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As Israel’s war with Hamas passes the six-month mark, here are some updates:The IDF is withdrawing troops from the southern city of Khan Younis; Hamas rejected an Israeli ceasefire proposal and Israel set a date for an offensive into Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah.Israel and the US are preparing for a significant attack by Iran in response to Israel’s strike in Damascus last week.Israel is also preparing for a second war on its northern border with Hezbollah.Iran is arming fighters in Iraq to join Hezbollah in an attack on Israel.The UN recently adopted what Israel’s envoy to the group called...

The “World Happiness Report,” compiled annually by the United Nations and Gallup, has some bad news for America’s young people: For the first time since the survey began in 2012, the United States fell out of the Top 20 and down to 23rd place—driven largely by a major decline in good feelings among those under 30.Finland remains in the top spot in the report, a feat they’ve achieved seven years in a row. The U.S. hit an all-time low ranking in the World Happiness Report, tumbling eight spots to 23rd.A steady supply of studies has found that Americans feel glum...

In 2012, the United Nations proclaimed March 20 as the International Day of Happiness or World Happiness Day, which has been held on this date every year since.The aim is to promote awareness for a "more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all people".Although happiness and satisfaction are subjective parameters, Statista's Anna Fleck notes that the team behind the World Happiness Report has once again produced a country ranking this year that reveals clear differences between Western industrialized nations and countries in Asia and Africa.You will find more infographics at StatistaIn...

For women who have observed the unhappy zero-sum battle of the sexes, many feel that the modern world, for all its promises, has failed them.. Hannah Neeleman, a Utah-based cattle farmer and mother of eight, is perhaps the most popular Instagram “tradwife” — a growing category of social media influencers who reject the not-so-traditional 9-to-5 workforce in favor of homeschooling their children, homemaking, or running a family business. Though her content is entirely wholesome, she (and other tradwife accounts) are not without controversy. In the case of Ballerina Farm, followers recently uncovered that Daniel Neeleman, Hannah’s husband, is the son...

Many parents put a lot of focus into teaching their kids about cleaning their rooms, acting responsibly and doing homework. These things are important, but there’s one thing that many of us are completely forgetting about: how to enjoy life. .... Children can easily get the wrong message about happiness In my experience, people are happiest when their life includes some type of meaningful, productive activity. Unfortunately, we are constantly being bombarded with the message that happiness comes from consumption. When advertisers tell us to “treat” ourselves to their products, they are trying to make us believe that buying things...

New research on marriage has drawn significant attention, leading to several widely read articles on the matter. Early last month, at UnHerd, in a piece entitled “The best predictor of happiness in America? Marriage” authors W. Bradford Wilcox and David Bass write:Americans who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless.Is that statement surprising? In an age that prizes individualism, workism, and a host of other self-centric ‘isms’ above marriage and family, it may well be. But the reality is that nothing currently predicts happiness...

"Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness" - The Biblical Foundations "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - Declaration of Independence In the crucible of history, where ideals of freedom and governance converged, stood the remarkable Founding Fathers of America. These luminaries were more than architects of a nation; they were visionaries whose convictions were deeply intertwined with their faith. The corridors of history bear witness to their profound belief in...

Happiness is not as simple as it sounds. Philosophers advise that the pursuit of happiness may be a misguided aspiration, and psychologists warn that illusory happiness achieved through denial can harm your health. The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s World Happiness Report 2023 has perplexed many people with its surprising national rankings of what it termed “happiness.” Because this significant work has spawned many commentaries and much confusion, it awaits clarification.Finns and Israelis have little in common yet are now doubly bonded: Both ranked in the top ten on “happiness” – Finland first and Israel fourth – and many...

Two hundred and forty seven years have passed, and we have mostly forgotten what these words meanThe Declaration of Independence states that every person possesses three inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Two hundred and forty-seven years have passed, and we have mostly forgotten what those words mean.Today it seems that most of us think that the pursuit of happiness means the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and distress. This confusion can best be explained by the dumbing down of America which we covered in our last video, and the gross lack of spiritual...

Does having fun in your life protect you from becoming a sociopath? Since 2020, we have witnessed charming, well-educated, “civilized” people all around us — especially from what my husband calls (as others do) “the laptop class” — reveal, during ‘lockdowns” and medical tyranny — a side that is, bare teeth and all, nakedly sadistic. Now, as our stunned society slowly tries to set itself upright from having wallowed for nearly three years in an irrational, animalistic seizure of hatred and cruelty — as it struggles to settle its hat and to brush the dust and mire of the gutter...

A new study conducted by Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute has found that individuals who saved sex for marriage have significantly higher levels of marital satisfaction than those who had multiple sexual partners before marriage, confirming what numerous previous studies also found.“Our study confirms what other national studies have been finding the last few years, that sexually inexperienced dating couples are two to three times more likely to be in a highly stable marriage,” said Brian J. Willoughby, a Wheatley Institute fellow and co-author of the report.As Willoughby observed in an Institute for Family Studies article laying out the report’s...

(A Retrospective Playlist) Today I play the piano for my past self who was working hard in long haul trucking to earn the time and place to be musical. These songs were learned by ear and arranged for piano my myself. The truck recording is from 2015. The piano performance is from 2023 and was recorded with a '90's Korg synthesizer. Songs performed so far in this list: Mad Max - Intro The Abyss Blue Stinger - Ending Everyone Says I Love You - From Horse Feathers The Fuller Brush Man - ??? Gankutsuou - We Were Lovers The Ghost...

WalletHub’s recently released rankings of the happiest cities seems to defy reality. Then again, the psychologists who concocted the rankings seem to defy common sense.The list was conjured by a bunch of homogeneous professors — by one measure, liberal professors outnumber conservatives by 12 to 1. What’s more, the professors behind this “happiest cities” ranking are all psychologists, in one form or another. Perhaps one of the professions most dominated by liberal social activists, studies indicate that the ratio of liberals to conservatives in the field of psychology is 14 to 1. That’s not very diverse.Not to unnecessarily cast aspersions,...

In 1938, Harvard researchers embarked on a decades-long study to find out: What makes us happy in life?The researchers gathered health records from 724 participants from all over the world and asked detailed questions about their lives at two-year intervals.Contrary to what you might think, it's not career achievement, money, exercise, or a healthy diet. The most consistent finding we've learned through 85 years of study is: Positive relationships keep us happier, healthier, and help us live longer. Period.The No. 1 key to a happy life: 'Social fitness'Relationships affect us physically. Ever notice the invigoration you feel when you believe...

A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia, working with two wealthy donors has found that transferring money from rich people to poor people can increase the level of happiness reported by the poor people who receive the money. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes experiments they conducted that involved transferring money from rich people to poor people in both rich and poor countries. There is an old proverb that says "you can't buy happiness." But that may not be true, at least for people living at the lowest...

With poll results showing widespread disapproval of his economic policies, President Biden went on the campaign trail to urge voters to "not lose faith in the decision you made to elect me in 2020. The enemies of our democracy are trying to use current inflation, fuel shortages, and recession to persuade you to jump ship. I assure you, the pain is only temporary. The transformation we are wreaking on our economy will totally change the way we live." "The key flaw in the Republicans' arguments against Democrat policies is that they are wed to old ways of thinking," the President...

It may be one of the most surefire findings in all of social psychology, repeatedly replicated over almost five decades of study: American conservatives say they are much happier than American liberals. They also report greater meaning and purpose in their lives, and higher overall life satisfaction. These links are so solidly evidenced that, for the most part, modern social scientists simply try to explain them. They've put forth numerous possible explanations. There are a couple clear contributors to point out first. Marriage tends to make people happier, and conservatives are more likely to be married. Religious belief is also...

In practically every old cartoon from the 1940s and 50s, you can find the trope where one of the characters faces a comic moral dilemma. At that moment, two tiny versions of the character poof into being at either shoulder—one in angelic garb advising the more difficult selfless action, the other in a red suit with pitchfork urging the wicked, selfish alternative. But just as these cartoons are considered hopelessly quaint and old-fashioned today, so are the notions of morality which undergird them. Consider that we have now moved from the youthful innocence of Disney in the mid-20th century...

A New Jersey university is launching what it called the world's first "Master of Arts in Happiness Studies." Centenary University's program will "explore the implications of happiness for individuals, the workplace, and our broader society," according to the college's announcement. It's set to launch virtually in the fall and will cost students $17,700. "Whatever profession you identify, there is a place – a very important place for happiness studies – for the science of well-being," Tal Ben Shahar, a happiness expert and the director of the program, told Fox News.

Four of the eight highest-ranked U.S. cities in terms of overall happiness are situated in California. You will find more infographics at StatistaAs Statista's Florian Zandt details below, according to an analysis by WalletHub, only one city not located on the United States' west coast managed to break into the top 3 last year.The city in question is Columbia, Maryland, which ranks second on WalletHub's index of the 182 happiest U.S. cities. When looking at the individual scores for each of the three dimensions analyzed, the picture portrayed changes quite a bit. For example, Columbia is ranked as one of...