Gadfly

Is Sex between the ears or between the legs?

So now we are battling over which humans will use which bathrooms. At least a majority of us have accepted same-sex marriage, gays in the military, and that we have a number of distinctive sexes beyond just male and female. The scientific and anecdotal evidence is becoming overwhelming that humans have quite a wide range of “sexuality.”

The religious forces in the world who believe that God created only straight males and females and that…

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From havens to havens

I take the New Yorker for the cartoons and the occasional informative article. I thought two cartoons in the latest issue explored the conditions in the world and the United States as well as several thousand words could.

Through the portals of animal cages by the floor of the Roman Colosseum one can see five cowering prisoners waiting in line. In the lion cage four lions are lounging on the floor while the leader of the pride was hectoring them from the open gate:…

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To be, or not to be

Two very important issues were presented to the world on the 400th anniversary of the death of the world’s greatest playwright and poet, William Shakespeare. Pope Francis, in his “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), struggled to answer some of the questions about sex and all that that the Roman Catholic Church has been struggling to answer for many centuries.

Justin Trudeau, the newly elected prime minister of Canada, promised the Canadian people he will…

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Well, Folks, It’s Time To Sharpen The Pitchforks

Now we really know the ultrarich in the world are very serious about keeping their money. The Panama Papers prove it. The British Virgin Islands, a tax haven in the Caribbean, has a population of 30,659 in 2016, but, amazingly, it might have over three thriving profitable shell companies hiding under the beds of each citizen of any age. It’s one of those popular tax havens filled with 113,000 shell companies incorporated there. Some…

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None of us made it on our own

In 1949 a poor, tall, gangly black sophomore kid in Oakland, California was cut from his junior varsity basketball team by the coach after just one tryout. After the cut, one of the coaches told him he should try for the varsity team when he was a junior. The coach then drove him to the local Boys & Girls Club, told him he wanted him to play basketball every day at the club, and then paid his membership fee.

The tall kid played every day, and later he was…

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Voter fraud in Texas and Wisconsin

In the last ten years over 20 million votes have been cast in Texas state elections. Only two cases of voter fraud in that span of time have been prosecuted to conviction.

Because of a lawsuit in Wisconsin, a district judge and aides prepared a 90-page study on 2004 voter fraud in Wisconsin and determined that there were only seven invalid votes made by individuals. Those ballots represented 0.0002 percent of the total votes cast in the state, and all of…

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Expensive “free speech” doesn’t mean anything

Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University has surveyed 157 countries to find the “world’s happiest place” based on such facts as Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP), social support, healthy life expectancy , freedom to make life choices, generosity, and income. All of the top ten “happiest” are countries that have some form of Democratic Socialism government, led by…

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The battle between Republican crony­-casino capitalism and Democratic socialism

After listening to Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential nomination claim “America is going to hell” and other undesirable places, President Barack Obama in a recent magazine article counter­claimed: “For all of our warts, the United States has clearly been a force for good in the world.”

“Warts?” My God! “Treason!” Admitting we have warts before the entire world? “Un-American!”…

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A New Listing In The Real Estate Business

Because of the “new” world economy there’s an increasing gaggle of golden geese millionaires and billionaires building monster homes on exclusive streets in cities and country estates around the world. Many want to continue to live in London, Europe’s financial center. They want to live near other ultra­rich in or near Kensington Palace Gardens, the most expensive property in all of Britain. But there’s a catch. There are…

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Killing Cats And Dogs, Selling Human Heads, And A Little Cannibalism

I got a severe case of the heebie-jeebies the other night during the Republican debate when Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz were in the middle of yelling at each other and exchanging insults and lies at warp speed. One of these guys might become leader of our temporary civilized “free” world?!! I thought of a few lines from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” When Atticus Finch, the lawyer defending…

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