Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter The air is leaking out of the bubble of frustration we’ve all been living in. There’s a national sense of relief as states and localities announce they’re relaxing lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing standards. We’re anxious to jump back into normal life, but also cautious – a bit hesitant. Now that Americans are getting a few more opportunities to try to work again, shop again, pursue recreation in public, and even have elective surgery, some of us are…

Kerby Anderson Ramadan begins today. It is a holy month of fasting for Muslims. But you may have also noticed that Ramadan seems to be a time of increased attacks on infidels. Every year the death toll runs into the hundreds. I fear this year the statistics will also be grim. At first this seems like a contradiction. Ramadan occurs during the ninth lunar month in the Islamic calendar. It is time when Muslims fast from their first prayer of…

Kerby Anderson How many Americans have died of the coronavirus? You would think the answer to that question would be fairly simple. After all, we have the bodies in morgues and funeral homes that we can count. That is true. But how many of those people died of the virus becomes a more difficult question to answer. Most media reports argue that we have a significant undercount, even in this country. It isn’t because government officials are trying to hide…

Kerby Anderson Three dozen states have voter ID laws, but one of those states (Virginia) just struck down the requirement to show identification before voting. The governor signed the bill arguing that “voting is a fundamental right.” That is true and all the more reason to make sure voter fraud does not take place. Meanwhile, Michelle Obama announced a nationwide push to have every state vote by mail and allow people to register online. Progressives have tried to eliminate voter…

Kerby Anderson Whenever you see a news report or hear a comment from a medical expert during this virus pandemic, it is important to use some discernment and apply some logic. Since so much of what is reported is from medical experts, it is easy to be intimidated since few of us have a medical degree. But you don’t have to know much about science or medicine to see the flaws in what is reported. A good example from a…

Kerby Anderson Scott Gottlieb (former FDA Administrator) concluded that this coronavirus would have been more deadly than the Spanish Flu if it appeared in 1918. That’s a reasonable conclusion based on what we know about this virus and what was not medically available back then. We currently have a debate about the severity and extent of COVID-19. Some skeptics believe the dangers have been exaggerated. Some of the models predicted more infections and more deaths than have occurred. Health care…

Kerby Anderson G.K. Chesterton once observed that, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.” Dennis Prager starts off with that quote to illustrate that nature has become a substitute god for many today. That’s not surprising. Many pagan religions had some form of nature worship. They worshipped the sun god, the moon god, or the goddess of fertility. Today there is a religious foundation to the environmental movement. We need to protect…

Penna Dexter In one of those ZOOM get-togethers that have become a social lifeline lately, participants were asked to reveal their worst and best experiences during life in the coronavirus lockdown. My worst is an underlying angst and sleeplessness I can’t shake as I watch businesses and workers idled and try to swallow the passage of trillions of dollars in relief and stimulus.  I could go on about this. And I did, starting our time together on a real downer. …

Kerby Anderson Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives want to investigate the US response to the coronavirus pandemic. In Watergate investigative style, they want to know what the president knew and when he knew it. It looks like merely another attempt to criticize the president. But if they are really interested in knowing what we knew back in January, the person they should question is Senator Tom Cotton. While most of Congress was preoccupied with other matters (like impeachment),…

Kerby Anderson We are told by medical experts and politicians that we have to set aside many of our constitutional rights during this lockdown in order to keep people safe. And we are assured that this sacrifice of our freedoms is only temporary. But are we setting a precedent? Who would have predicted that a virus would become the justification for some governors and mayors to lay siege to our civil liberties? Six months ago, if I told you that…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday I talked about the need for economists and political leaders to create an endgame to the current lockdown on our society. The obvious objection to this can be found in the numerous clichés that portray any discussion as an attempt to trade dollars for death. The governor of New York, for example, scolds, “No one should be talking about social Darwinism for the sake of the stock market.” He argues that, “We will not put a dollar…