Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Now Yale Embarrasses the Idea of the Western University
When I was a graduate student at Columbia University in the early 1970s, I came to the then-tentative conclusion that I would probably never encounter a morally weaker, more cowardly group of people than college administrators. While there are exceptions to this rule and there are other institutions that regularly exhibit as much moral cowardice as universities do, nearly 40 years later my conclusion is no longer tentative.
NHS vs. USA
PORTADOWN, NORTHERN IRELAND -- For the past month I have watched British media report and comment on the American health care uproar. American cable networks are also available here. The back-and-forth reporting and commentary resembles a replay of the War of 1812, this time with verbal salvos. Conservative American politicians and commentators fire at the British NHS system and the British fire back, sometimes on the same program, repeating the Democrats' mantra of how 47 million Americans are "uninsured" and how medical treatment in the United States depends on how much patients, or their insurance companies, will pay. Here, they say, health care is "free," thanks to taxpayers, a minority of which (i.e. the successful) bears ever-greater amounts of the burden.
Public Option Not Optional for Obama
As I write this, I don't know whether President Barack Obama and his Democrats will end up pretending to abandon the public option aspect of Obamacare, but I do know that if they do, it will only be a matter of time before they resurrect it because that's where their heart is. That's why, among other reasons, neither Blue Dog Democrats who oppose socialized medicine nor Republicans should consider compromising with left-wing Democrats to pass a bill. If they do, Obama will eventually -- and probably sooner than you think -- achieve his goal of nationalized health care.
Whose Medical Decisions?
There was a time when rushing a thousand-page bill through Congress so fast that no one has time to read it would have provoked public outrage. But now, this has been attempted twice in the first 6 months of a new administration. The fact that they got away with it before, with the "stimulus" bill, may have led them to believe that they could get away with it again.
Obama in Paradise
When Barack Obama was 11, his mother and grandmother took him and his half-sister Maya on the most American of family vacations -- a road trip that included Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Last week, Obama passed on that gift as he took his wife, daughters Malia and Sasha -- as well as Maya and her family -- on a four-day trip to two of America's most breathtaking national parks.
About Canada -- Health Care and More
A comedian once said that visiting Canada was like rummaging in your attic. "You go up there and say 'Wow, there's all this neat stuff up here! There are mountains and rivers and cities." And a parliament and a television network. It is a fact of life -- sad or not I leave to readers -- that most Americans have no strong feelings about our northern neighbor because we often forget entirely that Canada exists.
Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) and trampy teen idols
Moms everywhere are aghast at teen idol Miley Cyrus' recent pole dancing and exaltation of Britney Spears as her hero. The "Hannah Montana" superstar morphed overnight from a bubbly starlet into just another trashy singer, leaving moms feeling betrayed. Many thought they had finally found a " Hollywood type" their daughters could look up to. I visited a friend last year and marveled at the wall-to-wall posters of Hannah Montana that adorned her ten-year-old daughter's room. Like millions of other little girls, Hannah was her hero. From her clothes, music, and dance moves to her hairstyle, this little girl (and her mom) were really "into" Hannah.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Young Voters Should Take Another Look at Obama
Dear Young Obama Voter, Congratulations. You have truly changed America. Those of you under 30 voted 66 percent to 32 percent for Barack Obama, an unprecedented margin. Your elders 30 and over voted for him, too, but only by a 50 percent to 49 percent margin. You converted a 2000-like margin to a solid majority and added significant numbers to the Democratic majorities in Congress.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Raising the Stakes on Online Poker
WASHINGTON -- Howard Lederer, aka "the Professor," is a professional poker player, not a gambler. If Congress will acknowledge this distinction, it will rectify one of its recent mistakes. In 2006, Congress, cloaking cunning with moralizing, effectively outlawed Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations. This was more than moral pork for social conservatives. It also blocked online competitors from poaching gamblers from the nation's most aggressive promoters of gambling -- state governments. They are increasingly addicted to revenues raised by lotteries -- the 42 states that have lotteries spent $520 million in 2007 promoting them -- and from taxation of other legal gambling. The law exempted Internet state lotteries and two powerful and vocal interests -- online betting on horse racing and some fantasy sports betting online.
The Flight 2816 Fiasco
The latest infamous incident of Major Airline Tarmac Dysfunction occurred in Minnesota last weekend when a severe storm curtailed Continental ExpressJet Flight 2816. The flight, bound from Houston to Minneapolis-St. Paul, was redirected to Rochester, Minn., and landed around midnight. Then, because some person or persons made an unconscionably stupid call, the airline did not release the 47 passengers until 6 a.m.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Who Is Winning?
WASHINGTON -- Racing through the Phoenix airport, a Wall Street Journal headline immediately captured my eye: "Taliban Now Winning." I grabbed the newspaper and headed for my flight. By the time I arrived in Washington, I had a half-dozen e-mails from my Fox News colleagues asking for my assessment of the situation. There was also a "be prepared" message from my boss alerting me to pack my kit for another trip to the Hindu Kush. Seeing as I haven't been there for a year, it seemed like a good time to get smart about what's happening behind the headlines. Here is some of what I learned from those now on the ground -- including our Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot and cameraman Mal James -- some of the troops who have returned recently, and others getting ready to go:
Reverie Beyond the Beltway
The shorter days of late summer ushers in the melancholy prospect of autumn, the thoughts of returning to school, work and reality. Such anticipation makes the last moments at the beach, lake or campsite especially precious. The kids can stay up late because they can sleep 'til noon. They come and go on whim, tracking sand or mud, but dirty footprints are easily washed away with seawater. We put off thinking about the devil in the details waiting in the mundane world of everyday life. For now, conversation can be imbued with deeper insights taken at a slower pace.
Obama's Forfeited Credibility Sabotaging Obamacare
President Barack Obama apparently came to believe the myth of his messiahship and has accordingly abused and squandered his good will and political capital and possibly self-sabotaged his socialized medicine scheme. Of all the newsworthy aspects of this desperate "reform" effort, none is more so than the robust democratic processes it has reinvigorated in this nation. While Democrats insist the nationwide grass-roots movement against his Draconian measure is contrived and illusory, it is just the opposite.
Testing ObamaCare's Meddle
If I went to a Democratic town hall, I'd probably boo, too. Hence, according to various Democrats and supporters of ObamaCare, I'm paranoid and just a bit unpatriotic. Well, let me dilate on my paranoid treachery for a moment. Under the plan discussed at President Obama's infomercial-esqe town halls, America would cut costs and expand coverage while avoiding rationing. Apparently, it's paranoid to think that's too good to be true.
The Etiquette Czar's Rules for Patriotic Protest
The White House press office is now Miss Manners' office. President Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, took to the television airwaves this week to criticize congressional town hall protesters for "yelling." Gibbs' underling, Bill Burton, chastised voters not to "disrupt" and "scream." Instead, he advised America to engage in a "spirited debate about health care, a real vigorous conversation about it."
The 'Preventive Care' Myth
WASHINGTON -- In the 48 hours of June 15-16, President Obama lost the health care debate. First, a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Edward Kennedy reported that his health committee's reform bill would add $1 trillion in debt over the next decade. Then the CBO reported that the other Senate bill, being written by the Finance Committee, would add $1.6 trillion. The central contradiction of Obamacare was fatally exposed: From his first address to Congress, Obama insisted on the dire need for restructuring the health care system because out-of-control costs were bankrupting the Treasury and wrecking the U.S. economy -- yet the Democrats' plans would make the problem worse.
How Ethics Disappear
Gosh, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to us mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in the end one hand washed the other, if not very well.
Who's Un-American?
Like most epithets, the u-word says more about the person hurling it than it does about the object of disapproval. So when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called opponents of Democrats' health care reform "un-American" this week, she became the focus of attention, not the vocal protestors at congressional town hall forums. In a column for USA Today, Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer accused those who have showed up at rallies of "drowning out the facts" and pointed to a handful of over-the-top protestors among the many who are genuinely frightened by what the Democrats propose. But the Democrats' name-calling is backfiring.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Vulnerable Crist May Be GOP's Test Case
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Several months back, I suggested that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was the perfect moderate politician to help bring independent voters back to the Republican Party. Crist had just announced his plans to skip a second term as governor and instead seek the U.S. Senate seat held by the retiring Mel Martinez. In that race next year, Crist is being challenged in the GOP primary by a young Cuban-American, the highly conservative former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Marco Rubio.
The Other 'Hispanic' Nominee
"For the first time in a long time," said one "Hispanic" man in the street interviewed on cable television, "I feel really proud." Others in the "Hispanic community" rejoiced as Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in her statement at the beginning of Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, said: "Your nomination I view with a great sense of personal pride. You are indeed a very special woman. You have overcome adversity and disadvantages (emphasis added)." Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, "Judge Sotomayor, you have overcome many obstacles (emphasis added) in your life that have given you an understanding of the daily realities and struggles faced by everyday people."