Free Republic

Parker Brothers made millions of dollars marketing the table game Monopoly. It takes two to three hours to play a round of the game. Its history can be traced back to 1904 where it was developed as a teaching tool to explain the single tax theory. Poker is a game where betting begins with some form of forced bet by one of the players. Each player is betting that the hand he has will be the highest ranked. Each of the other players must either match the maximum previous bet or fold. Both games include one striking similarity . ....

I have been thinking and reading about happiness ever since I came across the work of Michael Argyle on the subject in the 1970s. And, despite many complexities in the research findings, I think in the end the facts about it are surprisingly simple: It seems that happiness is to a quite extraordinary degree a trait rather than a state. In other words, we are born happy, unhappy or somewhere in-between. There are a lot of people who are always miserable (most Leftists, for instance) and some who are always sunny in mood no matter what. Even when we find...

Conservatives have been talking about this particular choice for decades, and the future is now. This isn't hypotheticals wrapped in high-minded rhetoric. California is now forcing online businesses that have any physical presence in the state to collect sales tax from business it does there. Here's why... The legislation was intended to eliminate a perceived business impediment for brick-and-mortar retailers in the state, according to California Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, who helped develop the bill. State and local sales taxes can total 10 percent in some California cities, and big-box retailers like Wal-Mart complained that tax-free sales on Amazon were...

I mean, yes, they feel that way, but you're just not supposed to say it. While I love the ClimateWire headline -- "U.S. vows continuing effort toward a 17% emission cut" (subscription required), sort of like I vow to continue my effort toward hitting fewer pedestrians when I drive...not to hit fewer pedestrians when I drive...ah, J-school -- the following excerpt from the piece is simply beyond belief. Speaking to a U.N ‘Kyoto II' negotiating group in Bangkok, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing "noted in a series of slides that U.S. emissions have declined about 8.7...

Something to think about... On a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces in the corridor of a DC Metro station.  In that period of time over 1100 people whisked past, most of them on their way to work... After about 3 minutes, one middle-aged man in the throng noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, but then hurried on to meet his schedule... @ :04 the violinist received his first dollar: the woman threw money in the hat and without stopping and continued to...

What sort of life do you want to live? Many people would respond to this question by saying something in the fashion of: “I want to live a good, fulfilling life that has meaning and purpose!” This would be a life that offered its share of challenges, no doubt, but would reward the person with a maximum of self-satisfaction, peace, love, and joy and a minimum of self-doubt, guilt, and despair. But where can you find this kind of life? Some in the world say that it can be found through the acquisition of much secular learning and study of...

Premature babies feel pain more acutely than healthy newborns largely due to the invasive hospital treatments they receive, experts believe. The researchers say better pain relief should be given to premature babies in intensive care. Their study is published in the journal NeuroImage. Being born prematurely and undergoing intensive care affects pain processing in the infant brain. This suggests that the premature group is more sensitive to pain. This, say the researchers, implies that premature babies can benefit from a mother's touch - being held or cuddled - in the same way as normal infants. Andy Cole, chief executive of...

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the...

..."But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way." (1Cor. 12:31) I woke up in church this morning. Not on a cold dark floor or surrounded by votive candles and stained glass, but next to my partner in faith, my best friend, my beloved wife of 34 years, Laurine. We are staying overnight this Christmas at the home of our oldest daughter. She wanted to host Christmas this year for the first time. She is the first of our five grown children. Her home is filled to overflowing with love, and the floors...

According to polls — Pew Research Center, the National Science Foundation — and studies such as Arthur Brooks’s Gross National Happiness, conservative Americans are happier than liberal Americans. Liberals respond this way: “If we’re unhappier, it’s because we are more upset than conservatives over the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves.” But common sense and data suggest other explanations. For one thing, conservatives on the same socioeconomic level as liberals give more charity and volunteer more time than do liberals. And as regards the suffering of non-Americans, for at least half a century conservatives have been far more willing...

"According to polls . . . and studies . . ., conservative Americans are happier than liberal Americans. ". . . conservatives on the same socioeconomic level as liberals give more charity and volunteer more time than do liberals. And . . . for at least a half-century, conservatives have been far more willing to sacrifice American treasure and American blood (often their own) for other nations' liberty. "The upshot of all this? There is an amazingly simple way to defeat the left: Raise children who are grateful to be American, who don't complain, who can handle losing and who...

Despite a thriving pharmaceutical industry promising to change your brain chemistry and make you happy, depression continues to hit all-time highs in western culture.

Why Isn't Spain Happy? By Arthur C. Brooks Friday, September 10, 2010 /snip By all rights, Spain should be getting happier, too. After all, Spain has "progressed" tremendously over the past three decades, from increasing the size of government, to liberalizing social policy, to loosening the grip of the Catholic Church. Consider the following examples. Government social spending in Spain has increased from 15.5 percent of gross domestic product in 1980 to 21.2 percent today, well above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. Where once abortion was illegal, today Spain has the most liberal abortion laws in Europe,...

The Perfect Salary for Happiness: $75,000By Robert Frank September 7, 2010, 10:32 AM ET **SNIP** Bloomberg News The study, which analyzed Gallup surveys of 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009, suggested that there were two forms of happiness: day-to-day contentment (emotional well-being) and overall “life assessment,” which means broader satisfaction with one’s place in the world. While a higher income didn’t have much impact on day-to-day contentment, it did boost people’s “life assessment.” Now we have more details from the study, conducted by the Princeton economist Angus Deaton and famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman. It turns out there is a specific...

...Living in the first home of the whole human race, his mother's womb, this last Prophet of the Old Testament and First Prophet of the New responded to the arrival of Jesus the Savior with a dance of Joy. St. John the great theologian records in his Gospel where John the Baptizer explained the reason for his joy, "The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease." (John 1:29 -...

Stress, anger and worry fade after the landmark birthday when we begin experiencing greater daily joy than younger adults, it is claimed. Despite increased risk of death and disease, it seems that people worry less and that they ignore the negatives and accentuate the positives. Dr Arthur Stone, a psychologist of Stony Brook University, New York, said the findings were "striking". "You would think as chronic illness threatens life would get worse but that is not the case because people don't focus on the threats," he said. "They focus on the good things in life like family and friends." A...

Life looks a little rosier after 50, a new study finds. Older people in their mid- to late-50s are generally happier, and experience less stress and worry than young adults in their 20s, the researchers say. The results, based on a Gallup phone survey from 2008 of more than 340,000 Americans, held even after the researchers accounted for factors that could have contributed to differences in well-being with age, such as whether the participants were married, had children at home or were employed. So if having a partner and getting rid of the kids aren't responsible for the uptick in...

"When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to Him: They have no more wine." John 2:3 This incident is a very fitting illustration of the failure of all this world's joys. The wine gave out at a wedding-feast. There was not enough of it to last through to the end of the feast. It is just so with all earth's pleasures. It comes in cups--not in fountains; and the supply is limited and soon exhausted. It is especially so with sin's pleasures. The prodigal soon ran out of money, and began to be in need. A poet compared the...

Would you be happier if you spent more time discussing the state of the world and the meaning of life — and less time talking about the weather? It may sound counterintuitive, but people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a study on the subject. “We found this so interesting, because it could have gone the other way — it could have been, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ — as long as you surf on...

About 10 years ago I was having my annual holiday party, and my niece had come with her newly minted M.B.A. boyfriend. As he looked around the room, he noted that my employees seemed happy. I told him that I thought they were. Then, figuring I would take his new degree for a test drive, I asked him how he thought I did that. "I'm sure you treat them well," he replied. "That's half of it," I said. "Do you know what the other half is?"