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by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | December 17th, 2015
…Can God Overthrow the National Rifle Association?So what have we heard after daily mass killings for over a decade from politicians and candidates for office when they attempt to console families? Something about “our thoughts and prayers are with you?” That phrase is as powerful as the automatic salute to…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | October 15th, 2015
…Having Everything—Having NothingIn his novel “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens writes of life in Paris and London just before and during the French Revolution of 1789. His first paragraph may be instructive about the differences between the rich and poor in the United States in 2015: “It was…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | August 12th, 2015
…Esther Jenner, 89: “He’s A Very Good-Looking Woman. I Loved Him With All My Heart—And I Certainly Love Her With All My Heart.”Some people have said that 89-year-old Esther, the mother of her 65-year-old daughter Caitlyn Jenner, screwed up her pronouns in making the above statements. I don’t think so.…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | July 29th, 2015
…From black space to bright blue earth: a fragile thin lineAstronaut Sally Ride, our first woman in space, spent time looking at earth as the space shuttle hurtled around the earth, entranced by a bright day turning into a dark night in a single orbit: “I saw the blackness of space, and…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | July 22nd, 2015
…White Cotton, Brown Tobacco, Black Slavery—And Green Free Enterprise DollarsOur ancestors didn’t wait long. Slavery started in Virginia in 1619 and was “legal” in all British colonies to provide labor for tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations in the Western Hemisphere. I guess if slavery is legal the property on which…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | July 15th, 2015
…Capitalist Fracketeering: The Idea That Anything That Gets Between Them And A Dollar Is BadWe all know what fracking means in the oil industry. It’s the process of injecting water and mysterious chemicals at high pressures so that the last drops of oil and gas are forced out of rocks…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | July 9th, 2015
…Is This Why God Gave Us Fingers?There is evidence that fork-like instruments were developed thousands of years ago to facilitate eating barbecue by the fireside. But 10 centuries ago Roman Catholic Saint Pietro Damiani said such instruments looked like the work of Satan, who was usually portrayed carrying a huge…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | July 1st, 2015
…To Pope Francis: How About The Sciences Of Climate—And Sexuality?In his encyclical on climate prepared for one billion Catholics Pope Francis urged them — and the rest of the world — to study and consider what an overwhelming majority of scientists say about the condition of the earth we are supposed…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | June 24th, 2015
…We Live In Exciting Times….A Writer’s DreamI’m a news junkie. It’s been a wonderful week to live in a world with instant communications dominated by presidential candidate The Donald-I’m very-rich with real hair, and the encyclical by Pope Francis which urges us to save the environment so the poor can…
by Ed Raymond | Gadfly | June 17th, 2015
…Doctor Henry Jekyll Meets The Evil Health Insurance Agent Mr. Edward HydeRobert Louis Stevenson, author of many 19th Century action-packed thrillers such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped, wrote these suspense-filled stories from his sickbed, where he was plagued with “bloody lungs,” probably tuberculosis. While doing some research for a column about…