Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Twenty-nine years ago, Allan Bloom wrote the book, The Closing of the American Mind. Charles Koch wrote an op-ed with the same title. There are some similarities between the two, but also one important difference. Charles Koch looks back at the revolutionary technological advances we have made and now take for granted. He is concerned that government and the academy are stifling progress. When he attended MIT, he discovered that “scientific and technological progress requires the free and…

Kerby Anderson The plight of persecuted Christians is worse than ever. That is the conclusion of a recent report by Aid to the Church in Need. It documents that the persecution of Christians today is worse than at any time in history. “Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith groups, but ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of persecution.” In some countries the situation is already severe, so it is hard to imagine how it…

Kerby Anderson Two recent articles illustrate our uncertainty about the future of technology. One proclaims that “More than 70% of US fear robots taking over our lives.” Another is the special edition of Time that believes “Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Humankind.” A recent Pew Research poll found that 72 percent of Americans “express wariness or concern about a world where machines perform any of the tasks done by humans.” That is more than double the number (33%) who were enthusiastic…

Kerby Anderson In the past, I have written about how a few were starting to call some of the billionaires in the Silicon Valley “the new robber barons.” Most of the Silicon Valley companies seemed untouchable and above criticism, until recently. Victor Davis Hanson reminds us that conservatives often pointed to the innovative, entrepreneurial high-tech leaders with admiration. They praised them as “modern versions of the 19th-century risk-takers such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.” They demonstrated that American…

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…