Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Here’s a trivia question. Why was the massive flu epidemic in 1918 called the Spanish flu? The pandemic originated in France and other countries. But news of it was censored during World War I. The pandemic only received greater press attention when it arrived in Spain in November. Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed any wartime censorship. During that same time, the US government also tried to play down the Spanish flu lest…

Kerby Anderson Members of a very popular South Korean boy band were denied draft exemptions even though it would reduce revenue to the country. Why? Because there aren’t enough boys available to serve in the military. Lyman Stone uses this illustration to highlight the extremely low birth rate in South Korea. But that country is just one of many examples of what has become a global birth dearth. Fertility rates have been declining in all the developed countries of the…

Kerby Anderson How many times have we heard as we head into an election season, that this will be the most important election in our lifetime? Reid Wilson, writing for The Hill, is not given to hyperbole but sets forth some very persuasive reasons why the 2020 election will be the most important. First, the Democratic Party is likely “to nominate the most liberal candidate ever to carry the party’s mantle.” He explains that even the moderate candidates are staking…

Kerby Anderson The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case that might eventually end the impact of the Blaine amendment. You might ask: What is the Blaine amendment? It was a failed attempt to amend the US Constitution so that government aid could not be provided to schools with a religious affiliation. Even though it was never added to the Constitution, three-fourths of the states adopted similar provisions in their state constitutions. Originally, these were proposed to limit…

Penna Dexter As the new year began, USA Today published a piece by two respected scholars on marriage. Dr. Ryan Anderson of Heritage Foundation and Professor Robbie George of Princeton outline the erosion of marriage over the past decade. They start with Barack Obama’s affirmation that “marriage unites a man and woman.” They take their readers through activist court rulings redefining marriage on to state ballot initiatives upholding marriage as between one man and one woman.  They describe President Obama’s…

Kerby Anderson If you do an online search of the term “cultural Marxism,” you will see a Wikipedia entry that dismisses it as a “conspiracy theory” that is supposedly trying to take over Western culture. Actually it is the dominant form of Marxism in America and in much of the West today. Dr. Paul Kengor was on Point of View radio talk show with me to talk about his recent article about cultural Marxism. He explained that cultural Marxism began about a…

Kerby Anderson When I talk about how well the economy is doing and how wages are increasing, I sometimes have a caller remark that they haven’t seen any improvement in their economic situation. That makes sense. A rising tide will lift all boats, but some boats rise faster than others. But the most recent economic numbers show that economic growth has been most beneficial to low-income workers. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal put some of the economic numbers…

Kerby Anderson Just a few years ago, Evergreen State College was probably best known as the alma mater for rapper Macklemore and Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons. That all changed with an email biology professor Bret Weinstein sent. In the past, the school had a tradition known as the “National Day of Absence.” Usually, minority faculty and students leave the campus for a day to make a statement. But in 2017, the college wanted to change things and wanted white students and…

Kerby Anderson Crime costs both victims and society a great deal. But the cost is much more than we realize. Professor Walter Williams documents the “Unappreciated Crime Costs” that especially hit black residents in low-income neighborhoods. Thousands of black Americans are murdered each year in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis and Philadelphia. He documents that over 90 percent of the time the perpetrator was also black. Crime also imposes a hefty tax on people in these neighborhoods, who…

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…