Recent Viewpoints

Penna Dexter What is education even for? Not, it seems, for proficiency in core subjects. At least not in Oregon or in other states that have been ratcheting down their educational standards. Recently, the Oregon Board of Education, by unanimous vote, decided to drop state graduation requirements that students be proficient in math, reading and writing. The board’s statement announcing the move called the standards “burdensome to teachers and students.” Oregon suspended its proficiency requirement for graduation in 2020, a…

Kerby Anderson Has Christianity made a positive impact on Western civilization? That was a question I posed a few years ago in a commentary and provided a short list of atheists who would agree with that statement. Now, there are more atheists coming to that conclusion. Jonathon Van Maren writes about a number of atheists whom he calls “King Agrippa Christians.” After the Apostle Paul gave his testimony and the gospel to the king, he said he was nearly persuaded….

Kerby Anderson Free speech is an essential foundation for a free society. Unfortunately, authoritarians in this country and around the world want to stop the free exchange of ideas and information. That is why an eclectic group signed the “Westminster Declaration.” Among the signers are psychologist Jordan Peterson, British biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, former ACLU president and law professor Nadine Strossen, editor Julian Assange, journalist Matt Taibbi, and author and researcher Michael Shellenberger. I have…

Kerby Anderson When it comes to government economic numbers, you don’t know who to believe. A good example came from a recent TV interview with Janet Yellen. In case you aren’t familiar with her, she has been the Secretary of the Treasury since January 2021. Before that she was the chair of the Federal Reserve for four years. She was asked if America could afford a second war when the US debt-to-GDP was at 122%. Of course, she said America…

Kerby Anderson Yesterday I talked about the post Hamas world. I ended with an observation that many Americans have developed an even more negative opinion of our universities because presidents at these elite institutions could not condemn the evil actions by Hamas against Israel. Major donors are pulling their money from these elite schools, while administrators and professors with a conscience have taken to criticizing moral cowardice. Zeke Emanuel is the current vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania.  He…

Kerby Anderson Most events in history are mere footnotes in history books, but there is some reason to believe the Hamas attack on Israel will change just about everything. That includes everything from the current US policy on the Middle East to American attitudes towards university campuses. Victor Davis Hanson is one commentator convinced of the significant changes. He notes that it has been 22 years since we saw crowds in the Middle East celebrating the killing of 3,000 civilians….

Penna Dexter Israel’s critics have denounced even its very first efforts to defend itself against Hamas’s horrific massacre. These voices warn that any civilian casualties will be seen as war crimes. And it’s true: the deliberate targeting of civilians is a violation of international law and the laws of war. But unlike Hamas, Israel does not target civilians. Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich asks this question in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:“Does international law require a nation to choose between committing…

Kerby Anderson For many months, I have been saying that if the 2024 presidential election becomes a rematch of 2020, many voters will stay home. Recent polls confirm my prediction. There is another possibility. The lack of enthusiasm for Biden and Trump might increase the possibility of more Americans voting for a third-party candidate. The announcement by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that he is running as an independent makes that possibility even more likely. Of course, he is not the…

Kerby Anderson   For some time, political commentators have lamented the end of “Pax Americana.” Noah Rothman believes that the Hamas attack on Israel reflects dangerous changes in the international world. In case you are wondering, Pax Americana has been a term used to describe the influence of the US and its military after World War II. “More than 1,500 Hamas terrorists participated in this savage attack, the scale of which demonstrates the level of planning involved.” The Wall Street…

Kerby Anderson Columnist Charles Cooke is blunt in his assessment: “Hamas Apologists Are Freaks.” I might not have used that description, but his assessment is correct. Well-adjusted people do not look at the bloodshed by Hamas terrorists and use woke, intersectional words to justify this evil act. Some of the people who have tried to justify the Hamas butchery are backing away from those statements. They argue they never made those statements, or else they were misinterpreted. Before these apologists…

Kerby Anderson A framed copy of a March 1993 Wall Street Journal editorial can be seen in the Midtown Manhattan conference room. “No Guardrails” is the title of this Daniel Henninger piece and has become a phrase often used by Journal opinion writers. This editorial written three decades ago is like a time capsule. It laments the loss of “a time in the United States when life seemed more settled, when emotions, both private and public, didn’t seem to run…