Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Yesterday and today I wanted to talk about the expanding role of Big Tech in the midst of this pandemic. Yesterday I talked about surveillance and privacy. Today I want to focus on censorship. The problem of Big Tech censorship has been around for more than a decade. But the current climate makes it even easier. For example, Facebook announced it was removing posts intended to organize rallies that would be protesting government stay-at-home policies in a number…

Kerby Anderson For the next two days, I want to talk about the expanding role of Big Tech in the midst of this pandemic. Today I want to focus on surveillance and privacy. In other countries, the citizens have been willing to submit to increased surveillance. In South Korea, the government has used credit card data, cellphone location data, and surveillance camera footage to track citizens They even announced that infected individuals might be required to wear electronic wristbands. Rachel…

Kerby Anderson In a recent column, Dennis Prager argues that we are seeing a dress rehearsal for a police state. Although I think he makes a convincing case, I am intrigued by people’s response to it. Some people see it, while others do not. It is like watching people look at an optical illusion. Some people see it; others do not. Prager argues that our country is closer to a police state than ever before. And he hastens to add…

Kerby Anderson The latest issue of Harvard University’s magazine has an article by the faculty director of the Child Advocacy Program blasting homeschool as “dangerous.” She documents what she sees as the “risks of homeschooling” and is disturbed that parents can exercise “authoritarian control over their kids.” It might be tempting to merely write this off as just another radical professor expressing an opinion that isn’t necessarily shared by others on the faculty. But consider that the Harvard Magazine cover…

Penna Dexter The Left predictably exploits the coronavirus pandemic to bash capitalism. The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel counters, “To the extent America is weathering this moment, it is in enormous part thanks to the strength, ingenuity, and flexibility of our thriving, competitive capitalist players.” The U.S. response has not been without its problems, but capitalism is providing many more answers than a centralized economy ever could. Ms. Strassel points to a big mistake that surfaced early on: Government “maintained…

Kerby Anderson As we go forward on removing restrictions from the lockdown, how should we make rational and intelligent decisions? Andrew McCarthy brings us back to our legal system that places the burden of proof on the government. He recognizes that trying to make reasonable decisions about the pandemic during an election year is difficult. Everything, including science, has been politicized. Of course, it was politicized even before the election season arrived. But now it is worse. That is why…

Kerby Anderson Today is the National Day of Prayer. It is a vital part of our American heritage. The first call to prayer happened before the American Revolution. In 1775, the Continental Congress called on the colonists to pray for wisdom as they considered how they would respond to the King of England. Perhaps one of the most powerful calls to prayer came from President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. In 1863, he issued a proclamation for a day…

Kerby Anderson Should the rest of the country have to play by New York rules? Bret Stephens doesn’t think so. He lives in New York City and writes for the New York Times. But he understands why most of America doesn’t want to live under a national lockdown just because of how the virus pandemic has slammed New York. He begins by reminding us of the famous cover for The New Yorker with the title “View of the World from…

Kerby Anderson If you take a political science class, your professor will probably talk about how often government policies have unintended consequences. We have before us right now a perfect example of that. But let me hasten to add that unintended consequences don’t always mean unexpected consequences. A number of US senators saw this coming, but Congress did not listen. Jamie Black-Lewis owns two spas in Washington state. Although her businesses were closed, she was ecstatic that she qualified for…

Kerby Anderson As more politicians and policy makers debate how to open up cities and states, questions about medical risks versus economic concerns dominate those discussions. But there is another risk that deserves to be considered: mental health risks. The consequences of an economic shutdown spill over into the mental health arena. First, let’s dismiss one statistic that has been floating around since the 2015 movie, The Big Short. Brad Pitt plays the character Ben Rickett who warns two investment…

Penna Dexter There’s a wide disparity across America regarding how we’re experiencing the coronavirus pandemic. More and more of us know people who have or have had COVID-19, but polling shows the majority still doesn’t. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 59 percent of Americans don’t know a soul who has contracted the virus. Yet every one of us is affected by it. Some Americans’ lives have been upended — others terribly inconvenienced — due to the…