Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson One question I hear too often is: Do you think we will ever have fair elections again? The question assumes we had fair elections in the past (not always true) and assumes that the current changes being made in election laws in state legislatures are not enough to fix the problem. If we could design an electoral system that would make it easy to vote and hard to cheat, what would it look like? Here are a few…

Kerby Anderson As the year of 2021 is starting to wind down, we have seen the educational debate take some unexpected turns. The year began with teachers and their unions using their political influence to prevent or delay schools reopening. As this year is ending, we are seeing more and more parents protesting at school board meetings. The election in Virginia last week is but one example of a nationwide phenomenon of parents wanting to reassert some control over the…

Kerby Anderson Last week I talked about the cancel culture on college campuses. I ended my commentary with an encouraging action by Professor Robert George at Princeton, who sponsored a lecture that had been canceled at MIT. The typical reaction to that news has been, “That’s great, but that is the exception, not the rule.” While that is true, there are more and more examples of people willing to push back against the cancel culture mob. The most visible example…

Penna Dexter Do you ever search online for a minor ailment only to find so much information you begin to worry you’ve got a serious disease? The best thing to do in those cases is to check in with a real MD. The same wisdom applies to teens searching websites on gender identity. Crystal Cole, medical director of the Center for Gender Affirming Medicine at Akron, Ohio’s Children’s Hospital told The Wall Street Journal, “Gender-diverse people have always existed but…

Kerby Anderson Victor Davis Hanson reminds us that many of our hallowed institutions are failing us. That, unfortunately, includes the top echelon of the military, the leadership in the intelligence agencies, the medical establishment, and of course, the universities. He refers to them as the “ground zero of woke.” He explains that America’s reputation of global academic superiority usually rested on the science, mathematics, physics, technology, medicine, and engineering. But he laments that woke ideas have even infected the STEM…

Kerby Anderson The cancel culture is alive and well on university campuses, but the latest example has generated a few articles and commentaries because it seems too extreme. Professor Dorian Abbot is a professor in the department of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard, and a PhD in applied mathematics from Harvard. He was scheduled to deliver the prestigious John Carlson Lecture on climate and the potential of life on…

Kerby Anderson When do too many coincidences add up to something more than a coincidence? If your neighbor wins the state lottery, there is nothing too remarkable about that. After all, someone would probably win. If he won it again, you might start to think that was a remarkable coincidence. But if he won it a third time, you can be assured that the lottery commission would investigate the matter and not chalk it up to an incredible coincidence. Let’s…

Kerby Anderson Today is election day, but it isn’t as significant as a presidential election or even an off-year congressional election. Nevertheless, Americans are going to the polls to vote and may illustrate the mood of the electorate during this time of turmoil. Victor Davis Hanson describes the striking dichotomy. “The United States should be at its pinnacle of strength.” It is preeminent in goods and services as well as its university graduate programs. The military is the best funded…

Kerby Anderson A few weeks ago, I talked about legislation being considered that would allow the IRS to review every bank account that has at least a $600 balance or had more than $600 of transactions within a year. Senate Democrats realized that was too controversial, so they’re suggesting the IRS report on individual accounts of $10,000. This new proposal really isn’t much of a difference, since most Americans spend more than $10,000 a year. It will reduce the privacy…

Penna Dexter With a climate change confab taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, I thought I’d share the response of a woman, in perhaps her 60’s or 70’s, to a young grocery clerk who suggested that next time she bring her own reusable grocery bag because “plastic bags are not good for the environment.” When the woman apologized, the clerk pointed out that “your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” Well, green has become a…

Kerby Anderson The latest news out of China has been a cause for concern and perhaps a wake-up call to consider what the communist leaders are planning. China tested a hypersonic nuclear-capable missile. Hypersonic vehicles travel at Mach 5 or faster. They are not defensive weapons and fly in the low atmosphere, enabling them to evade defense systems. One source said, “We have no idea how they did this.”  One report said that the test revealed that China “was far…