Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Whenever there is a shooting or a statistic about gun violence, many instinctively call for gun control. But I also know that some of my listeners instead point to the violence we see in movies and television. One of my recent guests provided some alarming statistics. Matt Philbin with the Media Research Center did an analysis of the top five movies in theaters during the week of the attack in Las Vegas. Because The Lego Movie was animated,…

Kerby Anderson Two months ago, I wrote about how a few were starting to call some of the billionaires in the Silicon Valley “the new robber barons.” Most of the Silicon Valley companies seemed untouchable and above criticism, until recently. Victor Davis Hanson reminds us that conservatives often pointed to the innovative, entrepreneurial high-tech leaders with admiration. They praised them as “modern versions of the 19th-century risk-takers such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.” They demonstrated that American companies…

Kerby Anderson The Seattle City Council’s latest public policies provide perfect examples of why we need more economic education. A recent column by George Will reminds us that economic illiteracy and logical inconsistency can be found in that governmental chamber. Three years ago, the city council voted unanimously to increase the city’s minimum wage incrementally to $15 per hour. As I have tried to explain in past columns, the council members rejected the idea that raising the costs of labor…

Kerby Anderson Meredith Dake-O’Connor wrote about 6 Reasons Your Right-Wing Friend Isn’t Coming to Your Side on Gun Control. I hope others will use this sort of format to express why people aren’t convinced by many of the arguments put forward by progressives. Writing this may have been good therapy for Meredith, but it also served to explain to gun control proponents why so many do not accept their rhetoric. The strident activist won’t be convinced, but perhaps others will…

Penna Dexter The Harvey Weinstein story provides fresh evidence that Hollywood’s feminist values do not make a better world for women. The open secret that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been getting away with harassing and assaulting, even raping women for three decades has now been exposed. This is a tale of intimidation of young women, payoffs, a conspiracy of silence and belated condemnations from major Hollywood players and powerful political figures. Feminist scolds Meryl Streep and Jane Fonda, and…

Kerby Anderson America is at a turning point, and we live in a world of uncertainty and fear. We need real answers and courage to stand strong. We need a vision of hope that reignites the fervor and courageous faith that once existed in this republic. That is the message of Jason Jimenez and Alex McFarland in their book, Stand Strong America. The authors remind us of how Christianity shaped the founding of America. They explain how biblical values were…

Kerby Anderson News stories have been filled with statistics about police shootings. Although many of these statistics seem contradictory, they are remarkably consistent when you dig deeper. Let’s start with facts that everyone can agree on: there is a statistical disparity. African-Americans represent 13 percent of the American population, but 26 percent of the people killed by police are black. Many political candidates and even members of Black Lives Matter often just stop with that statistic and don’t consider a…

Kerby Anderson Globalization has benefited most everyone on this planet except for the middle class and especially people in the working class. A chart posted by Timothy Carney shows how the global population has fared economically over the last twenty years. I have included the graph with the transcript of this commentary so you can see it for yourself. On the far left the poorest of the poor are still as poor as they were. But almost everyone else is…

Kerby Anderson On various television sitcoms, a Dad acts like a buffoon every 3.24 minutes. That was the conclusion of a small study with the title Daddies or Dummies done by Savannah Keenan at Brigham Young University after watching popular TV programs. Don’t dismiss this study merely because a student conducted it. Her study was the winner of the college’s Fulton Conference. And Naomi Schaefer Riley, writing in the New York Post, reminds us that the student’s research matches other…

Kerby Anderson America may be a divided country politically, but there are some issues where there is near universal agreement. That would certainly be the case with corporate welfare, or what many call “crony capitalism.” Progressives and conservatives are against it because the government favors some companies over other companies and because taxpayers are on the hook to help large corporations. Brent Gardner argues in an op-ed column that it is time to end “the corporate welfare circus.” Not only…

Penna Dexter There’s not an American who doesn’t decry the shocking Las Vegas murders. But we, as a nation, turn our backs on the torture of unborn babies. In recent days, the House of Representatives voted to curtail late-term abortions by passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This law makes it a crime to perform most abortions after the 20-week mark in a pregnancy. Abortionists violating this law could face five years in prison. The House has passed Pain-Capable…