Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson The news from the last few weeks of impeachment inquiry and the Inspector General’s report both raise an important question. Who will guard the guardians? That was a question first asked by a Roman poet, and it is relevant today. James Madison makes a similar statement in Federalist Paper #51. “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the…

Kerby Anderson Here is one of the great contradictions in our world today. Our economy is healthy and growing. Our social fabric is weak and tearing apart. Rich Lowry in his column suggested two ways to measure our social vitality: births and deaths. Both the fertility rate and life expectancy are declining. That is a certain sign that Americans feel less secure and have little hope. Our society is “characterized by less procreation and more self-destruction.” Let’s first look at…

Kerby Anderson We live in a world where context and perspective seem to be missing. In sports, we hear that a particular player is the GOAT (greatest of all time). Dismal futurists predict the end of the world as we know it. People have been losing perspective for some time, so it’s not surprising that it surfaced in many of the impeachment hearings. Representative Ken Buck tried to put some of the testimony in perspective when he asked law professor…

Kerby Anderson A little over a week ago the Washington Post published a lengthy story with the title, “The Confession.” It told the rest of the story to anti-homosexual slurs that were sprayed on the walls of a church in Indiana. These were posted shortly after Donald Trump’s election and got national attention. Late-night host Stephen Colbert showed an image of one of the church walls in his opening monologue. As you might imagine from the title, a police investigation…

Penna Dexter Psychoanalyst Erica Komisar is a therapist to families and especially children in private practice in New York City. Her periodic columns for the Wall Street Journal on childrearing are treasures. I first noticed the one on why moms should prioritize being home with their babies for their first three years. This practical wisdom almost goes without saying. Some of her points might shock or seem retro if they weren’t timeless and backed up with stats and tons of…

Kerby Anderson Lately politicians on both the left and the right have been criticizing capitalism. Senator Elizabeth Warren calls for “accountable capitalism.” Senator Marco Rubio proposes what could be called “common-good capitalism.” Senator Bernie Sanders proposes “democratic socialism as an alternative to unfettered capitalism.” By the way, they aren’t the only ones using the term. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues in his book, A Bit of Everything, for a new social contract. He says we need to get rid…

Kerby Anderson The common refrain from Democratic presidential candidates proposing massive spending programs is that only the rich will be heavily taxed. They insist we could afford a European-style welfare state if only we taxed the rich like they do in Europe. The editors at the Wall Street Journal have an answer to that: “Europe’s beleaguered middle class knows better.” First, let’s admit that most European nations do have larger welfare and entitlement programs than in America. Part of the…

Kerby Anderson It is hard to imagine that very many Americans who voted for Donald Trump did so because of his foreign policy statements. And he has received lots of criticism for his mercurial foreign policy proposals. But he has brought economic and diplomatic pressure on three of America’s adversaries. In a recent column, Victor Davis Hanson sums up our current standoff with China, Iran, and North Korea. Trump’s critics described him as a Don Quixote “tilting at Chinese windmills”…

Kerby Anderson Science is headed into uncharted territory. That’s why we need a reliable science guide to navigate our journey. Dr. Michael Guillen provides that guidance in his book, The End of Life as We Know It. For years he was the Emmy award-winning science correspondent for ABC News. He was on my radio program to talk about the book and his truth tour. He addresses four areas of concern: the web, the robot, the spy, and the Frankenstein. He…

Kerby Anderson Every time Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg enters a hospital, speculation surfaces concerning her health and future. She is a cancer survivor who has occasionally missed oral arguments. But she isn’t about to step down because she (and other liberals) fear who would replace her. But there may be a reasonable solution to how presidents appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Perhaps it is time to consider term limits for the Supreme Court. Even though that sounds…

Penna Dexter Candidates on the far left are proposing to tax the rich — big time. They need revenue to fund their massive spending plans and also want to deliver their version of economic justice to the country. Senator Elizabeth Warren says, “we want to build an America that works for the people, not one that just works for rich folks.” She has unveiled tax proposals that, added together, would push federal tax rates for some multi-millionaires and billionaires above…