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AI CEOs are their own worst enemy

Much of our rising energy costs comes from a decades-long campaign of progressive environmentalists and Democrat backed regulators to tear down coal-fired power plants, block nuclear and natural gas expansion and make America reliant on wind and solar — the two power sources most popular during the dark ages. Data centers get blamed for higher power bills, but the reality is inflation has much more to do with those rising costs. The fear about data centers, however, is spreading with misinformation about rising costs, social harms, etc., spreading from a well-organized propaganda ...

Overwhelmed by worry and more

There is probably an unlimited number and combinations of things that people worry about. Problems are just a fact of life that have to be faced and dealt with. Have you ever met anyone who has no problems? Is it possible to be problem free? Rather than trying to avoid problems, it is better to recognize them when they are small, and deal with them before they get worse. Ignoring them or worrying about them is no way to cope with or deal with problems. Worry: What is worry? Basically, it is simply going over and over a problem. It is endless repetitive thinking about ...

Going Dutch

You might think that a town with a name like Orange City would have vast orchards of citrus trees, but you would be mistaken. So much for truth in advertising. This isn’t terribly surprising given that Orange City is in northwestern Iowa, far from the citrus-growing region. But Orange City makes up for it with vast numbers of tulips. The large number of bulb-based flowers in Orange City might cause you to think that the town is closely associated with Holland, and you would be correct. One out of two isn’t bad. Orange City celebrates its Dutch heritage with their annual Tulip ...

God fills our world with color

If our worth is to be measured by our lawns, I am in trouble. You’ve seen those perfectly manicured lawns in the nice parts of town. Then there are farmyards that look like the cover of Country Living magazine. Our lawn is there because something needs to grow between the buildings and the fields. Some of it was seeded to lawn grasses in a distant past. Some of it’s just what grew there. All that said, in my simple-minded way, the yard looked spectacular this spring. Everything greened up as winter withdrew. A two-inch rain lushed it up. Amid the vivid green were bright ...

Here’s a history lesson on the Minnesota state flag

As the Vice-Chair of the State Emblems Redesign Commission — the group tasked by the Minnesota Legislature to redesign the state’s flag and seal — I find it necessary to respond to the false information our local legislators continue to spread about our new state flag. Since our new ...

What is social anxiety?

It is not unusual to feel a bit uncomfortable around certain people or in certain groups. There may be a good reason for that discomfort based on past experience or the nature of the situation. Having significant discomfort when interacting with other people most or all of the time is a problem that can have bad consequences. How big a problem can this be? First, let’s rule out shyness. Shyness is an acute, temporary, situation-dependent discomfort that may occur when dealing with people whom you don’t know. You may expect to say something wrong, look foolish, get teased, get ...