Dakota Beacon

If two of the most notable disciples of Saul Alinsky are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, then it begs the question, “Who is Saul Alinsky?”

By his own admission, Alinsky developed his rules while in jail as a result of his lawbreaking activism.

The following list of Alinsky’s rules is not intended for analysis but rather to expose the reader briefly to the rules he or she may have heard so much about but never encountered. Naive folks who play nice and who go head-to-head against Alinskyites usually lose. Equally important to the rules are the issues which Alinskyites generate, especially when fomenting change at the national level. More on the issues will follow. Here are Alinsky’s rules.

Recently, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced a $350 billion plan to subsidize college attendance at public colleges and universities called the “New College Compact.” In this interesting article that first appeared at Forbes.com, Dr. Mark Hendrickson examines Mrs. Clinton’s plan and cautions that this may be a case of “buyer beware.” 

KEEPING SCORE; WHO ARE THE NEIGHBORS?; I FEE"; TRUCK BYPASSES; TRUMP; ONE MORE FEDERAL PROGRAM; ALL ABOARD; THE TAT TRIBAL COUNCIL; THE CROW INDIAN RESERVATION; THE SIOUX WERE SILENCED; ARE THEY ALL PETULANT?; JENKINSON; NARCOTICS ARRESTS; WHAT WILL YOU HAVE?; DAKTOIDS

Most people are familiar with the “streets of gold” and “pearly gates” images of heaven. Those are nice pictures but being in the presence of God will cause everything else to pale by comparison. In this interesting article, Dr. Gary Welton discusses how a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park helped open eyes to a new analogy of heaven.

Donald Trump seems to be running not against his Republican and Democratic opponents in particular, but against the self-perpetuating Washington political class. This class, which includes both Democrats and Republicans, has an interest in ever expanding government. 

Talk of the dangers of big government and government deficits -- and porous borders -- do not ring true because, once in power, Republicans push forward with the very policies they opposed in the primaries. By pointing this out, Donald Trump has hit a nerve.

Republicans have become the advocates of what Jim DeMint called "corporatism." It is interesting to recall that Adam Smith once said that when two businessmen get together, the subject of discussion is how to keep the third out of the market. 

The New York Times notes that, "Mr. Trump is offering an unusual mixture of extreme language, moderate policy and rudeness, and so far it's connecting with Republican voters." 

CHS PULLS THE PLUG; ND MAY GO ALONE; CONTINENTAL RESOURCES; SEVERE TEACHER SHORTAGE; LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES; CONFLICT AMONG SOMALIS; MINNEAPOLIS TAKES A BOW; BLACK POWER IS THE SOLUTION; THE STURGIS MOTORCYCLE RALLY; THE FBI; HOPING FOR A MIRACLE; DOUBLE BAD; THE BUSIEST BEE; DAKTOIDS

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency released a definition of what constitutes waters of the United States. Some have argued that this new interpretation of U.S. waters will significantly expand federal control over land and water across the nation while others argue that the EPA acted in an attempt to provide clarity in order to better protect streams and wetlands. In this interesting article, Robert T. Smith examines the definition and argues that this may really not be anything new. 

Millions of Americans, including many Catholics, were stunned when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic Archbishop of New York, attacked opponents of illegal immigration as "nativists" in a recent and widely-circulated column in a liberal New York tabloid.

Unfortunately, Cardinal Dolan's outburst represents a long line of liberalism on the part of America's bishops -- a position based not only on their "Social Justice" leftism, but because the welfare state which they celebrate doles out over a billion dollars a year to their Non-Government Organizations (Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Migration and Refugee Services, and so on). 

It is unjust because the Cardinal implies that anyone who disagrees with him is nativist -- as though support of amnesty for illegal aliens were a requirement of Catholic Faith and Morals. This grievously overstates the matter.

The left corrupts everything it touches – especially journalism. Not a day goes by when you can experience some form of media perversion of the truth. Most recently, Brian Williams of NBC News, having been caught repeatedly lying to the American people, has now become passé. And the beat goes on.

Anyone seeking an alternative perspective on US national news, or at least a more accurate accounting, might benefit from consulting the foreign press. The foreign press often covers stories the US mainstream media reject. Glancing at these alternative sources is good because the foreign press highlights solid content that a biased US media won’t provide.

BEST FINANCIAL SHAPE; JAMESTOWN-BOOMTOWN?; WALLETHUB; REGIONAL PATTERNS; RICH BECKER; KELLY HONORED FOR NICKNAME EFFORTS; AMERICORPS; UNUSUAL OBITUARY; A FAVORITE WAY OF DEATH IN ND; CULTURE COUNTS; FARMER'S DILEMMA; OVER-REACHING POLICY; FORUM EDITORIAL; 

There are two ways to approach the future: faith and history. Both can be misplaced, misleading, and wrong. One can put faith in false gods, or perhaps worse, make a god of oneself. Likewise, history can be forgotten, ignored, and rewritten to support political agendas. That’s what happened during the Soviet Union’s 74-year existence. It also occurred in post-WW I Germany between 1919 and 1945. The human cost totals in the scores of millions. Substituting propaganda for history means there is no history and nations without a history have no future.

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Tweaking history to feel good about the past can be dangerous, as some Russians are now rediscovering. Shortly after the red flag came down at the Kremlin, I wrote the professor under whom I studied modern Soviet and East European history—a Russian ex-patriot named Vladimir Petrov—stating how happy I was that he lived to see the demise of the Soviet regime. Vladimir, who spent seven years in the Gulag, responded, “The same thugs are still in charge. They wear Italian suits rather than brown uniforms.”

Anything of interest to a person may be the subject for a poem. The distinction of poetry lies not in the subject matter (there are even poems on such sordid objects as flies and mice) but in the author’s attitude, intention and feeling. What we are interested in is the finished product and that product is distinctively rhythmic.

Here is a textbook analogy. Poetry is to prose what dancing is to walking. Rhythm in poetry cannot be mechanical but flexible and varied. Furthermore, poetry is intended to be read out loud expressively.

But, no more lecturing. Here are some suggested favorites preserved and handed down for our pleasure. -

The Leftist celebrities of Hollywood and Broadway, the elitist society that can be counted on for such things, has gone into full attack mode.  No surprise there.  The media has been feasting on the story.  No surprise there either.  And sadly, it is no surprise that most of the conservative pundits and talk show hosts have fallen into the trap themselves.  I

As Lewis also said, you cannot “make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise.” Robert Gates and most of the rest of the BSA leadership are men without chests; they have no heart for the fight because they have no principles, and they have no principles because they started believing not in principles but provisional values.

As far as the BSA’s mandate of creating boys with chests, the organization long had to fight the corruptive wider culture. But now it has collapsed, completely and likely irrevocably, its own internal culture. And for what? A slight reprieve? A stay of execution? Gates has said he didn’t foresee the rapid cultural changes (a tipping point, really) of the last several years. What he also doesn’t see is that he has merely “traded the Sudetenland for peace in our time.” And he will learn that this peace is fleeting with people whose “truth” changes with time, people who tolerate no dissent, honor no compromise and take no prisoners.  

Nine people were murdered in a Charleston church by a man who envied and hated African-Americans who were more successful than himself. These innocent nine souls were not murdered by someone afflicted with a mental disease; not by a pistol; not by a Confederate Battle Flag or a statue of John C. Calhoun; but by a man who had surrendered to racial hatred.

Hatred and envy are always sinful and evil. God gives man enough knowledge, intelligence, and moral strength to resist them. Love is the greatest virtue. Nine virtuous and admirable people are dead because one man chose to turn his envy into hatred and his hatred into murder. He is responsible, not his parents, and not the people who honor their Confederate ancestors.

BAD RAP!; TAKE THAT CNBC!; BETTER TRITE THAN NEVER; TRUMPETS BLARED; FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE; THE GREAT AMERICAN LODGE; THREE STRIKES AND . . . ; THEY WERE FABULOUS FARMERS; NOT NORTH DAKOTA NICE; ANGER & CONTEMPT; AFTER THE STORM; MIKE JACOBS; A NEW TWIST; AN ILLNESS THAT ROBBED YOUR CHILD; DAKTOIDS

Kant believed that churches and dogmas have value in so far as they assist the moral development. When mere creeds or ceremonies usurp priority over moral excellence as a test of religion, religion has disappeared. The real church is a community of people, however scattered and divided, who are united by devotion to the common moral law.

Lastly, Kant observed, “Finally, the nadir (peak) of perversion is reached when the church becomes an instrument in the hands of a reactionary government; when the clergy, whose function is to console and guide a harassed humanity with religious faith and hope and charity, are made tools of theological obscurantism and political oppression.

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Reading Kant's words made me wonder, has Pope Francis read Kant? For he certainly seems to have become a “tool of socialist dogma”. And, even more obviously, is Islam a true religion or just another means to power for those who value power over all else? And if these questions are controversial, what does it say of our nation's understanding of “morality”?

A recent news item reported that a UCLA graduate student is suspected of fabricating research data for a journal article. Unfortunately, this is only the latest in a long string of integrity issues in research publications. In this must-read article, Dr. Gary Welton asks: How can we be more informed consumers of research claims? 

Economics instruction at the university level is too often tainted with Marxist socialist influence at the expense of capitalism. High school students graduate with the notion that capitalism equals greed.

So, who will sing the virtues of capitalism?

Milton Friedman, while professor of economics at the University of Chicago, wrote his well-known book “Capitalism and Freedom.” Friedman’s book offers an eloquent discussion explaining and justifying capitalism in the context of freedom. His volume became a classic defense of competitive capitalism. He thoroughly developed the premise that economic freedom, i.e., the freedom to make and spend income as one sees fit as long as it does not restrict another person’s freedom, is fundamental as an end in itself and as a condition for political freedom.

ENOUGH DEPRESSION MENTALITY; BEWARE OF AVERAGES; SIGH!; “THE ANGER IS UNDERSTANDABLE”; ANTI-NICKNAME PEOPLE; LEAVE THE DRIVING TO US; "THERE WAS NO BIG ORANGE GLOW"; OH, WHAT A MESS!; IT SOUNDED FANTASTIC; THE GOOD SOLDIER AWARD; LIFE IN RURAL EDUCATION; KIDS’ HEALTH; DAKTOIDS

How many U.S. citizens are subjected to antiquated, unnecessary federal regulations? In this interesting article, Dr. John Sparks details a family of raisin farmers who fought back against a regulation put in place in 1937. 

Catholics aren't alone in wondering why the Pope relied for advice on a German self-professed atheist who believes in Mother Earth (Gaia). Microbiologist Hans Schellnhuber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research supplied perspective for the Pope's encyclical. 

Another adviser chosen by Francis is Veerabhadran Ramanathan who practices Hinduism and contributed thoughts for the Pope about population control. Strange collaborators for the head of the Catholic Church? Indeed they are.

It's fairly easy to conclude that Pope Francis, who is not a scientist, needs new advisers. Sad to say, what the Pope has issued in "Laudato Si" is far from helpful according to the growing number of scientists who can be labeled global warming skeptics.

Take a good, long look at how liberal policies swell the ranks of a miserable populace with permanent grievances.

This is not the American Dream. This is all government all of the time. It is axiomatic that the larger the government the more incompetent the regulation of people’s lives. It underscores the principle on which our federal government was founded -- limited self-government administered at the lowest level. Those who comprise the permanent underclass dependent on the federal government for all their needs remain stuck in an endless cycle of dependency. With the help of the Democrat Party they have come to believe the world is aligned against them and that they don’t have a chance without liberal and progressive help. As long as they keep voting the same local, state and federal liberals into office, they will not have the opportunity to experience the American Dream.

America has been sold a bill of goods for many decades in the name of compassion. This amounts to the equal redistribution of misery – a truly morbid form of compassion. The liberal attempt to substitute the American Dream with their sense of compassion is effectively little more than malice.

No, the American Dream is not dead. Although the attempt has been made to hijack and subjugate it to progressive liberal ideology, the American Dream lives on.

TOO CUTE!; UND AND BOSTON COLLEGE; DR. MARY WAKEFIELD; CONGRATULATIONS; S.D. MAKING IT THE HARD WAY; HEADS UP!;  PLEASE DON’T TRY IT AGAIN; THE NORTHERN CROPS INSTITUTE; THE MINNESOTA CIVIC CAUCUS; TWO BROAD PROBLEMS; WHAT TO DO?; BE NICE!;  THE ENCHANTED HIGHWAY; DAKTOIDS

Throughout history people have responded differently to terrorism and terrorist attacks: retaliation, war, sanctions, threats, ridicule and much more. In this interesting article, Dr. Gary Welton offers his own individual response to terrorism based on his Christian beliefs.  

There are instances when the mouth gets ahead of the brain. At those times one wishes to take back words uttered. Some people, however, don’t even recognize their gaffs. Others mean what they say speaking forthrightly from shallow intellects. Consider the following.

Book Review - 

I purchased this book the day I became aware of its being published. I wanted to know the extent to which Hollywood had undermined our country’s future at a time when our very existence was at stake. It was eye-opening to read about all of the Communists that were involved in writing movie scripts that presented outright lies about the Soviet Union’s history and culture. The number of movies outlined in the book that contained propaganda from these Communists is astounding. If you do nothing else, please go to the library and copy the pages that reveal these movies for what they were, Soviet Communist propaganda films. Lastly, the book confirmed my suspicions that FDR was a Red sympathizer and enabler, adding to my distaste for that particular President’s socialistic record.

WHERE ARE YOU BETTER OFF?; NOT SO FAST ND and SD; UNMANNED AIRCRAFT; THE TEACHER SHORTAGE in ND; FINGER-POINTING; IGNORE BLOGGERS; FEARLESS RESTAURANT CRITIC; FIGHTING SIOUX REDO; MINNESOTA HMONG; HMONG REFUGEES 40TH ANNIVERSARY; A DASH OF MN BUREAUCRACY; CANVASSING THE BAKKEN OIL FIELDS; DAKTOIDS

Recently, Larry Flynt, founder of the Hustler magazine empire, enthusiastically declared that he is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. In this must-read article, Dr. Paul Kengor takes a closer look at the Flynt-Clinton relationship and argues that there are “some serious issues and concerns” behind Flynt’s endorsement