Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter Do you love to read books — but don’t do it enough? That’s me. The most interesting people in my life are those who read a lot of books. Why do I not read as many books as I’d like? Why do I have a stack of them on my bedside table that never seems to get shorter. It’s not that I don’t read. Computers and phones give us things to read all day. “Fear of Missing Out”…

Kerby Anderson Perhaps you have heard of the “heckler’s veto.” This occurs when someone who disagrees with a speaker’s message triggers actions or protests to disrupt the event and get the speech cancelled. We have seen this tactic on university campuses primarily used against conservative speakers. I thought of this tactic when I read about the controversy surrounding expensive security fees charged against Turning Point USA at a Texas university just thirty miles from my radio studio. The administration charged…

Kerby Anderson A recent poll by Pew Research Center discovered that 27 percent of Americans view evangelicals as the most unfavorable faith. They also discovered that Jews ranked as the most favorable religious group. The poll asked Americans to rank six of the mainstream religious groups. Those were Jews, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, and Evangelical Christians. The greatest number of unfavorable feelings were expressed toward Evangelical Christians and Mormons. By contrast, the most positive feelings were reserved for Jews…

Kerby Anderson Dr. Leonard Sax holds a PhD in psychology and has been a family doctor for nearly 34 years. He said he never saw a connection between politics and parenting, until now. “Left-of-center parents were no better and no worse parents, on average, than right-of-center parents.” He has now documented that children of politically liberal parents are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety and a lack of sense of life meaning and have substance abuse issues. He…

Kerby Anderson What is America’s greatest challenge? Former governor Bobby Jindal has a list that focuses on the challenges created by liberals in this country. Although he uses the term liberals, it might be better to realize his critique applies to leftists rather than liberals in general. Here are his four concerns. “First, liberals are undermining the rule of law that prevents the arbitrary exercise of power and protects law-abiding citizens.” Some of the examples he uses range from liberal…

Kerby Anderson Historian Nial Ferguson begins his PragerU video with a lament that few students graduate from college with any idea of what makes Western Civilization different from the rest of the world. In his video with the title, “Why the West Won,” he summarizes a few key points from his book, Civilization: The West and the Rest. He explained that western civilization succeeded because of six killer apps—competition, modern science, the rule of law, modern medicine, the consumer society,…

Penna Dexter School discipline policies in several states are changing for the better. The shift comes after President Trump issued an executive order last April aimed at restoring common sense to school discipline. The order states: “The Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful ‘equity’ ideology. In 2014, the Obama administration issued guidelines stating that districts must post…

Kerby Anderson The Trump administration recently unveiled their plans for the Golden Dome. I was intrigued by the response to this new missile defense system. As you would imagine, Russia and China condemned the plans. Most Americans didn’t have much to say about the plans. Go back a few decades, and nearly everyone criticized a similar plan. It was called the strategic defense initiative (SDI) and dubbed by critics as “Star Wars.” I remember prominent scientists like Carl Sagan ridiculing…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday, I talked about one reason why public libraries are dying. I quoted from an author who documented the decline in library attendance due to the rise in homelessness. He isn’t the only person to discover this. An article in the Los Angeles Times years ago lamented that the library has become “a de facto shelter for the city’s homeless.” Another reason for declining library attendance is the Internet. A few decades ago, when I was writing articles,…

Kerby Anderson Public libraries are dying. But you probably knew that since it is likely you haven’t been to a library recently. When author Zac Bissonnette first proposed a story about the death of the public library, his editor was shocked. “Like most people, my memories of libraries are idyllic: going to story time as a child, getting my first library card, and studying in the library with my friends after school.” However, visits to libraries continue to decline. He blames most…

Kerby Anderson Is a prayer before a high school football game unconstitutional? This issue may be decided by a case that was sent to the Supreme Court. Ten years ago, the Florida High School Athletic Association forbade Cambridge Christian School and its opponent from praying over the loudspeakers at the Citrus Bowl ahead of the state championship football game. It is worth mentioning that both schools were Christian schools. If they were both Christians schools, what was the problem? They…