Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
$900 Million for What?
Israeli media watchdog Itamar Marcus makes a career of following the Palestinian press. His website provides timely and accurate translations of the Arabic language broadcasts and publications that are watched and read by the Palestinian public on the West Bank of the Jordan River and in the Gaza Strip. It's well worth our while as Americans to pay more attention to what the so-called Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is doing. That's because we American taxpayers are footing the bill for much of it. President Obama and Sec. Hillary Clinton have promised $900 million in U.S. funds to the PLO, our supposed "peace partners" in the latest round of Mideast peace talks.
Freer Is Better
The 2010 Index of Economic Freedom lowers the ranking of the United States to eighth out of 179 nations -- behind Canada! A year ago, it ranked sixth, ahead of Canada.
Liu Xiaobo and the War for the Terms of Modernity
Dissident Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize has scared China's communist elites. The Beijing government has responded viciously by vilifying Liu and the prize selection committee. China's cyber-sheriffs have tried to keep news of Liu's award off the Internet. Its secret police shadow Liu's wife. The People's Republic's foreign ministry has even snubbed Norwegian diplomats engaged in discussions about the fishing industry.
Carl Paladino Spoke the Truth
The establishment media have launched a brutal attack on Carl Paladino, New York's Republican gubernatorial candidate, for this reason: Paladino spoke the truth about homosexual behavior.
Obama, Now Bashing Foreigners
A major part of the Barack Obama narrative when he ran for president was his international roots, the global sweep of his life and how much more cosmopolitan he would be as president than the pedestrian George W. Bush. So it's a little weird to watch Obama yelling from the campaign podium that foreigners are funding political commercials and stealing our elections.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Feingold Versus Johnson
One of a surprising number of old, well-established politicians being challenged in this year's election by some unknown newcomer is Senator Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. In a recent debate between Senator Feingold and his new challenger, businessman Ron Johnson, the difference between the old pol and new guy on the block stood out.
The Happiness Factors: Fame and Fortune Are Not on the List
We also expect that as our children mature into a teenagers and young adults, that they will be grounded in priorities both deeper and more realistic than wanting to be like the rich and famous. And it's our task as parents, teachers, and family friends to help him get there.
The Most Conservative Court? Hardly
What do you call a Supreme Court that within the last few terms has ruled that carbon dioxide can be regulated as "air pollution" by the Environmental Protection Agency? That gave captured terrorists and enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay the right to petition for release in federal court? That has relied on foreign law when defining provisions of the Constitution?
Let No Crisis Go To Waste
Those of a certain age -- meaning we recall where we were when Kennedy was shot and the size of Jerry Lee Lewis' pompadour -- know the venerability of the question of how much government is too much government and how much the answers vary over time. It depends for one thing on how much government you've got when the question gets asked.
Obama's Chamber Smear Is Business As Usual
The most noteworthy aspect of President Barack Obama's slander of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for allegedly "stealing our democracy" by laundering foreign corporate donations is that such disgraceful behavior is par for the course for this self-described post-partisan president.
God, Liberals and Liberty
In a recent column, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow wrote: "It's sometimes easy to lose sight of just how anomalous our (America's) religiosity is in the world. A Gallup report issued on Tuesday underscored just how out of line we are."
Of Public Servants Who Serve Themselves First
Whenever some politician portrays himself as the source of all blessings (thanks to your tax money, sucker), a scene from the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" comes to mind. It's the one in which Anthony Quinn, in the role of as some minor sheikh, is extolling his own generosity from atop a desolate sand dune: "I am a river to my people!"
Liu, Si. Obama, No.
Ten months ago, when Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years for "inciting subversion of state power," the world response was muted. There were condemnations of this unashamed assault on free expression and individual freedom, but they were mild and oddly off-key.
Law School Is Obamaland's Boot Camp
Even though America is fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, members of President Obama's Cabinet are three times more likely to have attended law school than boot camp.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
I was preparing to applaud the Obama administration and specifically Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for announcing the deportation of a record number of criminal aliens last year. According to the Washington Times, "the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 392,862 aliens in fiscal year 2010, slightly less than a 1 percent increase over 2009 but short of the agency's goal to remove 400,000 this year." What curbed my enthusiasm was news that removal of other illegal immigrants -- those not convicted of crimes, though it could be justifiably argued that their status as illegal immigrants is, by definition, the breaking of American law -- fell to the lowest number since 2007.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Plain Talk About Voting and Church Attendance
No matter how much attention a person tries to devote to the political scene, some questions appear to be unanswerable. For instance, with Nevada, a state suffering from an unemployment rate hovering around 15%, why is Harry Reid, a man with the personality of an unsuccessful undertaker, running neck-and-neck with Sharron Angle? Is it that extra "r" in her first name? Do Nevadans fear that someone given to wasting letters is a greater danger than a senator who doesn't think twice about squandering their tax dollars?
Can Skinflint Mitch Daniels Win the Presidency?
It's an ornate office in Indiana's beautifully maintained mid-19th century Capitol, but the 49th governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, is not dressed to match the setting. He's just returned from spending the night in Princeton, Ind., staying at a constituent's house -- as he often does around the state -- and he's dressed in a work shirt and jeans.
The State of the Obsession: Report From an Anarchists' Convention
DALLAS, Tex. -- I was going to call this dispatch from the editorial writers' national conference The State of the Art, except that opinionating is more obsession than art. H.L. Mencken, who certainly should have known what moves certain depraved souls to press their opinions on others in the most public fashion, once explained the compulsion this way:
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Boxer's Fiction vs. Fiorina's Facts
There aren't a lot of walls around Carly Fiorina. While politicos have marveled at the missteps of Meg Whitman's $140 million Titanic of a campaign, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO has made herself accessible to journalists in her bid to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer.
The Perils of Overreach
WASHINGTON -- Promoting his new book, Jimmy Carter, whose version of Christianity allows ample scope for what some Christians consider the sin of pride, has been doing something at which he has had long practice -- praising himself. He is, he says, "probably superior" to all other ex-presidents, and would have enacted comprehensive health care if a selfish Ted Kennedy had not sabotaged his plan.