Dakota Beacon

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that required abortion clinics to meet the same standards as any other Texas ambulatory surgical center. Does this decision suggest a clash between state legislatures and federal judges who are arrogating more and more power to themselves? And did former Justice Hugo Black see this coming over a half century ago? In this article, constitutional scholar Dr. John Sparks discusses the current ruling while examining Justice Black’s warning from 51 years ago.  

NORTH DAKOTA DOUBLE WHAMMY; CAUSE AND EFFECT?; REPUBLICAN SPENDING AMBUSH: “FRACK MASTER”; THERE IS MORE DOPE HERE THAN EVER; DUELING EDITORIALS; SPRING HOUSECLEANING; SCHAFER'S PERFORMANCE: HE'S GOT RESUME; UND'S SURPLUS OF COLLABORATION; FARGO FORUM MORE THAN INTERESTED; MINNESOTA SOMLI!; HOMELESS JESUS; DAKTOIDS

The Gong Show was a short-lived TV game show that first appeared on NBC in the 1970s. The show featured amateur performers with three judges awarding prizes to the least deplorable performance. In this interesting article, Dr. Earl Tilford uses the game show to draw a comparison to today’s political climate. Tilford writes, “In 2016, unless the Democratic Party and the Republican Party conventions experience a few moments of temporary sanity, the electorate will be choosing between candidates with political acumen best suited for The Gong Show.” 

"It was often apparent that what "minorities" were after was
not equality, but privileged treatment. Or, in a word, power," writes Joe Sobran in a classic column* from 2004. 

Recent news coverage has shown images of Venezuelans standing in line for hours hoping for the opportunity to shop at a grocery store to buy bread and milk. And, unfortunately, sometimes the waiting turned to rioting. In this must-read follow-up to his popular article on the perils of socialism in Venezuela, Dr. John Sparks examines yet another disastrous policy embraced by the government: Inflation of its money supply. Sparks asks, “Has Venezuela entered into the final phase of monetary destruction, namely: hyper-inflation?” 

Definitions limit; they exclude what doesn’t meet the definition. You can have tradition and exclude iconoclasts, or you can make today’s iconoclasm tomorrow’s norms and exclude traditionalists. But you can’t have your gluten-free cake and eat it, too.

As for health, every civilization has a nut allergy. The Rauzi realm’s dietary and voting decisions make plain that nuts abound in our nation today — and all of America is descending into anaphylactic shock. 

Certainly Senator Hoeven, you have done good work supporting reformed medical care in the Veterans Administration, but that effort is a long, long way from bearing fruit. Active and retired military should not be dumped into a broken VA system with promises that things will improve someday.

In conclusion, please rethink your position on sequestration and its impact on the active force as well as the medical needs of military retirees. This is no time to waffle.

After seven years, the Northwest Tea Party Patriots are calling it a day.  Their experience, as well as their contribution deserves our attention.

The state of Virginia has a statute that requires delegates to the national political conventions to vote for the winners of the primaries. But late last week, a delegate from Virginia filed a suit in federal court claiming that the statute violated his rights of conscience under the religion clause of the First Amendment. In this interesting article, Dr. L. John Van Til examines the law as well as the Republican party rules and asks: “If all delegates are ultimately free to vote their conscience on all ballots is it possible that large numbers of delegates could change their ‘bound vote’ status and/or abstain from voting?” 

Every now and then it is healthy to take a break from the incessant news coverage of campaigns, elections, tyrannical government bureaucrats and their stupid rules and regulations.

With little effort, I’ve settled into part of my summer reading. 

Why not leave this topsy-turvy world behind for a little while. It isn’t going anywhere. It will be there when we get back.

Occasionally the better part of wisdom is to withdraw for a time with a bit of humorous diversion. Truly, laughter is the best medicine.

Before the new hit musical “Hamilton,” most Americans probably knew little about Alexander Hamilton, perhaps only that he penned many of the Federalist Papers, served as the first Secretary of the Treasury (his picture is on the $10 bill), and was killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr.

To help celebrate America’s Independence, scholar Dr. Gary S. Smith examines Hamilton’s life and extraordinary career (from childhood to the duel) and suggests: “As we sing patriotic songs, watch parades and fireworks, and eat quintessentially American cuisine on July 4th, let us remember the role that Alexander Hamilton played in procuring and ensuring our independence.”

It's just simple logic that the preference of a majority, as opposed to the preference of a plurality, is the more accurate reflection of the will of the voters.  Needless to say, none of this precludes the possibility that the preference of a plurality and the preference of the majority could turn out to be one and the same.  A runoff tests this proposition.

Hi, my name is AR-15. Some of you know me, but many more of you know of me — through the media. But you may not know the real me.

I’m that cool, sleek-looking black gun you’ve seen profiled by the press. They put me in newspapers and on TV, showing my picture as if it’s a mug shot, even though I’ve never committed a crime. Oh, bad people have at times used (and abused) me to do bad things, but not really that often; as even The New York Times admitted in 2014, firearms such as me — which that paper and others call “assault weapons” — are only used in two percent of gun crimes (most are perpetrated with handguns).

And that’s another thing. For a long time I didn’t mind the misnomer; it massaged my ego and made me feel like the big man on the block when I was called an “assault weapon.”

GF HERALD POLL - 4 TO 1 AGAINST NEW LOGO; BISMARCK LOSES A RENAISSANCE MAN; A PERUVIAN ARTIST; STATE IS NOT SO ROSY; DICKINSON IN DEBT; CREW CAMPS WIN; SANFORD HEALTH LIKE GIANT BLOB; THE ND AP SPORTS WRITERS AND BROADCASTERS; THE INDIAN HEALTH SERVICES; THE TWIN CITIES AREA; VALRIA SILVA; MINNESOTA’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION; DAKTOIDS

Not only is Donald Trump a repulsive example of depravity and personal irresponsibility, he is a danger to American freedom and to world financial and political stability.  He is not worth your vote or mine.  The big lever being used to put him over is “he is better than Hillary” or “ANYTHING is better than Hillary”.  But is he?

If we follow Carson’s “logic” to its inevitable conclusion we have someone advocating the abandonment of our Constitution because the mob wants it abandoned.  It has nothing to do with our rights or our laws. 

It was for people like Dr. Carson that these laws were cast in stone. 

Murder rates in many cities skyrocketed in 2015 and 2016. The reason given is the reduction of proactive policing in high crime neighborhoods of many US cities. And, the reason for the reduction of proactive policing is, as a minimum, the fear by police of recrimination and of being wrongly accused of racism in pursuit of their duties. Proactive policing by officers sparked a backlash by the politically correct race industry. This, in turn, generated physical reprisals and executions of police by civilians. Such withdrawal by police of vigorous law enforcement from crime-ridden areas is known as the “Ferguson Effect.”

The anti-cop dogma of Black Lives Matter maintains that enforcement actions must parallel population data otherwise the police are considered “racist.” Returning again to New York City as an example demonstrates the stupidity of this dogma. In New York City blacks comprise 23 percent of the population. Coupled with Hispanics they total 98 percent of all gunfire in the city. Whites are 33 percent of the population but they account for less than 2 percent of all shootings. Therefore, every time New York City police are called to shooting incidents they are destined for minority neighborhoods looking for minority suspects. The use of proactive tactics in minority neighborhoods is warranted. Unfortunately, proactive tactics are on the decline as a result of the “Ferguson Effect.”

One thing is certain -- the extent of people's capacity for ignorance and hypersensitivity cannot be underestimated.


A harsh statement? I know. As one among billions on earth, I would like to offer my advice for the billions (I hope) of normal, rational, thoughtful, secure, and balanced humans who must live among the ignorant
and hypersensitive. 

Recently, some Americans are finding socialism attractive—at least as presented by Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail. But there is ample and dramatic evidence of how a full-fledged socialist state fails its own citizens. Take the country of Venezuela for example. In this interesting article, Dr. John Sparks looks at the falling economy in Venezuela and argues that the last 18 years of socialism, “have left the economy in shambles and the living standards of Venezuelans falling to a level that can only be described as intolerable.” 

DOUG BURGUM; CROSSOVERS; WIDESPREAD VICTORY; RESET BUTTON; MEASURE 1; GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT; WELL-DESERVED; OVERREACHING REGULATIONS; BEAUTIES IN WILLISTON; MISS GRAND FORKS; TOM CLIFFORD; A PEREGRINE FALCON CHICK; WIN A FEW, LOSE A FEW; HERE HE COMES AGAIN; BLACKS AND PRISON; DAKTOIDS

To wit: this has nothing to do with men masquerading as women so effectively that they can use a women’s bathroom while raising nary an eyebrow. Such men obviously don’t need a law to gain access to the girl’s room.

This is about socially reengineering society — about changing hearts and minds — by legitimizing made-up sexual statuses.

Please make sure you’ve fully digested the above line before continuing. 

We have a very serious – no, an existential – problem in America with our failed, decimated immigration “policy”.

As Father’s Day approaches, Dr. Mark Hendrickson observes, “Father's Day invites us to ponder the father figures we have known—not just our biological fathers, but any man who has blessed us with fatherly action at some point in our lives.” To help commemorate the day, Hendrickson writes a personal tribute to a man whose paternal kindness helped save his life many years ago. 

In today's irrational political environment, it seems that to "be nice" means to be insulting to everyone other than those who actually pose a self-proclaimed and consistent threat. I suggest this mentality is the essence of stupidity.

To their credit, the longer people live the more experiences they accrue. Once upon a time older folks were considered wise by virtue of their accumulated experiences -- assuming they learned from their situations.

Conventional wisdom might depict the elderly at one extreme or another. Either they are incapacitated with senility or they are mild mannered grandmothers or grandfathers serving up tidbits of profound knowledge.

There is a third option, however. A fair number of these people are more apt to exhibit irascibility spawned by the foolishness incessantly displayed in today’s pop-culture. The applicable term for these folks is “curmudgeon.”

Many of Donald Trump’s supporters have compared him to President Ronald Reagan. But many longtime Reagan conservatives beg to differ. Is Donald Trump a conservative? Moreover, is Donald Trump a Reagan conservative? In this interesting article that first appeared at ConservativeReview.com, Ronald Reagan biographer and scholar Dr. Paul Kengor looks at the definition of conservatism—as given by Trump and Reagan—and compares the two. 

LOOKS LIKE A WINNER!; YOU CHOOSE; NO HELP FROM MPLS; MIND OF HIS OWN; PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK; TOUGH TIMES ON FARMS; THE “HOMELESS JESUS” STATUE; DRUGS IN INDIAN COUNTRY; MARK FOX; THE MUSIC STAR PRINCE; A MINNEAPOLIS JURY; IT’S NOT OVER; THE SOMALI COMMUNIT; DAKTOIDS

In 1945, within four months of taking office, President Harry S. Truman was faced with an incredibly tough decision: to use—or not to use—the atomic bomb against Japan. Recently, President Obama became the first sitting American president to visit the site of the atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima. In this interesting article, Dr. L. John Van Til examines the attitudes of Obama and Truman on matters of foreign policy, specifically on the use of the atomic bomb.