A cartoon published just after the fall of the Berlin Wall showed two travelers moving in different directions, one personifying former Eastern Bloc nations and the other the NATO allies: The two met as the former Warsaw Pact countries rushed away from socialism and the West hurried toward it. Soon, those characters could symbolize France and the United States. Indeed, today, our two nations could be represented by two specific people: Emmanuel Macron and Elizabeth Warren. James C. Capretta of...

Their last remaining dispute in the Chicago schools strike could be resolved if both sides understood a basic economic concept taught by one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Although the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union announced a tentative agreement Wednesday evening, the Second City’s 300,000-plus students still began their eleventh day outside the classroom Thursday, because the CTU added a new demand Wednesday night. They want the city to pay union members for every day they went...

Here is a by no means exhaustive prehensive but simply occasional set of links to some reading from yours truly that might be of interest to readers of the PowerBlog this Reformation Day… Essays: “The further reformation of all of life,” Acton Commentary, October 31, 2017. “The Secularization of Vocation,” Public Discourse, October 30, 2017. “The Church’s Social Witness and the Further Work of the Reformation,” Journal of Christian Legal Thought 5, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 11-16. “Doing much good...

In just the first week of the release of Kanye West’s new explicitly Christian record “Jesus is King,” it’s outsold his previous album “Ye,” projected to sell 225-275k copies. In addition ments regarding his conversion to Christianity, he’s dominated cultural conversation with increasingly conservative opinions, addressing everything from the importance munities, to local churches and even in a recent interview, condemning abortion. Andrew T. Walker from es on to the show to break down reactions to Kanye’s conversion, new artistic...

It’s been a good week for the left throughout Latin America. In Columbia, center-left and left-wing parties did well in regional election. Argentina also took a left-turn with a left-wing Peronist easily winning the presidency, and bringing the former president Cristina Kirchner back to office as Vice-President. In Bolivia, long-serving left-populist president Evo Morales looks as if he is going to get away with stealing an election. Events in Chile are also a cause for concern. What started as a...

The Acton Institute celebrated its 29th anniversary on October 15th at the JW Marriott hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Last week, we featured Andrew Klavan’s excellent keynote address here on the blog; this week, we’re pleased to share the remarks of Acton President and co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico, who shared the story of how he moved from being a leftist activist to being a strong supporter of the market economy and the free and virtuous society. ...

The Thomistic Institute has a new video series introducing the work of St. Thomas Aquinas called Aquinas 101. The videos are well done, concise, and clear, and if you are looking for an introduction to St. Thomas, this is a good place to start. I started showing it to my older children, and they liked it. The videos begin with an introduction to Aquinas and address some of his key ideas. People often feel daunted by the idea of reading...

Halloween may be fast upon us, but October 29 and 30 have marked the memorations of the year. In the last two days, the world has belatedly remembered the genocide of Armenian Christians and the brutal repression of all dissidents by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Last night, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 296, a bill “recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.” (Only...

The Chicago Public School system’s 361,314 registered students are starting their tenth day at home this morning, as their teachers union strikes for its fourteenth cumulative day. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have publicly supported the 32,000 teachers and school staff (represented by the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU, respectively) on the picket line – but there are five reasons people of faith should not join them. Why are Chicago public school teachers striking? CPS teachers are striking for higher...

Struggling under the weight munism, North Korea is increasingly known as a land of poverty and hardship, ranked last among nations when es to economic freedom and religious liberty. What’s less discussed, however, is the importance of each of those features, taken together. Economic and religious life are closely connected, making the preservation of both absolutely essential if society is to flourish. In a new short film from Voice of the Martyrs, we get a small glimpse of this reality...