Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Thomas Sowell wrote about what he thinks is the dumbest idea in politics. Now when you are talking about politics and public policy, there are lots of dumb ideas but this one might be top of the list. He thinks that the most stupid idea you can find in politics is “the assumption that people would be evenly or randomly distributed in incomes, institutions, occupations, or awards.” He argues that this assumption is the basis for so many…

Kerby Anderson One of the reasons the fertility rate in America has been dropping is due to the rising cost of raising a child. Every few years, the Department of Agriculture recalculates the cost to raise a child in America. In fact, there is a USDA Cost of Raising a Child Calculator that you can use to personalize your calculations. One of the biggest factors in the increased cost of raising a child is due to childcare costs. The cost…

Kerby Anderson Thirty 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…

Penna Dexter The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is revamping its strategic plan for the years ahead. It is taking steps to reverse the pro-abortion emphasis the previous administration placed on its work. Now the agency is emphasizing the sanctity of human life – from beginning to end. Here’s a quote from the new document: “HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of…

Kerby Anderson George Will asks an intriguing question in a recent column. “What would America’s abortion policy be if the number of months in the gestation of a human infant were a prime number—say, seven or eleven?” He asks that because we artificially divide the nine-month pregnancy into three trimesters. The Senate will soon consider the bill passed by the House that would put additional limits on abortion. Those who are what he calls “pro-abortion absolutists” are disproportionately Democrats who…

Kerby Anderson Now that an abortion bill has made its way to the U.S. Senate, we are seeing a number of pro-choice arguments surfacing on social media. Some are gotcha questions intended to trip up the pro-life movement. John Zmirak talks about readers of his commentaries that want to argue that he is not consistently pro-life since he is against abortion but favors the death penalty. He turns the argument around and says can we apply the same logic to…

Kerby Anderson In many of my commentaries, I lament how just about everything has become politicized. We can attribute that to the fact that we live in a nation that is divided. But Daniel Foster has an additional explanation: social media. He explains this in his column, “Everything All the Time.” His perspective is simple. “It is no longer the case that technologies of communication merely accelerate the public discourse, they now ensure that every possible public discourse happens simultaneously.”…

Kerby Anderson Today is October 31st. Most people know it as “Halloween” but it also has long been known as The Festival of the Dead. The Celtic tribes and their priests, the Druids, celebrated this day as a marker for the change from life to death. November 1 was the beginning of the New Year, so Halloween or “Samhain,” was like New Year’s Eve. It was both a time of death and new beginnings. The young would wander the countryside…

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 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 was already so severe, it is hard to imagine how it could…

Penna Dexter A new report reveals that founders of the feminist movement unwittingly sowed the seeds for the current demand for transgender rights. The report, entitled Sex, Gender, and the Origin of the Culture Wars, was produced by Scott Yenor, Professor of political science at Boise State University. It gets to the root of the transgender movement. Professor Yenor describes a “rolling revolution” that started with the feminists. He writes, “Transgenderism literally means beyond gender. It reflects the belief that…

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 states, “Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Humankind.” A recent Pew Research poll found more than two-thirds 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 (about one-third) who…