Gadfly

Is Life the Flash of Fireflies?

June 7th, 2021

by Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

10 June 2021

When Lampreys and Humans Ate Each Other

Some of my musical favorites are on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CD containing Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Cats. He loves to rehabilitate old stuff. He just bought the oldest continuously running theater in London, the Royal Drury Lane which opened in 1663. It’s ironic the Divided States of America is already falling apart in a little more than two centuries. The theater burned…

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Forty Billion Miscarriages

May 31st, 2021

by Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

03 June 2021

Eternal Fact: Homo Sapiens Can’t Stop Having Sex or Abortions

Bible thumpers proclaim God commanded us to “Be fruitful and multiply!” Homo sapiens have done a good job for about 300,000 years, particularly after migrating out of Africa 60,000 years ago. Population statisticians estimate about 100 billion Homo sapiens have lived and died on earth to this point. As about one in four pregnancies end in miscarriages, it means that it took…

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America on Hospice?

May 24th, 2021

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

27 May 2021

The Pillow Guy Thinks Trump Could Be Back in the Oval Office by August

After listening to Republican representatives at a Congressional hearing insist there was no insurrection at the capitol on January 6, 2021, I believe The Divided States of America is on hospice and will require heavenly resurrection to recover from insurrection.

They testified it was just a bunch of patriotic tourists on a tour of the halls displaying their faith in…

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A Wound in the Brain

May 16th, 2021

by Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

What Hath Trump Wrought?

Dan Rather at 89 has been directly involved with the history of the United -- now Divided -- United States of America for one-third of its life. He spoke truth to power at all levels of government. He asked penetrating questions to dog catchers and presidents alike. He took on the paranoid Tricky Dick Nixon with both humor and wrath—while increasing Nixon’s paranoia.

Dan got into trouble when “Big Daddy” President George…

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Collapseology Is Just Around the Corner

May 10th, 2021

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmai.com

What Are Our Biophysical and Religious Limits?

Scientists are studying the effects of the world’s ever-expanding economic growth, increases in population, consumption of our natural resources, and our limited ability to decrease or store our waste. To describe the studies they use the inclusive term “collapseology.”

A report from Future Earth emphasizes that “extreme weather events, food insecurity, freshwater shortages, and degradation of…

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History of the Best and Worst

May 3rd, 2021

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

30 April 2021

Oliver, David, and Madame Defarge Knew About Economic Inequality

Charles Dickens wrote about real history, not fake, in his novels. In Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities and ten others,he wrote about debtor’s prisons, workhouses for the young, poor houses for the old, and the perversions of economic inequality illustrated by the estates and the magnificent mansions of the rich. Think of…

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The Aztec Cure for Greed

April 25th, 2021

By Ed Raymond 

fargogadfly@gmail.com

24 April 2021

The Longest Civil War in History: Yankees vs. Planters

The American Civil War actually started in 1619 when 20 slaves were brought to the shores of New England. By 1860 there were four million slaving in our economy. Our first eight presidents were slave owners and many signers of the Declaration of Independence that declared “all men are created equal” owned slaves. George and Martha at Mount Vernon owned 125. George declared he…

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Another Great Wall

April 19th, 2021

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

18 April 2021

What Are Our National Goals?

I imagine that every person who has lived as long as I have feels that they have lived in transformational times that may change the world. At 89, I get up each morning eager to get to the TV and computer to see what has happened in the 24-hour news cycle.

Sometimes I like what I see, sometimes I curse. Yesterday, in an article about aging, I saw that the odds I will not reach 90 is one in six. So today I hope I…

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Is Christianity in Limbo?

April 12th, 2021

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Sam Harris: “At Some Point It’s Going to Be Too Embarrassing to Believe in God”

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Jerry Falwell, Sr., the leader of the Christian Right “Moral Majority,” blamed the attack on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who tried to secularize America.”

Such an attack aroused the interest of atheist intellectual Sam Harris, perhaps the leading critic of religions in the DSA,…

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Days of Race and Ethnics

April 4th, 2021

By Ed Raymond 

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Why Can’t Whites Jump?

In 1946 I graduated from Morrison County District #54 with two others, a German boy and a Polish girl. I’m French. I graduated from Little Falls High School in 1950 with 241 other lily-Whites. Oh, it’s possible that some might have had a drop of Black or Hispanic blood or two in their genome. The ethnics were more interesting. There were three Roman Catholic churches in town. The German and French were on the east side of…

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