Dakota Beacon

By all means Khizr Khan is a Gold Star father. His son, US Army Ordinance Corps Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in action in Iraq in 2004 by a suicide bomber. It was Captain Khan’s choices that turned Khizr and his wife into Gold Star parents. Isn’t it curious that Khan never blamed the Muslim jihadists who killed his son? Instead, he tore into Trump’s position on immigration.

But there is more to Khizr Khan than meets the eye. Khan is a Pakistani immigrant and a US attorney who worked for many years for Hogan Lovells, LLP, a large Washington DC multinational law firm representing Saudi Arabia together with other Middle Eastern countries. He also endorses the Muslim Brotherhood from his days living in Saudi Arabia.

To be used by Clinton and the DNC as a shill and then hide behind the Gold Star of his fallen son is truly despicable. Shame on Khan, shame on Clinton and shame on the DNC for colluding to deceive the American people.

So what of the curious case of Caster? With a vagina but no womb or ovaries and undescended testicles (they normally descend into a boy’s scrotal sac during intrauterine development), CS could be an abnormally developed male. After all, CS certainly is in the male category in at least one respect: the runner is attracted to women and has a “wife.” And while knowing whether CS has an XY chromosome configuration would be instructive, political correctness prevents thorough examination of such matters; thus, a genetic test either hasn’t been conducted or its results haven’t been revealed. Then there’s the fashionable view that, as NY’s Daily News put it, “Caster Semenya…is a woman ...and a man”; or, as the activists may say, is “intersex.” But this admission alone should close the case: it’s “women’s sports,” not “women’s and people in-between’s sports.” Definitions define — and limit. And if having internal testes doesn’t disqualify you from women’s athletics, what does? 

Yet as abnormal as conditions such as CS’s are, they now won’t be so rare in Rio, where, says IAAF consultant Harper, there may be “an all-intersex podium in the 800 [meter].” “Women’s” sports?

And that’s the irony: in a sense, liberalism gave us women’s sports. Now liberalism is taking them away. 

Across the country college students will soon return to campus. Many will deservedly receive scholarships. Unfortunately not all scholarships are created equal—in fact, many scholarships are frequently funded unwittingly by one student to another student. It’s called tuition discounting. We sat down with higher education scholar Dr. P. Jesse Rine to learn more about tuition discounting and the consequences this practice has on students, debt, and higher education. 

BELT TIGHTENING; BEST-RUN CITIES; THE TWIN CITIES HAD WEAKER RANKINGS; HOSPITAL STAR RATINGS; THEY JUMPED BEFORE THEY WERE PUSHED; “THE QUARTZITE BORDER”; THE DAKOTA MARKER; THEY MAKE BREAK EVEN; MYSTERY; FORUM COLUMNISTS; WHO ARE YOU?; IT’S OK TO IDENTIFY RACE OF VICTIMS; HERE ARE THE RULES; DAKTOIDS

The West’s foundational faith, Christianity, and its root, Judaism — the two faiths Westerners are best acquainted with and whose norms they may reflexively (and unwisely) project onto Islam — have as the basis of their moral law the Ten Commandments. Islam’s moral law is Sharia. And ne’er the twain shall meet.

In other words, even if given Muslims aren’t mindful of their canon’s violent injunctions, even if jihad is the furthest thing from their minds, they will as a group still be more prone to violence. That is, as long as their hearts and minds embody what Islam does, and what it fails to do.  

Does presidential candidate Donald Trump have a Russia problem? Is he too close to Vladimir Putin? Would a Trump foreign policy toward Putin and Russia be personality-driven or policy-driven? In this article that first appeared at Conservative Review, Dr. Paul Kengor examines these questions while offering historical examples from FDR to Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama

Basically, Donald Trump is a petulant child.  That he is 70, that he has bullied and conned his way to celebrity, does not change this.  Should we let him play with matches?

Enough of politics – at least for the moment. With political party conventions behind us, there is time enough to get one’s fill of hardscrabble politics over the next one hundred days. Speaking of “fill” brings to mind food.

Food. Now there’s a delicious topic. With summer’s fresh produce and outdoor grilling, there is no better digression from political indigestion than food.

U.S. Presidents and food.......

ND COAL AND PALEONTOLOGY METAPHOR; COAL' FUTURE; CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR; ANYONE WANT A TERMINAL?; PICTURE THIS; ROBIN HALL; THE WORLD'S LARGEST BUFFALO; THE DICKINSON PRESS; DAMNED WITH FAINT PRAISE; FAMILIAR FORMULA; MCFEELY TARGETED UND; U.S. 85; CHOKE POINT; HIGH HURDLE; THE USDA; DRIVING WHILE CANADIAN; 

The Donald may have positioned himself to demolish the Democrat myth. On the biggest stage of his campaign when Trump gave his acceptance speech, he championed the forgotten men and women of our country. He could not have been more real than when he said, “I am your voice. I am with you.” 

In his acceptance speech, Trump drove a stake into the heart of the Democrat myth. His track record reinforces his words. In his many companies he has been an advocate for women and minorities. He is apparently color blind and gender neutral. His workplace is a meritocracy. That is why he could make a direct appeal to women, minorities and blue collar Americans – the forgotten men and women who felt left behind in recent decades.

FIRST SHOE DROPS; BLOWING AWAY COAL; WELL DONE!; ARE YOU SURE?; “THAT’S A SHAME . . . ; CAN THEY GET OUT OF A RUT?; TOO MUCH DIVERSITY FOR THEM!; GRAB THE WRECKING BAR; CRESTWOOD EQUITY; IRONY; PICK ON SOMEBODY YOUR SIZE; RACIAL DISPARITY; THE RACIAL HISTORY; DAKTOIDS

Military personnel observe the way they are funded, equipped and trained by congress and the president. Retirees in particular have been the best recruiters for the next generation of military volunteers. No more. In recent years the perception of treatment of military service by our congress and president has been “...and don’t let the door hit you in butt on the way out.” The nation’s defense will incur a greater penalty in personnel, equipment and training readiness if sequestration is not corrected.

Please, Senator Hoeven. Please Senator Heitkamp. Get off your duff and address the declining military readiness situation before the 114th Congress comes to a close and you pass the buck to the 115th Congress

; ROUGH RIDE AHEAD; THROWING IN THE TOWEL; TEAM ND; SCHEELS;  FORUM COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY; MINNESOTA'S BLACK EYE; SEPARATE REALITIES; JUMPING THE GUN?; ARE THEY PARTING?; OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER; JAMES HENRIKSON; DAKTOIDS

Dream surveys consistently show that dreaming about being back in school is among the top three content areas of our adult dreams. College is often described as being the best years of our lives (though I don’t care to repeat those years), yet our college dreams are more often nightmares than glowing memories.

A presidential candidate apparently unhinged.

Those who support Trump now may not know in the end whether they would have found Trump to be the deep-dyed liberal Democrat he has been for 70 years now as President because it is unlikely he will be elected if he is the nominee.

Over a hundred years ago Booker T. Washington, Negro educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute (1881), identified a problem that continues to plague us today.

“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” – Booker T. Washington, Chap. V, “The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob,” 1911, p. 118.

It would seem that little racial progress has been made in the past century because of those who sustain and profit from it. On the other hand, and as a consolation, the old meaningless epithet “racist” is dying a natural death. Fare well.

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that required abortion clinics to meet the same standards as any other Texas ambulatory surgical center. Does this decision suggest a clash between state legislatures and federal judges who are arrogating more and more power to themselves? And did former Justice Hugo Black see this coming over a half century ago? In this article, constitutional scholar Dr. John Sparks discusses the current ruling while examining Justice Black’s warning from 51 years ago.  

NORTH DAKOTA DOUBLE WHAMMY; CAUSE AND EFFECT?; REPUBLICAN SPENDING AMBUSH: “FRACK MASTER”; THERE IS MORE DOPE HERE THAN EVER; DUELING EDITORIALS; SPRING HOUSECLEANING; SCHAFER'S PERFORMANCE: HE'S GOT RESUME; UND'S SURPLUS OF COLLABORATION; FARGO FORUM MORE THAN INTERESTED; MINNESOTA SOMLI!; HOMELESS JESUS; DAKTOIDS

The Gong Show was a short-lived TV game show that first appeared on NBC in the 1970s. The show featured amateur performers with three judges awarding prizes to the least deplorable performance. In this interesting article, Dr. Earl Tilford uses the game show to draw a comparison to today’s political climate. Tilford writes, “In 2016, unless the Democratic Party and the Republican Party conventions experience a few moments of temporary sanity, the electorate will be choosing between candidates with political acumen best suited for The Gong Show.” 

"It was often apparent that what "minorities" were after was
not equality, but privileged treatment. Or, in a word, power," writes Joe Sobran in a classic column* from 2004. 

Recent news coverage has shown images of Venezuelans standing in line for hours hoping for the opportunity to shop at a grocery store to buy bread and milk. And, unfortunately, sometimes the waiting turned to rioting. In this must-read follow-up to his popular article on the perils of socialism in Venezuela, Dr. John Sparks examines yet another disastrous policy embraced by the government: Inflation of its money supply. Sparks asks, “Has Venezuela entered into the final phase of monetary destruction, namely: hyper-inflation?” 

Definitions limit; they exclude what doesn’t meet the definition. You can have tradition and exclude iconoclasts, or you can make today’s iconoclasm tomorrow’s norms and exclude traditionalists. But you can’t have your gluten-free cake and eat it, too.

As for health, every civilization has a nut allergy. The Rauzi realm’s dietary and voting decisions make plain that nuts abound in our nation today — and all of America is descending into anaphylactic shock. 

Certainly Senator Hoeven, you have done good work supporting reformed medical care in the Veterans Administration, but that effort is a long, long way from bearing fruit. Active and retired military should not be dumped into a broken VA system with promises that things will improve someday.

In conclusion, please rethink your position on sequestration and its impact on the active force as well as the medical needs of military retirees. This is no time to waffle.

After seven years, the Northwest Tea Party Patriots are calling it a day.  Their experience, as well as their contribution deserves our attention.

The state of Virginia has a statute that requires delegates to the national political conventions to vote for the winners of the primaries. But late last week, a delegate from Virginia filed a suit in federal court claiming that the statute violated his rights of conscience under the religion clause of the First Amendment. In this interesting article, Dr. L. John Van Til examines the law as well as the Republican party rules and asks: “If all delegates are ultimately free to vote their conscience on all ballots is it possible that large numbers of delegates could change their ‘bound vote’ status and/or abstain from voting?” 

Every now and then it is healthy to take a break from the incessant news coverage of campaigns, elections, tyrannical government bureaucrats and their stupid rules and regulations.

With little effort, I’ve settled into part of my summer reading. 

Why not leave this topsy-turvy world behind for a little while. It isn’t going anywhere. It will be there when we get back.

Occasionally the better part of wisdom is to withdraw for a time with a bit of humorous diversion. Truly, laughter is the best medicine.

Before the new hit musical “Hamilton,” most Americans probably knew little about Alexander Hamilton, perhaps only that he penned many of the Federalist Papers, served as the first Secretary of the Treasury (his picture is on the $10 bill), and was killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr.

To help celebrate America’s Independence, scholar Dr. Gary S. Smith examines Hamilton’s life and extraordinary career (from childhood to the duel) and suggests: “As we sing patriotic songs, watch parades and fireworks, and eat quintessentially American cuisine on July 4th, let us remember the role that Alexander Hamilton played in procuring and ensuring our independence.”

It's just simple logic that the preference of a majority, as opposed to the preference of a plurality, is the more accurate reflection of the will of the voters.  Needless to say, none of this precludes the possibility that the preference of a plurality and the preference of the majority could turn out to be one and the same.  A runoff tests this proposition.

Hi, my name is AR-15. Some of you know me, but many more of you know of me — through the media. But you may not know the real me.

I’m that cool, sleek-looking black gun you’ve seen profiled by the press. They put me in newspapers and on TV, showing my picture as if it’s a mug shot, even though I’ve never committed a crime. Oh, bad people have at times used (and abused) me to do bad things, but not really that often; as even The New York Times admitted in 2014, firearms such as me — which that paper and others call “assault weapons” — are only used in two percent of gun crimes (most are perpetrated with handguns).

And that’s another thing. For a long time I didn’t mind the misnomer; it massaged my ego and made me feel like the big man on the block when I was called an “assault weapon.”