Recent Viewpoints

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…

Kerby Anderson You may have noticed that the contentious issues in the culture war seem to be coming faster and with more intensity. In a recent commentary, Kevin Williamson validates that observation. He begins by reminding us how long it took for homosexuality to become mainstream. The decision by the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual took place in 1973. But homosexual acts were still listed as criminal for an additional 30 years until…

Kerby Anderson For more than 200 years, candidates have been running for election in districts that were gerrymandered. The term comes from the name of the governor in Massachusetts. In 1812, Governor Gerry signed a bill that changed the district lines for candidates. One of those contorted districts in the Boston area resembled the shape of a salamander. Thus the term “gerrymander’ was born. Recently I learned that gerrymandering goes all the way back to the first congressional elections and…