School Choice Moms

Penna Dexter The midterms brought an interesting lesson in racial politics. Columnist and black conservative activist Star Parker says voting data reveals what she describes as “a fateful anomaly in racial voting in the governor’s race between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis, now Florida’s governor-elect.” Mr. Gillum is the former mayor of Tallahassee and was running to become the first…

Read Now

Lawnmower Parents

Penna Dexter You’ve heard of helicopter parents. You know — the kind that hover over their children with too much fussing regarding the details of kids’ lives. They’re inclined to smother, to swoop in to rescue their kids often irritating coaches and teachers. A new trend in parenting has been identified — the rise of lawnmower parents. One college professor…

Read Now

Mainstreaming Socialist Ideas

Penna Dexter The campaign season brought some alarming advocacy of socialist ideas. An organization called Democratic Socialists of America spawned candidates who brought a mix of progressive ideas to their primaries. Most DSA-endorsed candidates lost their primaries. But they got a hearing and pushed some others to the Left. Candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became a socialist poster child. She unseated a…

Read Now

A Failed War

Penna Dexter We often hear that the War on Poverty, launched during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, hasn’t reduced poverty. It’s true that, since 1966, the first year that saw significant spending in the War on Poverty, the poverty rate as reported by the US Census Bureau hasn’t budged. It remains at about 14 percent of the population. During…

Read Now

Universal Basic Income

Penna Dexter A really bad idea is bubbling up from the left. It stems partly from the idea that Artificial Intelligence and the resulting automation of jobs, from driving to technology, will displace so many workers, we’ve just gotta do something. The Universal Basic Income has been floated by Barack Obama and certain Silicon Valley titans, among them Bill Gates,…

Read Now

Rebranding Planned Parenthood

Penna Dexter Cecile Richards stepped down last spring after more than a decade at the helm of Planned Parenthood. But she’s still speaking out for abortion rights. After the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, she urged pro-abortion activists to “stay angry” because “you will need all your anger now.” Under Ms. Richards, Planned Parenthood managed to hold on…

Read Now

Blaming Good Men

Penna Dexter There’s a particularly nasty battle tactic being deployed in the gender wars. Women are blaming good men, as a group, for the sins of bad actors. A recent op-ed in the Washington Post provides a disturbing example of this. Victoria Bissell Brown, a retired history professor from Grinnell College in Pennsylvania, wrote her piece in a tone that…

Read Now

Divorce Rate Dropping

Penna Dexter The divorce rate is falling in America. According to an analysis of US Census Bureau data, it fell 18 percent from 2008 to 2016. Even after controlling for factors such as an aging population, University of Maryland sociology professor Phillip Cohen found the drop was still 8 percent. Underneath this trend there’s both good and bad news. The…

Read Now

Weaponizing Sexual Accusations

Penna Dexter The loudest female voices regarding the allegations against Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh were those denouncing senators’ support for him and demanding it be “justified” with more investigation. Less reported were the numerous women who called Senate offices in support of Kavanaugh and who were critical of what they saw as a political lynching that unfairly destroyed the…

Read Now

Condemning Little House

Penna Dexter This past summer, the American Library Association renamed its Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. The prize is now called the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. The ALA says Wilder’s body of work, is inconsistent with its “core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness.” At issue are three instances in which characters in Wilder’s beloved Little House on the…

Read Now

Transgender Teen Suicide

Penna Dexter New research reveals that the politically correct way we’re responding to teens who come out as transgender —  affirming that decision and “treating” them with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones — is not helping them. In fact it’s increasing their suffering and is dangerous. Even faced with this evidence, the Left won’t see it that way. The new…

Read Now