Gadfly

The Trumplestiltskin Era

November 24th, 2017


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…

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Coming soon: Firearm Resurrection Day!

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…

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A Greek salute to Trumpistan

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…

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Death comes to opium eaters

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…

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A man for no religions

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…

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Don’t want to be shot? Get small!

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…

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Taking a knee for truth

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…

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A lesson for the common good

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…

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American healthcare

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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Character, or the lack thereof

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.…

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