Gadfly

A Bottomless Maelstrom

October 16th, 2019

American Health Care—From Tropical Paradise To the Bottomless Muddy Muck
We have the best medical care in the world for the 10% who can afford it and the worst care for the bottom 90% among the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) industrialized nations in the world, resting in the muck at the bottom of 37 countries, the only one without universal health care. We now have 30 million people in poverty without health or dental insurance. A doctor at the UCLA School…

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A Gold Toilet and a Heat Wave

October 2nd, 2019

America - Maurizio Cattelan

Trump and Cronies: Hear No Science, See No Science, Know No Science
This summer King Donald hosted the Apollo 11 astronauts who stuck the American flag into the moon’s surface in 1969. Somebody close must have mentioned to him it would be a political plus to commemorate them and the first manned moon landing by anybody—and say it wasn’t a hoax. Here was a president leading a political party that is attempting to destroy private and public science. The Know-Nothing about Science Gang…

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Amazing Alphas and Empty-Headed Epsilons

September 25th, 2019

Will Henry Ford Be Worshipped As A God Again?
A chimera is a living thing that has cells from two or more animals. The Greeks created a mythological creature called a chimera from the parts of a lion, goat, and snake. Scientists have been intrigued for years with the idea of crossing human cells with animal cells to create chimeras whose organs could be used for transplantation into ailing humans. This is Brave New World science all over again. A report out of Spain indicates a scientist…

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Are Elites Working Too Hard?

September 18th, 2019

It Takes More Than Money To Remain Unequal
One Percenters are complaining. It takes dedication, perseverance, innumerable hours, and a helluva lot of money to stay elite. The toil starts in early childhood. It is normal for the rich living in big cities to apply to at least ten kindergartens for a spot for their elite young, often exposed to writing essays, revealing interviews and nosy appraisals in order to pay at least $50,000 for a kindergarten year.

After that year it’s arranging…

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Another Southpaw

September 11th, 2019

Am I Left-Handed Because Of Genes? Am I Heterosexual Because Of Genes?
I celebrated International Left-Handers Day in the middle of August. I entered First Grade at District #54 in Morrison County as a lefty and left it as one after defeating a teacher who tried to turn me into a right-hander. About two percent of the populace was left-handed in the 1940’s. In high school, baseball coaches were always looking for left-handed pitchers because we were tricky, devious, and threw funny…

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A War on Tourists, Refugees—and Elk

September 4th, 2019

Should Tourists Pay An Entrance Fee Just To See Venice?
Back in 1807 English poet William Wordsworth was so fed up with his fellow humans and their activities he wrote these famous lines in his poem “The World Is Too Much With Us”:

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;--

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

When he wrote this analysis of his world there were less than one…

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​An Uncivil War—In A Farmer’s Market!

August 28th, 2019

Race, Slavery, And American Capitalism
Even a small liberal Midwestern city like Bloomington, Indiana can’t escape the division caused by racial demons led by Donald Trump and his Republican minions who both promote white nationalism. Relations among vendors at the farmer’s market in the city of 85,000 and the University of Indiana grew so bad over the subject of white nationalism the mayor suspended the market in July over public safety concerns. This from the city that survived the…

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Bullet-Proof Preschoolers

August 21st, 2019

Basing Gun Control On Militia Muskets Is Nuts
There was a picture of hundreds of colorful backpacks in the Fargo Forum that were distributed to children at the Fargodome a couple of days ago. It was part of the 21st Annual 2019 United Way School Supply Drive. I wonder if any of them will end up having a “bullet-proof” insert placed in the backpack. I also wonder how many metro area parents have purchased a “bullet-proof” or “bullet-resistant” backpack for their children to…

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A Recycled Coffin

August 14th, 2019

Is The Bottom Going To Fall Out?
The story about the Fargo man who died in his storage unit who remains unclaimed by any family reminds me of thousands of Irish funerals conducted during the Great Potato Famine. Because of the numbers of deaths during those trying times, the Irish held the cost of funerals down by recycling coffins. Everything looked normal while the coffin was lowered into the grave but when it reached the bottom of the grave the bottom of the coffin was fixed to drop…

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​A Gigantic Bush

August 7th, 2019

Ronald Reagan

Humanity has always been on the move. The new science of paleogenetics proves it. Humans have been crossing lands since Lucy decided to climb down from a tree on the African savanna. Every human should read “A World On The Move” in the July National Geographic. We humans don’t have family trees. We are all tiny branches and leaves on the same gigantic single human bush growing out of mother continent Africa.

Genetic scientists can now take a thousandth of an ounce of a…

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