Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Critics of mass mail voting point to problems with government efficiency and the potential for voter fraud. The quick response often is a throwaway line that many states have been doing mail-in voting for years with no problems. The editors of the Wall Street Journal then ask: “What do they have the rest of us lack? Well, for one thing, check out their solid deadlines.” For example, registered voters in Colorado are to be mailed a ballot by…

Kerby Anderson It took a while, but common sense has broken out at the World Health Organization. Dr. David Nabarro acknowledged that the members of “the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus.” In fact, he argued that “lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.” He did admit they might have a purpose when a short time…

Kerby Anderson The charge from liberal professors and progressive activists is that this country and this president are racist. That prevents non-white minorities from experiencing true economic opportunity. Minorities face economic discrimination. Stephen Moore is a finance and economics columnist who pulled together the latest Census Bureau reports to show how well minorities have been doing. Some of that has been hard to see of late because of the economic downturn created by the pandemic lockdowns. The Census Bureau reports…

Kerby Anderson Sometimes presidential debates can be helpful. But the Commission on Presidential Debates is not helpful. I was thinking about this the other day and then came upon a commentary by Newt Gingrich with a similar concern. He persuasively argues that the “time has come to recognize how arrogant, biased, and obsolete” the debate commission has become. The members of the commission decided recently to require a virtual debate after no consultation with the Trump campaign. That effectively killed…

Penna Dexter As the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court progresses, a couple of developments reveal the stakes for religious liberty. Jim Obergefell is the named plaintiff in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that culminated in a 5-4 decision mandating that every state recognize same sex marriage. He teamed up with Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, to write an opinion piece which the Washington Post published last week, warning that Judge Barrett’s confirmation…

Kerby Anderson Should the government break up Facebook? In a previous commentary, I quoted Senator Ted Cruz who observed that the current big tech companies “are larger and more powerful than when Standard Oil was broken up” and “larger and more powerful than AT&T when it was broken up.” Nevertheless, he and other senators don’t seem ready to act. But joining this discussion is Mark Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook. He concludes in his New York Times op-ed that, “It is…

Kerby Anderson One of the criticisms of the claims of human-caused climate change is that the theory predicts everything. Now, you might think that makes it a good theory. Actually, when you have a theory that predicts everything and cannot be falsified, that makes it a bad theory. In fact, it is easy to find examples of contradictory claims all being attributed to climate change. But let me give you one example. Sharks fascinate us, probably going back decades to…

Kerby Anderson Nearly half (46%) of American adults report sometimes or always feeling lonely. That same study by Cigna also found that nearly the same percentage (47%) reported feelings of being left out. That is why many say loneliness is at “epidemic levels.” Twenty-five years ago (1994) I wrote a book (Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope) making a number of predictions for the future. Chapter eight set forth the case for a coming crisis of loneliness. Years later Philip…

Kerby Anderson The former Attorney General Eric Holder started a conversation the other day on MSNBC when he was asked about President Trump’s slogan, “Make America great again.” Holder responded with this question: “Exactly when did you think America was great?” The implication was that America has never been great in the past. Vice President Mike Pence decided to respond to the question by Eric Holder with four iconic pictures on Twitter. They were pictures of Washington crossing the Delaware…

Kerby Anderson Lots of controversial ideas get promoted during an election season. We are getting our share of them this time. Eliminate the Electoral College, regulate campaign speech, and end the filibuster are just a few. It occurred to me that the best way to respond to many of these proposals is to remind Americans that our country is a republic, not a democracy. The framers recognized that the country would be quite diverse. They wanted to create a government…

Penna Dexter President Trump promised to nominate Supreme Court justices with judicial philosophies like that of Justice Antonin Scalia. He has kept that promise, perhaps no more faithfully than in his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. After graduating first in her class from Notre Dame Law School, Judge Barrett held two clerkships, the second of which was for Justice Scalia. She was greatly influenced by him. And Justice Scalia would certainly be pleased by her nomination. He wanted the Court to…