Dakota Beacon

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Today’s cultural stress does not compare with the Great Depression or World War II. Those American experiences strained the public fabric but did not destroy its underlying unity. By contrast, today’s society has descended into the stress of divisiveness not seen since the Civil War.

For those who still read, a calm and refreshing reflection of better days will be found in the gentle rhymes and verses we knew as young adults growing up. Some people may object by calling such an exercise a form of escapism. After all, they contend, we will never return to the “good ol’ days.” On the other hand a counterpoint must be voiced. Such reflection is no more an escape from reality than would be prayer or meditation.

Revisiting nostalgic verses written prior to the purge of American literature by political correctness quiets the soul while giving hope for the future.

Unfortunately and as has been said before, treason today is now the norm. If you don’t drink deeply of the cup of multiculturalism, internationalism, Western demographic genocide and cultural suicide, you’re a “nativist” or, worse still, a “racist,” the latter of which has just come to mean “anything bad” to young skulls full of mush whose now putrefying gray matter endured endless sanitary spin cycles in the propaganda mills masquerading as universities. The inmates not only run the asylum, they’re numerous enough to classify the normal as abnormal. You’re a boy who’s sure he’s a girl? You’re white but identify as black? You think an invader is the equivalent of a citizen? Those people who’d cramp your style with that pesky Objective Reality are the problem. Off to re-education camps with them.

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Pulaski came to America in 1777 at the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin. He fought valiantly in the American Revolutionary War, becoming the most prominent commander of the American cavalry, reaching the rank of Brigadier General. Americans are forever in his debt as he saved the life of George Washington during battle. He is one of only eight persons to be awarded honorary United States citizenship. General Pulaski died of his wounds on October 11, 1779, after a bravura charge on October 9, during the Battle of Savannah (Georgia). 

As we celebrate our independence and astounding development from a fledging nation to the world’s superpower, we should applaud the extraordinary contributions of numerous founders. One of them whose accomplishments are often overlooked is John Adams.

Obama has had a couple of good weeks, but it was not so with others. While America preoccupied herself with these attention-getting news items, other important news lay ignored on the editorial boardroom floor.

If you want to find out what is really going on in the United States and the division between the American people and their leaders, read the foreign press. Foreign journalists have less of an axe to grind with the American public than does our contemporary mainstream media. Foreign journalists increasingly regard America with less bias and more crestfallen amazement.

Continuing, the majority pulls away the curtain of obscurity when it says: “In this instance, the context and structure of the Act compel us to depart from what would have otherwise been the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase.”

Such an admission by Justice Roberts and the majority is sad, confused, and ominous. The clear structure and context of the pertinent statutory language that Congress put in place was to induce states to open exchanges by offering them and their citizenry tax credit/subsidies. When that failed to work, the IRS intervened by issuing a regulatory fiat. The result was not produced by poor drafting, as the court also seems to say, but by an errant political calculation about what the states would do. The court itself concedes that by a “natural reading” of the statute in question it should have refused the subsidies to the federal exchanges. Instead of doing what courts are intended to do—interpret according to the words written by the legislators—it departs from that and relies upon what it calls a “fair understanding of the legislative plan.”