Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Should professional basketball players be allowed to boycott their games? Of course. Current NBA players, along with players in the past, have used the forum to address social issues. Technically, the decision last month was probably best described as a strike rather than a boycott. It led to other professional teams cancelling their games as well. In a well-written and thoughtful piece, Andrew McCarthy argues that the action may be somewhat illogical, but certainly allowable. “For a work…

Kerby Anderson Today is Labor Day. Although this day was set aside to honor trade and labor organizations, I believe it is a day when Christians can also consider how they view work and labor. The Bible has quite a bit to say about how we are to view work, and so I devote part of a chapter in my book, Making the Most of Your Money, to a biblical view of work. First, we are to work unto the Lord in…

Penna Dexter In crafting environmental policy, lawmakers need only look to the state of California to understand the devastation that results from a rush to “go green.” Last fall 2 million Northern Californians endured weeks of intentional rolling blackouts implemented to reduce the risk that faulty power lines would spark the dry fuel left under and around the lines. This summer, with millions of Californians at home under COVID lockdowns, parts of the state are darkened again with more blackouts….

Kerby Anderson Professor Paul Kengor has a new book on The Devil and Karl Marx that reminds us how much Marx hated God and Christianity. In his book and on my radio program he cited Marx and many of the biographies that showed how scary he was. His own family and friends were frightened by his demonic fits of rage and his bizarre focus on violence. Marx wrote, “When our turn comes, we shall make no excuses for the terror….

Kerby Anderson Recently, one of the guests on my radio program told me about a poll that discovered that words like safety and security were being frequently mentioned as a reason to vote for a particular candidate. Key issues in any political campaign include the economy and social issues. Now the word “security” surfaced in many political polls. Marc Lotter believes the election will come down to the word security in three different ways. First, is economic security. Donald Trump…

Kerby Anderson Protesters in the streets want to “defund the police.” Politicians assure us that doesn’t mean complete defunding, but it does mean that they will reduce the size of the police force. These intentional actions have unintended consequences, but not unexpected consequences. You can see this in a chart created by Joseph Sullivan that predicts the side effects of Seattle’s intended reduction of police officers. The city council in Seattle voted to enact what one New York Times reporter…

Kerby Anderson If you use the word dementia, you usually use it to describe a disease that affects the elderly. But doctors are starting to talk about a new type of cognitive condition affecting younger individuals. They call it “digital dementia.” It results, they say, from the overuse of digital technology, such as smartphones and computers. Brain function deteriorates because of digital overuse. The left side of the brain is generally associated with rational thought (numbers, and facts). The right…

Kerby Anderson In previous columns and even in the interview he did with me, Dennis Prager documents how the Left ruins just about everything it touches. In the past, he has talked about how it has ruined university education, the arts, race relations, and free speech. His latest column adds science to that list and gives four examples. First, is the desire of science departments in universities throughout America that have declared their “intention to hire physicists, biologists and other…

Penna Dexter Question: Will Americans vote to stop the riots, the looting and the defund-the-police efforts in major cities across the country? The parties certainly understand that citizens, even those who sympathize with the peaceful George Floyd protests, are appalled at the violent turn some of the protests took. Most people abhor the violence, and the destruction of businesses and the livelihoods of their owners and employees. Other than calls to defund police, we didn’t hear a word about this…

Kerby Anderson Some American cities may never recover. First, there was the coronavirus pandemic, then the lockdowns, and now the protests and riots. Joel Kotkin writes about “The Twilight of Great American Cities” and wonders if we can reverse this downward trend. James Altucher is more pessimistic and declares that “New York City is Dead Forever.” The pandemic has exposed the danger of densely packed urban life. City dwellers find themselves in constant contact with people in crowded, unventilated places…

Kerby Anderson Why do the rioters in the street have so much rage? Trying to find rational answers to irrational actions is often a worthless endeavor. But Ned Ryan has found some reasons for “The Misdirected Rage of Young Rioters.” His recent column parallels some of the insights from the book, The Coddling of the American Mind, that I have discussed in previous commentaries. He notes that many of the rioters come from a “spoiled, enabled, and poorly educated generation…