November 19th, 2014
As Syrian children go to schools and playgrounds in Raqqa, a provincial capital now controlled by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (commonly known as ISIS), they walk by spiked fences topped by the decapitated heads of the followers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Many heads belong to relatives of the children. The headless corpses were left on Raqqa streets as further warnings to Shias and Alawites,…
November 12th, 2014
This world is getting discombobulated again. Here we have the deadly disease ebola circulating in three central African countries and around the world, killing thousands of people. One touch may give a person a death sentence. But here in the United States we are also deluged with ads for the cure of toenail fungus. I have never heard of anyone dying of toenail fungus. No one in our large extended family has ever had it to…
November 5th, 2014
This country is acting as if dementia is just around the corner – or maybe we haven’t been taking our Prozac lately. We have about 19 million underemployed and unemployed in this country but the Polaris Company of Roseau is flying low-paid Mexican skilled workers from their Mexico plant to Roseau so they can continue to sell small recreational and work vehicles at a “double-digit” rate. What is going on? Have we succumbed to…
October 29th, 2014
Since the Republican Supreme Court decided to dump parts of the Voters Rights laws passed almost 50 years ago, most states controlled by Republican legislatures and governors, including North Dakota, have attempted to pass hundreds of restrictive voting laws, particularly the requirement to have a photo voter ID. Some have been successful. After all, a great deal of fraud has been committed in voting precincts!…
October 22nd, 2014
Astronomers have discovered about 600 planets swirling around the stars that could possibly have more intelligent beings than us roaming in their confines. Ten of them are about earth’s size and receive about the same amount or sunlight. Since 1955 we have spent billions of dollars attempting to contact extraterrestrials on these other planets. The program Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) started in earnest in 1960…
October 16th, 2014
The most dysfunctional part of government is Congress, put in that position by two 5-4 Supreme Court decisions about “free” expensive speech named Citizens United and McCutcheon. A reader sent me a copy of Stephen Pastis’s “comic” strip called “Pearls Before Swine.” The subject of the strip is titled “The World According To The Supreme Court” with a statement from the McCutcheon decision: “Spending large suns of money in connection…
October 9th, 2014
One might think that after centuries of beheadings at Taliban prayers and wretched souls burning at stakes, humans would have figured out by now that sex and religion don’t mix at all. Since Adam and Eve and Steve and Daisy Mae – or versa vice – were born of myth, ribs, and real sex, it seems that humans are extremely concerned about who’s getting too much sex and who’s getting too little. I have been going to churches for my 82…
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.…