Dakota Beacon

Another year gone by and with it the hours and days of 2018 have passed forever. A new year dawns and with it comes another chance to redeem our time in 2019.

Mom used to advise not to wish time away. Our days are numbered and will soon be complete. The end of time will come soon enough for every person. Wishing away time is poor stewardship of a valuable resource.

Horace Mann expressed the passage of time eloquently this way. “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.”

Let the pundits recap the year. We can gain a better feel for the magnitude and speed of change by viewing the past fifty (1969) or one hundred (1919) years in context. Change and the passage of time go hand-in-hand. Examples of events become points of reference measuring the tempo of our lives.

They can sense it. They can feel it. Something is seriously wrong in our civilization, and many people know it. This is why despite the relatively good economic times, most Americans polled say our country is on the “wrong track.” Yet many are like a gravely ill man who knows he’s not well but can’t precisely identify his ailment. Most often, Americans have only a vague sense of cultural malaise, or they “self-diagnose” wrongly.

Years ago I had a brief “state of the nation” discussion with a very fine, older country gentleman. While no philosopher, he did offer the following diagnosis. Struggling for words and gesticulating a bit, he said, “There’s…there’s no morality.”

“Ring out the old, ring in the new” even today still rings true. The annual cycle is complete and a new cycle begins.

Among one of our favorite poems is one by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Ring Out, Wild Bells.” It is part of a larger work, “In Memoriam A.H.H.,” written in tribute to his dear friend and brother-in-law Arthur Henry Hallam upon his early, untimely death.

This poem superbly marks the passing of the old year. Tennyson captures the nostalgic passing of the year together with hope for the future. He expresses everything that needs to be said. His words are worth sharing to help us bid a hearty farewell to 2018 and hale the dawning of 2019

HISTORIC RUN; CARSON WENTZ; A ND NDSU POLICY GUIDE; SOYBEAN FARMERS; OUT WITH THE BOOKS; PENNY PINCHING; LET THE POLITICAL BATTLE BEGIN; LEGISLATORS, HEAR OUR PLEA; THE EERC; THE F-M DIVERSION; THE BLOOM IS OFF THE ROSE; PARCHED IN THE BADLANDS; DAKTOIDS

Jesus Christ is central to western culture. That doesn’t mean everyone will embrace Him for who He says He is. It does mean that His influence is such that no other individual has shaped lives and behavior worldwide and over time in a manner as has Jesus.

He preached a message of love, peace, life in the Spirit, and life everlasting. We even count our days by His appearance on earth. And, for His efforts, He was killed.

From the French revolutionaries to the Stalinists to the Maoists to the Khmer Rouge, the Left has never brooked dissent — it’s the only tradition it perpetuates. Savage is the anti-establishment guy who made it big in radio, but none are safe. The demonic Left won’t even tolerate a lowly Christian baker unwilling to violate his conscience through his profession, and it won’t tolerate you. It’s our time’s pacification effort, courtesy of the Ideology of Peace. 

You will find that Republicans will continue to get away with doing nothing when they are in power and will use excuses of not being in power when they are beaten at the polls as they were this time - for lack of doing anything when they had it.

This won’t cost you a cent, but it might mean the difference of life or death to this Christian woman.  Her only crimes were to a) be a Christian in the Islamic state of Pakistan, and b) to offer a cup of water to a Muslim woman.  For these unspeakable crimes she has spent the last 8 years in prison, away from her children and her husband, under threat of execution.  She was sentenced to death, you see, for these crimes.

JACKRABBITS; WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?; GOV. BURGUM'S BUDGET; MUSICAL CHAIRS; THEODORE ROOSEVELT LIBRARY; WHY UAS?; SILENT DETRACTORS?; BURGUM'S BUDGET PRIORIITES; OH, OH!; INDIAN ACTIVIST WINONA LADUKE; NEW POLICY IN MINNESOTA?; DAKTOIDS

Recently, many tributes and praises have been spoken about President George H.W. Bush. Not to be missed is the fact that Bush was one of the unsung heroes of the end of the Cold War.  In this article that first appeared at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dr. Paul Kengor recounts a discussion about President Bush with a reporter from the Russian newspaper Pravda.

The left pretends to care about the environment.  It sounds like Bernie Sanders is going to make this faux interest in protecting the environment a salient point of any 2020 presidential run.  In fact, leftism – both economic leftism and social leftism – are the primary cause of environmental problems.

Conservatives – Free Market Conservatives and Social Conservatives – ought to reclaim an issue which was originally something which only conservatives cared about, the environment.  This would win for conservatives votes from those deluded into trusting the left with environmentalism and it would force the left to justify its outrageously un-green positions taken by green parties in the affluent democracies. 

The federal deficit is more than $21 trillion. By 2023, the Congressional Budget Office projects it to grow to over $27 trillion. This is without factoring in the cost of the proposed “Medicare for All” plan—a single payer, government run healthcare system. In this article, professor Richard D. Kocur examines the proposal and what it would do to the national debt.

This week, many tributes and praises have been spoken about President George H.W. Bush. Not to be missed is the fact that Bush was one of the unsung heroes of the end of the Cold War.  In this article that first appeared at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dr. Paul Kengor recounts a discussion about President Bush with a reporter from the Russian newspaper Pravda.

Exalting equality is another example of conservatives conserving yesterday’s liberals’ liberalism, playing the caboose to their engine of entropic end-times change. But what once was “progressives’” mistake is now ours, and, if the West is to survive, we must stop preventing that mistake from being corrected. 

NDSU BISON FOOTBALL; GOV. DOUG BURGUM; LEGISLATION COULD BE PROFOUND; YES, IT'S TRUE; SOUR GRAPES;SUSAN BALA; SHAKY FINANCING; WILLISTON'S CHALLENGE; FOLLOW THIS, IF YOU CAN, HORNBACHER'S; NOW THE HIDES ARE ARRIVING; JERRY HENNESSY; DAKTOIDS

a flagrant lie. At an event earlier in November, she had made a statement about being willing to sit in the front row at a public hanging.

The press did not say that she meant this statement literally. That would have been too implausible. Instead, it invented the lie that a “public hanging” means a lynching. I find the idea of a front row seat at a lynching extraordinary. I am not sure whether Northern reporters believe that the Ku Klux Klan rents local high school auditoriums for its lynchings or that it sets up a few dozen folding chairs before lynching anyone.

  “Left-wing groups funded by George Soros and other major Democratic donors hand out cash to protester arrested for disrupting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings….A coalition of activist organizations including [CPD]…have scheduled the near-constant disruptions…as part of an effort to derail the confirmation process.” Protestor funding comes through crowdfunding accounts. The Daily Caller, 9/18/18.

Interestingly, the same people have been running and funding other far left organizations for years. It is their occupation; it is their means of support. Search for, or Google, Ady Barkan, Ana Maria Archila, Maria Gallagher, and David Hogg’s to see the parade of their crowdfunding activities.

Crowdfunding has been a wonderful innovation benefitting great causes. But, like so many other good things, it also attracts the hideous and the thugs.

The final words of President George H. W. Bush tell us a lot about the kind of man he was, and especially the kind of father he was.

THE COMMON SCHOOLS TRUST FUND; F-M TOP TEN; ONE TOO MANY BOARDS; MYSTERY OF THE CPO; IT’S WORTH A TRY; FARM ECONOMY IS TROUBLED; HERE SHE COMES AGAIN; TOUGH DECISION; RECIPE FOR WINTER; MOORHEAD GOES LEFT; WOLVES TERRIFIED BY BLOW-UP DOLLS; ALENT ATTRACTS; DAKTOIDS

The amicus brief addresses the following argument:

After retiring from engineering work, I needed to work with my hands. Carpentry came easy and building small structures is as rewarding as it gets for me. My latest project has consumed me for the past three summers… the construction of a 21' by 31' boathouse with a 9' ceiling and an “attic room” built into the roof trusses. On over a dozen occasions during those three summers I faced the amazing realization that I had in my possession the exact amount of nails, screws, or other fasteners required to complete the several phases of construction. Rather than mere coincidences, these tiny “miracles” were Jesus' way of reminding me that He too was a carpenter and was pointedly and incrementally blessing my work!  So after the second of these “miracles”, I tuned into a local Catholic radio station and, at 2 PM each day, listened to a beautiful piece of music called the “chaplet of the divine mercy” that brought me to my knees in thanks to God for a safe day of work. An important secondary benefit was an extended physical and spiritual rest period of from ten to fifteen minutes.

In the Autumn of life, the music that I took for granted in grade school is now cherished; when I have the opportunity to hear very young children sing “Jesus Loves Me”, “Silent Night”, or other songs that reveal their preciousness, the tears flow as easily as when wonderful symphony strings rip my heart out of my chest. From the love of Christ Jesus and the knowledge that His love can easily be spread to those around us if we just become the conduit, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

“I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which they were taken.” So said Samuel Johnson, compiler of the 1755 “Dictionary of the English Language,” the first of its kind.

Christmas, or the Mass of Christ, ‘tis the season for giving! What better way to say “I love you” than with the gift of a book? The recipients’ only prerequisite is an intellect imbued with curiosity.

The following suggestions from favorite books and DVDs in my library are meant to be edifying, revealing, and instructive; not light, inconsequential, or superficial. Readers do not share the same tastes and space limits detailed descriptions of selections. However, reviews are always available on-line.

As Democrats prepare to steal Senate seats won by Republicans in the midterm elections it is time for Republicans to use what Democrats have used in House and Senate elections during the last five decades:  Article I Section 5 Clause 1 of the Constitution which states that:  

“Each House [of Congress] shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.”

The US federal government will shut down. Mueller will submit a report. US economy will improve due to tranquility. Trump will tweet.

ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS; THE ND OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY; POWER SHIFT; TIME FOR A CHANGE; A MEMBER OF THE TASK FORCE; WON'T LET GO; TOO MUCH BISON?; IS IT A TEMPORARY PROBLEM?; WORLD'S NO. 2 ICE FISHING SPOT; CRYING WOLF; OVERSTEPPED; DAKTOIDS

Yesterday, the nation celebrated Thanksgiving with parades, food, football, family, and even some shopping. But what was missing? In this article, Dr. Paul Kengor observes that in many areas of the holiday—including books and school lessons for children—a very important part was missing: God.

Ever since the nation-rending Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 took effect in ’68, 85 to 90 percent of our immigrants have been Third Worlders, and 70 to 90 percent of them support Democrats upon naturalization.

This has caused a historic demographic shift (and attendant electoral one) that has seen our nation go from 85-plus percent white in 1965 to only 61 percent non-Hispanic white today. Let’s define further the political impact, using conservative figures.

My wife broke the silence first. “What am I thankful for? I’ll tell you what I am thankful for,” she exclaimed. “I’m sure thankful I went to school fifty years ago. At least I received a reasonably accurate account of the Thanksgiving story unvarnished before the political correctness and identity politics hogwash took hold.”

ND ELECTION OUTCOME; BECOMING PURPLE?; FLAWED MEASURE; CHET POLLERT; THE TASK FORCE ON HIGHER EDUCATION; GUESS WHAT?; THE PIPELINE WARS; TOSS A BEER FOR CHARITY; THE $5 MILLION ELEVATOR EMBEZZLEMENT; NINE LIVES; A BAD DUDE; THE NICKNAME CONTROVERSY; DAKTOIDS

a work environment so bad that 70 percent of its employees are distressed enough to be at risk of ill health, reports Ekot.

The internal survey, Ekot also noted, shows in addition that a majority of the employees of the Gender Equality Authority suffer from sleep problems and “risk fatigue”.

Among other things, the women-dominated workplace is characterized by bullying and harassment, according to the survey.