Traditionally, Republicans have opposed 'big government' and increasing federal spending. As recently as June 2015, statements from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) denounced GOP-backed efforts to cut the budget. Yet lately many GOP politicians have taken the opposite stance in their push for a larger budget for NASA. Impassioned calls for a greater budget came from representatives from...

What is Free Speech? Free speech has long been professed to be an indispensable right in any free society. The United Nations, among others, believe freedom of speech to be an unalienable human right. Perhaps the most influential advocate of free speech, John Stuart Mill, eloquently argued the importance of protecting expression in his 1859 book "On Liberty." "[There] ought...

Although the advancement in technology has simplified our lives by enabling faster and easier communication, it has also played a negative role. Since people are connected through social media — accessible on the latest smartphones — they seldom choose to interact with people face-to-face. As a result, the brain is not used to its full capacity because conversations have become...

I believe there are three notable aspects of the global economy at the moment: emerging markets, the anxiety leading up to the United States Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and China’s slowdown. In my previous blog posts, I discussed the latter two topics. In this post, I will not only discuss the former issue but also how the three topics...

After a month in Quito, and a stressful evening/early morning of packing and repacking, we finally made it to the airport to leave for the Galápagos. As we drove to the airport, Cotopaxi bid us farewell with a picturesque emission of ash and smoke that spread across the sky for nearly a kilometer. Upon our arrival at the airport, we...

"Will Northwestern Mutual create a scholarship for first generation students?" a student asked in Thorne Hall Thursday evening during the Q&A session following journalist Soledad O'Brien's "I Am Latino in America" event. Her question was addressed to Luis Cachua, event sponsor Northwestern Mutual's director of multicultural marketing strategy, and cut to the core of several of the issues that were...

For all our separation of state and church, our bluster about the irrationality of religion and the growing number of people identifying as spiritually unaffiliated, we, as the United States, are still a very Christian nation. In a study conducted by PEW surveying the religious landscape of the U. S. as a whole, nearly 80 percent still identified as some...

Marriage is one of the most sacred relationships two individuals can have. On the topic of marriage, Homer (the Greek philosopher and author of the Odyssey & Iliad) once said that “there is nothing greater and better than [marriage] — when a husband and wife keep a household in oneness of mind, a great woe to their enemies and joy...

According to an Oct. 6 report from the Financial Times, the twelve members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reached an agreement on an outline of the trade pact. This is a small, yet significant, step forward toward an agreement, which, in my opinion, serves to benefit the world economy. The deal involves 40 percent of the world's economy, including the...

Before our arrival in Galápagos, I had one last incredible experience on the mainland of Ecuador. For the first week of my second class, "Marine Life," I had the opportunity to go with my class to the coast of Ecuador. We boarded another early morning bus and left the cool, dry climate of Quito for an eight hour bus ride...