Gadfly

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…

Read more...


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…

Read more...


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…

Read more...


​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…

Read more...


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…

Read more...


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…

Read more...


​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…

Read more...


​A Country On Oxygen

July 31st, 2019

Hungry Kids, Expensive Views, and A Nutcase In The Oval Office
We are in serious trouble. America is suffering from a world-wide pandemic that has been the downfall of most empires. It’s called greed. One of our numerous billionaires, Howard Schultz, who convinced people that drinking $5 cups of coffee is a great physical and mental boost, wrote this prescient paragraph about money in his book ‘From the Ground Up’: “Money is never about money. It’s about dignity, autonomy, the…

Read more...


Women Belong On Mars

July 24th, 2019

Let’s Send Our Best To Mars
In the first place, women live about six years longer than men. There are 43 people in the world known to be at least 110 years old. This may come as a shock, but 42 are women, according to the Global Gerontology Research Group. The University of Southern Denmark’s Institute of Public Health has studied the life expectancy records of many societies and countries as far back as 250 years and has determined that the difference between man and woman is due to…

Read more...


​Freedom???

July 17th, 2019

There Seems To Be A Lot Of Confusion About What Freedom Is!
At a recent conference of the evangelical Christian’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, Chairman Ralph Reed, long a hard worker for the Moral Majority’s Jerry Falwell, had the freedom to proclaim this about our president, the Manhattan Village Idiot: “We have had some great leaders! There has never been anyone who has defended us and fought for us, who we have loved more that Donald J. Trump. We have seen his heart and he is…

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry Blackbird Tracker Pixel for Entry Empire Tracker Pixel for Entry Gruff Tracker Pixel for Entry Hjemkomst Tracker Pixel for Entry Bismarck Tracker Pixel for Entry FPL

Recently in:

By Bryce Vincent HaugenFor the first nine months, the dysfunction of the Trump administration and Congress was a four-time-zone-away abstraction for a Moorhead native living in Alaska’s interior. But it became all too real when…

By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu I would like to recognize some of the scholarly Germans from Russia from Canada and USA shared on the GRHC website. There are additional names not included here. If you have suggestions…

December 17-21, 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and SundayThe Fargo Theatre, 314 N. Broadway, FargoCould this be the end of an era? After 26 years of doing the Holiday Soul Tour and 35 years together as a band, The…

By Sabrina Hornungsabina@hpr1.com I scroll through comment threads on the news stories in my social media feed and come across the retort, “You voted for this.” Sure the vote’s in…but when someone’s livelihood is at stake,…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWill the Vatican ever love LBGTQUIA+ with open hearts and minds? Christians have been hot and bothered by sex for 2,000 years and Catholic popes, cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns have been…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Mandy Dolneymandy@ksbsyndicate.com This cake will be on the menu at Nova Eatery through Thanksgiving served with maple crème anglaise Ice cream. It uses pumpkin pie pumpkins grown locally at Ladybug Acres and local apples grown…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com In “Hedda,” Nia DaCosta’s bold adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s celebrated 1891 play, the filmmaker reunites with longtime collaborator Tessa Thompson, who starred in DaCosta’s…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Gallery 4 downtown recently celebrated its 50 year anniversary, making it one of the longest consecutively running galleries in the country. With different membership tiers, there are 17 primary…

Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

sBy Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com The holidays are supposed to be magical: party, presents, fancy food, lights and sparks. You are looking forward to it. You work very hard, you put in long hours at work as well as at…

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson.nd7@gmail.comPersonal background and historical perspective My deep concern about tariffs stems from my background as a fourth generation North Dakota farmer. Having lived through the 1980s farm crisis…