Dakota Beacon

Gratitude has also been shown to protect from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, and bitterness, and may even offer some protection against psychiatric disorders. On the positive side, gratitude promotes happiness, altruism, joy, love, and enthusiasm. In fact, research suggests that the effect of gratitude is larger than the effects of optimism, hope, or compassion.

We are witnessing the disappearance of portions of our vocabulary. If we no longer embrace the ideas behind cultural standards, then there is no need to express the ideas in words. These are words less heard in conversation, literature, TV and movies. Who needs words conveying an obsolete sense of right and wrong, good and evil?

He quoted Martin Luther King, "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

. . . Is ND government spending essential or extravagant? the grand delusion that ND schools and students excel; the overall scores of ND students dropped; still drinking the Cool-Aid; they may be a minority party for a long time; charged with burning the Lone Steer hotel in Steele; a TV reporter was attacked at the Spirit Lake Reservation; Alfonso Rodriguez’s death sentence; the scandal at Dickinson State; new method of measuring poverty; wind farm in Stutsman County; Ethanol fuel is now the No. 1 use for corn in America; rural life early in the last century; DAKTOIDS . . . .

Today, the American military is on the verge of becoming weaker than it was in 1939 when Hitler started his European rampage and Japan pushed its aggression into Asia.

Given what we now know about Kennedy’s faith and family life, some of the claims clergy made are misleading and ironic.

The experience that haunted him the most happened on the aircraft carrier Essex during World War II.

After corralling medical care and food production and imposing onerous taxation and regulation, what else can be done to subdue a population? Whatever remains can be accomplished through Executive Orders.

“So,” Darren told me, “I touched the hand of a man who touched the hand of a Civil War vet who in turn touched the hand of a Revolutionary War vet. We are not a very old country.”

As Cardinal Dolan has affirmed, the bishops seem to have a phobia of their own when it comes to teaching the basic moral truths of the Catholic faith.

Could this be why they're losing in their efforts to defend the sacredness of marriage?

As George Santayana wrote, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Today, many young Germans do not have a vivid recollection of those last days of communism.
In addition to remembering those who contributed to the weakening of the Soviet Union and helped to strengthen the free society, Nov. 9 is an ideal day to take stock.

High unemployment is a winning strategy for today's political class. It facilitates an ever-expanding government.

. . . now Marvel Comics is giving us a female Muslim superheroine.

Meanwhile, it seems that none of our country’s senior intelligence officials thought it worth the time and effort to keep an eye on the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston before they exploded two bombs at the Boston Marathon — even though both brothers were growing more radical by the week, had set up a terrorist-type website, and one of them had traveled to Dagestan, and after returning to the U.S. was the subject of a tip from Russian intelligence.

It is Obama's ideological considerations that dominate his policies. If thirty-two million uninsured were truly the issue, the cost to cover them would have been much cheaper than implementing the "Affordable Care Act."

A lot of people don’t care about JPMorgan Chase’s vicissitudes. “They’re just a bunch of corrupt Wall Street fat cats”; “They can afford it”; “It serves them right”—seem to be the yawning reaction of a largely apathetic public. If those who are indifferent to this episode were to understand what’s at stake here, they wouldn’t be so sanguine.

Instead, the bishops have spent their energies advocating political issues on which good Catholics disagree.

Those receiving the highest priority from the conference's burgeoning bureaucracy are passing amnesty for illegal aliens and opposing any reduction in the rate of growth in federal welfare spending.

Once more, the bishops are dividing the faithful when they need to unite them.

. . . white students in ND scored close to national averages; ND’s standing on the NAEP tests is eroding; black male suspects were identified in each case; Project Safe Bakken; the ND way of death; An environmental disaster? Altru’s financial hardship; Look what the bishop brought us! Cobb and his evil ways; what they used to do to horse thieves; Fargo needs the kindness of strangers; That’s the word from Devils Lake; DAKTOIDS . . . .

In his annual messages, Roosevelt repeatedly argued that no other group of citizens deserved greater honor, respect and gratitude than the nation’s veterans and he worked to ensure that they received pensions

. “So,” Darren told me, “I touched the hand of a man who touched the hand of a Civil War vet who in turn touched the hand of a Revolutionary War vet. We are not a very old country.”

The increased acceptance of lies is a sign of a nation in decline.

It certainly is fair to ask whether the current Republican establishment will look back to its past, before the term “conservative” entered the political lexicon, and see that the most popular American in the 1920s was a Republican—Calvin Coolidge. A traditional Republican, he stood for limited government and had reverence for the Declaration and the Constitution. He thought balancing the budget was a good idea, too.

As the political class emerged, increasingly asserting its arrogance, power, and certainty that it could remake America in the image of social justice, environmental supremacy, and political correctness, the greatness of America declined and is on the verge of disappearing.

It is time to begin looking for a replacement for Kevin Cramer for the 2014 Republican ticket.  He has shown us little leadership and less principle since his election in 2012.

Missing from the Republican establishment lineup is a sound leader. Who are we supposed to mass behind? No disrespect intended, but within North Dakota's delegation Senator John Hoveven and Congressman Kevin Cramer are not leaders. They are followers. As such, they are wandering in the wilderness. Confirm this with their recent behavior in their respective chambers on immigration, the debt ceiling and defunding Obamacare. No one in their group is willing to take a stand on principle. No one will say "Stop! Enough is enough!"

After some uneasy words, our conversation picked up and lit up when we suddenly hit upon something we hadn’t discussed in years: baseball. Specifically, the focus was Pittsburgh Pirates baseball. The Pirates were looking at their first winning season in over 20 years. Drew and I talked for probably a half hour just about the Pirates.

. National Review no longer seeks to restore state sovereignty, repeal the New Deal, bring back public piety, or free Cuba or mainland China. Far from it. It now embraces the very thing it was founded to fight -- liberal Eisenhower Republicanism.

. . . It has never been so cool to be from North Dakota; artist James Rosenquist; a nickname to replace the Fighting Sioux; fifth straight home loss; Disgraced former Dickinson State President Richard McCallum; growing financial instability; sharp increases in burglary; concealed weapons permits; a time when the oil industry leaves and commodity prices fall; no-interest loans (using oil money) to farmers; Do you know what crop swathing is? Mandan had 285 oil wells; glossy brochures of Happy Cobbers; THIS AND THAT; DAKTOIDS . . . .

 Meanwhile, a new generation of conservative leaders has emerged from the rubble -- Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. In these young Turks the moderate Republicans grabbed a tiger by the tail

From an economic perspective, rather than a political perspective, linking the Defund Obamacare effort to a deal to fund the federal government wasn’t nutty; it made a lot of sense for the long run because Obamacare will create massive economic pain. Sadly, politics and elections are more important to politicians than the state of the American economy.