The eyes of many in the world have turned to Cuba over the last day or so. A great deal has been made of the historic changes in the relationship between the US and Cuba and whether such changes fundamentally alter the situation of the political leaders and the elites in the island nation. More interesting to me, however, are the personal stories of suffering and loss during the years of the Castro regime and the hope that dawns, however...

Children have always worked in our country. On farms, in factories, in family-owned businesses, children have worked and continue to do so. However, we know that children face increased risks for injuries and fatalities in many jobs, and that working often means that children are not in school. In a Minneapolis suburb where a school is under construction, a union boss stops by the non-union work site to check on things. He saw something surprising: a boy, who appeared to...

CLP Academic has now released On Exchange, a new translation of a key section in Martín de Azpilcueta’s Manual de confesores y penitents, his most influential work. Originally published in 1549, the section was included as one of four appendices to the Manual, mentary on Gregory IX’s prohibition of nautical usury. The release is part of the growing series, Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law. Azpilcueta (1492-1586), also known as Doctor Navarrus, was a leading canonist and moral...

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. While it isn’t as endemic in the U.S. as it is in some countries (Somalia, North Korea, and Afghanistan being the most corrupt), the problem still exists. According to the Justice Department, in the last two decades more than 20,000 public officials and private individuals were convicted for crimes related to corruption and more than 5,000 are awaiting trial, the overwhelming majority of cases having...

We all know it’s easy to get unhinged this time of year. It can be the overload of “How am I ever going to get everything for everybody on my list between now and Christmas and still sleep?” to “Which side of the family are we going to anger this year, since we can’t be everywhere at once?” to “You need HOW MANY cookies for the school party tomorrow?” Christmas – the day Christians celebrate ing of the God-Made-Man, Emmanuel...

In this mentary I argue that “Do They Even Know It’s Christmas?” is the worst Christmas song of all time. Kanye agrees. ...

Imagine you were tasked with creating rules for a nation or a civilization and could only choose ten. Which would you choose? You’d be hard-pressed to find a better list than the Ten Commandments. As Dennis Prager says, “No Document in world history so changed the world for the better as did the Ten Commandments.” In a new video series, Prager University clarifies what the Ten Commandments means and explains why they are as relevant as ever to our society....

Earlier this year I declared that Bitcoin was (nearly) dead. But as The Princess Bride’s Miracle Max once explained, “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.” Right now, Bitcoin is only mostly dead. As an investment, it was the worst of 2014. As a currency, it was destroyed by the IRS by a single sentence (“For federal...

Over at The Gospel Coalition, Hunter Baker reviews Abraham Kuyper’s newly translated Scholarship, pilation of two convocation addresses given to Vrije Universiteit(Free University). He offersa helpful glimpse into Kuyper’s viewson Christian scholarship, as well as howtoday’scolleges and universitiesmightbenefit from heedinghis counsel. mending the bookto both students and university leaders, Baker believes Kuyper’s insights are well worth revisiting, particularly amid today’s “tremendous upheaval in higher education”: All universities, and certainly Christian ones, face a landscape in which students have been largely...

“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.” –Proverbs 3:13-14 InEpisode 5ofFor the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, Evan Koons asksabout the purpose of knowledge, wonderingwhether it’s simply ameans to greater levels of self-fulfillment, or if there’s something more. “Is knowledge just a tool that we use to leverage to get more stuff?” he asks. On the contrary, as he goes on...