Townhall Review | Commentaries

The best way to overhaul a culture is to change the way it thinks. Here’s one major way to change cultural thinking: stifle the free exchange of ideas.

This is what’s happening in California right now. Assembly Bill 2943 would make it an “unlawful business practice” to engage in “a transaction” aimed at promoting “sexual orientation change efforts with an individual.”

This pernicious bill is an attempt to silence those who want to help people with unwanted sexual feelings. Many religious and non-religious people agree that we flourish when we honor the basic design of our bodies for both sexual practice and personal identity. This bill is Orwellian: Silencing those who seek to provide help and wholeness to people who are reaching out.

California legislators ought to do what the people have elected them to do: protect free speech and enable people to live a free life.

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On Tuesday night this week Barbara Bush, the beloved First Lady and wife of our 41st president, George H.W. Bush, and mother to our 43rd president, George W. Bush, died at the age of 92.

And what a wonderful woman she was. What a terrific American. She was admirable as a spouse, a mother, grandmother and of course—I think it’s safe to say— America’s favorite First Lady.

Whether Left or right, young or old, politico or non-politico—it seemed everyone loved Barbara Bush.

She was feisty. She was funny. She was a straight talker.

Barbara Bush will be greatly missed. But her life and her legacy will remain alive in the hearts and minds of Americans.

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Paul Ryan, a leader of exceptional decency and diligence, is leaving the House of Representatives, but his departure may help his party by refocusing the election in November. 

With Ryan’s retirement, the vote in November won’t be about his record of triumphs—including tax reform and repeal of Obamacare’s mandate—or about his disappointments, such as the soaring deficits. Instead, the focus falls on the only other figure in the House well-known enough to motivate millions of voters: Nancy Pelosi. And that focus can only help Republicans, because Pelosi has done nothing to earn new support since her landslide defeat in 2010 following her prior four years as Speaker.

The people of America don’t know much about Kevin McCarthy—Ryan’s likely successor as GOP leader—but they know plenty about Pelosi, and dislike almost all of it.

Yes, Republicans can still win.

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New York Magazine recently published an article entitled “180 Minutes with Desmond is Amazing. He’s a ten year old drag performer and he’s cooler than you.”

This was accompanied by a full page photograph of a ten year old boy dressed out in drag; a photograph that under any other circumstance would likely be identified as skirting right up to the limit of child pornography.

The “cultural elites” behind such messaging are not just trying to change moral beliefs, they are trying to transform moral instincts at an even more basic level.

New York Magazine wants you to know that this ten year old drag entertainer, ‘Desmond is Amazing,’ is cooler than you, but in this context ‘amazing’ and ‘cool’ are two words that show the complete moral insanity of a society.

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While Mark Zuckerberg has been busy defending Facebook over data collection and privacy, a much more ominous threat is quietly coming from Europe.

The European Union is implementing tough new standards on data privacy with stiff fines for violators. What many don’t realize is that these rules do not apply only to European companies, but to anyone who has data from Europeans.

For example, American universities enroll students from abroad and they will now be subject to this law.  Complying will cost millions and those who violate the new law could be subject to fines up to $23 million dollars. 

Europe’s view is that the individual controls his or her data, not companies that collect it.  With an amazing overreach around the world, this now becomes a new global standard.  On top of trade wars, brace yourself for a new—and costly—cold war over privacy and data.

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The United States Senate returns to work this week and it’s time to talk about President Trump’s nominations again—especially those to the federal courts.

With the recent death of “Liberal Lion” Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the U.S. Court of Appeals for 9th Circuit has eight vacancies, but only two nominees. There are more than 150 vacancies across the federal courts as the White House nomination process, the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Democrats as a group have all worked at a snail’s pace.

Where are the nominees? It would take a week to fill out the list and send the names forward—if there was resolve and a sense of urgency.

It’s time for Senate Republicans to work as hard as ordinary Americans, especially when deadlines draw close. It’s time to act as though governing really is as important as senators campaigning for election say it is.

Let’s see some nominees.

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The new film “Chappaquiddick” depicts a searing scandal that changed the course of political history. As the only surviving brother in a storied dynasty, 37-year-old Senator Ted Kennedy looked like a sure bet for the Presidency in the Summer of 1969. But after leaving a boozy party with a 28-year-old female passenger, he drove his car off a bridge.

Inexplicably, he waited more than 9 hours before notifying local authorities who might have rescued the trapped young woman. The film highlights backstage manipulations, involving some of the nation’s most powerful figures, that rushed the victim’s burial without autopsy and treated Ted’s political survival as their all-important goal.

For those disgusted by today’s tawdry politics, “Chappaquiddick” provides a powerful reminder that corruption and arrogance have long afflicted American public life.

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The investor who bet on PayPal, bet on Facebook, and bet on Trump is now betting against Silicon Valley. I’m talking about Peter Thiel and his announcement that he’s leaving the Valley for Los Angeles. For years, Thiel has been ahead of the curve when it comes to investing and culture. And now he’s signaling possible trouble for Silicon Valley.

Thiel’s leaving because, in his words, Silicon Valley has gone from just liberal to a one-party state. They were always left-wing. Now they’re so radical that it’s hurt their ability to produce successful companies.

A city built on the principles of innovation and openness has sheltered itself from dissent. If they’re not open to new ideas, they can’t innovate, and if they can’t innovate, smart investors and entrepreneurs will find the places that can.

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On Saturday night, dozens of citizens in Syria choked to death after what’s been reported as a suspected chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Assad’s way of breaking the will of this community that still opposes his rule was to use a chemical weapon, which killed not only men and women but also children.

These are the most abhorrent, murderous, and indiscriminate weapons ever invented by human beings.

What we’re seeing here breaks every civilizational rule. It breaks the Geneva Convention. It breaks every principle of the United Nations. It breaks every law of the international system. But you’ll notice that none of those arenas, none of those agencies was able to stop this murderous dictator in Syria from killing his own people.

The headline out of Syria reminds us that there is really no way to overestimate the human capacity for moral evil.

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President Trump loves walls—besides a border wall with Mexico, he wants to erect trade walls to protect American steel and aluminum with tariffs of 25 and 10 percent, respectively.

In his famous poem about walls, Robert Frost said, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” adding that before he built one, “I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was likely to give offence.” Those are good questions for Mr. Trump’s policy.

He wants to wall out foreign products that are cheaper than American products. But this will trouble not only nations that produce them, but also American consumers who like to save money.  

There’s also a question of constitutionality, since the president’s power to do this is based on national security. And the biggest question:  will tariff walls even work in a global economy?

Many important questions about walls.

 

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