Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Britain Trims Artistic Waste
Great Britain has a new coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and what a mess it is as they face the largest budget deficit in Europe. Where, oh where, will they cut the budget? Horror of horrors, one obvious target is funding for the arts "in the land of Shakespeare." When the Empire is so broke that National Health Service is refusing people hip replacements, it's probably not a good idea to suggest it's more important to fund the ballet.
Who Makes the Laws, Anyway?
Last week, a draft memo surfaced from the Homeland Security Department suggesting ways to administratively circumvent existing law to allow several categories of illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and, indeed, for some to be granted permanent residency. Most disturbing was the stated rationale. This was being proposed "in the absence of Comprehensive Immigration Reform." In other words, because Congress refuses to do what these bureaucrats would like to see done, they will legislate it themselves.
Another Nail in Coffin of Affirmative Action
The call to end affirmative action gained a new proponent this week -- and from an unlikely candidate. Gregory Rodriguez, a Los Angeles Times columnist and fellow at the progressive-leaning New America Foundation, wrote this week, "We need to find new, less divisive ways to fight inequality."
Democrats Under Stress
Democrats are now feeling enormous political stress. Independents have fled the Obama coalition, largely out of concern about debt, deficits and spending. Intensity is all on the Republican and conservative side. A recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Republican voters who say they are “very enthusiastic” to vote in 2010 is twice the percentage of Democrats who say the same (44 percent to 22 percent). President Obama’s job approval now flirts with 40 percent, with solid majorities disapproving his handing of the economy, deficits and health care.
Down to the Sea in Discontent
A perch in the sand on a pristine beach invites a summer afternoon's reflections, and here where North Carolina's Outer Banks meet the Atlantic we're all sea-watchers, looking and listening for changes in the color and texture of the ocean, diving for shells, wondering how far from the distant Gulf of Mexico the tar balls will travel. The seas have always offered a mix of possibilities -- opportunity and threat, exploration and discovery, recreation and exploitation. But this is the summer of our discontent. We're all humbled with respect for the sea and man's place in it and by it.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Justice Brennan's Footnote Gave Us Anchor Babies
Democrats act as if the right to run across the border when you're 8 1/2 months pregnant, give birth in a U.S. hospital and then immediately start collecting welfare was exactly what our forebears had in mind, a sacred constitutional right, as old as the 14th Amendment itself. The louder liberals talk about some ancient constitutional right, the surer you should be that it was invented in the last few decades.
Michael Reagan
When Ronald Reagan and his then-wife Jane Wyman adopted me they gave me the name Michael Reagan. That’s what parents -- adopted or natural -- do. They name their offspring, natural or adopted. Recently I launched the first-ever conservative Internet service, Reagan.com, and I offered to make all of its services available to whoever wished to take advantage of them for a modest fee.
Mission Accomplished II
President Obama claims to have kept his campaign promise to cease American combat operations (though not U.S. troop presence) in Iraq by the end of this month. But it's not about his keeping promises about a war and an objective he never supported. It's about whether the mission has been a success. And the answer to that question is: we don't know yet.
November Congressional Elections Could Be Replay of 1966 Midterms
Everybody, even White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, agrees that Republicans are going to pick up seats in the House and Senate elections this year. The disagreement is about how many. Some compare 2010 to 1994, when Republicans picked up 52 House seats and won majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in four decades. That was a reaction to the big government programs of the first two years of the Clinton administration.
Newsweek Whitewashes Al Sharpton
A well-known "civil rights activist" made the cover of Newsweek, the left-wing "news" magazine reportedly sold for its debt and $1. Based on this cover story, the buyer overpaid. The headline, above the flattering photograph of a Man of Gravitas, reads: "The Reinvention of the Reverend Al: From Tawana to Obama, What Sharpton's Longevity Says About Race in America."
No Mosque
WASHINGTON -- There is an awful lot of blowzy thought swirling around the proposed mosque to be raised two blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan. Frankly, I doubt that at any other time in our history such a debate would be taking place. People would know that when thugs intoning "Allahu akbar" have slaughtered hundreds of innocent Americans on American soil, it is inappropriate to raise a mosque nearby. The majority of Americans alive today know this. Polling indicates that with them, it is a nonstarter. Now the Anti-Defamation League's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, has weighed in on the side of good sense. One hopes this debate is coming to an end.
If I Were King
For openers, I don’t like the way we put people on the Supreme Court. I don’t approve of the partisan grandstanding and I don’t like the way the nominees are forced to parse their answers in order to avoid providing the opposition with ammunition. I am not pleased to see Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan sitting on the bench, but I would have voted to approve them. That’s because I believe the president is entitled to appoint whomever he wishes, whether it’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Robert Bork. If you’re a conservative, it’s a crying shame that within 18 months, Obama got to name two judges, but it’s time we all learned that elections have consequences, and that only those lunkheads who believe that Kagan and Sotomayor are the same as Roberts and Alito will continue to parrot the mantra that there’s no difference between the two political parties.
Mr. President: Don't Back the Dhimmicrats!
Despite what you may think, Dhimmicrats are not Democrats. A dhimmicrat is a Western official who uses his position of power and influence to clear the pathway for the spread of shariah--the law they have in Saudi Arabia. Dhimmi is the Arabic word for the low status person--all non-Muslims--who live under sharia.
The Judge Has Spoken -- Whether You Like It or Not
"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license," federal Judge Vaughn Walker wrote. So one judge overturned a measure approved by 52 percent of California voters in 2008 and upheld by the California Supreme Court in a 6-1 ruling.
End Poverty: Export Capitalism
A recent episode of NPR's "This American Life" (quite possibly the best reportorial journalistic enterprise going today -- an admission that might cost me my right-wing decoder ring) focused on the plight of Haiti. The island nation was a basket case long before last January's horrific earthquake. Indeed, despite the fact that the country hosts some 10,000 aid groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it has gotten worse over the past half-century. Haitians on average make half as much as they did 50 years ago. Despite the best of intentions, aid agencies simply haven't made the country better.
Illogical Immigration
Some 11 million to 15 million illegal aliens are now residing in America, most after crossing into America unlawfully. Once a federal law is arbitrarily not enforced, all sorts of bizarre paradoxes arise from that original contradiction. As proof, examine the following illogical policies and contradictions involving illegal immigration.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The Spanish Prisoner: The Unequal Burdens of Arizona's Immigration Law
In 1941, the Supreme Court overturned a Pennsylvania law that required non-citizens to register with the state, carry an "alien identification card" and present it to police officers upon demand. The court said the law conflicted with a federal policy, based on treaty obligations and the constitutional principle of equal protection, that sought to "protect the personal liberties of law-abiding aliens" and keep them "free from the possibility of inquisitorial practices and police surveillance," including "indiscriminate and repeated interception and interrogation by public officials."
Double Standard
Late in July, a Hollywood honcho uncorks a blast of anti-Semitic bile, the sort of malignant stereotype about Jews one might expect from David Duke or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Is that newsworthy? It certainly was in 2006, when Mel Gibson, arrested in Malibu for drunken driving, demanded to know whether the arresting deputy was Jewish, and then launched into an anti-Semitic rant: "[Expletive] Jews," he raged. "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."
Top Five Most-Crime-Ridden U.S. Judicial Districts All on Mexican Border
When measured by the number of criminal defendants charged with federal crimes by U.S. attorneys, the top five U.S. judicial districts for fiscal 2009 were all on the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, these five judicial districts are the only five on the U.S.-Mexico border -- covering its entire expanse from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.
Private Enterprise Does It Better
In "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity," I bet my readers $1,000 that they couldn't name one thing that government does better than the private sector. I am yet to pay. Free enterprise does everything better. Why? Because if private companies don't do things efficiently, they lose money and die. Unlike government, they cannot compel payment through the power to tax. Even when a private company operates a public facility under contract to government, it must perform. If it doesn't, it will be "fired" -- its contract won't be renewed. Government is never fired.