Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson What is America’s greatest challenge? Former governor Bobby Jindal has a list that focuses on the challenges created by liberals in this country. Although he uses the term liberals, it might be better to realize his critique applies to leftists rather than liberals in general. Here are his four concerns. “First, liberals are undermining the rule of law that prevents the arbitrary exercise of power and protects law-abiding citizens.” Some of the examples he uses range from liberal…

Kerby Anderson Historian Nial Ferguson begins his PragerU video with a lament that few students graduate from college with any idea of what makes Western Civilization different from the rest of the world. In his video with the title, “Why the West Won,” he summarizes a few key points from his book, Civilization: The West and the Rest. He explained that western civilization succeeded because of six killer apps—competition, modern science, the rule of law, modern medicine, the consumer society,…

Penna Dexter School discipline policies in several states are changing for the better. The shift comes after President Trump issued an executive order last April aimed at restoring common sense to school discipline. The order states: “The Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful ‘equity’ ideology. In 2014, the Obama administration issued guidelines stating that districts must post…

Kerby Anderson The Trump administration recently unveiled their plans for the Golden Dome. I was intrigued by the response to this new missile defense system. As you would imagine, Russia and China condemned the plans. Most Americans didn’t have much to say about the plans. Go back a few decades, and nearly everyone criticized a similar plan. It was called the strategic defense initiative (SDI) and dubbed by critics as “Star Wars.” I remember prominent scientists like Carl Sagan ridiculing…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday, I talked about one reason why public libraries are dying. I quoted from an author who documented the decline in library attendance due to the rise in homelessness. He isn’t the only person to discover this. An article in the Los Angeles Times years ago lamented that the library has become “a de facto shelter for the city’s homeless.” Another reason for declining library attendance is the Internet. A few decades ago, when I was writing articles,…

Kerby Anderson Public libraries are dying. But you probably knew that since it is likely you haven’t been to a library recently. When author Zac Bissonnette first proposed a story about the death of the public library, his editor was shocked. “Like most people, my memories of libraries are idyllic: going to story time as a child, getting my first library card, and studying in the library with my friends after school.” However, visits to libraries continue to decline. He blames most…

Kerby Anderson Is a prayer before a high school football game unconstitutional? This issue may be decided by a case that was sent to the Supreme Court. Ten years ago, the Florida High School Athletic Association forbade Cambridge Christian School and its opponent from praying over the loudspeakers at the Citrus Bowl ahead of the state championship football game. It is worth mentioning that both schools were Christian schools. If they were both Christians schools, what was the problem? They…

Kerby Anderson Earlier this month, Victor Davis Hanson wrote about “The Decline and Fall of Our So-called Degreed Experts.” I believe we should trust people who are experts in science and engineering, because their success or failure is easier to measure. But the political pundits and so-called experts in public policy are often wrong. He provides five examples. First, we were told that tariffs would destroy the economy and lead to a “downward, if not recessionary, spiral.” He pointed to…

Penna Dexter Early in her tenure as U.S. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon began working herself out of a job. Last week she got a boost from the Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal’s headline was “High Court Paves the Way to Weaken Education Department.” The Court lifted a lower court ruling that blocked staff layoffs at the Department as well as President Trump’s March Executive Order, significantly cutting the education bureaucracy. The Journal’s use of the term weaken sounds…

Kerby Anderson Jonathan Turley wrote a strongly worded warning about the rise of socialism in America. The George Washington law professor reminds us that during the Cold War, Soviet communists referred to American liberals as “useful idiots.” He observes the same mindset in what he calls “a new generation of armchair revolutionaries.” He says New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani personifies this new movement. Part of the reason for this rise is the fact that “young people lack any memory…

Kerby Anderson Owning a home has been a foundational principle of the American Dream. Unfortunately, fewer Americans can own a home. The topic surfaced during a speech Tucker Carlson gave at a recent Turning Point USA conference. He said that “economics really matter” not because the rich are getting richer but because “everyone else is getting poorer.” He rejected the idea of measuring the economy by citing our GDP. Instead, he proposed another measure. “My measure is really simple. I…