Dakota Beacon

. . . collective boost of self-esteem; Each Forum paper chose top 2012 stories; The Forum ended 2012 in a snit; a tribute to the retiring Conrad; you need to be in the right state; Gilmore died last week at age 108; Cheerful person of the week; Betting warns about the horrors; thieves making methamphetamine; legislative proposals are heavily focused on western ND; The state had 168 traffic deaths in 2012; longest-serving chief justice in state history; “War of the Colossal Beast”. . . .

And when a child violates the above, action must be taken — for his own good. As for the Maryland Finger Maniac, if we administer enough Ritalin, he may one day start acting like a girl.

“We’re doomed,” Bork assured my student. America was on the road to Gomorrah.

Unfortunately, I think Robert Bork was exactly right.

People dressed up more often and generally were more polite. They used less profanity in public. Movies depended on good acting instead of special effects to tell engaging stories, and depictions of intimacy and violence left the details to one's imagination. If you hurt yourself doing something careless, you never thought of suing the company that made the thing with which you hurt yourself. Most of us went to Sunday school or synagogue every weekend, learning right from wrong and that we are accountable to a higher power.

Let him propose whatever insane thing strikes his perverse fancy.  There is no reason on earth or under our law why Congress should even hear him out.

After all, a business is built through work; money derived from a business is made through work. And work is something you do with your body. Thus, if the government tells a business owner what he must provide through his business and money, isn’t it, in a sense, telling him what he must do with his body?

And how would he improve the Good Book? Said he, “Both the Bible and the Constitution were well intentioned, but they are basically, inherently flawed. Hence the need to amend it. My point to you [Warren] about gay rights, for example; it’s time for an amendment to the Bible.”

. . . a city that’s humming with business; a Legacy Fund expected to reach $1 billion next year; six men in a crew cab pickup were killed on icy I-94; they don’t take reckless actions on their own; the Native Mob terrorizes reservations; his snowmobile hit a mailbox; Two views of development; enough about the bridesmaid dresses! . . . “Well, lad-di-da.  I beg to differ"; the proposal “isn’t fiscally responsible; Dickinson State is not out of the woods; 17th busiest in the nation; DAKTOIDS . . . .  

Depardieu was allowed to retain only 15 percent of his property.

Set aside your political correctness for just a minute.  We’re serious here, because this could be your kid’s life or your wife’s or husband’s.  These deaths are real and they happen in towns just like yours.  Do you really want to play the game?  Or do you want to prevent this from ever happening to someone you love?  Because unless you want to sacrifice them to the PC god, you have no business coming down on the side of these empty suit politicians and media hacks who are using – yes, using – the deaths of these little children in their soulless pursuit of totalitarianism.  If you want to save precious lives, here is how you do it.

Conservatives should never expect to win on identity politics, but on principle and on the reality of cause and effect.  History supplies us with ample evidence of what works long-term and what doesn’t

The recent story about the homeowners in the exclusive neighborhood of Arlington, TX, who refused to permit the Salvation Army to set up a donation kettle across the street from their elegant Christmas light display just about says it all.  What is it these people are celebrating?  “Light Day”?

. . . “The Legislature Today”; Bakken Beacon; If rural America wants to remain relevant; some Bison athletes act more like criminal gang members; loose rocks from the fiscal cliff; applications for concealed carry permits soared; The Defense Department  built the anti-missile complex in 1975; Newcomers stiff Williston; Somalis with Minnesota backgrounds; Fargo: Chipper People; Fargo is amazed, envious and wary; Keystone Cop episodes in New Town; DAKTOIDS . . . .

It’s ironic, too, because while it’s possible (anything is) that you’ll die in a Friday apocalyptic event, it’s far more likely that on that day you’ll succumb to a heart attack, aneurysm, or stroke, or be killed in a car accident. Or it could happen the next day, next week, or next month. Should you worry about it? Better than focusing on when you’ll die is straightening how you live. Live right — the dying takes care of itself.   

This year, the Christmas holiday has taken on a somber tone due to the unspeakable crime against children and loving educators in Newtown, Connecticut. Dozens of parents will experience Christmas without a loving, beautiful child—a light of their lives—at their side. Millions of Christians pray that they draw comfort from cherishing the miracle of Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago.

But consider what that implies. If semi-automatic handguns are too deadly to be in circulation, and most all guns in the US are semi-automatic and, presumably, equally deadly, then….

So what are we left with? The possible exception of small-caliber, low-power firearms? Maybe not. Sirhan Sirhan murdered Robert F. Kennedy with a .22 revolver

Today the Church confronts powerful enemies. But we have hope! After all, greater men than Obama have seen the Christ Child and fallen to their knees in tears. We must "pray always," that others may see. We can do so because we are inspired by hope, a gift of the same Holy Ghost that overshadowed Mary at the Annunciation and filled Elizabeth's joyous womb

A new song for the "new republic"?

Serious efforts to address the explosion in the cost of medical services must focus on the real causes. The Affordable Care Act ignores possible solutions and, in fact, focuses on reducing access to services and the quality of said services

Meanwhile, numerous neurobiologists, psychologists, philosophers, and theologians are accepting the legitimacy of near-death experiences. In “Evidence of the Afterlife” (2011), for example, scientist Jeffrey Long, after gathering and analyzing hundreds of near-death experiences, provides nine proofs for life after death.

The results were a 15% increase in “unlawful entries” and a doubling of “robberies” over the subsequent half decade (see charts below). Robbers and thieves were obviously “emboldened” by the media coverage of the destruction of long guns, but unaware of the degree to which the long guns were replaced with new legal long guns by the owners

And contrary to the history that liberals continue to rewrite, the Reagan tax cuts did not decrease the revenue to the U.S. Treasury. To the contrary, tax revenues under Reagan rose from $599 billion in 1981 to nearly $1 trillion in 1989. The problem was that outlays (i.e., government spending) all along exceeded revenues, soaring from $678 billion in 1981 to $1.143 trillion in 1989.

To paraphrase Lincoln, “The teaching in the schools today will be the politics of tomorrow.” The left has long controlled academia.

Having gun-free zones is foolish and, to me, frankly, irritating. Why? Because they’re a prime example of the liberal tendency to subordinate substance to symbolism. Gun-free-zone prohibitions are feel-good laws. They make about as much sense as having the U.N. declare Afghanistan a war-and-Sharia-free zone or the Congo a rape-and-child-soldier-free zone and thinking we’ve accomplished something. And for this reason they aren’t just wrong-headed, but morally wrong. For there is nothing virtuous about harming society with bad policy simply because it makes you feel better about yourself.

From the beginning Christ was in the genealogies. He descended from the first family in the Garden of Eden and was in the covenant line forward until his physical birth in Bethlehem. Regarded as the Messiah, He was the unifying principle of the Old Testament.

. . . largest budget in state history; the outside edges of both parties expressed concern; too much, too soon; ND and SD seem like two peas in a pod; Rainy Day Funds; snagging appropriations for his home state; The “big bath tub”; the “12th man”; The Cities Where Everyone Has a Job; North Dakota Museum of Art; greater regulation of elderly drivers; Germans always resented it; ND’s DUI laws; DAKTOIDS . . . .

The federal government under Obama is hiring 103 new government employees per day, with nothing stopping them.

If I controlled the NC government, I’d tell the judge that we will stop issuing abortion-related license plates altogether. Instead, we’ll offer one with an anti-suicide message. It just so happens that it will also bear the words “Choose Life.”And will have the exact same design as the pro-life plates. You don’t expect us to spend money redesigning a plate given today’s budget crunches and all, do you? And there’ll be no “viewpoint discrimination.” We’ll also offer a pro-suicide plate reading “Choose Death.” Fair is fair.

The pickle we are in today is excruciating. In the first place, the big spenders clearly won’t make any more than token compromises. President Obama came out of the election suddenly asking for tax hikes twice as large as he had requested earlier. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that Social Security was off the table. Since Reid has blown up Congress’ constitutional budget-making process for several years already, we know he isn’t bluffing. They are willing to drive off the fiscal cliff if necessary, because chaos and crisis provide them with the pretext for more government intervention and control, which is their ultimate goal

The Christmas story inspires many listeners with the unchanging truth of the angelic realm. This is the story of God the Creator who entered into the finite realm of time and space to reconcile a wayward and rebellious human race. In this respect, Christianity distinguishes itself from all other major religions. In all other religions, fallible humans strive to justify themselves before their god. Only in Christianity does a benevolent and loving God reach down to a bankrupt people to do what people can never do for themselves--absolve them of their unrighteousness.