Staff & Contributors

Generals And Wars That Drive People Crazy

Ed Raymond

I served in the Marines during draft days. One thing about draftees over volunteers: they voice their limits quick. If a draftee refuses to go up a foreign hill because it serves no possible military or political purpose in his mind, he ain’t going.

To Pee, Or Not To Pee–Should That Even Be A Question?

Ed Raymond

“I knew I couldn’t hold it any longer. I would have wet my pants and I would never live it down.” I have a question: what has this country come to when a worker is denied access to a restroom?

U.S. Army Sergeant: “Are They Going To Kill Me Today?”

Ed Raymond

The best example of generals fighting the last war occurred at the battle of the Somme in WW I after the invention of the water-cooled machinegun. Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, commander of British forces in Europe, at 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916

Do You Have Spiders On The Wall Say Hello To You?

Ed Raymond

Humankind Has Been Using Drugs Since They Were Neanderthals

NFL Prospect Michael Sam:“There Goes Those Damn Sams”

Ed Raymond

As a high school and college football and baseball player and an American Legion baseball coach I have been in a lot of different locker rooms with some very fascinating characters.

Onward, Christian And Muslim Soldiers, “Man Found Shot, Unconscious, In BMW”

Ed Raymond

I caught this headline in a newspaper last week. I think it’s a sign of the times. Would the newspaper use Ford, Chevy, or Honda instead of BMW in the headline?

Onward, Christian And Muslim Soldiers, Marching Off The Cliff..

Ed Raymond

While the Associated Press says that there are more religious wars going on in the world now than at any time in world history, the United States

Cement Ceilings And “Stoopid Wimmin” Laws

Ed Raymond

Because women are more sensible than men, they live longer. Therefore, 54 percent of the eligible voters in this country are women. Men have made such a mess of things in U.S. history,

I Always Wore A Helmet—But Was It Good Enough?

Ed Raymond

The Problems With Football? “Improved” Helmets,Slow Whistles, Rugby Scrums, Headhunters, And Gladiator Coaches

The Gadfly

Ed Raymond

Did The Devil Really Make You Do It?

The Gadfly

Ed Raymond

And The Republicans Put The Repeal On ObamaCare For Forty Days

The Gadfly

Ed Raymond

And The Republicans Put The Repeal On ObamaCare For Forty Days

How Will A White Minority, Represented By The Republican Party, Win Future Elections? By Voter Suppression, Of Course!

Ed Raymond

Back in 1958, a bright seventh grader, the son of teachers in Columbia, South Carolina, started a letter-writing campaign to get appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy because he was interested in the military, science, and mathematics.

Does The United States Have Second-Class, Separate, And Lesser Citizens?

Ed Raymond

Let’s forget about the physical body and its functional parts for a few moments as we contemplate the wonders of the mind about the institution of marriage. When considering a mate, we might look at

Afghan Taliban And The American Taliban —Is There A Difference?

Ed Raymond

We know what the Afghan Taliban is all about. This Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic sect of male vampires who suck the blood from a culture by placing themselves atop a “religious” pyramid where they sa

We Need To Remember There Is Only One Sun

Ed Raymond

These are perilous times around the world. Most of the countries involved in the Arab Spring seem to be going through nation-birthing with umbilical cords wrapped around necks with feet coming first. Countries such as Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebano

Sand Sharks And Republicans Have Something In Common

Ed Raymond

With the philosophical battles among the Tea Party, the evangelicals and Southern Baptists, and old-line conservatives providing us liberals with both conste

When Thoughts Can Fly Helicopters And Apes Throw Tantrums While Gambling

Ed Raymond

My father lived to be just six months short of 100 and my mother made it to 94, so I have a chance to see corporate researchers living on the moon making pharmaceutical companies very rich by manufacturing drugs that can only be produced in space. I would love to live to see NASA astronauts fly to a big asteroid and tug

The Times They Are A-Changin’ Particularly For the Haves And Have-Nots

Ed Raymond

I think Bob Dylan of Minnesota fame is one of the best contemporary song writers about real substance--and one of the worst singers who ever tramped the stag

Teanderthals At Work With The Best Congress Money Can Buy

Ed Raymond

A news junkie, I try to watch as many Congressional hearings as I can. Much better than reality TV and almost equal to meerkats on Animal Planet. It’s great fun to watch the Academy Award-level acting as the camera-huggers and the “u

They Shoot And Eat Horses, Don’t They?

Ed Raymond

In that I’m an old farm boy who saw the muscled behinds of horses many times as I guided a team pulling drags, stoneboats, or “bundle wagons”

The Brave New World Of Aldous Huxley–100 Years Later

Ed Raymond

Aldous Huxley wrote his “future” novel in 1932 at the beginning of the Great Depression. He set it in 2500 A.D. or in 632 A.F., which stands for “afte

George W. Bush, With No Books Long Overdue, Finally Enters A Library

Ed Raymond

In a recent interview, after closing down his political prop-ranch at Crawford, former President George W. Bush said he wanted to use his new president

Could The World Possibly Give Up One Aircraft Carrier?

Ed Raymond

We often hear from isolationists and the selfish about how much money we spend on foreign aid. The uninformed—and sometimes the informed—say that it eats up ten percent of our t

Is It Something In The Water—Or Is It Politics?

Ed Raymond

Recent surveys on two different subjects that ended up with basically the same answer aroused my curiosity. One survey shows that “red” states governed by Republicans had much higher traffic fatality rates than “blue” s

Definition Of Capitalism: Earning $107,703 While Sitting On A $1,500 Toilet

Ed Raymond

The Japanese have developed and are selling $1,500 toilets to high-end hotels (no pun intended) and to the rich, famous, and infamous for their homes aroun

The Curious Case Of Buttoned-Down Politicians

Ed Raymond

When the world becomes predictable instead of it being a messy, marvelous, malevolent, and amazing place, I want to cash in my chips. First, the University of Minnesota has a reputation of

!20 Million Americans Going To Hell —And Counting!

Ed Raymond

When religion meets science, someone loses. That axiom is the subject of a cartoon by Molvig. A human with a close resemblance to Alfred Einstein

The Resurrection Of The War On Women

Ed Raymond

This is the first time I have used a prescript column as a framework, one that I have written before to cover the same subject. I wrote some of this column in 2011 when the Republican-dominated North Dakota Legislature continue

The Spittoons Are Gone But The Slime Is Still There

Ed Raymond

Almost sixty years ago, long before the Civil Rights and Voting Rights bills were passed, I was a young Marine Corps lieutenant stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, commanding a heavy machinegun

Six Pounds Of Matter That Really Count

Ed Raymond

Our brain weighs about three pounds, give or take a few ounces. The bacteria that insinuate themselves in every nook, cranny, and organ in our bodies also weigh about three pounds. Maybe that is just coincidental, but sometimes it may take three pounds of brains to control three pounds of bac

Time To Dump The Sexual Straitjackets And Bloody Cicatrices

Ed Raymond

In the best times magnificent, in the worst times monstrous, the Roman Catholic Church with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has reached a spiritual cliff. Whether the Vatican retreats from the edge or leaps over depends a great deal on the election of the next pope. Popes often have had angels working on one shoulder and devils playing on the other.

If Dung Beetles Can Use Scientific Evidence, Why Can’t Politicians?

Ed Raymond

When I was a young farm boy and shoveling out our barn’s manure gutters filled by 20 contented cows during the night, I hoped that an army of dung beetles looking for delicacies would come and give me a hand...well, sort of. Dung beetles roll their nourishing meals into balls much larger than themselves and then roll them to safe places of w

A Political Divorce Based On Incompatibility

Ed Raymond

Corky and I lived in Sun City West for the winter three years ago, enjoying both the sun and the very quirky, sometimes Catch-22 Arizona political scene. Republican governor Jan Brewer, who gave one of her fingers to President Barack Obama when he visited Phoenix, never seemed to have any of her circuits runn

A New Political Bird: The White And Blue Evokwahd

Ed Raymond

The arguments about the use of military and civilian drones are getting sillier and sillier. Some of those arguments prove conclusively there is such a thing as reverse evolution. Drones will fill the world’s skies because they may represent a tipping point in warfare, and drones by the thousands will fly peaceti

The Gun Culture: Nestled In Cocoons Of Ignorance And Paranoia

Ed Raymond

Although we are living in West Fargo only for the winter months, Corky and I are considering returning to North Dakota to live permanently because of safety concerns. I see that only one person has been reported by North Dakota authorities to the federa

Memo To Obama And Hagel–-Go Where The Money Is

Ed Raymond

I have been an observer of Nebraska conservative “Republican” Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama’s choice for secretary of defense, for over 15 years. At various times during a week I am a libertarian, a c

Enough Already

Ed Raymond

What is the difference between “homesteading” and “seasteading?” For the citizens of the United States, I guess it’s our national debt of about 16,400,000,000,000 dollars. And we have acquired it in less than 200 years. In the 19th and 20th centuries, our D.C. government offered land to develop parts of our country through the passage of vari

Will The United States Lead The Futures Race?

Ed Raymond

Each year a global futures research tank called the Millennium Project publishes a report on our future, prepared from 10,000 pages of data collected from reliable sources. It is surprisingly positive about the future in a short summary: “It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address its challenges. The world is getting richer, healthier, better educated, more peacefu

The NRA Gun Lobby And Frankenmurders

Ed Raymond

A Catholic priest who spent a lot of his time consoling survivors of death and destruction because of his religious role has said that a civilized people shows empathy and mercy by “entering into the chaos of another.” In

The American Disease

Ed Raymond

I was horrified by the mass murder of 20 first graders and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary, but I wasn’t at all surprised. I have written over 1,100 weekly columns over the last 20 years, and I esti

Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching Off The Cliff...

Ed Raymond

I have been in used bookstores from Key West to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and occasionally I find a jewel of a book that either ruptures an idea or adds to one. My latest dollar-find is “The Great Escapes: Four Slave Narratives” first published in 1847 and then re-published much later by Barnes & Noble

Is The Military-Industrial Complex A Trillion Dollar Bonus To The Rich? You Betcha!

Ed Raymond

North Dakota lost two good men in a bad war a couple of weeks ago. We have 1,100 military bases scattered around the world in very hot and very cold places just daring our “enemies” to expose themselves to our influence and firepower. We have members of Congress fighting among themselves to see what new and expensive military widge

Now We Have Both Emperors And Generals Who Don’t Wear Clothes

Ed Raymond

Lee Marvin, one of my favorite tough-guy actors, could play military privates or generals and make them both believable. Perhaps not too many people know that Private Lee Marvin, U.S. Marine Corps, was awarded the Navy Cross in the World War II landing on Iwo Jima for helping to conquer Mount Surib

How About Cow’s Tongue For School Lunch?

Ed Raymond

I like the word “kerfuffle.” It describes perfectly a rather minor scrum-scrimmage among divergent opinions about a subject that affects a lot of people but is not life threatening. I thought all of the publicity about school lunches in the area lately was really a minor “kerfuffle.” Suddenly I realized that with all of my experiences with schools and school lunches I have a fork in this colorful omelet.

The Autopsy Report

Ed Raymond

Autopsies are performed after an organized group of cells dies, usually represented by a human body. The reasons for such a study vary. Prosecutors may be looking for a cause of death so that someone can be charged with a crime. Physicians may want to perform an autopsy to see why the

How About A Running Wheel In The Poorhouse?

Ed Raymond

I’m writing this column before I know the results of the election, but I know the topic of poverty or pauperism will still be around long after. The November issue of “In These Times” had an article by Maggie Garb that recalled the history of the first anti-poverty organization in the United States, the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. Poverty hasn’t changed much from 1818 since the Society iss

Is Our Moment Of Greatness Flickering? Is The Eternal Footman Snickering? Is Liquor Quicker Than Candy?

Ed Raymond

There are two poems I admire among many others because they get to the heart of a subject quickly, though by different routes. In Ogden Nash’s epic “Reflections On Ice-Breaking,” he sums up humanity quickly: “Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.” That’s it. That’s all there is. But doesn’t that sum up our society in a one-ounce shot glass? Don’t most of us use booze to make

The Resurrection of Al Capp’s Joe Btfsplk

Ed Raymond

The other day I heard a heart-warming story on National Public Radio about a mother elephant trying to rescue her newborn son from a very deep hole he had fallen into near an African desert waterhole. It seemed to be an impossib

Hedge Fund Founder: “I Probably Make More Money Than A Thousand Dentists”

Ed Raymond

Actually, Leon Cooperman, founder of the hedge fund Omega Advisors and a One Percenter (one of 1.4 million taxpayers in the top one percent), has a net worth more than what a thousand dentists would make in ten years if they paid no taxes or living expenses