Dakota Beacon

Is allowing Russia and Iran to call the shots in the Middle East an American foreign-policy mistake? Could a major war—a nuclear war involving Israel—become more likely? In this interesting article, military historian Dr. Earl Tilford examines the rapidly changing political landscape in the Middle East and warns, “Washington’s only chance to retrieve a semblance of strategic leadership in the Middle East is to move decisively against ISIS.” 

CHEW ON THAT; LUTHEREN SOCIAL SERVICES ON THE DEFENSIVE; FARGO’S MOMENT IN THE SUN; IMPASSE; LOSS OF OIL MARKET; SECOND THOUGHTS ON WILLISTON AIRPORT SPENDING; WHOA AT NDSU!; FARGO RAINMAKER; POOR AND DUMB; PRESSURE MOUNTS DUE TO MINNEAPLIS VIOLENCE; MORE TWIN CITY CIVIL SUITS; DAKTOIDS 

This weekend, a highly anticipated film about prominent Hollywood screenwriter and communist Dalton Trumbo debuts in theaters. Will the movie detail the truth about Trumbo? In this interesting article that first appeared at Investor’s Business Daily, Cold War and communism historian Dr. Paul Kengor shares important background information about who Dalton Trumbo really was. 

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has been excoriated for setting up the CNBC debate, but he perhaps stumbled into gold. No, taking down incompetent propagandists is no substitute for having a fair media in the first place. But, as G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “War is not the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.” The media have long been launching the salvos and settling matters. It’s time to fight back in the spirit of settling their hash.

To help commemorate Veterans Day, Dr. Paul Kengor tells the story of an American hero: Frank Kravetz, a World War II veteran and former captive of Nuremberg Prison Camp. Kengor writes, “The freedoms we have today, many of which we merrily abuse today, are possible only because of the abuse they suffered at the hands of hellacious enemies 70 years ago.”

In our stupid pragmatism, we keep trying to fashion laws for human beings without defining human nature. It can't be done. You can't make laws appropriate for man, any more than for dog, until you decide whether the critter is angel, beast, or what.

Today Europe faces an immigration crisis of epic proportions from the Muslim world. Purportedly the migration was generated in response to Muslim fighting in the Middle East and the Syrian civil war in particular. Yet, most of the photos and TV footage show predominately young men, not women and children, allegedly escaping the Syrian war zone.

Question: What does Europe’s Islamic colonization imply about our own lack of security and federal policy of non-enforcement along our southern and northern borders? Let the reader decide before the US elections.

FORMER PRES. TOM CLIFFORD; WHAT THEY ARE SAYINg;  NOT QUITE; NEW HONESTY; MORE HONESTY NEEDED; JESUS TURNS MEAN; INTOLERANT FORUM; ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE; LEND A HAND; THE SPOOKIEST HOTEL IN ND; MAKE IT AN EVEN; BAKKEN VALUES TUMBLE; THE NORTH DAKOTA/MINNESOTA STEREOTYPE; DAKTOIDS

Concussions, especially occurring in the game of football, have been the subject of many recent news articles. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, brain injuries have a more devastating impact on a child than a similar injury has on an adult. So, how young is too young to start playing tackle football? In this interesting article, Dr. Gary Welton examines football from the NFL to youth leagues and encourages experts in the field to gather more data on concussions. 

The following is a tribute to all veterans on Veterans Day 2015.

What better way to commemorate the spirit and excellence of America’s veterans past and present than to recount a legendary battle of the Persian Gulf War. This battle, little known by the American public, is intensely studied in military schools as a classic of modern tactics. Within twenty-three minutes a U.S. Army cavalry troop, out-manned and out-gunned by as much as 5 to 1, reduced an Iraqi motorized rifle brigade of the Republican Guard to scrap iron without itself suffering a single casualty. Will America again know such success in a reduced state of military preparedness?

This is the story of the Battle of 73 Easting.

The dilemma America now encounters is, “How will the US Armed Forces fare tomorrow in a major conflict with China or Russia or in the Middle East in the face of sequestration and the on-going purge of senior military officers?” These are real detriments to America’s military capability.

The wind beneath the Mohameds’ wings, the juvenile media, would rather play useful idiot than expose Crock Boy. Part of this, no doubt, is that his tale advances the leftist victim group/victimizer group narrative. And as a Students for a Democratic Society radical once put it, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.”

Yet there’s another factor: the media are generally ignorant and deluded.

And sometimes downright stupid.

There’s also a psychological phenomenon whereby people would rather participate in a fraud than admit they’d been duped. It’s “‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ — lest I fully realize I’m a dope.”

If those of us saying Clock Boy is Crock Boy are wrong, there was always a simple way to prove it. Exhibit A, the smoking gun — the clock. Where’s the clock?

Oh, yeah, it’s in the corn field with Hillary’s emails. 

DISSIDENTS PLEASE GO AWAY!; WHOSE FAILURE?; THE THIRD BOOM; "WE ARE BUCKING TRENDS AROUND HERE"; BURN IT!; BEHEMOTH; FANCIFUL OR VISIONARY?; FANCIFUL OR VISIONARY?; MN STATE COLLEGE & UNIVERSITIES; THE BLACK LIVES MATTER; ARMED ROBBERIES; CRAIG COBB; HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT; OH MY!; DAKTOIDS

"Put off sodomy, fornication, and iniquity," Saint Paul tells us -- "turn around and put on the garment of Christ!"

Their reply? "No, thanks!" For them, the garment of Christ is a straitjacket. 

Instead liberation from sin, they want liberation from truth.

Like a cancer, the error that has infected many in the hierarchy now infects the popular culture as well.

We can be grateful, at least, that the cards are now face-up on the table. The issue isn't an empty abstraction -- "equality," or "liberty," or "rights" -- it never has been.

The issue is sodomy.

Was Arthur Miller a great playwright? Was he a communist or a patriot? And, as students today study his plays, what are they learning about Miller’s beliefs and motives? In this comprehensive article that first appeared at The American Spectator, Dr. Paul Kengor thoroughly investigates Miller’s actions, connections, and beliefs to offer a history that many students will not receive while studying his plays. 

One thing worse than supporting bad policy is knowingly supporting bad policy.

Worse still is knowingly supporting bad policy and shielding yourself from its destructive effects — while visiting that policy on children. 

As for legislation creating gun-free zones, I’m game. Really. But with one condition written in: any politician voting for the bill must put a “Gun Free Zone” zone sign in front of his home. After all, Mr. Compassionate Liberal, if it’s good enough for America’s children, it’s good enough for you.  

A re-reading of the book “The Creature from Jekyll Island” by G. Edward Griffin, Appleton, WI: American Opinion (1994) proved very worthwhile. Accumulation of the tremendous national debt by the United States was motivation enough. The US debt now stands at somewhat more than $18 trillion. Of that amount, the Obama administration has added $9 trillion.

Despite the book’s title, this is not a “B” novel. It is a very readable history of the creation and workings of the Federal Reserve System, America’s central bank. The title refers to Jekyll Island off the Georgia coast where a clandestine meeting in November 1910 attended by an elite group of financiers gave birth to the Federal Reserve. This is the unbelievable story of smoke and mirrors; pulleys, cogs and wheels that create the grand illusion called money.

BREACH OF DUTY; MORE KELLEY; PLEASE, NOT SUNDOGS!; GRAND SKY; ELUSIVE NITROGEN PLANTS; THE 90TH SAUERKRAUT DAY; THE REACTION HAS BEEN INSANE; SURELY, SHE WILL BE OUT AFTER 3 STRIKES; RACIAL CONFLICT; ST. CLOUD; FARGO’S NEW POLICE CHIEF; ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ JR.; DAKTOIDS

In 2011, two American heroes saved a young child from further torture at the hands of an Afghan soldier. The two Green Berets were faced with inexcusable acts that pitted them against local officials in a classic episode involving a clash of civilizations. So why are the heroes being punished and possibly discharged against their will?

In this must-read article, Dr. Marvin Folkertsma recounts the event and argues that a dangerous ideology is the true enemy. A reigning ideology that is “a witch’s brew of moral relativism that over the past two generations has morally castrated Western civilization by expunging efforts to make principled judgments defending our values.”

A routine trip to a baseball game in Cleveland, Ohio, became an unexpected illustration that “everyday goodness … is what America is really all about.” In this interesting article, Dr. Mark Hendrickson recounts his visit to Progressive Field and his encounters with people who exemplify what it means to be an American.

As autumn weather beckons folks are ready to embark on one more physical fitness fling before winter. The over-50 crowd feel like a million bucks and want to prove it. Funny how the mind says “I feel like a kid again” but the body says “Give me a break!”

Time to get moving!

As aerobic fitness improves, three things stand out. First, you may need to recalculate your TARGET heart rate higher as your CR system becomes more efficient. Second, your resting heart rate may begin to drop. This, too, reflects a more efficient CR system. A normal resting heart rate should be between 60 and 100 bpm. And, third, you will recover your resting heart rate from the peak of your target heart rate in less time immediately following exercise.

You may discover other pleasing side effects as well. Your muscle tone will improve and your weight will be redistributed as your muscles strengthen and you control your food intake. All of this contributes to a healthy sense of well-being.

WHY IS IT?; THE ANNE E CASEY FOUNDATION; HERE’S A CLUE;EYES BIGGER THAN STOMACH?; OH, OH!; YOUNG AND PROSPEROUS; COLUMNIST CLAY JENKINSON; UND’S LAMBDA CHI ALPHA; A LITTLE HEAT; PARODY LOGO; FONDLY REMEMBERED; RASHAD TURNER; HOW MANY MILLIONS?; DAKTOIDS

It’s not a stretch to say that what ex-president Jimmy Carter did for Iran, Barack Obama is doing for the whole Middle East and beyond. Islamic State is on the move; jihadism in general is raging and all the rage; and with the Iran deal, the man who helped enable the “Arab Spring” may give us a nuclear winter.

A Mideast policy with such results has befuddled many. Why did Obama help overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and hurl Libya into turmoil? Why did he throw Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak under the bus? And why, as radio host Michael Savage asked late last week, does he have such a “vendetta” against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? 

Technology is a beneficial and important part of our daily lives at work. But are we using technology or is it using us? As a society, have we become electronically tethered to our jobs? In this must-read article, Dr. David J. Ayers looks at the 24/7 use of technology and argues that it “undermines our energy, our motivation, our creativity, our joy, and ultimately, our ability to contribute positively to our workplaces.” 

Health considerations typically gain attention. Everyone is aware that excess weight increases the risk of serious health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure, various forms of cancer, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea and arthritis to name a few. Excess weight doesn’t guarantee these problems, of course. Other elements such as lack of physical activity and family history also contribute to the health risk calculus. Still, at the end of the day, how much excess body fat is carried will greatly influence physical health and mental well-being.

The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is one of the best ways to establish a personal healthy weight. Calculate your WHR as follows. Measure your waist by wrapping a tape around your bare abdomen about an inch below the lowest rib. Don’t suck in your gut, but do exhale before measuring. Men have cause for concern when the waist is greater than 40 inches. For women the upper limit is 35 inches.

Findings from both studies confirmed that folks with a larger waist were much more likely to die prematurely than folks with a more slender waist regardless of BMI. As might be expected, a solid correlation also exists between a large WHR and premature death. In either case, exceeding the benchmarks of BMI or WHR should be cause for a review of diet and exercise habits.

This summer, after a flight of nine years, the New Horizons spacecraft traveled past Pluto to take photographs and collect data. Recently, some of the images have been released. In this interesting article, Dr. Glenn Marsch discusses the fascinating photos and the mysteries they reveal. 

WHAT A DEAL!; A BUSY HEIDI; BLOOD AND OIL; UNEMPLOYMENT; NUVERRA; LEADERSHIP VACUUM; IS DICKINSON NEXT?; DEEPENING POVERTY; THE CAUSES; THE CONGRESSIONAL HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE; THINGS HAPPEN!; SHOULDN’T BE HARD TO FIND; A HUGE MESS, BUT NO MONEY; DAKTOIDS

Bernie Sanders continues to gain popularity and climb higher in the national polls. Each week he seems to gain more ground on the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. What is behind his campaign success and what is he actually proposing? In this must-read article, Dr. Marvin Folkertsma examines Sanders’ political platform and the “Bernie Sanders phenomenon.”  

According to reports, there are almost 60 million people who have been displaced from their homes, with particular problems in Syria, the Ukraine, Iraq, and across Africa. The Syrian crisis has received international attention. But why has the American response thus far been so underwhelming? In this must-read article, Dr. Gary Welton examines the situation at home and abroad and points out that we may have “compromised our own ability to help.” 

Identify the famous jazz artist kidnapped at gun point and forced to play music at Al Capone’s birthday party.

Name the composer who wrote a new piece of music each year for his dog’s birthday.

Which music critic incurred the threat of physical violence from a US President?

Each of these little known but interesting anecdotes, and more, comprise a remarkably unique devotional book compiled by Dr. Patrick and Barbara Kavanaugh titled appropriately “Devotions from the World of Music” (Cook, 2000).