Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Knox County Answer
When Tim Burchett became the Mayor of Knox County, Tenn., on September 1, he immediately instructed the county's purchasing department to put a "stop-payment order" on three handsome severance packages that had just been doled out by his predecessor. In a story that shouldn't be ignored by any city in this angry nation of ours right now, the new county mayor also said he would soon sell a nice Chevrolet Tahoe that accompanies his office and, instead, will drive his "old Jeep that has about 175,000 miles on it."
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sam’s Great Story
Once long ago there was a wonderful and very funny guy who worked alongside me named Sam Venable. He was a marvelous storyteller and a great pal but soon he left the Chattanooga newspaper and returned home to Knoxville, where today he is the lead columnist for the News-Sentinel.
Clunker School of Economics
WASHINGTON -- Looking back with pride, the British are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, when Churchill said of the pilots fighting the Luftwaffe: Never "was so much owed by so many to so few." Looking ahead with trepidation, Americas are thinking: Never have so many of us owed so much.
Airport Insecurity
I recently had to fly up to San Francisco in order to appear on Ronn Owens’ popular radio show. It was the third time I had done an hour with the affable Mr. Owens, and it was the best one yet because it marked the first time I ever had listeners in the ultra liberal Bay area calling in to agree with me. In fact, so many callers had nice things to say about my conservative commentary, I accused the show’s producer, Mark Silverman, of having fallen asleep at the switch.
Zen and Art of Political Machine Maintenance
Jerry Brown has a secret plan to balance the California state budget. When the state attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial nominee recently visited the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board, he brought with him a large three-ring binder with his ideas on how to bring state spending back into the black. But he wouldn't tell us what was in the book.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
From The Comedy Store
John McCain told Fox News Sunday any tax cuts proposed by President Obama would be a deathbed conversion. He knows all about those. The anti-immigration-reform John McCain looked great after last week's Senate primary win over the pro-immigration-reform John McCain.
Bashing Bush and Boehner Won't Work
Under pressure from a barrage of bad midterm-election polls, President Obama has gone on the campaign trail to blame Pres. George W. Bush for all our economic problems and to bash House Republican leader John Boehner as nothing more than a Bush retread.
Sex, Lies and the Movies
One of the reasons that movies today are so devoid of compelling characters and engrossing plots is that the folks who make them are, more often than not, too young and too isolated from humanity. That’s not to say that writers and directors in their 20s and 30s can’t be talented, but, as a rule, what they have are a passel of petty grievances (the studios, their agents, the deals, other people’s success, etc.); what they lack is wisdom. They simply haven’t lived long enough or suffered enough major losses -- friends, parents, spouses, children -- to have developed a grown-up’s philosophy.
Don't Dare Desecrate
There is a dangerous man in Gainesville, Fla., who is now enflaming both the Christian and Muslim worlds alike. I believe the devil himself has somehow wormed his wretched way into the brain of the same man, Terry Jones, and I can prove it because a convoy of “my” American soldiers was pelted by a rock-throwing mob in Kabul, Afghanistan yesterday. That is absolutely inexcusable.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Never Forget
WASHINGTON -- According to the "experts," anyone older than 10 will remember traumatic events for the rest of their lives. That's certainly true of the thousands of World War II veterans and family members I have met doing interviews for our "War Stories" series on Fox News Channel. All of them can recall where they were when they learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor, whom they were with and what was said. It should be the same for the terror attack nine years ago on Sept. 11.
Charlie Daniels, Unsung Singing Hero
It was some 30 years ago when I first caught a Charlie Daniels concert. He was the backup to the Marshall Tucker Band at the old Capital Centre outside Washington, D.C., and that night, he stole the show. When he finished his blazing set, the audience erupted and brought him back for an encore. When the Marshall Tucker Band finished their rather good performance, it made no difference -- the capacity crowd roared for yet another performance from Charlie Daniels.
Barack Obama's 5 Cacophonous Notes
I never expected President Barack Obama to be promoting my new book, "Crimes Against Liberty," but that's virtually what's happened with his recent speeches on the economy. It's as if he's determined to validate every premise I assert in "Crimes Against Liberty."
The Eternal Flame of Muslim Outrage
Shhhhhhh, we're told. Don't protest the Ground Zero mosque. Don't burn a Koran. It'll imperil the troops. It'll inflame tensions. The "Muslim world" will "explode" if it does not get its way, warns sharia-peddling imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Pardon my national security-threatening impudence, but when is the "Muslim world" not ready to "explode"?
Your Bid, Mr. Abbas
WASHINGTON -- The prospects are dim but the process is right. The Obama administration is to be commended for structuring the latest rounds of Middle East talks correctly. Finally, we're leaving behind interim agreements, of which the most lamentable were the Oslo accords of 1993.
The Rev. Jones and Both Sidesism
For once, I'm with Hillary Clinton. Regarding the Rev. Terry Jones, would-be Quran igniter, the secretary of state said, "It is regrettable that a pastor in Gainesville, Florida, with a church of no more than 50 people can make this outrageous and ... disgraceful plan and get the world's attention, but that's the world we live in right now."
The Next Hoover
"Worst president since Hoover." Democrats have said this at one point or another about every Republican president since, well, Herbert Hoover. That's because Democrats have been waiting for the resurrection of FDR like a cargo cult waiting for one last plane that never comes.
Obama and the United States of China
Amazing. President Barack Obama's Democratic Party keeps plummeting in the generic polls that measure Americans' party preferences. Yet the president has taken what looks like nothing less than a calculated move to assure the destruction of Democratic rule in Congress, all supposedly in the name of getting the nation moving again.
After the Fast, Food for Thought
Summer fades into autumn, and with it the seasonal focus on ancient faith. Muslims fast for Ramadan, seeking mercy and forgiveness, closing the last day of the observance with prayer and celebration on Eid al-Fitr. Jews blow the shofar, with its piercing cry ringing in the New Year, first with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, when we nibble apples dipped in honey hoping for sweetness in the days ahead, and then the solemn fasting on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Same Old Same Old
The president was in full campaign mode this week as he delivered a stump speech on the economy in Cleveland. But the magic is gone. He's no longer the silver-tongued orator who could make us feel good about ourselves and the prospects for our country -- which was key to his victory in 2008. Now he's just another partisan hack blaming the other party for his own failure of leadership.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Bonfire of the Insanities
In response to Gen David Petraeus' denunciation of Florida pastor Terry Jones' right to engage in a symbolic protest of the 9/11 attacks by burning copies of the Quran this Sept. 11, President Obama said: "Let me be clear: As a citizen, and as president, I believe that members of the Dove World Outreach Center have the same right to freedom of speech and religion as anyone else in this country."