all Muslims for terrorism.
More Respect for the President, Please!
President Barack Obama began his term with the highest of accolades in the press. Hard Ball host, TV's Chris Matthews, felt a tingle go up and down his leg whenever Mr. Obama speaks. Newsweek's Evan Thomas said he hovered over the nations, like "a sort of god." All too soon, however, the President came crashing down, like Icarus in Greek legend. Young Icarus flew too close to the sun and the wax that attached the feathers to his homemade wings melted. Icarus plunged into the sea. President Obama may have gotten too close to those klieg lights.