Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Kilpo
James Jackson Kilpatrick was always a welcome and, to some of us, awe-inspiring sight whenever he would show up at the editorial writers' convention. Yes, editorial writers have conventions, too, though our annual confab is more of an anarchists' assembly. When you spotted him there, it was as if history had just walked in the door, for he'd played so prominent a role in it -- at least if you were a Southerner who'd gone through the second Reconstruction, aka the civil rights revolution. Jack Kilpatrick's starring role, unfortunately, was on the wrong side.
Obama Isn't Being Smart About Arizona
The latest CBS poll found that 59 percent of Americans view Arizona's SB1070, the immigration bill that allows Arizona to prosecute immigration violations, as "just right," while another 14 percent think the bill doesn't go far enough. So why does President Obama continue to hammer Arizona's law? And why did the State Department include a reference to the Arizona law in a report for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on America's human rights record?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Let the Private Sector Fund Stem-Cell Research
James Thomson, an embryologist at the University of Wisconsin, cultivated the first embryonic stem cell lines in 1998. By then the prohibition on using federal funds for scientific research in which human embryos are destroyed was already on the books; President Bill Clinton had signed it nearly three years earlier. So how did Thomson secure a government grant to finance his landmark achievement?
Encouraging Developments From the Edges of the Anglosphere
In this tumultuous political year, the latest sharp surprises come from the far reaches of the Anglosphere -- Alaska and Australia. These were lands to which Capt. James Cook voyaged even as the seaboard Atlantic colonists were rebelling against king and Parliament in London. Cook's charts of the southern coast of Australia are still in use, and he sailed from there to Hawaii and then through the Bering Strait to the ice-choked Arctic Sea. You can see splendid murals of his voyages in the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
As I sit here, I have no idea how things will play out for Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters, although I find it highly unlikely that either of them will end up in a congressional trial, no matter how much the defendants claim they wish to have the air cleared. When Nancy Pelosi insisted that under the Democrats, the swamp that is Capitol Hill would be drained, she should have kept in mind that after such a draining it’s not treasure chests and fields of four-leaf clovers that are uncovered, but creepy, crawly things.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Ragging on Liberals and the Internet
When the Tea Party had its huge demonstration in Washington, D.C., the Democrats tried to portray the patriots as racists by taunting them, by having the undistinguished members of the Black Congressional Caucus parade up the steps of the House in single file. It was clearly Nancy Pelosi’s plan to use them as lightning rods for well-deserved invective. But in spite of a $100,000 offer to anyone who could supply visual or audio proof of racial epithets being hurled at the congressional boobies, nobody, including Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, has yet stepped forward to claim the dough.
In Families, Numbers Work Out
WASHINGTON -- Various figures denote vexing social problems. They include 10,000 (the number of new baby boomers eligible for Social Security and Medicare every day), 10.2 percent (what the unemployment rate would be if 1.2 million discouraged workers had not recently stopped looking for jobs), $9.9 trillion (the Government Accountability Office calculation of the gap between the expected revenues and outlays for state and local governments during the next 50 years), $76.4 trillion (the GAO's similar estimate of the federal government's 75-year fiscal shortfall).
He'd Rather Have Jesus
Glen Coffee, a 23-year-old kid who had a $2.5 million contract and a promising career in pro football, walked away from the San Francisco 49ers on Friday and none of the cynical national media knew quite what to do or say. That's because Glen, a back-up running back for the 49ers, calmly said he'd rather walk with Jesus instead of playing games anymore.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Boehner's Pro-Growth Message
It's a bit too early for House Republican leader John Boehner to measure the drapes and pick out new wallpaper. But the Intrade pay-to-play prediction markets are now showing a 76 percent chance of a GOP House takeover in November, along with a 60 percent probability that Republicans will capture at least seven new Senate seats.
My Gee & Haw Awards
Each day, as I go about my "morning reading" before dawn breaks, I have lapsed into the custom of categorizing different stories that catch my eye as either a "gee" or a "haw." The practice comes from being raised at a tender age around farm animals you know as mules.
From The Comedy Store
The CIA claimed success in retarding Iran's nuclear program Thursday, saying U.S. spies sneaked faulty supply parts into Iran's nuclear supply chain. Many are upset. It's unseemly for the CIA to pass out cigars every time we arrange a nuclear accident.
A Plea for Intolerance
Lately, you have probably noticed that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken to lecturing the rest of us on tolerance. I call it presumptuous, as well as ill-timed. It’s presumptuous because he believes that he, alone, is in a position to tell Americans how we should feel about a massive mosque being built next to Ground Zero, as if being wealthy and an elected official somehow provided him with a moral superiority that we mere mortals could never hope to match.
Under Siege
TUCSON, Ariz. -- "We're under siege," said rancher Ed Ashurst as he pointed to where he had tracked the killer of his friend and neighbor to the U.S.-Mexico border. "Five years ago, we didn't even bother to lock our doors. Now my wife and I carry firearms everywhere we go." John Ladd is a fifth-generation cattle rancher in southern Cochise County, Ariz. The southern boundary of his family property is a 10-mile stretch of steel fence erected by the U.S. government. On the other side of the fence: Mexico. He told us, "Mexican drug cartels are running this part of America."
Friday, August 27, 2010
So Is He a Christian?
My new book, "Crimes Against Liberty," has just been released, and in many of my radio interviews, hosts have been asking me whether I believe Barack Obama is a Christian or a Muslim. Though I don't address that subject in my book, I'll take a stab at it here.
Dorsal Fins Surround White House
You've got to wonder when White House political guru David Axelrod will look at the churning pools of poll data and, like Chief Brody in "Jaws," say: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
The Love of Strangers
WASHINGTON -- Scott Simon -- the sonorous voice of NPR's "Weekend Edition" -- has written a short, tender book about the two most important people in the world. At least to him. "Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other" recounts the arrival of his two daughters, Elise and Lina, from China, while telling the stories of other families changed by adoption.
The Price of Victory
Sen. John McCain won the Arizona Republican primary against former congressman J.D. Hayworth this week, but he paid a heavy price. Never again will he be able to lead on an issue that was important to him and the Nation: reforming our broken immigration system. Not only did he flip-flop shamelessly, but it wasn't even necessary.
See How Low We Must Go
The pop-music world is turning into a caricature of shamelessness, childish and even spoiled-brattiness. To get attention quickly, some pop stars will try absolutely anything. The soul singer Cee-Lo Green has a new album coming out. How's this for art: His first desperate single is titled "F--- You."
Obama Wins if GOP Flinches on Marriage
On August 4, a federal judge in San Francisco held that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, striking down part of the California Constitution defining marriage as one man and one woman. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ordered an expedited schedule to consider this case, with arguments to be held in December.
The Last Refuge of the Liberal
WASHINGTON -- Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed. Just yesterday it was all hope and change and returning power to the people. But the people have proved so disappointing. Their recalcitrance has, in only 19 months, turned the predicted 40-year liberal ascendancy (James Carville) into a full retreat. Ah, the people, the little people, the small-town people, the "bitter" people, as Barack Obama in an unguarded moment once memorably called them, clinging "to guns or religion or" -- this part is less remembered -- "antipathy toward people who aren't like them."