The Friday Update - good news

Happy Friday,

Many assume they’ve cut a deal with God – i.e., in return for believing in him, He will give them long, easy and pleasant lives. Those who’ve read the Bible know no such deals exist. And some even come to know that it would be bad if it did, because trials provide us with great opportunities to grow. We must not see suffering as a breakdown in God’s plans but as an opportunity to become more like Christ.

good news

It’s not the Good News, but Jonathan Haidt’s piece states the 12.25 law Australia passed making it the first nation to block those < 16 from social media is having good effects.  

IS2M

1) Like others, I have a PhD in blame-shifting.

2) Part of growing up involves learning that many lack self-awareness. Another part involves realizing you’re one of the many.

3) One of the best ways to destroy America is to announce that the other side is going to destroy America, so you have license to do whatever is needed to destroy them first.

4) There may be no better illustration of envy than Shakespeare's character Iago stating that "He hath a beauty that makes me ugly."

Without Comment

1) According to a study reported by the New York Post, 21.4M people in the US now use marijuana daily, which is > the 19.9M who smoke cigarettes or the 17.2M who drink alcohol.

2) The average age of a student loan defaulter is 40.

3) The fastest growing US cities are in the exurbs.

4) Daily active users on Facebook and Instagram recently declined for the first time ever.

5) Young adults are more likely than older to say drinking alcohol is “morally wrong.” 

6) Last year 20% of adults accounted for 80% of all books read.

7) In the U.S., 39.2% of men and 38.7% of women will develop cancer.

8) At the end of WWII, the US Navy had 6.8K ships. Today, it has < than 300.

9) The US has the world’s 7^th lowest home price-to-income ratio. 

WOTW

Honorable mentions go to Stoners (shorthand for the Yellowstone-inspired urbanites buying Montana land so they can live like John Dutton), strategic wrinkles (according to this WSJ piece, perfectly smooth faces are out, because a few carefully preserved lines convey character and depth) and sextinction, the striking decline in sex and intimacy among younger adults. Full honors go to Nixon-maxxing, the posthumous lovefest for RMN—AKA No. 37—now spreading among young conservatives. Also noteworthy are the following for their disappearing act: fink, tattletale, hooligan, davenport and dungarees.

Quotes Worth Requoting

1) "When I was born, John D. Rockefeller Sr. was the richest man in the world. Today, even the lowest income Americans live better than he did." — Warren Buffet

2) “We’ve essentially found a way to make sand think.” —  Demis Hassabis, DeepMind

3) “Natural selection means survival of the fittest and sacrifice of the weakest. Christianity is about the sacrifice of the Fittest (Jesus Christ) for the survival of the weakest (us)” — Glen Scrievener; 

4) "Always keep striving." — Buddha's last words

5) "It is finished." — Jesus's last words

Random

1) We saw The Odyssey, which I’ll remember mostly for being too LOUD.

2) People occasionally take issue with a quote because they take issue with something else the person said. I get it, which is why I’m unlikely to favorably cite Hitler or John Wayne Gacy. But it’s hard to find someone— other than you and me—who’s spot on 100% of the time. And I’d like to keep citing Lincoln, Luther, Tolkien, MLK, Bonhoeffer, GKC, JP II and Mother Teresa in spite of their occasional clunkers.

4) I recently reread Nathaniel Hawthorn’s classic, The Scarlet Letter. IMHO, the 2nd sentence in the book is the best-- "The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison."

5) Those citing Norway as a socialist ideal should note that, in addition to having fewer people than metropolitan Atlanta, being far more culturally cohesive and having private property, competitive markets, relatively high taxes on the middle class and free trade, it possesses extraordinary oil wealth. Its sovereign-wealth fund holds roughly $400K for every Norwegian, while the US carries approximately $114K in federal debt for every American.  

Speed

Juxtaposing this 1956 Buick ad with this 2024 Toyota ad helps us see the accelerating pace of life and/or the decline of our attention span. I count 25 different camera angles in the 135-second-long Buick ad (a shift every 5.2 seconds) and 19 in the 15-second Toyota ad (a shift every .78 seconds).   

Closing Prayer

"We pray you, Lord, purify our hearts that we may be worthy to become your dwelling-place. Let us never fail to find room for you, but come and abide in us, that we also may abide in you, for at this time you were born into the world for us, and live and reign, King of kings and Lord of lords, now and forever. Amen.” (William Temple, 1881-1944)

P.S.

 If TFU has become part of your Friday rhythm—and you’d like to help us out—then send it to a friend. Preferably one who reads. But we’re trying to be hospitable.

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