Recent Viewpoints

The crowd that’s fighting for, and mostly winning, recognition of sexual orientation as a protected minority has added another demand. There’s a big push to include transgendered behavior in the list of proclivities to be lionized and protected. Even in Middle America: A Nebraska school district recently instructed its teachers to stop referring to students by “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and to instead use what school officials term “gender inclusive” descriptions such as “purple penguins.” A training…

We live in a “culture of dependence.” That was a phrase coined by Michael Barone who used it on my radio program. One example he used to illustrate the “culture of dependence” was an exchange between a CNN reporter and a man at a tea party event in Chicago. The CNN reporter asked him, “Do you realize that you’re eligible for a $400 credit?” When the man refused to lower his “drop socialism” sign, the reporter went on to say,…

Abortion is devastating the black population in America. In an article by Star Parker and Gary Bauer in a past edition of the The Weekly Standard, they lay out statistics showing how abortion is affecting African-Americans more than any other identifiable group or population. They point out that President Obama’s “ascendance to the White House has been almost uniformly regarded as a complete victory for black Americans, it also stands to exacerbate one of the black community’s most intractable problems:…

The future of private practice for physicians does not look bright. A recent Physicians Foundation survey of 20,000 U.S. doctors found that about a third (35%) described themselves as independent. That is down from two-thirds (62%) in 2008. In less than a decade independent doctors have gone from being the rule to the exception. Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute predicts that this trend will continue unless there is quick reform of our health care system. The Medicare payment…

What will be the financial impact of President Obama’s executive order concerning nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants? The White House has acknowledged that these newly legalized workers will contribute to Social Security and Medicare. Will this help us with our current crisis of entitlements or make the problem worse? There are some that believe it will help us since we will have millions more paying into Social Security and Medicare. I even had one caller suggest that this might be…

Global planners are just finishing up an international conference in Lima, Peru with the stated aim of curtailing climate change. More than 190 nations are represented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties, COP20. It’s arrogant for mere humans to think they can stop climate change. But climate change has been deemed the bad guy. Halting it is the goal that’s been articulated to summon nations to take part in these efforts to bind…

The latest research by the Barna Group has uncovered three trends that are redefining the information age. Social media (like Twitter and Facebook) along with other digital platforms (like eBooks and mobile apps) are changing the way we are processing information. We are now much more likely to scroll and skim rather than read in depth. The first trend the Barna Group identified was the feeling most people have that modern life is accelerating and becoming more complex. A majority…

Lots of myths surround the subject of divorce. One of the most pervasive is the concept of a good divorce. Book titles like The Good Divorce, Collaborative Divorce, and Happy Divorce keep coming. Diane Medved has seen enough and wrote a great column in USA Today on the myth that divorce is good. She is certainly qualified to write on this subject. She is married to film critic and radio talk show host Michael Medved. She also wrote a book…

Attending a top university and graduating at the top of your class is often an important key to success. Unfortunately, that is not true if you plan to be a federal judge. That’s the conclusion of John Lott in his latest book, Dumbing Down the Courts. He tracked the federal judge appointments over the last four decades and found some startling statistics. Graduates of the top ten law schools who also served on their school’s law review had a 30…

Here is an interesting fact. Families in San Francisco give almost exactly the same amount to charity each year as families in South Dakota. Arthur Brooks talked about this in his book, Who Really Cares? He went on to explain that these two communities were very different. They were separated by not only geography but by many cultural differences. Their donations to charity also represented a significant difference due to income. The average San Francisco family made (back when the…

What does the word “compassion” mean to you? The Latin root of the word literally means: “to suffer with” someone. In other words, we should be concerned about the plight of others and do something to help them. I would think most Christians would believe that means we should give of our time, our talents, or our treasure to help others. That would certainly include giving our time and money to charity. Charity is not a government program. Charity is…