Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Cinco de Mayo is celebrated today. Cinco de Mayo isn’t a religious holiday, nor is it really a political holiday. Many people mistakenly think that it is Mexico’s Independence Day, which is celebrated on September 16. Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. You may be asking why we should celebrate it at all? It isn’t like the 4th of July in…

Penna Dexter The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley says, “American waistlines have ballooned in tandem with government welfare.”  Her recent column addresses the connection. She points out that “About three quarters of adult food-stamp beneficiaries are overweight or obese.” She points to studies which show that “people on food stamps eat less healthily than other low-income Americans.” One such report, released by the Foundation for Government Accountability, reveals that 11 percent of food stamp dollars go to sweetened beverages and…

Kerby Anderson In his latest video, John Stossel takes on climate myths. The response he receives from some of those he interviewed may be familiar. But he felt a video was necessary since the U.N. Secretary-General has recently announced, “The era of global boiling has arrived.” Yes, the climate has been warming over the last century, but we don’t have global boiling. Myth number one is: The Arctic will soon be ice-free. He provides some video of scientists and politicians…

Kerby Anderson Cal Thomas says it is “Time to Stamp Out the Post Office.” While I appreciate the desire to make every government agency more efficient, this will be a heavy lift. The Post Office, after all, is mentioned in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. He begins by recommending that we buy our “Forever” stamps soon since the U.S. Postal Service announced another price increase. He remembers when his grandparents sent “penny postcards.” Now domestic post cards will…

Kerby Anderson A new book by David Zweig, An Abundance of Caution, confirms what many of us knew as we tried to navigate the government mandates during the pandemic and lockdowns. Some have referred to him as a “data-minded journalist, author, and cultural commentator” who isn’t all that political but has been challenging the authoritarian restrictions we all tried to endure five years ago. The 464-page,‎ 1.6-pound book may be more than you would want to read, so you might want…

Kerby Anderson Rare earth minerals are essential to modern life. They are used in everything from electric vehicles to jet engines to medical equipment to the smart phone you are holding. Despite their name, rare earth minerals are not that rare. In fact, the U.S. has quite a supply of them underground. But the raw minerals need to go through a refining process before they can be used as industrial-grade materials. A few decades ago, the U.S. processed a third…

Kerby Anderson The Trump administration froze federal grants to Harvard University and set in motion a debate about what the president can do when universities defy an executive order and a Supreme Court decision. This confrontation first began when the Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding from Columbia University because administrators did little to stop antisemitism on campus. When the Trump administration tried the same tactic with Harvard, the university did not comply. The Harvard president declared that “no…

Penna Dexter Often, successful people build lives, livelihoods, and reputations in one place with the goal in mind to retire somewhere else. They dream of living out their later years playing golf in Florida or enjoying a quiet life in a mountain community or a small town. Why not stick around in the place where you know people, carry weight and have influence? Where you started and grew a business? Where you have the gravitas to pass along your wisdom,…

Kerby Anderson In a recent essay, Frederick Hess laments that “Professors Have Drifted Away from the Classroom.” I would argue that drift happened long ago, but I will agree that the problem of professor absence has grown worse. Hess does acknowledge that the problem isn’t new. “I still recall walking across campus during the summer as a doctoral student at Harvard three decades ago. I was making small talk with a senior professor when he looked around the sparsely populated…

Kerby Anderson Sixteen years ago, I wrote the book, Making the Most of Your Money in Tough Times. I tried to cover all the important issues connected with money, including a chapter on materialism and consumerism. But it didn’t occur to me to write about the group of Americans now referred to as the HENRYs. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, many Americans qualify as HENRY, which stands for high earner, not rich yet. These are people…

Kerby Anderson The Chinese Communist Party has been cheating international trade, and many are happy Trump’s tariffs are giving China what it deserves. Katie Pavlich documents the “more than two decades of lying, stealing and wildly nefarious trade practices.” Many (even in the former Clinton administration) admit they made a mistake letting China into the World Trade Organization. The communist leaders came in with ambitions of global dominance and used the special rules and treatment to operate inside the United…