November 29th, 2017
What happens when the eight richest men in the world possess wealth equal to the bottom half of the entire world population?
There I was, in a pew at Cormorant Lutheran Church on Sunday morning, when I got the Christian view of acquiring wealth in a Christian country. A quote from the gospel of Matthew makes the point: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in…
November 24th, 2017
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The blonde guy with the “Comb-back” Will Make Everybody Rich
Practically everyone in the United States knows the essentials of the Brothers Grimm fairytale “Rumplestiltskin” where the poor miller’s daughter with the beautiful, long blonde hair, with the help of a mysterious imp, spins straw into gold. Her father has told the King his daughter is capable of this magnificent act. After the daughter and the imp spin straw into gold for the third time, the king asks her to be his…
November 15th, 2017
The thoughts and prayers of politicians will finally be answered
We have had 307 mass shootings (four kills or more) so far in 2017, including the last one in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where 26 mortals attending church, aged 18 months to 77 years, were blasted into Heaven and 20 were sent to hospitals by assault rifle fire.
I am pleased to learn from certain voices that God is going to celebrate a Firearm Resurrection Day, where the 33,000 mortals killed by firearms this year will…
November 8th, 2017
We might be entering the worst of times: the wackification of America
I listened to a fascinating National Public Radio interview the other night of a second tier comedian who plays small casinos, nightclubs, and theaters around the country trying to make a living.
He is totally frustrated by his present-day audiences because they are so politically and socially polarized. Telling jokes for a living is a very tough business even in good times.
He said audiences now are so polarized that…
November 1st, 2017
The Sacklers: America’s biggest and richest ‘legal’ drug pushers
The first record of humans using drugs to give themselves highs during their humdrum lives is a 7,000-year-old account of Babylonian Sumerians using opium. The Lake Dwellers of Switzerland ate poppy seeds 4,500 years ago according to historian Ashley Montagu in a book about gaining euphoria over the doldrums.
Records about the brewing of alcohol and its potency started about 2,350 years ago in Proverbs 31:6-7: “Give…
October 25th, 2017
The madness and sins of the world’s seven ’great’ religions
Robert Bolt’s play “A Man For All Seasons” covers the true story of a principled and religious chancellor of England named Sir Thomas More who eventually lost his head because he refused to approve the divorce of King Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn (who later also lost her head), the sister of his former mistress. Henry wanted a son from Catherine but she didn’t deliver.
The…
October 18th, 2017
God didn’t save six million Jews from the Holocaust either
We have become so used to mass killings by firearms in the “United” States that they are generally ignored, except for the really unusual or big ones like Texas Tower, San Ysidro McDonald’s, Luby’s Cafeteria, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Aurora Theater, Orlando, and now Las Vegas.
Then the politicians hit the radio and TV with their very old designed talking points starting with “our thoughts and prayers are…
October 11th, 2017
I’m a white son-of-a-bitch who will always take a knee for M/Sgt McNair
In 1938 I entered First Grade in District 54 in Morrison County, Minnesota, a little white country school with a total of 23 students in eight grades and two two-holers out back.
That’s where I was first introduced to white history, not real history. For the next 18 years, through high school, college, and graduate school I was exposed to white history in various courses, never getting a taste of real history…
October 4th, 2017
Norwegians know how to govern -- just ask Ole and Lena
Sometimes we get the idea from Norwegian Ole and Lena jokes that “Norvegians” play with only 39 cards.
There’s the one about Ole calling the airlines and asking how long it takes to fly from Minneapolis to Fargo. “Just a minute,” said the busy and rather irritated desk clerk. Ole says, “Vell , if it goes that fast, I tink I’ll just take a bus.”
Or there’s the one about Ole talking to his brother Svenn, who lived…
September 27th, 2017
A mixture of despair, extortion, life-saving treatments, and inequality
Fifty-four-year-old Antony Marino of Wise, Virginia keeps a pair of needle-nosed pliers handy so he can pull out a rotting tooth that’s bothering him. He has never been to a dentist. Forty-nine-year-old Joyce Bays tenderizes the meat she eats with a hammer, and cuts it into small pieces because she has no teeth.
Forklift driver Robin Neal has had Type 1 diabetes since age 10 and has pancreatitis, but her…
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Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.com A midnight wedding ceremony at the Clay County Courthouse in Moorhead on August 1, 2013 was more than a romantic gesture. Eighteen couples made history on that day by exchanging vows in the…
By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu On March 11, 2024, we celebrated the 121st birthday of bandleader Lawrence Welk. He was born March 11, 1903 in a sod house near Strasburg, North Dakota, and died on May 17,1992. The…
Saturday, May 117 p.m., gates at 5 p.m.Outdoors at Fargo Brewing Company610 University Dr. N, FargoWisconsin’s finest export, The Violent Femmes, started out in Milwaukee in 1981 as an acoustic punk band, and they’ve been…
Is this a repeating pattern?By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThere’s a quote circulating around the world wide web, misattributed to Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a…
by Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comAccording to my great-grandfather many years ago, my French ancestors migrated from Normandy to Quebec to Manitoba to Wisconsin to Minnesota over the spread of more than two centuries, finally…
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 Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com In this land of hotdish and ham, the knoephla soup of German-Russian heritage seems to reign supreme. In my opinion though, the French have the superior soup. With a cheesy top layer, toasted baguette…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.com It is not unheard of for bands to go on hiatus. However, as the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” That is why when a local group like STILL comes back to…
Now playing at the Fargo Theatre.By Greg Carlson gregcarlson1@gmail.comPalme d’Or recipient “Anatomy of a Fall” is now enjoying an award-season victory tour, recently picking up Golden Globe wins for both screenplay and…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com There’s no exaggeration when we say that this year’s Plains Art Gala is going to be out of this world, with a sci-fi theme inspired by a painting housed in the Plains Art Museum’s permanent…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…
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…
By John Showalter john.d.showalter@gmail.comThey sell fentanyl test strips and kits to harm-reduction organizations and…
JANUARY 19, 1967– MARCH 8, 2023 Brittney Leigh Goodman, 56, of Fargo, N.D., passed away unexpectedly at her home on March 8, 2023. Brittney was born January 19, 1967, to Ruth Wilson Pollock and Donald Ray Goodman, in Hardinsburg,…
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Dismissing the value of small towns for the future of our nation is a mistakeBy Bill Oberlanderarcandburn@gmail.comAccording to U.S. Census projections, by the middle of this century, roughly 90% of the total population will live…
