Upcoming March Birthdays (Reasons to Celebrate)...
Friday was the 13th. The second Friday the 13th in a row (because February has 28 days). Two months in a row! Saturday the 14th was a very historical pi day. Sunday the 15th (today) is the Ides of...
View ArticleND House Votes No on LGBT Civil Rights Bills
The original bill passed the (Republican-controlled) North Dakota Senate by a close vote of 25-22 and the (Republican) Governor of ND, Jack Dalrymple, announced he would sign it. The (Republican) North...
View ArticleBaby Names That Start with "T"
The other day my girlfriend asked me if I ever thought about baby names. Did I have any preferences? I paused for a minute and said, "Well, there's sort of a tradition in my family that the oldest son...
View ArticleHappy Syttende Mai to My Norwegian-American Cousins!
The 17th of May (Syttende Mai) is the Norwegian version of the 4th of July in the U.S. My ancestors were all Norwegians. Most came here to America between about 1880-1910, but a few showed up earlier...
View ArticleI'm OK with Banning Trans-Fats (A Facebook Argument)
There's this guy I used to know who is a Facebook Friend. We once worked at the same company back in the 1980s (we were both editors at a computer magazine, in the old days when people with computers...
View ArticleFriendly Church Grandmas
I've been thinking about this and mourning for two days. Here are the pictures of the nine people Dylann Roof killed at the church in South Carolina.
View ArticleEqual Marriage in North Dakota: Good News and Bad News
First the good news: After the Supreme Court ruling on Friday, the Republican Governor of North Dakota, Jack Dalrymple, issued a terse one-sentence statement saying North Dakota will comply."The U.S....
View ArticleThese Are A Few Of My Favorite Songs
A Facebook friend posted a message a few days ago about his five favorite songs and, in my opinion, a couple of them sort of sucked. So I had to make my own list. I tried to keep it to five, but it...
View ArticleNorwegians vs. Swedes
My ancestors in the later 1800s were Norwegians who came to America. And there's a new 2015 movie I want to see (SVENSKJÄVEL/UNDERDOG). Here's the trailer for it:Norway and Sweden are very similar....
View ArticleHilarious Letter To The Editor
This appeared in todays Forum in Fargo, ND, reprinted from the Wishek ND Star and Ashley ND Tribune, about several items from the recent news:Letter: High court goes gay; GOP frets.
View ArticleThe Republican Non-Politicians Scored Highest Tonight
In the prime-time Republican debate, Donald Trump (egomaniacal media whore and occasionally bankrupt businessman) and Ben Carson (said to have been a respected surgeon at one time) were ranked #1 and...
View ArticleWhy Your Norwegian Ancestor Probably Wasn't a Viking King
A not-insignificant number of people with Norwegian ancestry honestly but naively believe that a branch of their family tree can be traced back to King Harald Fairhair or King Harald Hardruler or King...
View ArticleHypocrisy: Trump's Mother and Two of His Three Wives Were Immigrants
Donald Trump's mother came from Scotland (in the UK). His first wife, Ivana, was Czech. His second wife, Marla, was from the state of Georgia (so she was an American from the USA). His third and...
View ArticleUniversity of Missouri resignations
This story is fascinating. Players on the University of Missouri football team threatened to boycott Saturday's game unless Timothy Wolfe, the President of the University, resigned. So he did. And so...
View ArticleRemember That Dentist Who Killed Cecil The Lion?
This happened recently, about 20 to 30 miles from where I live, in Minnesota.Here's the article: DNR officials investigating alleged illegal hunting tactics on Walter Palmer's Clay County land.A senior...
View ArticleA Christmas Story from 100 Years Ago from my Great Aunt Alma
My father's father's father (farfarfar) was Thor Thorsen Grøden/Heimark (which he changed to Heimarck). His father, also named Thor, worked on merchant marine ships and lived in the area around...
View ArticleA Funny Thing Happened in the Forum (Letter to the Editor)
I’m a fan of Tony Bender who sometimes writes humorous/sarcastic letters to the editor of the Forum newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota. Here's his latest. Note: The first part is a reference to the NDSU...
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Harry Truman quote about Republicans (Plus Ca Change)
Someone shared this picture on my Facebook feed. What was true in 1948 is still true in 2016. The more things change, the more they stay the same.According to Snopes.com, it’s true. Here’s the link:...
View ArticleWe now have an Ambassador to Norway (after 869 days)
Republicans really don’t want the government to work. Ted Cruz placed a “hold” on Obama’s appointment for Ambassador to Norway. Because of Iran. WTF?Here’s the story:Sweden, Norway ambassadors finally...
View ArticleNo -- Trump Can't Win The General Election
Could Trump get nominated and then get elected? On Super Tuesday, Trump won seven primaries. I love numbers, so I decided to compare the 2016 Republican primary votes in those seven Trumpanista states...
View ArticleIf Trump Clinches the Nomination Soon, Could We See Another "Operation Chaos"?
What happens if Trump wins both the Ohio and Florida Republican primaries on March 15? OH and FL are winner-take-all states. Whoever gets the most votes gets ALL the delegates from those states....
View ArticleBernie Should Keep Campaigning and Then Be Nice if Hillary is Nominated
I love Bernie. I wish he'd be the nominee. But I've come to believe it won't happen.Yes, this is gonna be another math diary. I'll keep it simple -- but I write long. I didn't even use a spreadsheet --...
View ArticleGay-Friendly Church Asks For Rainbow Logo, Is Turned Down
And guess what? The graphics company that refused their business has a logo with rainbow colors.This happened in my neck of the woods. Here's the article from the local newspaper: Firm with rainbow...
View ArticleWill Rand Paul Lose His Senate Seat To A Gay Man?
The winner of the Kentucky Democratic Primary is Jim Gray, the openly gay mayor of Lexington, KY:Sen. Rand Paul to face Lexington Mayor Jim Gray in general electionRand Paul claims to be a libertarian....
View ArticleWill Trump Be Excluded from the Ballot in Minnesota?
Democrats in Minnesota have filed a petition asking the Supreme Court of Minnesota (SCOM) to order the Secretary of State (SOS) to remove Trump and Pence from the November ballot in MN. Early voting...
View ArticleI Can Predict the Presidential Race by Counting Syllables
I can confidently predict that Hillary Clinton will beat Donald Trump in 2016 because Clinton has two syllables in her name (which starts with the letter C, not the letter K) and Trump has only one...
View ArticleNorth Dakota Legislators And Their Wacky Ideas
Here are two crazy ideas for laws that have been proposed (but not yet passed) by ND legislators. You need to know that North Dakota is a very red state. Both the state house and state senate have huge...
View ArticleWhy Arming Teachers is a Bad Idea
1) Think about all the teachers you’ve had (from elementary through high school or college). I’ll bet almost everyone can name at least one teacher from their past – maybe even half a dozen or more –...
View ArticleMichelle Fischbach Has Resigned From Her MN State Senate Seat!
Michelle who? And why does this matter to Democrats? Get ready to read about some local/state political maneuvering in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.This story begins in January 2018, when the Democrat Al...
View ArticleThe New Yorker and Steve Bannon: My Rant About Freedom of Speech
Despite the fact that I despise essays that begin with “The dictionary definition of [something] is [blah blah blah],” I will start by reminding everyone what the First Amendment says. Here it...
View ArticleBlack and White Music: The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, The Specials,...
I’m gonna jump from one song to another, mostly at random. The theme is black and white. Maybe you can follow my logic. Maybe not.I don’t know why I recently thought of this song, but it’s one of my...
View ArticleTrump and His Four Walls
Donald Trump seems to think that the solution to everything is walls. If he could just build enough walls, the American people would be very happy and they would love him. I came up with four examples....
View ArticleThe Emperor’s New Wall
I have a plan that’s so crazy it just might work. I call it “The Emperor’s New Wall.” We’ll need about 10,000 mimes. Thanks to my sister for giving me the seed for this idea.First, we tell Trump that...
View ArticleMy Six Theories About Why Trump Caved on the Government Shutdown
Trump caved. He backed down. I have a few theories, one or more of which might be a factor in why he finally signed the bill to fund the government for a few weeks: A friend of mine said maybe Trump...
View ArticleThe Day the Music Died – Feb. 3, 1959
This coming Sunday is the sixtieth anniversary of the plane crash in an Iowa snow storm that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper. February 3, 1959, is sometimes called “The Day the...
View ArticleWhy Is Trump Raising Chinese Tariffs Once Again?
I have several theories. It might be any one of them, or it might be a combination.Theory #1: He thinks his actions are putting pressure on the Chinese economy – and on their trade negotiators. Which...
View ArticleImpeachment: We Might Not Need 67 Senators To Convict Trump
A friend pointed this out to me. The U.S. Constitution says this in Article I, Section 3, Paragraph 6 (emphasis mine):The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that...
View ArticleThe 1919 Spanish Flu Pandemic: A Story of Stanley Cup Sportsmanship
The Spanish Flu Pandemic lasted three years (1918-1920). It infected approximately 500 million people, roughly a third of the world’s population, and killed somewhere between 17 to 50 million people....
View ArticleFrivolous Lawsuit In MN-4A State House District
In November I voted for Democrat Heather Keeler for MN State House 4A and she won. I live in Moorhead, MN, across the river from Fargo, ND. The Republican, Edwin Hahn, has filed a lawsuit disputing the...
View ArticleVaccinations and My Norwegian Ancestors
Here’s a short history of smallpox vaccinations (plus a few notes about my Norwegian ancestors and some etymology of words thrown in) . . .#1: The first vaccine in Europe was created to prevent...
View ArticleJoe Biden Rocks: He Acknowledged Massacres Of Armenians in Turkey and...
I like Biden better than Trump. But I think almost anyone would be better than Trump.I’ve come to admire Biden a lot because in April he declared that Turkey committed genocide when they killed an...
View ArticleDo Fireworks Add Carbon To The Atmosphere? A Little. They're Still Bad.
A friend posted on Facebook that fireworks emit the equivalent carbon of a years’ worth of 12,000 cars. And that’s why she was against fireworks. She got several responses calling her a libtard (or...
View ArticleA Baseball Story: Nap Lajoie and Ty Cobb in 1910
The Chalmers Automobile Company was founded in 1908. By 1911, they were the eighth largest car company in the U.S. That’s not too shabby, considering that in 1915 there were over 250 American companies...
View ArticleThe “Big Inning” Theory Of The World Series
About twenty years ago, I had a friend in Seattle who liked to make small bets – a few bucks or a couple of beers – on all sorts of sports. Brian usually started by saying “Let’s make this...
View ArticleElon Musk Is Rich But He Doesn’t Understand Freedom of Speech
My history: I bought my first computer in the early 1980s. I had taken one computer class in college, where I learned to write programs in BASIC. Soon thereafter, I got a Commodore VIC-20 with 3.5K of...
View ArticleMoorhead School Board Election Had Right Wing Nuts On The Ballot
In Moorhead, MN, I voted today a little after noon (lunchtime). I had to wait in line for about 15 minutes, which was fine. I voted 100% for Democrats in the statewide races because I like all of the...
View ArticleA North Dakota Republican’s Personal Pronoun Bill
A legislator from West Fargo, ND, has proposed an utterly crazy law that says any organization that receives state funding must use the pronouns based on an individual’s determined sex at birth, male...
View ArticleI've Never Owned A Gun
Here’s a story about a guy I knew when I lived in Seattle. He grew up in rural Illinois. His father was a pig farmer. My friend went to college and became a computer programmer and got a good job in...
View ArticleTrump Lawyer John Eastman Admits It Was A Coup Attempt
I found this article from Talking Points Memo (TPM) very informative.John Eastman Comes Clean: Hell Yes We Were Trying to Overthrow the GovernmentJohn Eastman was one of the lawyers who advised Trump...
View ArticleRepublicans Are Digging A Deeper Hole
What are they thinking? Do Republicans even think?I’m old enough to remember Watergate and the impeachment/conviction of Nixon, which didn’t happen because it was thwarted by Nixon’s resignation...
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