Gadfly

Brave Old World Meets Hot New Planet

January 17th, 2025

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Will the Divided States of America Add or Subtract to the Future?

In 1937, English writer Aldous Huxley published his novel of the future “Brave New World 632 A.F.” (after Henry Ford), a world restricted by a shortage of essential resources to two billion people. Now born and raised in human hatcheries, the amount of oxygen provided in a birthing bottle determines where you will spend your life, whether in a leadership role as an Alpha, or in menial…

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​To pee or not to pee — that is a question?

January 6th, 2025

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Maybe we will have a transgender insurrection at the capitol on Jan 6

About 3.18 million years ago an adult female chimpanzee eventually named Lucy (after that famous Lucy in the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”) fell out of a tree in Ethiopia, stumbled, and walked away on two appendages instead of four. Lucy is a relative of ours, a representative of the hominin species called Homo sapiens to which we belong. Although only 3.5 feet…

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​Doomsday Clock is Ticking

December 30th, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Would women be able to stop the clock—and possibly rewind it?

Scientists who are members of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who constantly study the combined risks of nuclear annihilation, climate change, biological threats, and disruptive technologies, set their Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight in January of 2023. After studying the facts of the risks listed above, the members set the clock back or forward each January. With what is happening…

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​Crimes with Little Guns and Huge Medical Bills

December 20th, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

A new type of Civil War: “smash-and grab” capitalism and healthcare

The Divided States of America has the greatest economic inequality among wealthy nations on Planet Earth and has birthed a new type of crime because of wealth gained by the top One Percent. “High-End” stores where millionaires and billionaires buy very expensive jewelry and “stuff” have become the victims of robbers who may have a dozen gang members. The gang raids stores…

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Contracting and Deconstruction of Religion

December 4th, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Will God Ever Text Margaret Back and Answer Her Prayers?

More than 50 years ago a young Judy Blume wrote about 13-year-old Margaret Simon in a contemporary realistic novel titled “Are You There, God?It’s Me, Margaret.” The daughter of a Christian mother and a Jewish father who were not affiliated with either religion, Margaret felt “uncomfortable” about her lack of religious affiliation because friends did attend church, so she studied and…

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​Evolving from Homo Sapiens to AI

November 23rd, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

With What is Happening in the World, Why not Artificial Intelligence?

Since Lucy fell out of a tree and walked about four million years ago, she has been evolving to humans we call Homo sapiens. We have evolved from clumsy midgets to seven-footers dribbling basketballs, dashing down the basketball court to “dunk” a ball through a basket set at ten feet.

We walked on all fours for three million years as orangutans, chimps, gorillas and great apes.…

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​November 5: The Battle between Love and Hate

November 4th, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Will We Ever Recover from the Trump Virus of Universal Hate?

Just a month ago, the primary doctor of 336 million U.S Americans,U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, issued an advisory on the mental health of the nation’s current parents. He cited these reasons: (1) economic factors beyond their control, (2) costs of health care, (3)costs of childcare, (4) costs of elder care, (5 costs of housing, (6) and costs of groceries. To support his advisory, he…

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​Emancipation becomes ‘E-woman-cipation’

October 21st, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Citizens United Turned Billionaires Into Oligarchs, Dictators, and Kings

We have reached a stage in Divided States of America politics where if the Democratic Party decreed that zebras have black stripes imprinted on white bodies, the Trumplican Party would object by yelling “No!”: white stripes are strategically placed on black bodies. Then, after hearings and a filibuster or two, they would kill zebras to prove their case.

We have reached that…

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​Billionaires and the End Times

September 19th, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Where will the homeless go when billionaires go to their bunkers?

Icelanders are living almost on top of volcanos but are cooled by ice, snow, and placid attitudes while hiding a keen sense of humor. But with the planet heating up and devastating windstorms, floods, hurricanes, tornados, and fires of many descriptions constantly harassing the earth’s humans, animals, and plants, they understand what will happen.

In 2019 Icelanders decided to…

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​Choice: Estrogen or Testosterone

August 15th, 2024

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Men have made a real mess of the world. We should try estrogen.

I didn’t bother to count the countries involved in wars because this column won’t be published for a week. But I don’t think any of the participating countries are led by a woman at this moment.

There are wars and revolutions on five of the seven continents. Not much is happening on Antarctica, although there may be an encounter or three on Oceania, the continent of thousands of…

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