Gadfly

There’s nothing wrong with education—except financial support

September 21st, 2016

Teaching history, grading papers—and driving for Uber

The national media is in a survey mode, trying to make additional bucks from all that political money loosed by the Republican Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.

The media comes up with “exciting” breaking political news every hour of the day from polls, controversy about she-said vs. he-said on the campaign trail, “lies” on Twitter, Instagram, and all those other “social” networks. It’s great for the…

A collection of stuff

September 14th, 2016

Potpourri

Every once in awhile over the years I have written a column, a potpourri of unconnected, incongruous comments based on items in a little folder I keep. I hope they are interesting—and that they make a point.

1. About 25 states have accepted or are proposing to legalize the use of medical or recreational marijuana—or both.

I have often written that it was primarily impossible to keep people from inhaling, ingesting, or using various equipment from bongs to syringes to get drugs…

Income inequality, wars, and $400,000 helmets

September 7th, 2016

Will we ever get our priorities straight?

The Pilgrims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were the first Americans to pledge support of wounded war veterans after members of their “militia” were killed and wounded during the massacre of native Pequots in 1636. Caring for our veterans after 400 years of war has now become a trillion-dollar business.

In addition to all of the costs of my training, and support for active and reserve duty for eight years in the Marine Corps, I have used the…

Who would believe it? Michele Bachmann or an African gray parrot?

August 31st, 2016

It’s getting to be a real bizarre world out there

We have The Donald, once a classic psychopathic Democratic ass who is now running for president of 325 million people as a crazy psychopathic Republican elephant. He likes his name in twenty-foot high gold letters on everything.

We have former Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, a religious Dominionist nutcase who believes Barack Obama is the Antichrist, who says he will lead all of us to the Christian Rapture in which the saved…

DNA, transplants, and modern science

August 24th, 2016

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders” may have an entirely new meaning

They have done it to mice, rats, and dogs. Humans could be next. About 220 years ago Queen Marie Antoinette of France, famous for her sarcastic “Let them eat cake!” lost her head to the guillotine when the executioner pronounced, “Off with her head!”

Perhaps soon a French doctor will order, “Off with her head!” and then carry it to another operating table so it can be transplanted to a fresh,…

When will the door of mercy open to gays?

August 17th, 2016

When will Christians recognize the science of genetics?

When some Fargo Catholics walked the seven-mile pilgrimage last week from the “holy door of mercy” on the Sts. Anne & Joachim Church to the “holy door of mercy” of St Mary’s Cathedral, I wonder if they thought of members of the LGBTQ community passing through those holy doors without prejudice, without labels of being “intrinsically evil,” but with the complete “religious freedom” from the Vatican to pass freely…

Don’t put your head underwater

August 10th, 2016

It’s time to dump the poisoned Olympics into Rio’s cesspool

First it was politics. Then it was money. After that, more propaganda. Now it’s the ugly combination of politics, propaganda, and money.

In the ancient Olympic Games, athletic participation was so pure and honorable that a truce was called, so spectators and athletes could travel in safety to the game sites through wars. The winner got a chariot ride home through the gate or breach in his city’s walls. The winner was…

For the common good?

August 3rd, 2016

The era of cutthroat hyper-capitalism

We have been down this rock-strewn pathway before. It happens about every three generations because humans have short attention spans, and those who forget history usually repeat it.

Capitalism works for everybody only with the condition that we have social mobility--which can only be achieved through education. Everybody has to have a shot at the “good life” by having access to a good education. We now have had about three decades of crony,…

Of black and white elephants

July 27th, 2016

Old and new normals

In the old normal, until the 1980s, we had lynchings by the Klu Klux Klan and others marked by racial hatred and economic inequality. In the last 30 years we have added conceal and open-carry laws and an absolute tsunami of guns on the streets to the volatile mix of race and economics. This is the new normal now—and it will not change until we erase income inequality—or the guns.

Some thought the election of Barack Obama in 2008 to the presidency would herald a new…

Patriotism and an uncivil race war

July 20th, 2016

Do not pass go, go directly to jail, and never earn any money

Since the light for the philosophy “Greed is Good” was turned to green by Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, local and state governments have increased spending on putting people in jail three times more than they spend on educating the young—and old.

Data from 1980 to 2013, according to the Department of Education, increased spending on putting people in the slammer by 324% while spending on education increased only 107%. In…

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