Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Earlier this month, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its 2023 report on the financial status of the Social Security Trust Fund, While the report did warn that finances had worsened slightly, news reporters rushed to reassure the public. They claimed that the Trust Fund still has about $2.7 trillion and won’t be depleted until 2033. Dr. Merrill Matthews asks a troubling question: “Isn’t the Social Security Trust Fund already broke?” He reminds us that the $2.7…

Kerby Anderson My commentary ten weeks ago on classified documents focused on the government’s problem of over-classification. The US government creates approximately 50 million classified documents each year. One expert I cited explained that there are very high penalties for under-classifying or mishandling classified information. Thus, the default has become, “when in doubt, classify it.” We now have discovered another problem. Too many people have access to classified information. The most recent illustration of that was the arrest of a…

Penna Dexter School choice: an idea whose time has come. Finally. It took Covid school closures that lasted way too long. Students lost ground in reading and, to a greater degree, in math. Remote schooling brought surprises for parents who learned that their kids were being taught to hate their nation because it’s racist and — by the way — so are they. It came to light that schools were aiding and affirming students in adopting transgender identities and intentionally…

Kerby Anderson Mercedes Perez crashed her car into another car on a street in San Antonio. She then jumped out with her gun blazing away at neighbors who came out to see what happened. She killed the other car’s owner and wounded his wife and son before another neighbor grabbed his gun and was able to kill Perez. This was a tragic story but illustrates what most people would consider to be an example of how a “good guy with…

Kerby Anderson “The global discussion about climate change has become quite hysterical.” That is how Bjørn Lomborg begins his commentary on “Life after Climate Change.” He has always said that climate change is real and a man-made phenomenon, but he laments that the catastrophic narrative is drowning out relevant facts about climate change. He provides eight graphs that provide a message that needs to get out to the public. If you have been listening to my commentaries, you have heard…

Kerby Anderson One of the standard clichés surfacing these days when a controversial topic is mentioned, is that we need to have a national conversation about (fill in the blank). Christian Schneider instead says, “We Need a National Conversation about National Conversations.” He is correct. An article in the New York Times years ago noted that the term “national conversation” was already being used three times as much as in previous years. My quick Google search of the phrase brought…

Kerby Anderson What is the future of America’s cities? The question is relevant because of a recent election and a recent article. Two weeks ago today, Chicago voters elected Brandon Johnson as their next mayor. Chicago has many social, economic, and political problems, but as a very progressive politician, Johnson plans to “double down” on these failed policies. Urban problems in many cities are why one writer declared in the Atlantic that Chicago’s dysfunction is evidence that large American cities…

Kerby Anderson The US dollar has been the reserve currency of the world since the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944. The dollar has been the currency of international trade and a global unit of account. But now, de-dollarization is taking place. In the past, central banks around the world stockpiled dollars more than any other currency. But that is changing. In the last ten years, the market share of the US dollar has dropped from 71 percent to 59 percent….

Penna Dexter A recent poll by The Wall Street Journal and NORC, at the University of Chicago, reveals that some of the core values that have traditionally united Americans are much less important to us than in the recent past. When this survey was conducted in 1998, 70 percent of respondents said patriotism was important to them.  In 2019, 61 percent said so. Just 4 years later, in 2023, only 39 percent of Americans saw patriotism as important. Religion took…

Kerby Anderson Americans are being watched digitally, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are innocent citizens, suspects, or criminals. That is the argument made in the brief filed by the Rutherford Institute in a case before the Supreme Court. The case involves a man who federal investigators traced using cell site location information that allowed them to trace his movements back in time. He was arrested, indicted, and convicted. The issue isn’t his guilt but the fact that…

Kerby Anderson Critical thinking is going to be more important in this age of confused thinking and logical fallacies. Kevin Williamson talked about what he called the “one-armed paper-hangers” argument. I have never heard this technique called that, but it is worth discussing because it shows up so often, especially in op-eds and news stories. He was critiquing a writer who said we should not consider adoption to be a viable option to abortion because, “I was adopted. I know…