Right to Opine

WSJ — Europe’s Entitlement Reckoning

Will we learn from them? Remains to be seen.

Jonah Goldberg, Townhall — “Right to Riot” Cemented in Campus Culture

Detroit Free Press — Stryker to cut 5% of workforce

Remember when opponents of Obamacare predicted it would cause an increase in unemployment as medical device manufacturers would lay off workers to offset the increased taxes imposed on them by the law? They were scoffed at.

Fox News — Study Tying Conservative Views to Personality Disorders Met With Skepticism

So that explains why OWS has been so peaceful and non-destructive while the Tea Party events were violent and dangerous. Oh, wait…

CBS Atlanta — Investigator: Herman Cain innocent of sexual advances

Funny…the mainstream media aren’t picking up this story.

Brent Bozell, Townhall — Thanking an Old Friend

Ooooh, those evil, greedy 1%-ers.

WSJ — Generation Jobless: Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay

That’s fine, but then you really can’t complain when my math degrees earn a better salary, and don’t even have the nerve to expect me to bail you out when you have trouble paying off your student loans after you chose a useless major. Be an adult and take responsibility for your choices.

BBC — Repeat offenders appear to have worse health in middle-age

You’re kidding, right? You actually wasted time and money on this?

The reasons for this poorer health are not clear. High-risk behaviour and lifestyle might increase the chances of accidents and injury, leading to hospitalisation and disability.

Really? Do you think? Just when I thought my level of respect for academia couldn’t possibly sink any lower…

Fox News — Judge: School Can Ban American Flag Shirts

This is nothing short of outrageous. So-called “protestors” can burn the American flag, but patriotic kids can’t wear it because it might upset Hispanics on Cinco de Mayo? We’re losing our country, folks.

Investor’s Business Daily — Still Factory Champs

American manufacturing in decline? Don’t believe the hype.

A triple play from Investor’s Business Daily:

1. Ann Coulter — David Axelrod’s Pattern of Sexual Misbehavior

In a rare Coulter piece—in that it’s devoid of her usual scathing humor—Ann raises some very interesting points re the accusations against Cain who, as a black conservative, may have been the biggest ideological threat to Obama and his party.

2. Thomas Sowell — Ultimate Prize in Cain Smear: The Black Vote

3. Larry Elder — No-Fly Zone Over Clinton, JFK Sexcapades

AP — Cain accuser complained in next job

No real surprise, but the media have already done their job. Cain’s campaign has been irreparably harmed by their eagerness to push any story which damages a conservative regardless of its merit and without performing the least bit of investigative journalism.

Michelle Malkin — The Great Stonewall of Obama

Clearly the most transparent administration ever.

WSJ — Public School Teachers Aren’t Underpaid

…the evidence shows that public school teachers’ total compensation amounts to roughly $1.50 for every $1 that their skills could garner in a private sector job.

[…]

A salary comparison that controls only for years spent in school makes no distinction between degrees in education and those in biology, mathematics, history or other demanding fields.

Education is widely regarded by researchers and college students alike as one of the easiest fields of study, and one that features substantially higher average grades than most other college majors. On objective tests of cognitive ability such as the SAT, ACT, GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and Armed Forces Qualification Test, teachers score only around the 40th percentile of college graduates. If we compare teachers and non-teachers with similar AFQT scores, the teacher salary penalty disappears.

Ouch.

Walter E. Williams, Townhall — Ignorance Exploited

A good explanation of tax incidence.

Fox News — Court Likely to Overturn California Law on Livestock

Chief Justice John Roberts said state laws cannot say downed animals can’t be sold as meat when federal law says that they can.

I usually agree with Roberts, but his statement points out a glaring inconsistency in both our courts’ rulings and federal enforcement. Federal regulations already cover vehicle emissions, but California is allowed to say a car sold in neighboring Oregon can’t be sold in CA. Federal laws specify penalties for being in the country illegally and for hiring illegals, but cities are allowed to declare themselves sanctuaries. Until there’s consistency in the application of jurisdiction it will be hard to take our court system seriously.

Dr. Fred Singer, WSJ — Why I Remain a Global-Warming Skeptic

The debate’s far from over, as the science isn’t settled.

Rich Lowry, Real Clear Politics — The Lawless Heart of OWS

Going to get uglier I’m afraid.

John Podhoretz, Commentary Magazine — The Case for Optimism

A long read, but worth the time.

USA Today — Economists: GOP jobs plan better than Obama’s

Give the author credit for at least covering the story, but in the end he just help himself:

Those surveyed by Boehner include economists from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Carnegie Mellon University, American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute—fairly conservative institutions.

Yes, as well as Ohio, Iowa, Boston College, Central Michigan, Columbia, Arizona State, etc.—not exactly hotbeds of conservatism.

Independent analysts—including Moody’s Analytics and Macroeconomic Advisers — estimate that Obama’s jobs act would create up to 1.9 million jobs while the House Republican would have little immediate impact on creating jobs.

As if those analysts are any more “independent” than the economists on Boehner’s list.

NY Times — Holder Urges Lawmakers to Support Efforts to Stop Gun Trafficking

Surprised? Feds break existing laws, encouraging illegal gun sales, then Holder uses their failure to push for more gun control. Never let a crisis go to waste.

BBC — NHS: Elderly care dossier shows ‘shameful attitudes’

But, hey, everyone has government-paid healthcare, right?

Fox News — Massachusetts School District Marks Muslim Holiday

And the ACLU, et al, remain silent.

New York Post — It’s media love—not bias

Thomas Sowell, Townhall — Payday Loans

WSJ — Occupying vs. Tea Partying

George F. Will, Washington Post — Conformity for diversity’s sake

Mike Adams, Townhall — Death to Tenure

AP — US cuts UNESCO funding over Palestinian vote

Of potential greater concern to the administration is the possibility that the Palestinians, buoyed by the 107-14 vote in their favor at UNESCO, will apply for membership in other U.N. organizations…

Yes, that would certainly bother the White House—which loves the U.N.—but would be a blessing to U.S. taxpayers. If only more U.N. bodies would admit the Palestinians we could stop wasting our money on the execrable organization.

Fox News — Justice Department Sues South Carolina Over State’s Strict Immigration Law

See a pattern developing here? States are fed up with the feds’ failure. If the DOJ spent half as much time, effort, and money actually enforcing federal immigration law rather than trying to stop states from doing so, there’d be no need for state action.

Thomas Sowell, IBD — Loudmouth 1% Are Trashing Rights of 99%

Townhall — Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret: Cancer

Think “green” energy such as solar and wind are clean and safe? Not for the impoverished Chinese miners whose labor provides the rare-earth metals our government won’t let us mine here. Not only are their industrial methods unsafe, their mining technology is driven by…very dirty coal and oil. The small amount of CO2 we avoid by replacing cheap, reliable clean coal with expensive, spotty wind and solar is more than made up by the real pollutants spewed into the environment in Asia. Don’t hear the Goracle talk about that very often, now, do ya?

Real Clear Markets — Can the Youth Vote Be Bought For a Trillion Dollars?

You bet it can. You might even talk me into supporting it if you added a condition that only useful majors—math, physics and other sciences, pre-med, etc., rather than “womyn’s woes” and “minority grievance studies”—need apply. On a related note…

LA Times — Student loans add to angst at Occupy Wall Street

Many of the twentysomethings protesting in Manhattan have racked up sizable debts, and some are left to wonder whether their diplomas may be worth less than their cardboard signs.

Answer: yes, your diploma is worthless. You should have studied something that has real market value rather than “capitalist oppression of modern subversive poets” or “literary merits of gay S&M porn.”

NY Times — Distrust of Government Grows Amid Fears, Poll Finds

Wow, it took a poll to figure that out? But this is really rich:

The combustible climate helps explain the volatility of the presidential race and has provided an opening for protest movements like Occupy Wall Street…

Someone need to correct a cranio-rectal inversion. The OWS folks are asking for more government intervention—regulations, salary caps, student loan bailouts, etc. It is the dreaded Tea Party groups that have been clamoring for less.

CNN — Federal judge temporarily bars Florida’s welfare drug-test law

“Perhaps no greater public interest exists than protecting a citizen’s rights under the constitution,” the judge wrote…

Which article or amendment makes welfare a right? As an automobile driver I can be randomly stopped by a DUI task force but the same state can’t screen welfare applicants for drug use?

Townhall — Occupy the Consequences of a Philosophy That Encourages Rape and Theft

CNN — Clinton warns Iran against moving into Iraq

Or else…what? Iran has repeatedly demonstrated its determination to meddle in Iraq while we still have troops in country. Do you really think they’re going to stop once we leave?

BBC — Great Ormond Street criticised over Arvind Jain’s death

Yep. Healthcare is sooo much better when it’s controlled by bureaucrats.

Arthur Laffer, Wall St Journal — Cain’s Stimulating ‘9-9-9’ Tax Reform

let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Victor Davis Hanson, Townhall — Railing Against Reality

CNN — U.S. judge dismisses Arizona claims against feds on immigration law

“It is but the latest chapter in a story that Arizonans know all too well: The federal government ignores its constitutional and statutory duty to secure the border. Federal courts avert their eyes. American citizens pay the price,” the statement [from Arizona Governor Brewer] said.

The federal government refuses to protect it’s citizens and states aren’t allowed to. The administration feeds weapons to Mexican drug cartels yet blames American gun owners for the violence that is increasingly crossing the border. This will only get uglier.

Los Angeles Times — U.N. human rights office calls for probe into Kadafi’s death

“There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died,” said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. “There are at least two cellphone videos, one showing him alive and one showing him dead. Taken together, these videos are very disturbing.”

Disturbing? Only if you’re a like-minded, blood-thirsty dictator. Any manner in which he could possibly have died would have been too good a fate. Now let’s see if Libyans are smart enough to replace him with something better. Not holding breath.

Fox News — Muslim Junior ROTC Student Wants to Wear Head Cover With Uniform

Cry me a river. I’m just waiting for the lawsuit from a 15-year-old tranny who wants to wear his dress in the color guard. It’ll happen.

IMAO — I can’t not vote

BBC — George Clooney: ‘I won’t run for office’

Thank you very much!

Fox News — Clerk Kills Would-Be Robber Who Grabbed Daughter

Much cheaper than a trial.

Hot Air — Cuba drills where Obama fears to tread

Make no mistake—someone will drill for the oil in the Gulf. Think Cuba is going to do a better job 60 miles off our shores than we would?

Townhall — America’s Orwellian Liberalism

Wall Street Journal — A New Spending Record