“How,” my friend and classmate Carla recently asked “can you be both Norwegian and Catholic?” A reasonable question. We grew up in Hettinger, North Dakota, where the Germans were Catholic and the Norwegians were Lutheran. For the most part. Catholics were named Schmidt and Nagel and Slater and Seifert and Schmaltz. Lutherans were named Braaten … Continue reading A Norwegian Catholic?
Category: Law, Government, Politics
Every Frackin’ Acre
The threats to the Bad Lands, and to some of North Dakota’s most important pristine places, never seem to end. In fact, the pace of the threats quickens each month, each week, each day, it seems. I’m not sure why I just learned about this—I must not have been paying attention—but a story in Sunday’s … Continue reading Every Frackin’ Acre
On Reaching 65 – Hooray For Me
If I ever become a rich man, Or if ever I grow to be old, I will build a house with a deep thatch To shelter me from the cold . . . I will hold my house in the high wood, Within a walk of the sea. And men that were boys when I … Continue reading On Reaching 65 – Hooray For Me
Weekenders
CUE CARDS Mike Jacobs, publisher of the Grand Forks Herald, wrote one of his political analysis columns this past week. Jacobs has long been the most astute journalist in North Dakota. Two quotes stood out. Commenting on the closeness of the race between Heidi Heitkamp and Rick Berg for the U.S. Senate, Jacobs made reference … Continue reading Weekenders
Weekenders
THE CHANCELLORS’S NEW CAR “I’m not coming from San Francisco. I am not a Beverly Hills person,” he said. “Most of my board members never (wear) ties ... and they drive pickup trucks,—and in fact, I will be driving a truck too.” That was the new North Dakota University System Chancellor Hamid Shirvani, quoted in … Continue reading Weekenders
Hold The Champagne
In spite of what you read in the newspaper, don’t pop any champagne corks and celebrate victory over the dude who wants to dig a gravel pit at the Elkhorn Ranch just quite yet. As Yogi Berra says, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. The Associated Press reported last week that “Development of a gravel … Continue reading Hold The Champagne
A Sad Time For America
The article I wrote on the Affordable Care Act last week, quoting liberally from information provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation, generated about the most response I've gotten on anything I have written on this blog. It's an issue that brings out strong passions, yet it remains one of the least-understood pieces of Legislation ever … Continue reading A Sad Time For America
What Obamacare Does and Doesn’t Do
I am sick and damn tired of all these uninformed, misinformed, sanctimonious President Obama-haters who are using the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, as a whipping post to try to get rid of the President and all Democrats now holding elective office. The elected office holders and candidates, like Romney … Continue reading What Obamacare Does and Doesn’t Do
The Prairie Provides, When It Is Taken Care Of
My friend Darrell Dorgan dedicated nearly 15 years of his life to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame. I was with him at the Lonesome Dove bar on the Strip in Mandan back in 1994 or 1995 when a guy neither of us knew, Phil Baird, brought a bunch of us together and pitched … Continue reading The Prairie Provides, When It Is Taken Care Of
Let’s All Go To The Elkhorn Ranch
You’re reading about Theodore Roosevelt’s ranch home in the North Dakota Bad Lands in the 1880’s, the Elkhorn Ranch, a lot lately. Not just here. It’s national news now. It’s in the local newspapers. Lauren Donavon at the Bismarck Tribune is doing a darn good job of telling the story of the threats to the … Continue reading Let’s All Go To The Elkhorn Ranch
The Prairie Blog 