Announcements:
- NO BLOG NEXT WEEK. The reason is our oldest granddaughter and her fiancée are visiting from Oxford England from Saturday through Wednesday. I want to give them my full attention.
- As a result of no blog next week, I want to wish my Jewish friends a Happy Passover a week early. Passover starts April 22 and runs through April 30. I hope you have a meaningful celebration.
- I will be preaching April 21. You can see the service on Facebook—Providence Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama at 9:15. The video is available after the service.
Financial Wellness. A reader sent me a study giving evidence in support of the idea the economy has done better with Democrats than with Republicans. As I argued in my last blog, science is messy. I would be interested in any reactions you have to the research. https://flip.it/q2c-.t
Our Personal Finances. The topic made me ask myself – are Jeny and I financially better off under Biden than we were under Trump? The answer is our net worth is considerably better under Biden. Now before you think I am just saying that to promote Democrats – I am not. If I were in a court of law under threat of perjury I would have to say Biden.
I understand not everyone is in our position. I must be honest about our situation. Our investments and personal property values are much higher today than they were three years ago. Even discounting inflation, we have a much higher net worth.
The issue becomes — why don’t I feel like I am better-off financially under Biden? In my opinion it is another example of the frequency effect on memory. Previously I have asked you to consider the question — are there more murders or suicides in America? Most people believe murders. The fact is there are more suicides.
The frequency with which we hear about murders is much higher than suicides. Suicides do not make the nightly news. We are reluctant to publicly talk about suicide. Since the frequency of murders in our memory is much higher, we tend to think more murders occur than suicides.
My most frequent financial activities are gas purchases and groceries. Since both are higher under Biden my most frequent memory is for higher prices. Unless I take the time to look at my net worth, I would not know how much better off I am financially.
Name Calling. With regard to the political divide issue, I have not covered all of the responses I received. One reader thought the Republican leadership is much more than just Trump. He expressed the opinion that the Republican leadership apart from Trump did not engage in as much name calling as the Democratic leadership. He believes the Democratic leadership stereotypes Republicans as fascists, misogynists and racists.
I had two responses. In Alabama. Trump is the Republican leadership. Although I have many Republican friends who decry Trump’s name-calling in private, I have yet to see a Republican leader call out Trump in public for his name calling. Secondly, I found the use of terms like-deplorables and fly-over states by Democrats to be as troubling as Trump’s rhetoric although not as personal as his attacks.
We need civility in both parties. Claims that “both sides are doing it” or “we are not as bad as they are” will not lead to the unity we must have to survive. Right now, we have either side believing it will be the end of our country if the other side wins. We need to do better
This and That
—— Last week I reported preferential treatment of Antifa over the police in Austin Texas. This week a judge in California released a white nationalist earlier than requested because prosecutors were giving preferential treatment to Antifa people who committed the same crimes.
—– As you know I like dialog because the ability to examine and question your own views before finding fault with others is important to me. Given my attitude about dialog, it should come as no surprise that I found the following two articles to be interesting:
In the first article, two Republican congressmen issued warnings about members of their own party supporting Russian propaganda.
The second article was sent me by a reader and is an interesting commentary by the Dean of the Cumberland Law School. Cumberland is a part of Samford University, a Baptist school in Birmingham Alabama. He is a conservative lawyer with an interesting take on our current environment.
Good News
First Responders
Creative Kindness by Teenagers
Teenagers Are Transforming Trash Into Lifesaving Mats For The Homeless (sunnyskyz.com)
In Two Weeks,
Peace
Jerry
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