October 21st, 2023
By Ed Raymond
How many centuries have religions been fighting each other in the Middle East?
In the early foggy, frosty morning of December 25, 1914, before cannons roared and bullets whizzed, songs of Christmas were heard by German troops in the trenches on the Western Front. It was “all quiet on the front.” The music came from English troops in trenches a few hundred yards across No Man’s Land.
As the singing continued, troops left trenches without weapons…
October 17th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Remember When “Mission Impossible” Instructions Self-Destructed in Five Seconds?
Some Democrats, including a few of his closest advisors, are forgetting what got Joe Biden elected in 2020. He never had a personal political platform to run on except for the fact he had 44 years of experience getting elected senator and vice-president. He had one skill: cozying up to those who voted for the majority in Delaware.
He strapped on Senator Bernie Sanders’…
October 7th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Were the Mushrooms You Ate With Your Steak Asexual or Bisexual?
British plant scientists made a discovery while investigating why an extremely rare green shrub formally called Ruizia mauririana was not doing well in an old Victoria formal garden called Temperate House, in London’s Kew Gardens.
Examples of this specimen are extremely rare, but several were found in the Mauritian highlands. They also made a remarkable genetic discovery. The plant was…
September 29th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Is Cruelty a Part of Nature—or Is It Just Part of Human Nature?
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has been my economics guru for many years for his pithy columns in The New York Times. In his September 14 column he used a word that I believe he has never used before when discussing economic issues. That word is “cruel.”
His statement: “I’ve been writing about economics and politics for many years, and have learned to keep my temper.…
September 23rd, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Eighty Million Eligible Voters Did Not Vote in the DSA in 2020. Why Not?
In the first week of February, 2023, Deborah Daub, 59, shot and killed her husband James Daub, 62, Morgan Daub, their daughter, then killed her mother Deborah, and then killed herself. Pennsylvania township police said the murders and suicide “appeared to be a joint decision from notes left behind.”
The fundamentalist Christian family was considered by neighbors to be…
September 22nd, 2023
By Ed Raymond
If Homo Sapiens Do Nothing About Climate-Change, We Will Be Dead Saps Soon
Animals started to develop from plants 1.8 billion years ago, so that’s when our brains began to develop. The world’s politicians are currently experiencing climate change on every continent but haven’t come up with answers to control it so Homo sapiens can survive on Planet Earth. Our current three pounds of gray matter will not evolve enough to solve it in time. The…
September 16th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Art: José Guadalupe Posada, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Can Our Conjoined Democracy Be Separated and Survive?
A two-headed western rat snake is back in a pit at a Waco, Texas zoo after recovering from an injury that most likely was caused by an argument between its two brains.
The unusual snake with brains labeled Pancho and Lefty was discovered in 2016 by a family in its backyard. Now eight…
September 2nd, 2023
By Ed Raymond
At What Evolutionary Level Do Animals Make War on Each Other?
Many animals are territorial but only a few will kill brothers and sisters to maintain a predator area.
Foxes are known to kill chickens when they are looking for one to eat. Wolves kill a lot of sheep and eat some. Lions, often called the king of beasts, kill to eat—but not for the hell of it. Northern pike kill little northern pike to eat but not to force them to migrate.
Male grizzly, brown,…
August 19th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Linus: ‘I Love Mankind, It’s People I Can’t Stand’
On August 8, two brothers, 8 and 9, were shot to death as they played with kittens in their backyard in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and a 19-year-old boy who lived with the family, the real target in this mass shooting, was also shot to death at the same time.
On August 13, a smash-and-grab group of about 50, entered a Nordstrom high-end store in the Woodland Hills, California Westfield Topanga Mall,…
August 16th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
How Many Things in This World Do Not Have a Price Tag?
During my years at the Harvard of the Midwest I took a course in Russian history which emphasized the contributions of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Tzar Nicholas and wife Alexandra, Lenin the Liar, and Stalin the Slayer.
I ended up with the thought that the Russian people were like us. That idea led me to Russian literature such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novels “The Brothers Karamazov”…
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By Bryce HaugenNot everyone detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is an undocumented immigrant. After a Jan. 12 scuffle at a local Walmart, Tim Catlett, a resident of St. Cloud, Minn., was held at the Bishop…
By Kooper Shagena Just off of I-94 and Highway 83 on State Street in Bismarck, an abandoned Kmart sits behind an empty parking lot, watching the cars roll on and off the interstate exchange. It has been standing there quietly since…
Saturday, January 31, mingling at 6:15 p.m. and program at 7 p.m.Fine Arts Club, 601 4th St. S., FargoThe FM Symphony is getting intimate by launching a “Small Stages” chamber music series and it's bringing folks together via…
By John Strand If you are reading this editorial and you too are worried sick about the state of our country, keep reading. Maybe we can inspire each other. It was near closing time. We were discussing our values crisis. So this…
By Ed RaymondA mind that snapped, cracked, and popped at one hundredI wasn’t going to read a long column called “Centenarian: A Diary of a Hundredth Year” by Calvin Tomkins celebrating his birthday on December 17 of 2025…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…
By Rick GionSince the much-dreaded Covid years, there has been much ebb and flow in the Fargo-Moorhead restaurant scene. In 2025, that trend continued with some major additions and closings. Let’s start the New Year on a positive…
Saturday, January 17, doors at 7:30 p.m.The Aquarium above Dempsey’s, 226 N. Broadway, FargoThe Slow Death is a punk supergroup led by Jesse Thorson, with members and collaborators that include members of The Ergs!, Dillinger…
By Greg Carlson Writer-director Naomi Jaye adapts fellow Canadian Martha Baillie’s 2009 novel “The Incident Report” as a potent and introspective character study. Retitled “Darkest Miriam,” Jaye’s movie stars Britt…
By Jacinta ZensThe Guerrilla Girls, an internationally renowned anonymous feminist art collective, have been bringing attention to the gender and racial imbalances in contemporary art institutions for the last 40 years. They have…
Saturday, January 31, 6:30-9 p.m.Transfiguration Fitness, 764 34th St. N., Unit P, FargoAn enchanting evening celebrating movement and creativity in a staff-student showcase. This is a family-friendly event showcasing pole, aerial…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…
By Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com At the beginning of the movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the Grinch is introduced as having a smaller than average heart, but as the movie progresses, his heart increases three…
January 31, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.Viking Ship Park, 202 1st Ave. N., Moorhead2026 marks 10 years of frosty fun! Enjoy sauna sessions with Log the Sauna, try Snowga (yoga in the snow), take a guided snowshoe nature hike, listen to live…
By Vern Thompson Benjamin Franklin offered one of the most sobering warnings in American history. When asked what kind of government the framers had created in 1787, he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Few words…
