Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson A recent vote in the state of Connecticut brought the country one step closer to the dismantling of the Electoral College. Ten years ago, I first wrote about states that passed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Back then there were two states that passed it. Now there are eleven states and the District of Columbia. These states have entered into a compact in which they agree to allocate their electors to the winner of the national popular…

Kerby Anderson Earlier this month the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that barred state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions. New Jersey plans to join Nevada as another state that will allow legal sports betting. Other states (like Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia) will probably follow. I wondered how the professional sports associations would react to the decision. We didn’t have to wait long. The NFL said that it has a “long-standing and…

Kerby Anderson A significant percentage of Americans have little or no retirement savings. That means that future debates about Social Security may become even more contentious than they have been in the past. As I have discussed in previous commentaries, the only thing in the Social Security trust fund are IOUs. Sometime in the future, the government may not have the necessary funds for all the Baby Boomers who are currently retiring. A report from Northwestern Mutual found that one…

Kerby Anderson We love our smartphones, but many of us wonder if they are controlling our lives in ways that may not be healthy. Markham Reid responds to this question in his commentary in Time magazine: “You Asked: Should I Ditch My Smartphone?” He rehearses much of the evidence I have discussed in previous commentaries. Dr. Brian Primack, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh explains how “the little wobble of the emoticon, or the A-flat ding that stimulated the…

Penna Dexter The #MeToo movement is curtailing sexual predation in the workplace. But it has a growing destructive component. Institutions across society are doing all they can to make certain the term “all white male” could never be used to describe them. Journalist, attorney, and Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather Mac Donald spoke about this to students and faculty at Hillsdale College. She warned, “#MeToo is going to unleash a new torrent of gender and race quotas throughout the economy, on…

Kerby Anderson One of the many dividing lines between progressives and conservatives is their belief in the efficiency and effectiveness of government bureaucracies. Liberals may have some misgivings about how they are treated at the Department of Motor Vehicles or by the TSA at airports. Nevertheless, they tend to believe that government is the solution to most social and political problems. Conservatives are usually more skeptical about government and support the private sector over the public sector. But their reactions…

Kerby Anderson Ayaan Hirsi Ali begins her commentary with these words: “I was a Muslim refugee once. I know what it’s like.” She was en route to Canada to consummate a marriage arranged against her will by her father. At the Frankfurt Airport, she fled to the Netherlands. There, she learned Dutch and received a master’s degree in political science before coming to America. She has worked as an interpreter for abused Muslim women and understands the Muslim refugee experience….

Kerby Anderson Whenever I speak to an audience about the influence of the media on children, I quote from a survey done by the Kaiser Family Foundation concerning electronic media. When you add together the amount of time children spend with television, cell phones, iPads, video games, and computers, it essentially becomes a full-time job of more than 53 hours. This is a dramatic increase from over a decade ago. The findings of the survey of over 2,000 young people…

Kerby Anderson We often talk about worldviews, but do we know how they were formed through history? Professor Glenn Sunshine wrote a great book entitled Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home.It helps us see the influence of worldviews through history. He defines worldview as “the framework you use to interpret the world and your place in it.” He begins by discussing the worldview of Rome. By the end of the…

Kerby Anderson Over the last few weeks, I have read editorials and heard comments that have used the phrase “educational fraud.” The reason is simple. We are spending more and more money on public education and have less and less to show for it. Last month was the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Many people call it the “Nation’s Report Card.” This is not a report card you would want to show to your parents. It isn’t…

Penna Dexter No one should be shocked at the announcement that the Boy Scouts of America will drop the word “boy” from the name of the program that has served young boys for 102 years. Beginning in February this program will be known as Scouts BSA. We’ve known this was coming since last’s year’s announcement that the organization is opening up to girls. The Boy Scouts — and the Girl Scouts — were created because of a belief that boys…