Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Marinestan
HBO's 10-part series on the Pacific campaign of World War II just ended. That story of island-hopping was mostly about how the old breed of U.S. Marines fought diehard Japanese infantrymen face-to-face in places like Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Guam and Okinawa.
The Taranto Principle Vindicated Again
WASHINGTON -- The exposure of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as a hoaxster boasting of a nonexistent record of service in the Vietnam War is a splendid example of what is known as the Taranto Principle. Someday the Taranto Principle will be taught in all the journalism schools, assuming one or two survive the present detumescence of journalism. Formulated by the inimitable Wall Street Journal editorialist James Taranto, the principle posits that when the liberal mainstream press indulges a liberal politician's deceits or fails to hold the politician accountable for his misbehavior, it encourages the politician to ascend to a higher level of misbehavior.
Republicans on Track to Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory
Republican consultants are doing a wonderful job raising expectations sky-high for the November elections, so that now, even if Republicans do smashingly well, it will look like a defeat (and an across-the-board endorsement of Obama's agenda). Thanks, Republicans!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Kagan Wants to Impose Her Values on Your Speech
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has expended a great deal of intellectual energy searching for a rationalization that would preserve freedom of speech for viewpoints she likes while imposing government controls on speech she does not like. Consider her approach to the 1991 Supreme Court case of Rust v. Sullivan. The issue here was whether the Department of Health and Human Services violated the right of free speech when it published regulations stating that federal tax dollars would not be provided under the Title X family planning program to clinics that either counseled people to have abortions, or referred people to abortionists, or advocated abortion.
