Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Most all media reports claim that the terrible brush fires in Australia have been made worse by climate change. That may be true in the broadest sense, but the reality is more complicated. Here are a few pieces of data to consider. Climatologist Roy Spencer reminds us that Australia has had a long history of brush fires going all the way back to the Aborigines. The record number of hectares burned on that continent occurred during the 1974-75…

Penna Dexter A California law went into effect January 1 that hurts the very people it was supposed to “protect.” Assembly Bill 5 severely limits independent contracting by placing heavy restrictions on the amount of work freelancers can do before being considered full-time workers. The Daily Signal’s Jarrett Stepman explains that “The law was passed to reduce the negative impact of the ‘gig economy,’ where workers do various jobs on their own time but don’t get the benefits or long-term…

Kerby Anderson Occasionally I use the phrase, “Politics stops at the water’s edge” when talking on radio. I really didn’t know the full history of the phrase until reading an editorial by former Senator Joe Lieberman. After World War II, Senator Arthur Vandenberg (a Michigan Republican who was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee) formed a bipartisan partnership with President Harry Truman. He did so to help secure the postwar peace and strengthen the country’s position in the Cold War….

Kerby Anderson One of the framed pictures in my office is a photograph I took at Glacier National Park when I was a teenager. I have always wanted to go back and photograph this beautiful place with a much better camera. I also wanted to go back so that I could take a picture of the signs that the park service put up predicting that all of the glaciers would be gone by 2020 due to climate change. In case you…

Kerby Anderson Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. When the Supreme Court removed most state restrictions on abortion back in 1973, who could have predicted the world we live in today? When the ruling came down, few understood the long-term implications. I remember speaking on the issue in college classrooms a few years later and wondering when the Supreme Court would reverse its decision. By the 1980s, it seemed like only a matter of time that abortion would…

Kerby Anderson Two weeks ago, it seemed like there might be a major confrontation between the US and Iran. Garrett Graff, writing in Wired, suggested that Twitter may have helped stop a war with Iran. That might be a bit of an overstatement, but it does illustrate how international conflict might be affected by something as simple as social media. He has written about the Cold War and reminds us how difficult communication was between Russia and the US during…

Kerby Anderson On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let me suggest that you take some time to read his letter from a Birmingham Jail. If you are young, I think it will give you a better idea of what the civil rights movement in the 1960s was all about. If you are older, it will remind you of some forgotten events and chapters in American history. Dr. King wrote the letter in response to a published statement by eight clergymen….

Penna Dexter Some bad ideas just keep coming back. And when they do, they’re often more dangerous than ever. One such proposal was the Equal Rights Amendment, which proponents claimed would protect women’s rights by prohibiting discrimination based on sex. Congress passed this amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1972 and gave it seven years to achieve ratification by three-fourths of the states. Thirty-five states ratified. In a constitutionally questionable move, Congress extended the deadline three more years. Still the amendment…

Kerby Anderson Mention celebrity suicides and you immediately think of Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, and Kate Spade. Talk about teen suicides and you think of the lost potential of young people. After all, it is the third leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds. Every day at least 123 Americans die of suicide. It is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Depression is one reason, a psychological disorder that affects nearly a fourth of American adults in a…

Kerby Anderson The Apostle Paul encourages us not to be “anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” – Philippians 4:6. I have done a number of radio programs with Christian teachers and Christian doctors about anxiety and depression. Both Christians and non-Christians now believe anxiety is increasing in our society. A recent article by Amy Morin in Psychology Today lists “10 Reasons Teens Have So much Anxiety…

Kerby Anderson If you want to get a surprised reaction from people, tell them that we just had the best decade ever. I am fascinated by the reaction when I say it. Even people who are hardly environmental doomsayers have trouble believing it. Matt Ridley recently wrote, “We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously.” Why would he say that? Let’s put a few facts on the table. “Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent of the world’s…