Dakota Beacon

Perhaps the biggest lie about “conservatives” is that they are selfish, out for only themselves. In fact, how I ferret out “imposters” is with simple tests of selflessness.

Near the end of a recent meeting of self described “fiscal conservatives”, a member of the group asked “what is a fiscal conservative”. I literally jumped at the opportunity to say “we’re selfless!” I further explained that all of us who regularly attend these meetings are pretty much self-made men and women who understand that what we give back, our legacy to our children and grandchildren, is the most important thing to us. I can’t deny that a few sets of eyes in the group were surprised at my answer; they are the conservatives that haven’t quite got the “true conservative” thing down to a science…

What follows is a review essay of Peter Wyden’s book, Day One: Before Hiroshima and After (New York: Warner Books, 1985).  It is a remarkable book in that it addresses the spiritual and psychological reactions the development and detonation of The Bomb elicited from those individuals most closely associated with its birth.  Whether we feel that way or not, we have entered a new period of widespread nuclear threat, which is why I am drawing attention to Wyden’s classic work.

Instead of sticking to the main theme of reining in an insanely expensive and increasingly intrusive government, the pledge was padded with statements designed to rally the traditionally Republican pro-life, pro-military, and small business constituencies. Yes, those areas are important, but the single issue that unites the largest number of Americans today is the concern that if we don’t check runaway government soon, we never will.

The too-broad pledge ends up being a hodgepodge of clichéd sloganeering, it offers superficially bold but often frustratingly vague proposals, occasionally dubious math, and at least one glaring omission.

What began as a chance encounter and question became a learning experience about a key aspect of the modern conservative movement in America.

I just happened to be in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC on September 11 and noticed a registration table for an event at the hotel with a sign which read, "The Sharon Statement".

As we chatted I learned that the authors of the Sharon Statement had been instrumental in defining the modern day conservative movement.   Out of this came the YAF (Young America's Foundation), who were sponsoring the event at the Mayflower.

The constitutionality of these “economic development” schemes has never been addressed by the courts. The state legislature enacted NDCC 40.05 and 40.57. Both are in direct conflict with the state constitution’s prohibition against giving taxpayer money to private entities for any reason, except the support of the poor. Neither has been challenged.

There is no sense in striving to become exceptional only to become a target for vitriol. In a real sense, the American dream is being strangled.

These points and others are addressed in the theme Victor Davis Hanson discusses in his recent article “A Nation of Peasants.” Hanson was Professor of Classics at California State University, Fresno, and is now Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute. He is the author of several books including “Fields Without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea” (1996) and “The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization” (1999). He and his family live and work on his family farm near Selma, California.

When the American nation was struggling to be born, Tom Paine articulated the sense of the American people and gave them a voice. Now when much of America senses things have gone terribly wrong, another voice has articulated the unease so many of us feel. 

The special summer issue of The American Spectator featured a cover essay by Angelo Codevilla, ‘America’s Ruling Class – and The Perils of Revolution.’  After the article was posted online Rush Limbaugh devoted an entire show to discussing it and reading large parts on the air. Traffic was so heavy it briefly shut down the Spectator’s web site.

Freedom works whenever it’s tried because it’s moral. Freedom starts with protecting private property rights from the looting masses who would otherwise use the ballot box as an instrument of plunder. Freedom cannot exist without private property rights. Private property rights cannot coexist with socialism for long.

Socialists despise people who work hard and become wealthy.  Rather than working harder to improve their own lives, they strive to live off of the labors of others and look to government to make the achievers poor like them. We used to call these people “losers”.

Paradox on the Prairie, The small-town blues, Can it be done at a profit?, Neighbors immediately crouched in a defensive position, a highrise city in the Arctic, Yet the Fargo Forum remains in denial, NDSU and leadership, college readiness, Devils Lake sees an emergency, parts of the city of Devils Lake are 22 feet lower than the lake, Your federal dollars at work, Ag subsidies, Social Security and Medicare

An arts review by Lynn Bergman

The opera points out a character flaw exhibited by far too many wives of absent spouses. But it also answers a question for which many men likely have searched for a suitable answer. When a man finds a woman who possesses the perhaps somewhat unusual character trait of “fidelity”, he rightly feels fortunate and blessed by God.

Those who insist that this opera sends a negative message are dead wrong. It teaches the hurt that infidelity can cause, if in a comedic way. In fact the comedic message of this opera represents, I believe, a most subtle effort by Lorenzo Da Ponte who wrote the libretto (the story line), to reveal “the hurt of betrayal” to opera audiences, something the most fortunate of us were taught by our beloved mother.

Speaking of which, that great adherent of Marx, V.I. Lenin, once said, “The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”  Given that we have a government poised to do just this — with steep tax increases and rapid money-printing that will cause inflation — should we really be concerned about a candidate’s views on sexual propriety?  Or should we be more concerned about a candidate who may be harboring Marxist passions?

So all the libertines amongst us should know that Christine O’Donnell will not take their sex toys away.  But Chris Coons may want to take all their toys away.  To vote for him is to play with fire.

Some years ago when I was in elementary school, every day began with saying the Pledge of Allegiance followed immediately by singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”  

Today’s schools are so worried about offending someone that this is no longer the case.  We cannot celebrate Christmas... we celebrate the Holidays.  We no longer hear Christmas Carols sung at Christmas.... OH!  Excuse me... Holiday Concerts.  Life in America as we knew it no longer exists.  We see children in elementary schools singing praises to Barack Obama.  We listen to children singing silly songs about Santa and about getting no presents because we don’t want to offend anyone.

I for one am tired of it.

In truth, and especially when it relates to foreign policy, Carter has done far worse than good. More, his failures have resulted from a remarkably strange trust in some awful dictators. Carter’s infamous naïveté has been destructive, long producing inferior results, not superior ones. Carter has been so unique in this regard, and worse than other presidents, Democrat and Republican, that, in my latest book, we placed him on the cover as a symbol of duped Americans during the Cold War; specifically, the June 1979 photo of a smiling Carter kissing Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev.

Please understand, I’m not trying to be mean. But self-serving claims like Carter’s should be answered. Intentions are one thing, but results are another. The Carter record should not be celebrated nor emulated.

Nowadays, winning the Nobel Prize in economics recognizes one's talent for embracing the arrogant, condescending attitude of a big government, central planning elitist. Nobel laureate and New York Times resident sage Paul Krugman illustrates the point.

This facet of the progressive attitude is nothing new. Basically, progressives think that the masses are lamebrained fools who must be spoon-fed by brilliant mystics. And progressives invariably assume that the most brilliant people can be found in either academia or government. Kahneman's and Ormerod's nonsense is a "soft" form of the totalitarian central planning that devastated the U.S.S.R. and Communist China.

Obama will bow, try to appease this Venezulean bully thug, agree that it’s the U.S.’s fault.  And this “Obama-fakester-prima-donna” government, Cheer-leaded by Hairy Reed and Na-see Pol-low-see, backed by Blarney Flank, Crisp Dudd, and of course, wafted
around like a hot air balloon by the lemmings and mice in the House and senate, three of which are OUR ND ones.

When writing about Barack Obama’s religious orientation recently, I pointed out that while I do believe he favors Muslim over Western culture, bowing before another — even God — is above his humility grade.  I further mentioned that in keeping with this self-centeredness, Obama is (like all leftists) someone who denies moral reality. 

We see how dangerous Breyer's rationale is by applying it to another area.

Suppose illegal immigrants residing in America go Islamic on us. If the illegals simply turn into murderous zealots, then will Breyer and other "progressives" who "think" as he thinks argue for outlawing public expression that might incite murderous illegals to kick up the murdering to the next level?

Isn't it a lovely country that the enlightened progressives are fashioning for the rest of us unclean, gun-clinging, religion-clinging, bigoted masses?

Huxley is much more sinister, almost devilish, in his perception.

A shared vision as exemplified by the institutions of family, school and church serves as a glue to hold a society together. That was taught in Freshman Sociology a half century ago. In a postmodern world where all three institutions struggle with a changing identity, there is a greatly diminished unifying sense of connectedness. It seems every individual stands alone. Alienation would rightly describe this condition.

If true, Huxley’s vision foretold our predicament more accurately than did Orwell’s.

If a defensive, elitist posture rules the day in the Republican party, the Voice of freedom calling from the grass roots of this great country and amplified by the Tea Party movement, could be drowned out again.   

However if Republicans listen and support ALL candidates endorsed by the Republican party, the results in November may not be everything we hope for, but the groundwork will be laid to build on for 2012. 

Without the bedrock conservative principles espoused by Barry Goldwater in 1964, there may have been no place for Ronald Reagan to stand in 1980. 

Reagan might say, "Let's Win One for the Gipper!"

In “anchor baby” chain migration, the proponents of unlimited illegal immigration must explain how a criminal (one who has broken the law, in other words) in a foreign country in which he is not a citizen himself, may be permitted to bestow the impressive gift of citizenship on another, whether it is his own offspring or not.  This is merely a case of exploitation of infants. 

I didn’t have a brother. I wished I would have, especially a younger brother, someone to beat around on and teach all the wrong things to. It was fun watching my two sons grow up and have little exchanges and do things together. My older son was very patient with his younger sibling and they were both interested in video games and sports.

One time my younger son was watching TV and the older boy went in the bathroom and came out with a toothbrush.

Decisive action is long overdue. Liberals must be reduced to harmless minorities in government. "Conservative" politicians who haven't the guts to support truth, logic, sound economics, objective science, and rational social policy must be fired. It is time to shut down the ideology that almost liquefied the American brain. Liberalism has got to go.

The Sick Bastards have done it again,  NDSU’s old spending habits, CEO Michael Unhjem was another wonder boy, F-M’s gross domestic product was over $10 billion, the future of Minot was somewhat in doubt, 25% of the shelter’s clients are American Indian women, Trends in ND newspapers, Forum Publisher Bill Marcil (74) should know his job, Author Louise Erdrich,  ND women living beyond 100, sheer grit and perseverance, DAKTOIDS

What is the real agenda of Measure Two, the captive-hunting initiative on the November ballot? Is it simply the abolishing hunting of farmed elk and deer. One of the big question marks out there amongst the public is, "people own domestic elk and deer?" They were purchased from the federal government or the U.S. Biological Survey back in the 1920s, same time as buffalo. They are several generations removed from the wild. They are private property same as buffalo.

Instead of arguing about debates and trying to dodge criticism, candidates must fulfill their duty to address the issues.

North Dakota's taxpayers and voters deserve to know each candidate's positions, but the time recently spent on petty arguments has been wasted and discussions about important topics stand idle.  Voters have a right to understand their candidate's ideas and candidates are obliged to share them.

We have to deal with the scourge of arrogant, reality-ignoring, elite theorists in economics, global warming, and the social sciences. The smug "experts" tell us to forget the data. Forget logic. Forget all of reality. They, the great seers of the way that things should be, will tell us the way in which we must imagine things to be. How shall the seers pass on their wisdom? Why, they'll use their "models," of course.