September 20th, 2017
What kind of characters would charge $99 for a case of water?
In the days before the solar eclipse safety glasses sold for $8.95 for a five-pack of certified glasses. The day before the eclipse the price was raised to $59. During Hurricane Harvey, some gas stations were charging $20 a gallon. The other day I saw a local supermarket selling a 24-bottle case of water for $6.95. During Irma a Florida store was charging $99. An airline out of Houston was charging $6,785 for an economy seat.…
September 13th, 2017
The four horses of the Apocalypse are running wild on the American plains
In the last book of the New Testament, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride around the world on their red, white, black, and pale horses representing Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.
The rider of the white horse held a bow, was given a crown, and rode out as a conqueror. The rider of the red horse was given a large sword to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. The rider of the black horse…
September 6th, 2017
Eight of our presidents staffed the White House with slaves
Sometime in the future we may teach real history, not reality history, not fake history. The truth is eight of our presidents staffed their White House with slaves personally owned by them—and ran a government from a capitol building mainly built by slaves.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Polk, and Zachary Taylor, all of the guys who signed that statement about…
August 30th, 2017
How you can earn $12 million a year in the United States
When Martin Shkreli, who had raised the price of an AIDS drug called Daraprim 5,000 percent while he was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was arrested for eight counts of unrelated securities fraud, the court found it very difficult to find a jury of his peers who said they could judge his case without prejudice.
His infamous act had received wide coverage in the country. The judge and the attorneys had to question over 200…
August 23rd, 2017
Photo: Wikipedia: Regiment of Armaments surrender Battle of Moscow
‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven’
The recent clashes between white supremacists and American ideals actually started hundreds of years ago in the Jewish pogroms of Europe and Russia, and when the first black slaves were brought to New England in 1619.
About 12.5 million blacks were brought to the U.S., many of them adding billions to slave owners’ profits and the…
August 16th, 2017
Can we learn anything after we know it all?
There’s a 100-page book written by a high school dropout that should be read by all high schoolers, college education students, teachers, and politicians.
Michael J.Fox of movie and TV fame wrote his little manifesto, “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned,” after receiving a number of honorary degrees and doctorates from leading universities while speaking at their graduation ceremonies.…
August 9th, 2017
The world has decided King Donald has made us irrelevant
Fareed Zakaria of the Washington Post and CNN while on assignment in London had a Nigerian man approach him and say with a mixture of outrage and amusement: “Your country has gone crazy. I’m from Africa. I know crazy, but I didn’t think I would say this in America.”
In Dublin, Ireland a young Irish woman told him:”I’ve come to realize that, as a European, I have very different values than America these days. I realized…
August 2nd, 2017
When have-it-alls and well-to-doers don’t want to share any of it
There’s a new novel out about the 19th Century Great Potato Famine, when Ireland lost one million of its population of eight million to starvation and disease, and two million to emigration to other countries, including many thousands to the United States.
Ireland still has a smaller population than it had before the famine. Domesticated in Peru and Bolivia over 7,000 years ago, the potato became the sole subsistence…
July 26th, 2017
A reasonable conclusion: “We should have killed our baby.”
For some unfathomable reason, some people think they are immortal, that death is not a part of life. Our culture tends to teach us to avoid the topic of death as if it will never come. We really get uncomfortable discussing our options about life and death.
But death is also a precious part of life and we should accept it with grace and peace—as well as the difficult and painful parts of both living and dying.
My dad lived to…
July 19th, 2017
Three “great leaders” who might really screw up the world
If you have had a chance to watch documentaries based on North Korean culture you had to notice that all citizens referred to 33-year-old Kim Jong Un as their “Great Leader” in interviews.
His picture was always visible whether inside or out, indicating that he remains in power through the fear and intimidation that only a cult icon can possess. As the ruling grandson of his ruling grandfather it helps tremendously to stay…
By Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…