Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson No doubt you have heard the phrase, “politics is downstream from culture.” It is a way of explaining that what is at stake in our world often begins upstream in the culture. Popular culture is all around us and delivered to us through broadcast media and social media. We perceive the world through news reports, through movies, through entertainment programs, and through music. Every form of communication has a message. Sometimes it is blatant and intentional. Often it…

Kerby Anderson I often say on my radio program that we spend millions of dollars each year in research studies to validate what most mothers already know. That is certainly the case with the studies attempting to explain why certain people procrastinate. Andrew Santella writes about this in his book, Soon: An Overdue History of Procrastination, From Leonardo and Darwin to You and Me. He explains “The Real Reason You Procrastinate” in a recent article in Time magazine. People who…

Penna Dexter A consequential anniversary just passed. It has been fifty years since the nation’s first no-fault divorce law was enacted. No-fault divorce laws make it so one partner can end a marriage simply by citing “irreconcilable differences.” Governor Ronald Reagan signed California’s no-fault divorce bill in 1969. Forty-four states followed suit. Reagan later told his son Michael that this action, which unleashed a revolution, was his “greatest regret.” The intent of no-fault divorce was to reduce the false accusations…

Kerby Anderson Dennis Prager stirred up some controversy by saying something progressives would never let you say. As a Jew, he says that American Jews are the luckiest Jews in Jewish history. He also says that about many other ethnic groups. As I mentioned in a previous commentary, his father wrote his senior thesis on anti-Semitism in America. Nevertheless, he taught his two sons that they were the luckiest Jews in Jewish history. Dennis Prager still believes that, even though…

Kerby Anderson In my commentaries, I often refer to the millennial generation. But what does the term “millennial” really mean? According to John Quiggin, “millennial means nothing.” That is the title of his op-ed in the New York Times. He is on to something. Some social commentators make broad statements about a particular cohort of people: baby boomers, baby busters, or millennials. As we all know, for any general rule there are bound to be exceptions. That is why he…

Kerby Anderson Ryan Anderson responds to our transgender moment in his new book, When Harry Became Sally. He begins his discussion by comparing two movies. The classic film, When Harry Met Sally, explored the question of whether a man and a woman can really be “just friends.” More recently, the film, The Danish Girl, asked a different question: Can a man really become a woman? The film was based on the true story of the first known subject of “sex…

Kerby Anderson One of the more controversial features of the tax reform bill two years ago was the proposal to cap the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT). This deduction is a benefit given to taxpayers, but it provided much more benefit to taxpayers who lived in high-tax states. They were able to deduct more from their taxes. During the debate, there was great pressure on the Congress and the Trump Administration to drop the idea of capping this…

Kerby Anderson Already 51 attorneys general have signed on to an antitrust investigation into the business practices of Google. Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, recently wrote about why they were looking at Google’s dominance in the marketplace. He cited Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry who posed an interesting hypothetical question. Imagine America before the invention of radio or television, when print media (especially newspapers) were the source of content. Would we allow one person or one company to own all…

Penna Dexter At the opening of the 74th United Nations General Assembly, which convened a couple of weeks ago in New York, President Trump gave a speech that encompassed hot-button issues ranging from Iran to global religious persecution. One of his bold moves was to call the United Nations out on its promotion of an international right to abortion. Austin Ruse is President of C-Fam, the Center for Family and Human Rights, a non-profit that monitors and works to affect…

Kerby Anderson For decades I have been predicting that the federal government would eventually begin to revoke the tax-exempt status of various non-profit groups. At first, they would focus on groups that are controversial. Then politicians and bureaucrats would broaden it to include other groups so they could bring more taxes into the federal coffers. An initial first step took place 36 years ago when the Supreme Court ruled that the IRS could revoke the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones…

Kerby Anderson Last month Marilyn Synek walked into a Nebraska coffee shop for her weekly ritual of coffee and crepes. What she received was a torrent of angry words, which I cannot repeat on radio (or in print). A woman who worked at the coffee shop recognized that Marilyn worked for the Nebraska Family Alliance shouted at Marilyn and demanded that she leave. Marilyn said she was stunned by this reaction, as were the other patrons in the crowded shop….