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Transparency as good as confession

M y cover has been outed. A friend said he Googled me and discovered that I was older than dirt. Since it may not be dirt from the Garden of Eden, the cat is out of the bag and the truth must be told. I was born prematurely and have been on a dead run since. It was during the Great Depression when I became the eighth in the family of 11 – and we weren’t even Catholic. For my mom, the depression got to be greater so she wanted to name me “Depressing” but my Dad found a Lloyd in English history so that became my name. It came in handy because my advertising agency could be named ...

Miss America could unravel ND politics

Bismarck native Cara Mund, crowned Miss America for 2018 at the Boardwalk Hall Arena in Atlantic City, has announced that she will challenge both the Republican and Democratic candidates for Congress as an independent in the November election. To get her name on the ballot, she will have to gather at least 1,000 signatures to file with the Office of Secretary State Al Jaeger by Sept. 6. The 28-year-old graduate from the Harvard Law School indicated that she was motivated to become a candidate when the abortion case of Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. ...

Measure 1’s ‘conservative approach’ is logical

With the recent news that New Approach ND has cleared the signature threshold easily to secure the newly christened Measure 1 onto the 2022 ballot, this deep red conservative state is once again mulling the legalization of cannabis. Not that anyone should get their hopes up and start ordering seeds and grow lights or shopping for elaborate bongs on the Internet. Just four years ago a previous measure was defeated with nearly 60% of North Dakotans voting against legalization. In the aftermath, the activists and the committee supporting legal cannabis in this state had to regroup and ...

Unicameral system better than term limits

The citizens are restless. They seem to be frustrated with the failure of government to respond or interact with the voters and are looking for options to loosen up the system. Jared Hendrix, GOP chair of a legislative district in the Minot area, filed a petition with 46,366 signatures to limit the terms of governors and legislators but Secretary State Al Jaeger threw out 29,101, leaving the petitions short of the 31,164 required to get on the ballot. The Secretary of State claimed that “suspected” signatures were forged and on the basis of being suspected they were dismissed. ...

Ideologies, divisions bring us closer to national divorce

The Fargo school board recently voted to cease the practice of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of meetings. The explanations from the board’s leaders focused on distinctions around capitalization and how the uppercase “G” can be marginalizing to some. Apparently, something more “unifying” was preferred. Country duo Big & Rich even got involved when they performed at Essential Health Plaza in West Fargo shortly after the story took off, where they led the crowd in reciting the Pledge, capping the moment off shouting, “take that, commie school board!” ...

Ectopic, miscarriage misinformation is tragedy

The Supreme Court of the United States, in a long-awaited move, has recognized that what had been considered a constitutional right to end the life of an unborn human being through abortion is not actually, and has never been, an enumerated right in our Constitution. As such, that potential right is, according to the Constitution, a matter for each individual state and its voters to decide through their democratically elected legislators. While this is still a far cry from recognizing the right to life guaranteed by the First Amendment for each and every human being – born and ...