Dakota Beacon

Tax Foundation report gives North Dakota a below-average rating for Business Friendly Tax Policy

On January 20, Sebelius and Barack Obama answered Catholics. As Bishop Zubik put it, “On Jan. 20, the Obama administration answered you and me. The response was very simple: ‘To hell with you.’”

In the end, AOAs do not want partisan government. They want self-government. AOAs do not want to exchange Democrat control for Republican control if it means more of the same.

Debate is a constructive way to get the measure of the candidates.  The parties should be trying to field the BEST candidate – not shield their favorite from the scrutiny of the convention delegates and primary voters.  It should be an effective tool FOR THE PARTY ORGANIZATIONS to help them select people who are most fit to govern.

Socialism is a promise from politicians of a utopia void of poverty. Socialists promise food, clothing, housing, retirement income and healthcare for all. They argue that these things should be free in a “fair” and “just” society and would be if it wasn’t for “greedy” rich people. This promise has been made many times, but never once kept because the real objective is the power of government over the people. 

We forgot to file seven years of income tax returns; “trio of life-altering miracles” ; top tourism spot in Canada; Keystone XL pipeline; Who does that leave?; closely related murders in Minot; impersonating a lawyer in ND; Norwegian Christmas in ND; “Startling Oil Patch numbers"; Another hospital merger; What is the Hi-Line?; the bankruptcy plan of Lee Enterprises; Essential Air Services Act; entrepreneur Harold Schafer; “Their communications skills were inadequate”;

The twentieth-century state denied God and the existence of any stable human  nature, both of which imply immutable standards of right and wrong that might  Limit the authority and power of the state. It claimed the power to eradicate  all old laws and replace them with new ones that suited its purposes. Even written constitutions could be "reinterpreted" in keeping with the demands of the New Society. Plain words whose meaning had never been in doubt became "living documents," arbitrarily endowed with wholly new meanings by state officials.

This word appears some seventy-five times in the NewTestament. We should be glad of it, since the news it announces is good indeed.
That news is this: Even though all men are sinners deserving of eternal deathin a place called hell, God has provided a way of escape.

At one point, Obama remarked that Americans are "cynical" about Washington.  His address helps explain why.  His talk of unity was belied by his second-class treatment of Republicans during the address.  The Democrats had printed copies of Obama's text - a simple courtesy denied to Republicans.

THE TEN BIGGEST NORTH DAKOTA STORIES OF 2011:

1.Oil Patch; 2. Flooding Everywhere; 3. Fighting Sioux Redux; 4. The Nation's No.1 Economy; 5. Man Camps; 6. Sour Feelings in Sugarland; 7: Is it a Serious Medical Facility or a Criminal Enterprise? 8. AMTRAK - A Wasteful Model; 9. Somalis in the News; 10. He Knew Nothing

Paul and the other candidates are operating in different political universes. While these other candidates favor the same foreign policy as the one advocated by McCain and Bush and while they are unlikely to make much of a dent in existing social programs, Paul would turn things around dramatically. Unlike the others, he would not be providing a Bush-third term or the McCain presidency that we missed in 2008, but a program of massive dismantling of the federal bureaucracy, including and perhaps especially the Federal Reserves, and a sharp shift away from the liberal internationalism that is the staple of the Republican foreign policy.

The pattern is always the same. First one, then another, then another Redpoll darts onto the feed bag. They fly toward the thistle bag hitting it feet first sticking to it like Velcro. Nice trick for a “thistle missile.”

The reality is, of priorities to meet a full range of threats, or we face total defeat at the high end of the spectrum on the one hand, or death by a thousand cuts through inappropriate organization, doctrine, and training at the lower end.counterinsurgency, irregular warfare, and terrorism are not going away. U.S. national security strategy must, therefore, indulge in a delicate balance.

The great mission of American conservatism — securing the conditions under which liberty flourishes — has always depended on the weaving together of imperfectly compatible principles and applying them to an evolving and elusive political landscape.

Most young athletes think that their time is better spent practicing their passing skills or their swing. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, but it does make Tebow's conduct seem all the more remarkable. And it also seems to testify to the genuineness of his spiritual beliefs.

The reality is that we should want a do-nothing Congress.　 In fact, we should want a do-nothing president, do-nothing bureaucrats and hope that our military, police, firefighters and judges have to do little.　 And let's just think about where we'd be today if we actually had a do-nothing government for the last many years.　

What greater power can the state claim than the power to redefine human life itself -- to withdraw protection from an entire category of human beings? And what greater power could the Federal Government usurp than the power of the individual states to protect
innocent life from violent death?

Don’t say it.

Don’t write it.

Don’t use it – except to damn it.

If we want economic freedom to live, “capitalism” must die.

The newly rich, or as the French say, “nouveau riche,” have a lot to learn about living with wealth. A related term, “noblesse oblige” (literally “nobility obligates”), implies an honorable or benevolent behavior considered to be the responsibility of persons of high rank or birth -- or new found wealth. Noblesse oblige implies that privilege must be balanced with duty toward those less fortunate. That is a lesson not easily learned.

The issue of discretionary tax exemptions is one of the biggest single drivers of bloated property tax bills.  Around the state of North Dakota, millions of dollars worth of property are regularly taken off the tax rolls under the guise of "economic development" for often times up to five-years. 

We have heard all the candidates talk about how "government should not be picking winners and losers" when it comes to the policies that President Obama promotes with regard to companies like Solyndra. 

As groups like the North Dakota Policy Council have accurately pointed out, the state of North Dakota has long embraced the principles of "Obamanomics" under the guise of "economic development."

The Best of Times - the Worst of Times . . ., The tribes have an ambivalent message, a letter of tribute to Jim Kleinsasser. Does the end justifies the means?, Something for everybody! , Chris Magnus was police chief, real giants on the ND prairie, Mike Jacobs has a new job, ND’s largest CPA firm, Eide Bailly of Fargo, pro and cons of oil development, Is there a connection between oil and guns?, oldest fantasy football league winner

Public Economic Development entities use property tax forgiveness/abatement to attract business and industry. This is because eliminating property taxes results directly in economic growth.

This November’s election might boil down to a fundamental debate between the merits of markets vs. central planning and wealth redistribution; that is where the rhetoric is headed.z

Even while we watch it atrophy as it attempts to be more Democrat than Republican, while it contorts itself to be a “big tent” that embraces The Republican Party, like the nation it hopes to represent, is in big trouble these days.  It is in an identity crisis of its own and of its own making everyone and every position, its own core is disintegrating.  It seems to have lost its soul.

Every professional athlete, even a rookie just called up from the minors to make his major league debut, is a precious human being. None of these athletes should have to go through life brain-damaged because the leagues are unwilling to police headshots

Once upon a time, conservatives stood for limited government, the rollback of the welfare state, strict construction of the Constitution, and traditional morality. Today they merely want their own people to run big government.