One of the silliest things for which we are taxed here in North Dakota is horse racing. We all have things we like and things we dislike, but this one tops my list for indefensible spending. Horses are magnificent animals. In earlier times they were used for every imaginable purpose, like gathering food and fighting…
John Andrist: Another “F Word” We Probably Shouldn’t Use
“You’re fired!!” Boy, talk about action verbs. No wonder it is becoming more and more difficult to terminate an employment relationship. In the years when I was running my own small business not once did I use that F (“fire”) word. Mind you, I made a few hiring mistakes in my day that had to…
John Andrist: By the Math, Kindness Is Winning
Do the math! There was a lone gunman who entered a small Texas church a couple Sundays ago, creating carnage. That same day there were approximately 351,000 churches open for business. If you were one of those attending church, and you smiled at someone, shook a hand, gave a hug, or said a prayer you…
John Andrist: Armageddon, Just Around the Corner?
The news is bad this week. Very bad! I might as well get it out, because sooner or later you are going to face it. It’s over. Finished. Done. And I’m giving it to you straight out of a prestigious British medical journal called Lancet. Well, almost straight, because it has been filtered through USA…
John Andrist: Getting Out of Dodge Doesn’t Solve Problems
“What do you think about Sen Jeff Flake?”, my left tilting daughter texted a couple days ago. My answer is the same way I felt when Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said he was quitting: very disappointed. President Trump is probably the least civil president in U.S. history. I understand the frustration and disappointment of these…
John Andrist: Free Speech Requires Dilligence
“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. I don’t remember hearing those words as a child. But I remember my parents using the admonition to mollify my little brother. Our family was sometimes a warring bunch, and when Willie came along he was an easy target for three siblings…
John Andrist: Celebrate or Tear Down Our History?
Some people call it revisionism. Others prefer the term re-writing history, but by any name its a slippery slope on which we are riding these days. Revisionism was once a practice employed only by tyrants and revolutionaries, who wanted people to believe there was nothing before them, nor to follow them. Today it has become…
John Andrist: A Good Woman Wanted for President
I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to having our first woman president for these disjointed United States. I’ve noted in the past that the female sex seems to be out-starring those of us equipped with low voices, a larger body frame, and somewhat larger biceps. I suspect it is because of our…
John Andrist: U.S. Healthcare Is Too Big to Succeed
I would have loved to have given North Dakota a crack at devising its own health care system. The federal government is hopelessly in debt, while our state has the luxury of multiple savings accounts, called trust funds. We’re smarter, smaller, and far more innovative than Washington. And we have a can-do mentality. That’s why…
John Andrist: Intellect Applied . . . or Just to Argue?
It’s almost 70 years since I was a high school student, but I still remember a discussion from our Present Day Problems class when we were seniors. The earth’s population was about 2 billion people, and the scientific community was debating at what point population growth would create mass starvation. They could not have conceived…