Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson “This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the US government closing the gold-exchange window and putting the world on a fiat monetary system.” That is how Saifedean Ammous begins his book, The Fiat Standard. His earlier book, The Bitcoin Standard, was a bestselling book that has been translated into more than 25 languages. He argues that by first understanding the operation of bitcoin, someone can then better understand the equivalent operations in fiat. “It is easier to explain…

Kerby Anderson Why do we write down our laws? I recently read an article providing a practical reason for writing down the laws of a nation, but I would also like to add one historical reason for why we write down our laws. This country is supposed to be a nation of laws and not men. We haven’t always lived up to the vision, but that is what we are to aspire to achieve. When you write down a law,…

Kerby Anderson Americans are concerned about crime and will likely vote in these midterm elections based on those concerns. But crime is scarier now, and many politicians who might have addressed the issue in the past, now ignore it. The first point is the theme of a commentary by Peggy Noonan. She says that “the scary thing isn’t that crime is high, though it is, though not as high as in previous crime waves. What’s scary is that people no…

Penna Dexter The 8.6-percent rate of inflation we’re seeing in headlines is bad. If you’re 40 or younger, you’ve never experienced anything like it. But inflation, for most Americans, is much worse. Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen explains that “The official government inflation rate comes from the consumer price index, which measures the prices of a basket of goods that reflect the overall annual consumption of items and services that an average household pays for.” But prices differ from city…

Kerby Anderson America is fragile. That is the conclusion of Victor Davis Hanson. We assume that this country can take anything thrown at it. The republic, however, is more fragile than we might imagine. He has many examples. “We can afford 120 days in 2020 of mass rioting, $2 billion in damage, some 35 killed, and 1,500 police injured. We can easily survive an Afghanistan, and our utter and complete military humiliation. There was no problem in abandoning some $70-80…

Kerby Anderson Mass shootings have many things in common. The perpetrator is an alienated young man who usually broadcasts his intent on social media. Instead of focusing on gun laws and mental health, we should focus attention on the psychology of the shooters. David French writes about “The Lost Boys of American Life.” In his essay, he quotes from two authors I have discussed in previous commentaries. Robert Putnam is best known for his book, Bowling Alone, which addressed the…

Kerby Anderson We are living through a period of “bullhorn politics.” Who would have imagined that people with bullhorns would not only be marching in the streets but even in front of the homes of Supreme Court Justices? Daniel Henninger reminds us that after the draft of the opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked, a high fence was set up that surrounds the Supreme Court building. But think back to 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4…

Kerby Anderson Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote about the “Leftist Mind,” and that got my attention since I have recently written a booklet on the “The Liberal Mind.” My goal was to describe the foundational assumptions of a liberal mindset. Hanson instead reminded us of how leftists supported the Electoral College and every decision from the Supreme Court until recently. A decade ago, Democrats loved the Electoral College. The “blue wall” states made the election and reelection of Barack Obama…

Kerby Anderson The Supreme Court ruled that Coach Joseph Kennedy did not violate the Constitution when he went to the 50-yard-line after a game and offered a short prayer. It shouldn’t have taken seven years to come to that conclusion, but the fight for religious liberty can sometimes be a long process. The court’s decision generated lots of comments and commentary. But I found the comments by George Will to be especially helpful. He is a great writer, but also…

Penna Dexter The sexual revolution was well underway when the Roe v. Wade decision brought abortion to the nation. If anything, the free sex culture of the sixties brought about the demand for legal abortion. Now, the demise of Roe may very well shine a spotlight on real damage to the culture enabled by legal abortion. A couple of well-known cultural commentators predict this in pieces published at Townhall.com.  Radio host Dennis Prager wrote last week that the 70’s feminists…

Kerby Anderson George Barna has been doing an extensive inventory of the worldviews of Americans through the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. He was on my radio program recently to talk about two of his most recent surveys dealing with truth and morality. Past generations of Americans viewed God as the basis for truth. Not only has that changed for the general population, it has also changed significantly within the church. He found that there were certain groups…