Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson How many nonprofits will shut their doors because of the pandemic? That is a question some researchers tried to answer by looking at various financial scenarios. They tried to analyze the financial future of the 315,698 US-based nonprofits by considering 20 different scenarios. As a baseline, they concluded that about four percent would close even in the absence of a COVID-19 crisis. Some degree of turnover is likely for a variety of reasons. Then they concluded that using…

Kerby Anderson It appears that mathematics and grammar are now also examples of racism and western imperialism. At least that is what we are hearing on a number of college campuses. Nancy Pearcey writes about one teacher who argues that the “idea of 2 + 2 equaling 4 is cultural” and a product of “western imperialism/colonialism.” Apparently, even mathematics is to be reshaped by critical theory. Lest you think this is the only example, she provides many others. A professor…

Kerby Anderson Theologian Keith Mathison recently decided to delete his Facebook account. Years ago, he deleted his Twitter account. While there is nothing unusual about what he did, I appreciated his blog post that provided a thoughtful explanation for why he did. He talked about a phenomenon he called a “Jekyll & Hyde Effect” and then apologized if someone else already coined this term for this phenomenon. He said he hadn’t seen it used anywhere else. But he also acknowledged…

Kerby Anderson Stephen McBride is predicting the end of college as we know it. The key to his prediction is the last four words: as we know it. The prestigious universities will survive because they will always attract elite students and command huge tuitions. But what about the rest of the colleges that seem bent on teaching classes online? Cost will be a big issue. He reminds us that as recently as 1980, you could get a four-year bachelor’s degree…

Penna Dexter Families with K-12 children have spent the summer waiting to find out whether their schools will reopen for the fall semester or offer virtual learning at least in the early weeks. School districts are announcing plans with the caveat that ‘things could change’ depending on the COVID-19 environment. Adding to this uncertainty is the burgeoning consensus that virtual learning is no substitute for in-person school. Surveys of parents regarding whether their children learned anything during the spring semester…

Kerby Anderson Earlier this month Dr. Thomas Sowell published his book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies. It is an eye-opening look at the success of these schools and the growing criticism of them from the educational establishment and politicians in the Democratic Party. When public schools and charter schools in New York are compared, you can see a significant difference. A majority of charter school students tested proficient or above in the Language Arts test. Most of them were African…

Kerby Anderson If you have ever read George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, you are familiar with the idea of newspeak. Examples would be: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” But if you look at the news media today, you would probably conclude that Orwell accurately predicted the future but was just off by about thirty-six years. Gerard Baker believes “The News Media Becomes Fluent in Newspeak.” He acknowledges that we don’t have a “Ministry of Truth”…

Kerby Anderson It should be obvious to just about anyone with a bit of common sense that the “cancel culture” has gone off the deep end. I have talked about J.K. Rowling, writer of the Harry Potter series, who has been attacked for saying things that are biologically true but contrary to the latest politically correct transgender ideology. Then there is the communications director of Boeing who was forced to resign because of an article he wrote a third of…

Kerby Anderson Dennis Prager recently wrote a column presenting “5 Arguments Against ‘America is a Racist Country’.” His first argument was based on a previous column that asked, “If America Is So Racist, Why Are There So Many Race Hoaxes?” It’s a good question. If racism is as prevalent as activists want us to believe, you wouldn’t expect so many hate crime hoaxes based on race. In many previous columns, I have written about the number of fake hate crimes….

Kerby Anderson China has been in the news lately, and not just because of their mishandling of the coronavirus. A number of government officials have been warning of the danger China poses. And before we go any further, we are talking about the Chinese Communist Party and not the good people of China who have little control over what these communist leaders do. FBI Director Christopher Wray gave a shocking presentation earlier this month in which he mentioned that nearly…

Penna Dexter Historian, columnist, and professor Victor Davis Hanson has been speaking and writing lately about the current cultural revolution. He contrasts cultural revolutions with political revolutions, which change governments and leaders. Cultural revolutions, he writes, “try to redefine entire societies” and “attack the very referents of our daily lives.” He points to the movies, TV shows, and cartoons that have been “canceled” due to the Black Lives Matter Revolution. This revolution, he adds, has “toppled statues, tried to create new autonomous urban zones,…