Dakota Beacon

Regrettably some gullible Americans buy into liberals’ campaign rhetoric and mainstream media advocacy while nevertheless behaving conservatively in their personal affairs. This in spite of the discrepancy some politicians promise to “fix” but never seem to resolve “poverty,” “education,” “energy,” “health care,” ad infinitum.

The late William F. Buckley, Jr. stated his faith in American conservatism. He once remarked, “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the [liberal] faculty of Harvard University.”

That says it all. Conservatism lives.

As we begin year two of President Donald Trump’s leadership from the White House, it is significant to look back and ask: What has the president done to help America’s economy grow? In this article, Dr. Mark Hendrickson examines the past year and notes specific actions and policies the administration has put into place to make year one an economic success.

THE MAIN STREET ND SUMMIT; HIGHER OIL PRODUCTION; CARA MUND; “THEY ARE NO LESS DESERVING”; A GOOD INTENTION; THERE’S AN ECHO; ACTOR OR FOOTBALL STAR?; RED FAWN FELLIS; WANT A PRESTIGIOUS JOB?; MONSTER SNOWPLOWS; DEADLY BORDER; THE MORE THE MERRIER: DAKTOIDS 

The National Review Years, September 4, 1981 — Two decades ago the Berlin Wall went up nearly overnight, the most brutally unequivocal symbol of the division between our awed civilization and the clumsy barbarism that threatens it. In August the occasion was commemorated by two major American publications.

it is sobering that the Free World’s capital’s single newspaper — one of the two or three leading newspapers in the nation, the one most of our federal officials read every morning — sees fit to mark the anniversary of the Berlin Wall with a flippant defense of the Wall. Rosse and the Post are no doubt entitled to attitudinize lightly about American of officialdom. But to turn this sort of urbaner-than-thou “irreverence” toward official rhetoric into a total derogation of the freedom of East Germans, penned inside a huge political prison — that’s different. That’s serious — no matter how bantering the tone, how glancing the apology for the men who keep the prison.

The Drudge Report, that titan of news-aggregator traffic loses out because of an area in which it may be without peer: providing eyeballs for left-wing websites. More on that momentarily.

It’s not hard to put your finger on what makes Whatfinger stand out: much more news, more conservative news and better views.Whatfinger is well organized and above-board, presenting headline news from various sources, categories for right-wing and left-wing outlets (with the latter far smaller!), and a prominent video section.

Growing tensions between the United States and North Korea have many people on edge. Such was the case over the weekend in Hawaii when a ballistic missile warning caused panic after being accidently sent to residents. Is the possibility of a war with North Korea increasing? In this article, military scholar Dr. Earl Tilford details what the current administration can do to prepare for escalating threats from North Korea. Tilford writes, “Military force must be the last resort, but if it becomes necessary, it must be used overwhelmingly to reach a decisive and rapid conclusion.”

In May 1940, western civilization hung in the balance. Pressure was high to negotiate with the Nazis in Great Britain but Winston Churchill stood boldly and refused. Recently, Dr. Paul Kengor watched the new biopic “Darkest Hour.” In this article that first appeared at The American Spectator, Kengor discusses “Darkest Hour” and writes, “This powerful film portrays what [Churchill] was up against and how he prevailed—a rousing lesson from the time and for the ages.”

As for Trump, his alleged potty-mouth moment was reported by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a scoundrel with a history of lying about White House meetings, according to Daily Wire. But whatever the president said, he said in private. This is far different from Durbin, who introduced the story. It’s far different from ex-California Democratic Party chairman John Burton, who led a “F*** Donald Trump!” chant at California’s Democratic Party convention in Sacramento early last year. And it’s far different from CNN and the rest of the effluent-stream media, which, like an exhibitionist, just revel in the chance to flaunt publicly what excites them privately.

They are despicable. May they be the first to drown in the wave of tyranny they invite.

Those prone to castigate capitalism as a greed-based economic system would do well to look past demagoguery and invoke objectivity. Historical precedent will help.

Capitalism may not be perfect, but millions of individual decisions based on self-interest in a free society beats relying on a government bureaucracy, committee, commission or politburo deciding who gets what, when, how much and at what price in the distribution of goods, services and accumulated wealth.

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Roger Stone, a longtime Trump advisor and confidante, certainly knows his way around Washington, having worked as a senior campaign aide to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Senator Bob Dole as well as having held many other political positions. This proximity to the Deep State is what makes his claim, expressed in a recent wide-ranging interview with The New American magazine’s Alex Newman, that much more eyebrow-raising. Stone outlined three plans the Deep State has for eliminating the president.

Liberalism has succeeded in imposing its verbal prescriptions on the whole population: everyone must now mind even his or her pronouns, or face obloquy.

“Discrimination” now betokens not a fine mind, but a character flaw: one that makes you Politically Incorrect

In spite of opposition from Democrats, the mainstream media and never-Trump Republicans, President Trump is succeeding beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. The libs and never-Trumpers fear the next 3 years – much less possibly 4 years beyond. This is hardly the product of a lunatic as portrayed by the mainstream media. Given the opposition to Trump, his success is delicious to watch.

In effect, President Trump is deconstructing liberalism and unravelling the administrative state! What follows is a comprehensive list of Tabor’s points. Space does not permit an exhaustive list.

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Recently I reported on the firing of Mateo Rueda, now an ex-art teacher after showing 10 and 11-year-olds nude “artwork” at Lincoln Elementary School in Hyrum, Utah on Dec. 4. Normally I would have let this story go by now, but Rueda continues playing the victim, aided and abetted by complicit reporters; libertines the world over; and, unfortunately, some good people who don’t realize that the media have mischaracterized his trespass.

Rueda, a native of Colombia, demands an apology, even as he condemns his fellow Cache Valley residents as “cultural dead-ends” and members of a “narrow-minded community.” He also said, “I was overqualified[;] I took the [teaching] position with an open heart to make a difference in a predominantly[] Mormon community where there isn’t much culture.” My, charitable as well as charming! Yet his defenders — who’ve called people such as me puritans, prudes and even Nazi-like book burners — should know that Rueda himself confessed that the nudes were out of bounds.

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A quote for the passage of time: “Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever.” How appropriately Horace Mann expressed the passage of time.

Another year has passed forever. A new year dawns and with it brings another chance to redeem our time in 2018. Mom used to advise not to wish time away. The end of time will come soon enough for every person. Wishing away time is poor stewardship of a valuable resource.

Let the pundits recap 2017. To gain a better feel for the magnitude and speed of change one need only to glimpse at the past thousand years. Change and the passage of time go hand-in-hand. They impact the tempo of our lives and over the past millennia that tempo increased radically. Historical factoids illustrate that fact and provide context for understanding follow-on events.

As we begin 2018, there are sure to be major political stories in America this year: spending bill battles, midterm elections, foreign policy debates, special congressional elections, the economy and many more. To help set the stage for 2018, Dr. Gary Welton looks back 50 years to 1968—arguably one of the most interesting campaign seasons in recent American history. Welton details what a fascinating (and at times very tragic) year it was for America in 1968.

It is, of course, impossible for anyone to invent a single saying worthy of Jesus. Much easier to coin a phrase worthy of a human genius like Shakespeare! “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” Jesus said, “but my words shall not pass away.” Once we have heard those words, they become part of us. They seem so familiar that we may think they are trite, but they are not. They are eternally new, even when we have heard them all our lives, and they always reward meditation on them.

In the modern world quite often when a person becomes a Christian they inevitably question the ephemeral culture surrounding them. Christians, by their very nature, have at times been regarded as a threat to the authority of the state. Some people unfortunately still hold that view.

No totalitarian state can tolerate people who hold absolute standards by which to judge that state and its behavior. In Roman times, as in our own, Christians held a standard by which to judge morals and the state. As such, Roman Christians were regarded as enemies of the state and of Caesar, god of the empire. The emperor as god merely constituted amplified humanity. When Roman society collapsed, their god went with it. During the chaos of decline, people eventually accepted authoritarian government. Christians, however, were not caught in the flux of the relativistic world.

Rome’s Christians had answers -- answers to ultimate questions all people ask at one time or another. Why am I here? What happens when I die? Christians could face persecution because they had the strength of a personal, eternal God who had spoken truth to them. It was their faith that granted them the strength to face horrible death in the Roman arena. Throughout the centuries their strength could not be overcome despite their persecution. Not only did Christianity survive, it grew and spanned cultures, peoples, and millennia.

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At its monthly meeting on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote to repeal a 2015 regulation that has become known as net neutrality. What are these Obama-era internet regulations? And is repealing them good or bad for American citizens? In this article, Dr. Brian Dellinger details the 2015 regulations and why repealing them may be the way to go. He writes, “Whatever one’s feelings on net neutrality, the 2015 rules should be seen for what they are: a staggering expansion of bureaucratic power, by decree of the bureaucracy itself.”

Our unofficial motto, once E pluribus unum, has beome E pluribus plura — out of many, many more. This is why we fight over everything, from life’s origin to politics to football to baking cakes to marriage to, even, what boys and girls are. It’s why everything ends up in court.

As for the end game, people with badly conflicting values trying to co-exist under the same roof will eventually go their separate ways — unless, as with bickering children, an iron hand keeps them in line. The large groups of people known as countries are no different. Unless something radically alters our cultural trajectory, as a nuclear blast might alter an asteroid’s, our fate is either dissolution or despotism.

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Should employees who chose not to join a public sector union be forced to pay the equivalent of dues to the union? Especially when the collective bargaining positions of the union are antithetical to their own political and ideological beliefs? In this article, Dr. John Sparks examines the case of Janus v. AFSCME—a case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next term—and points out that “fair share” regimes of public sector unions may be unconstitutional.

Our forefathers understood something we seldom see clearly today. Government of free people must begin with self-control. To govern oneself internally is the prerequisite of free people living in a republic. If people cannot govern themselves internally, then all the external forms of government in the world will not be effective in a democracy. In America’s great experiment with democracy, morals matter and character counts.

If my generation has a low aptitude for moral behavior, then there is always the next generation. The younger generation may find that morality tends to provide some structure to an otherwise chaotic life.

The columnist Michelle Malkin writes, “We are under attack by Secularist Grinches Gone Wild.” Pat Buchanan goes so far as to speak of “hate crimes” against Christians.

I disagree. In some parts of the world, from Sudan to China, Christians really are being persecuted, even murdered. But what is going on in America’s symbolic opposition to Christianity is something different.

Sometimes I think the anti-Christian forces take Christ more seriously than most nominal Christians do. The Western world, including many of those who consider themselves Christians, has turned Christmas into a bland holiday of mere niceness. If you don’t get into the spirit, you’re likely to be called a Scrooge.

The natural reaction to Christ is to reject him. He said so. In fact, when he was taken to the Temple as an infant, St. Simeon prophesied that he would be a center of contention. Later he predicted his own death and told his followers they must expect persecution too.

“[A]t the near-genius level (an IQ of 145), brilliant men outnumber brilliant women by 8 to one,” wrote Professor Richard Lynn in 2010. Of course, the ratio varies depending on what data you use, but the pattern is unmistakable, consistent and finds no disagreement among experts: As you move up the I.Q. scale, the ratio becomes more skewed in men’s favor until (according to the study here) the category “I.Q. over 176,” where there is no ratio — because no woman scored that high.

Why this disparity? I’d theorize that it’s for the same reason why males are more likely to develop X-linked chromosomal abnormalities (such as color-blindness or hemophilia): because, put simply, the Y (male) chromosome increases the chances of anomalies’ emergence. And, well, genius is an anomaly.

Of course, this phenomenon would apply to other abilities as well, whether in music, art, athletics, cooking, chess, writing or, well, most anything else under the sun.

This is why virtually all history’s inventors and innovators have been men. It’s why, barring some bizarre, nature-rending genetic engineering (which would also be birthed by men), they always will be. 

Tumult and turbulence roil the otherwise serene political landscape.

Not! Sex scandals are hardly new in the political realm and America has seen her fair share over the past few decades.

Earlier this week, CVS announced that it was buying Aetna for around $69 billion. The deal between the drugstore giant and health insurance provider could have major implications on America’s the healthcare industry. In this article, Richard D. Kocur looks at the deal and suggests it could “signal a new approach to delivering access to affordable healthcare.”