Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter When Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed the state’s new Human Life Protection Act, she implied that the goal of the bill is to set up a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide. She said: “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.” She also said that…

Kerby Anderson A few months ago, an article in Business Insider proclaimed, “Divorce isn’t a failure, therapists say. In fact, it could mean the marriage was a success.” I didn’t pay much attention to it since you can find secular counselors and therapists who will say just about anything. But recently John Stonestreet did a Breakpoint commentary on the article and used it to illustrate some important points about the biblical words for love. Instead, I would like to look at…

Kerby Anderson Astute political observers frequently notice the large gap between rhetoric and reality. That is certainly true of some of the Democrat governors in blue states. Their political rhetoric has been critical of the Trump tax reform. The reality is that their state budgets have benefited significantly from those tax cuts along with the Trump administration deregulation. Fortunately, the editors of the Wall Street Journal collected the news stories and economic numbers to show that blue states are actually receiving…

Kerby Anderson Sometime in the near future, America will go over the entitlement cliff. That is the argument of Dr. Merrill Matthews, co-author of the book, On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlement Cliff. He was on the Point of View radio talk show recently to discuss the problem and possible solutions. The first part of his book explains why entitlement programs fail. To put it simply, they are not actuarially sound. But the problem is even greater than that. He…

Kerby Anderson American credit card debt has now topped $1 trillion. And most of the people in debt don’t pay off their credit cards and thus pay very high interest rates. But never fear. Socialists Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation to provide some relief. Their bill would limit what credit card companies could charge in interest rates. Although the Bible and even various theologians have warned against usury, I don’t think that is the origin…

Kerby Anderson Should the government break up Facebook? In a previous commentary, I quoted Senator Ted Cruz who observed that the current big tech companies “are larger and more powerful than when Standard Oil was broken up” and “larger and more powerful than AT&T when it was broken up.” Nevertheless, he and other senators don’t seem ready to act. But joining this discussion is Mark Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook. He concludes in his New York Times op-ed that, “It is…

Penna Dexter Socialism is disturbingly cool these days. Obviously, we haven’t learned enough from history. There are generations of voters who weren’t even born yet when the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism fell. They also weren’t around in the 60’s when many European countries implemented socialist policies that are now a drag on their economies. Author Joshua Muravchik is an expert in foreign policy, especially socialism. He says: “It’s hard to think of another idea that’s been tried and failed…

Kerby Anderson Shootings in schools and synagogues always bring the inevitable question, why?  The most recent shootings illustrate that there is no single answer. Although there are some common patterns, there are many different variables. One comprehensive review of “Three Decades of School Shootings” by Tawnell Hobbs did find some common patterns. A significant number of shooters were bullied, were suicidal, told someone, had access to guns, and planned their actions in advance. Ten shared all five traits, and nine…

Kerby Anderson Should convicted felons be allowed to vote? Senator Bernie Sanders believes they should not have that privilege taken away from them. Critics rhetorically ask whether anyone really believes that Oklahoma bomber Terry Nichols and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should vote in the next election. They realize the proposal for what it is: an attempt to get more votes for Democrats. But if we set aside the blatant attempt to get more votes, the question of whether felons…

Kerby Anderson Since a number of presidential candidates are warning about “voter suppression,” it seems like a good time to accurately define the term. Let’s start with a simple issue. Cutting back early voting days is NOT voter suppression. Early voting in North Carolina reduced the days for early voting from 17 to 10. Florida reduced their early voting days from 14 to 8. Citizens who are properly registered can still vote, but the number of days you can early…

Kerby Anderson Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke rolled out his version of a Green New Deal in a video from Yosemite Valley. It doesn’t call for such draconian action as the legislation sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her plan calls for “net zero greenhouse gas emissions” in ten years. He has a target somewhere around the year 2050. Perhaps we should call it the “Light Green New Deal.” In his video, Beto calls it “the most ambitious climate plan in the…