Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson I’ve played basketball and programmed computers. But I never thought putting the two together would be a problem. An AI-computer got the facts of a recent NBA playoff all wrong and generated a fictitious story. Klay Thompson plays for the Golden State Warriors. Although he is an excellent shooter, he went an abysmal 0-10 from the 3-point line when they played the Sacramento Kings. Here is the story the AI computer created: “In a bizarre turn of events,…

Kerby Anderson Two weeks ago, the president of the University of Florida, Ben Sasse, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. I wish other university presidents would read what he wrote and apply these same lessons to their college. He tells “parents and future employers: We’re not perfect, but the adults are still in charge.” The school’s response to protests and encampments is driven by three basic truths. First, “universities must distinguish between speech and action.” Speech isn’t violence….

Penna Dexter Radical transgender directives just keep coming from the executive branch of the federal government. The latest decree, official guidance for employers from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, concerns restroom and pronoun use. The guidance states that “the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility consistent with the individual’s gender identity” could bring a workplace under harassment charges. So could misgendering: “repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individual’s known gender…

Kerby Anderson Is Christianity as bad as atheists say that it is? For decades we have heard the charges from the so-called New Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. But those ideas are starting to surface in other discussions. As one of my radio guests noted, non-Christians used to ask if Christianity is true, but now many ask whether Christianity is good. Secular professors often will talk about Christianity in a negative way, focusing only on the Crusades, the…

Kerby Anderson Is crime on the rise? Most Americans think so. A Gallup survey last year found that nearly all (92%) Republicans and a majority (58%) of Democrats thought crime was increasing. A recent Rasmussen survey found most (61%) likely voters say violent crime in the US is getting worse. But the media cites statistics arguing that crime is decreasing. That is why John Lott took the time to investigate the difference in perception about crime statistics. He concludes that…

Kerby Anderson The Federal government has a spending problem. Yesterday, I talked about the problem and discussed two ideas Stephen Moore proposes to shrink the federal budget. The two ideas mentioned yesterday were to use presidential impoundment authority and to require a super-majority vote to raise taxes. Here are two other ideas he proposes. The first suggestion is what he calls the millionaire subsidy elimination act. This was proposed many years ago by the late economist Walter Williams. The argument…

Kerby Anderson The Federal government has a spending problem. That is best illustrated by the fact that the deficit this fiscal year will be $2 trillion. The accumulated national debt from George Washington to President Reagan was $1 trillion. This year we will accumulate twice as much debt in one year as was accumulated in the first 200 years of this country. Stephen Moore reminds us that Congress just passed a bipartisan agreement to spend an additional $95 billion on…

Kerby Anderson Arthur Brooks begins his article by asking if you are feeling a little guilty about reading his article. He explains that we might feel that way because it is taking time away from something else you might feel you should be doing. We have deadlines and obligations nipping at our heels. The title of his article is “How to be Less Busy and More Happy.” As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, Arthur Brooks has been investigating what…

Penna Dexter When the U.S. Department of Education released its rewrite of Title IX a couple of weeks ago, it took a landmark guarantee of equality in education on the basis of sex and turned it upside down. Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 was designed to protect women’s rights in education. These protections were hard won. They were a pillar of the feminist agenda. After they were enacted, women and girls gained important protections and opportunities. …

Kerby Anderson Ira Stoll begins his commentary by mentioning that Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation, is currently the #1 New York Times bestseller. But he then adds that there may be “another, non-technology possible contributor to the mental health crisis that’s getting less attention but may be just as significant.” That factor is church attendance. It appears that as church attendance goes down, mental health issues go up. A study in Harvard Public Health estimated “about 40 percent…

Kerby Anderson The fertility rate in this country hit a record-low last year. The total fertility rate dropped to 1.62 births per woman (we need 2.1 for replacement). But the US decline in fertility is not unique. Nearly every country in the developed world and most countries in the developing world face long-term population decline. Columnist Don Feder was on my radio program recently to predict that a demographic winter is coming. He talked about countries in Asia that used…