December 18th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
The Donald Is Playing ‘Mac the Knife’
There have been several centuries-old historical records when men and boys were intentionally castrated to provide a specific social function. The Republican Party and Donald Trump have just started another record.
Eunuchs in the reign of Semiramis 4,000 years ago served as servants and slaves, as domestic workers, singers and entertainers, concubines, sexual partners, religious leaders, royal guards,…
December 15th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
What Is Abortion Really About? Religion, Science, Economics, Politics
In a recent cartoon, God is perched on a beautiful cloud and is looking down at a chicken and an egg ready to cross a road. The caption is: “Remember, you must both leave at the same time!”
Is God attempting to answer the question of which came first which has bedeviled, stupefied, and perplexed Homo sapiens since they created thousands of gods? Scientists have determined at this…
December 4th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadly@gmail.com
A Critical Fact: To Fully Understand a Country, One Must Know Its History
We have state legislatures attempting to prevent pre-schools through universities from teaching the real history of our country. We have school boards firing librarians and banning books that may provide students critical historical perspectives about where they live. Some conservatives want to “protect” their “sensitive” children from feelings of guilt about being White.…
November 27th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
farhogadfly@gmail.com
Why Not Pass Black-White Flag Laws to Label Who Lies, Cheats, and Stinks?
We have “red flag” laws in 19 states to keep weapons out of the hands of malcontents and the mentally unbalanced who threaten family members and others with firearms or other weapons.
The American Psychiatric Association has estimated that six percent of the population will go “bonkers” each year and need mental health treatment. That means up to 20 million of us could be…
November 19th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
That’s the Big Question Today: To Be (Democratic) or Not to Be (Autocratic)
Here we are, only 400 years after our major trouble started with the Mayflower and other ships landing immigrants and slaves on “American” soil named after an Italian entrepreneur named Amerigo Vespucci. He explored possibilities here twice between 1497 and 1504—for Spanish and Portugal kings and queens. I don’t have the room to cover any of the 65,000 years it took to…
November 16th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
A Trivia Question: How Many Horses Have Been Elected Senator?
There is ample critical historical evidence that horses, or their varying parts thereof, have played important roles in the governing of nations for over 2,000 years. Emperor Caligula, who ruled Rome from year 37 to 41, had the qualities of Donald J. Trump as presently listed in the latest Manual of Mental Disabilities---except for one. He trusted someone.
Caligula determined that his…
November 5th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
This Country Is Going to Hell While Politicians of Both Parties Are Dancing
It’s been many years since Corky and I did the Hokey Pokey, that dance where you forced your extremities, including your head, to flail and shake to a musical Caribbean-like beat furnished by various instruments. The common lines were similar, only substituting body parts: “Put your right arm in, take your right hand out. Put your right arm in, and you shake it all…
October 31st, 2022
By Ed Raymond
Free Speech Costs Billions and Contains Billions of Expensive Lies
Our politicians lied from the very beginning with that infamous phrase: “all men are created equal.” That is, only if you were White and owned property could you vote. Many signers of that declaration owned Black property. The big lie continued for almost a century until 675,000 Americans died in battles over freeing Black slaves and allowing Black men to vote. But then the White…
October 24th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
Why Did One of the Most Civilized Countries Commit Crimes Against Humanity?
At the end of World War II I was thirteen and enthralled by aircraft carriers, 70-ton tanks, B-29s, and uniforms. Since then, I have read a dozen books and hundreds of articles about the Holocaust, and Corky and I have spent many hours in the Holocaust Museum in Washington. I have always wondered why human beings from one of the most civilized countries in the world could commit…
October 20th, 2022
By Ed Raymond
There Are Many Reasons Why Our Middle Class Is Disappearing
English novelist Charles Dickens, who experienced both poverty and wealth in his lifetime, included both poor and rich in his novels, particularly in Bleak House, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities. Remember Scrooge and Tiny Tim in Christmas Carol?
Raised in London in a family of eight, Charles went to work in a shoe-black factory when he was twelve because his father was…
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.…