Is every person at church a born again believer that is doing the best they can to please God? Probably not; almost certainly not. But I think that’s where you are most likely to find the people that are. Everyone in the hospital isn’t sick, every person in prison may not be guilty, and every person at church isn’t going to heaven. But in each of these cases I think you will find the highest concentration of those that are.

N is for Netflix. Sorry, had to. Television isn’t cheap to make and there are so many channels, apps, streaming services, etc. that viewer supported Public Television doesn’t have the public support that it used to. PBS was created at a time when each major market had two or three network affiliates and maybe a few hours of local programming each day and that was it. The argument has been made that enough children’s and educational programming exists in other places that PBS is no longer needed. Of course PBS doesn’t feel that way so they partnered with HBO in 2016. HBO began showing new episodes that would air at a later date on PBS. Sesame Street moved to HBO Max in 2020. The new deal with Netflix is better for Sesame Street. Netflix has a broader reach with more subscribers than HBO. New episodes of Sesame Street will appear on PBS and the PBS Kids app the same day, not weeks or months later. Some are saying this is the first thing Netflix has done right in a long time.

While we’re on the subject, HBO Go became HBO Max and then later rebranded as just Max. They are changing back to HBO Max as all the streamers keep trying to figure out how to make a profit. Every streaming service wants to offer every series and movie they can get their hands on and each make exclusive programming. Each service wants to be your only service so they end up with a lot of overlap. They each need to streamline, do what they’re each good at, drop all of the extra and then we could all afford several of them which most people are already doing. But they didn’t ask me what I think.

Nickel for your thoughts? The US Mint has ordered it’s last round of blanks for making pennies. When those run out, probably sometime in 2026, the United States will quit making pennies for good. Many European countries have already quit making one and two cents Euro coins and practice “Swedish rounding” which rounds final totals to the nearest nickels. The pennies that exist will continue to circulate and be legal tender. Every now and then you still see a Kennedy half dollar even though some adults today don’t even know what that is. Some people cite the fact that it costs three cents to make a penny which is then only worth one cent. There are a couple of flaws in that logic. A penny is worth one cent but it can be used more than once. Every time a penny changes hands it represent the value of one cent, or 1/100 of a dollar, being transferred. Pennies last for decades so for every 100 transactions it is part of $1.00 worth of value has exchanged hands. A penny is worth one cent over and over again. The other fact is that the US government could save billions by not printed or minting any money at all. That money is made for we the people to use. The government trains soldiers, builds fighter jets, paves roads, studies fault lines, gives WIC to mothers and children and about a thousand other things. There are a few exception but the government is not a for profit business. It operates for the good of the people that live here. Our tax dollars provide us with services. I’m not saying we should keep making pennies. There used to be things you could buy for a penny, and lots of things you buy for less than five cents. I’m just saying some of the arguments to stop making them are based on logical fallacies.

I think this is accurate. The only thing I would question is New Mexico. I looked up the headquarters for Sonic and it’s in Oklahoma City, OK. Sonic is not the most popular fast food in Oklahoma, but it is in New Mexico. They only have 15 Chick-fil-A locations in the entire state so maybe it just hasn’t caught on there yet… and maybe it’s not going to because they love Sonic so much.

It’s a joke but it’s too long and wordy for Happy Monday. Nobody needs to start a week off like that.