Making Nice Isn’t Good for Society

I visited Minneapolis once, many decades ago, the summer I graduated from college. It was hot and humid, new to me, having grown up in the desert. The “land of 10,000 lakes.” It was green and lovely. And the neighborhoods I observed were neat and tidy, the houses not large, but with basements, which you might as well have, since you had to dig that deep to keep plumbing from freezing. Quite similar to the neighborhood I grew up in.

The people were nice. It was my first encounter with the accent, which, as accents go, is a lot clearer to understand than many. The city was organized into “alphabets”; a set of streets would be named things going from A on through the alphabet, like, “Apple Tree Lane,” “Birch Tree Lane,” Cherry Tree Lane,” etc. Elsewhere the alphabet would be related to something else. It was a way of organizing neighborhoods.

example of Minneapolis alphabetical street names, found here

I didn’t observe any of the chaos we’ve seen there in recent years. You’d think just facing their extreme winter would be challenging enough that no one would want any more trouble than that. But here we are.

It may be that the niceness was a contributing factor to the decline. Nice means pleasing and agreeable. It can also mean kind, but it’s not an exact synonym. There are multiple more meanings for both nice and kind in the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, probably not helpful here today. 

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

 perceive the difference, in others or even from the inside.

Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part I: The Declaration

 That’s a big word in the title: semiquincentennial. Let’s break it down.

Semi = half

Quin = five

Cent = hundred

Ennial= year (same root as annual)

So we’re in the year of half of five hundred years. That equals 250. We’re talking of course about the 250^th birthday of the United States of America. The specific birthday will be on July 4^th. That is the day we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, declaring us a separate nation from Great Britain, the colonizing mother country. There was a war underway at the time of the signing, originally to regain rights that had been violated, but by this time it was to win independence. And we won. Otherwise the signers would have been hanged for treason.

Most nations are born out of a people: an ethnicity or language or culture. Sometimes they break off from other existing nations. Sometimes—easier in previous times—they found an uninhabited frontier and settled there, thus creating a new nation.

The United States of America was born out of an idea. As Abraham Lincoln recounted it nearly a century later, America was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” This was different from all men are born into their strata of society, with higher-born people getting power and other advantages not afforded to the lower-born layers of people.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

End-of-Year Roundup

 

The year 2025 comes to an end. I saw a meme with an award for making it through the year. Seems appropriate. We live in interesting times. There were some definite improvements over the past few years. But there were also some, I guess we would say disappointments. And also some tragedies.

I’ve been using the last post of the year as a reminder of what the Spherical Model is, as well as a highlight of some of the year’s posts. And I’d like to do that today.

 

Spherical Model—What It Is

The Spherical Model is an alternative way of looking at ideas in the political, economic, and social spheres. 

To read the full article FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

King of Kings

A Christmas Message

Back in 2011, this was one we didn’t use for the Christmas card,
but I still like it. My granddaughter was two at the time.
Photo editing was done by my DIL.

 

I’ve been listening to a podcast called The Ancient Tradition, presented by Dr. Jack (Jaqueline) Logan. She started them around 2022, and there are 60+ episodes. These are comparative religion studies, and her premise is that, if you look at the many ancient texts and traditions, from ancient (and sometimes modern) cultures around the world, you will find patterns. And from these patterns you can discern the original story, what she refers to as “The Ancient Tradition.” In my understanding, this would be the original religion given to Adam and Eve and passed on to their posterity.

It takes some open-mindedness to look at stories we’ve always considered pagan and see parallels to Jesus Christ. I’ve heard from some who visit ancient Egyptian landmarks that they have come across these parallels as well.

The episodes are cumulative, meaning you’ll want to start with the first one. You can listen to any one, but you’ll get more out of them, if you’ve got the prerequisite background. Also, besides all the podcasts, with transcripts, you can get additional background material on the website. 

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

About Those Six, and Other Beasts

This is another post about those Revelation 13 beasts: the worldwide cabal and the propaganda that upholds it.

We’re starting with that video put out there by what are being called the Seditious Six.  I mentioned it in a previous post. And then it got a fair amount more attention. I would have written about it last week, but… Thanksgiving.

So there’s more to the story now. But I want to start with a closer look at what they were doing.

The video, called “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” is short, so here’s the transcript, so we can deal with their actual words, instead of just commentary about them....

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Uncivil Divide

There are a couple of small stories today, followed by a thought exploration, all of it related in some way to the possibly irreconcilable differences we are facing.

The Kenyan-American Nurse

We spent a week in the hospital. I’m fine; I got to go home to sleep and take care of the dog at nights. My husband got a toe infection after a surgery, and we needed some intervention to save the toe—which was successful. Anyway, we had a lot of nurses coming and going at all hours. There was a night nurse one night who had some time to stay and chat for a few minutes. I wish I’d been able to record it. She was a delight.

She has been a nurse for 18 years. She’s from Kenya and came to the US for nursing school—and then stayed.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.

This Is Why Pure Democracy Is a Bad Idea

Tuesday wasn’t a good election day—in New York City and a few other places, and also here in our local school district. But, as a friend reminded with a meme, “There’s no crying in politics.”

Shared on a friend's Facebook post

What to do instead? At such times, I turn to Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

So, I’ll personally be enjoying other things, before getting too involved in upcoming primaries (early voting starts mid-February). And for this post, I think I’ll try to uncover some truth and see if it can be useful.

First we’ll look at the Mamdani win. And then we’ll take a somewhat closer look at the school board.

To read the full article, follow LINK TO SUBSTACK.