Dakota Beacon

An upcoming argument before the Supreme Court will ask the question: Should a baker in Colorado be compelled by the state to make a cake for a same-sex wedding reception when the baker has religious and free-speech objections to using his artistry that way? Will the Supreme Court uphold the right of Americans to be free from being compelled by the state to express a message against one’s beliefs? In this article, Dr. John Sparks examines the case and what is at stake in this important upcoming decision.

No more free-association gun legislating. No more shots in the dark. No more making it up as you go along. For example:

• You say bump stocks allow a person to fire too rapidly. Okay, what exactly is the maximum number of rounds per minute a weapon available to the public should be capable of firing? What’s your reasoning?
• “High-capacity magazines” is an ambiguous term. Exactly what size magazine should citizens be allowed to own? What’s your reasoning?
• Don’t tell us about “high-powered rifles.” Tell us exactly what the maximum muzzle velocity of a publicly available firearm should be. What’s your reasoning?
• Another ambiguous (and misleading) term is “armor-piercing ammunition.” What exactly should the maximum penetration power of a publicly available round be? What’s your reasoning?

Once you formulate your concrete vision (for the first time in your lives), please present it. If we accept it, though, note what the agreement means: You don’t get to ask for more anti-gun laws ever again. There’s no more politicizing of the issue after every shooting. The vision is conceived, articulated, agreed upon — and then set in stone.

Of course, I’m sure there’s no way to make such a thing legally binding, and no other agreement with liberals is worth the paper it’s printed on. The point is that without such a vision’s presentation we shouldn’t even take anti-gun proposals seriously. Doing otherwise is akin to pandering to children (and liberals are overgrown children) when they stamp their feet and scream about what they want right now, “just because.”

This doesn’t mean we should be totally averse to compromise. So try this on for size: I propose reducing the 22,000 anti-gun laws currently on the books by 10,000. If that’s unacceptable, however, I’ll agree to a 5,000-law reduction — for now. There’s always next year’s negotiation, after all.

According to the narrative manufactured by the Democrat left, promoted by the liberal media and never challenged by the Republican never-Trumpers, the duly elected President Trump won the 2016 campaign with collusion by the Russians. As can be seen in the following quotes that is laughable!

In late August, a coalition of Christian leaders released the Nashville Statement—a document affirming their beliefs regarding human sexuality—which has over 17,000 signers to date. In this article, Dr. George Van Pelt Campbell explains why he chose to sign. Campbell writes, “The primary reason I signed the Nashville Statement is that, with many other Christians, I believe it expresses truth.”

Book lovers are in a class of their own. Bibliophiles, the technical term for these gentle folks of bookish behavior, have unbridled affection and unquenchable thirst for the printed word.

Biblioclepts, for example, are people who steal books.

Biblioclasts destroy books.

Bibliotaphs are those who love their books so much they bury them.

Bibliophagi, undoubtedly the most bizarre among book lovers, are people who virtually eat the printed word.

For bibliomanes, quantity counts. 

In the face of the enormous challenge from technology and electronic devices the world of books is held at bay like aliens from another world. Families gather around the TV for an evening of non-interaction. Books collect dust as individuals peck away distractedly on their devices.

However, as long as people have ideas to share and there are readers who seek understanding, there will always be books.

Where books are found, so are literary addictions.

UND PROGRAMS WITHOUT LEADERS; DYSFUNCTIONAL SYSTEM; THE ND AND MN GOVERNORS; THE HAROLD NEWMAN ARENA; KATHRYN BURGUM EXCEPTION; SHAQ O'NEAL; WITNESSES TO TRAGEDY; DO YOU FEEL A LITTLE WARMER?; REZ ALCOHOL TAX; LESS TAX FOR NODAKS; WINONA LADUKE; DAKTOIDS

October 2017 observes the centenary of communism—a time to solemnly mark the 100 years by reflecting on the fact that an estimated 100 million people lost their lives under communist governments. However, last week the New York Times ran an article that suggested communism was a good thing for women. In this article that first appeared at The American Spectator, Dr. Paul Kengor counters the Times piece and argues that many facts about communism were left out. Kengor writes, “Quite astonishingly, the article makes no mention of poverty or starvation for women in communist China, where more people died than in any other country under communism.”

If anti-gun laws are a good idea now, they’ll also be a good idea later, when the emotion surrounding Las Vegas has subsided. But since facts and reason aren’t on the leftists’ side, they’re left to appeal to emotion — and that’s most easily done when blood is still on the ground. 

THE LAST MANSION HURRAH; ONE OF ND'S LARGEST FARMS; OIL PATCH HANGOVER; SCANDINAVIAN/GRAND FORKS TEAMWORK; MARK HAGEROTT; IMPULSIVE CARSON WENTZ; BIG SPENDERS; FALL FROM GRACE CHAIRMAN; EPIDEMIC; DAKTOIDS

The Ruling Class accumulates power by redistributing other people’s wealth. Power derives from public office because it is from there that elected officials distribute the “bacon” to their constituents from whom the money was confiscated as taxes in the first place. Money becomes an aphrodisiac administered by Senators and Representatives to the public so they can show love and be loved in return.

It is easy for The Ruling Class to give the appearance of “getting things done” by voting on non-controversial measures they know in advance won’t go anywhere. These are “safe” votes that can be sold to their constituents as “bipartisan” efforts.

 On hard issues requiring leadership such as income tax reform, immigration and border security as well as repealing Obamacare, the Ruling Class resolved nothing. Our Senators and Representatives have talked a good fight for years. Yet, through those years, nothing substantive has been accomplished. It is time to drain the swamp starting with the 2018 primaries and conventions.

Trump has encouraged firings of the players involved and boycotts of football. In the former I disagree – it looks very unhealthy to me to urge firings for expressions of thought, however nebulous the "thought" may be. In the latter, this, at least, utilized the free market and free will to show disapproval and encourage the change we want as a majority of patriotic Americans.

Meet “Big Dog” Brown: From a troubled childhood to multiple stints in prison, Brown’s story is a remarkable journey of God’s love and grace. In this article, Dr. Gary S. Smith tells Big Dog’s story and highlights the importance of Christian charity and compassion. Smith writes, “A compassionate adult might have helped Brown develop better self-esteem, avoid drugs, and come to know Christ at an earlier age. Sadly, hundreds of thousands of children are growing up today in situations similar to the one in which Brown was raised.” Click below for more.

We are not God. We do not have a right to arbitrarily determine that a life is not "viable" or worth saving or worth living.

The most audacious entry in the campaign to equate Catholicism and anti-Semitism is that of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of A Moral Reckoning: The Catholic Church during the Holocaust and Today.

In Goldhagen’s mind, the Cross begot the Swastika. Nazism was the updated spawn of the earliest Christian teachings and the Holocaust was their fulfillment.

But Pius XII isn’t Goldhagen’s ultimate target; Christianity is. He contends that the central Christian doctrine — the doctrine of the Crucifixion — is anti-Semitic!

PRESIDENT TRUMP IN MANDAN; GUESTS ON AIR FORCE ONE; U.S. SEN. HEIDI HEITKAMP; ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI; LIFE OF HARD WORK; GRANDMA BOOP; CONTRADITCION; FORTY DEFICIENCIES; FISHER INDUSTRIES; MOGADISHU, MINNESOTA CANCELED; HMON; THE AGERICAN GREAT LOOP; STICKER SHOCK; DAKTOIDS

It has been 40 years since George Schuyler died. It is a shame that he has gone largely forgotten and overlooked. Schuyler was a man with a mighty pen—a top journalist at one of the nation’s top newspapers. In this article that first appeared at The American Spectator, Dr. Paul Kengor remembers Schuyler and argues that he was a great American and deserves more recognition.

SAVANNA GREYWIND; JUSTICE DELAYED; WAGE SLUMP; SHOWDOWN; THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX/ GREENPEACE; MARVIN WINDOWS; OUTMATCHED; JAMESTOWN; SMALL BUT MIGHTY; THROWBACKS; CRUEL ADVICE; DAKTOIDS

It should surprise no one that so many Americans hold our Congress in such low esteem. Americans know intuitively that something is seriously wrong in America, but cannot put their finger on the problem. They see our communities and nation disintegrating. But why?

In large part, it has to do with the fruits of the 1970's Love Generation’s disrespect for authority, responsibility, striving for excellence and civil discourse.

The children of the Love Generation managed to pull off a virtual takeover of America's once superlative education system. Today our children are not educated, they are indoctrinated by these loveless Love Children.

The rule of law in America is on life support. Laws are brushed aside when they conflict with feelings. Laws enacted today have little or nothing to do with fundamental concepts of right, wrong, reason or logic.

Perhaps you are unaware of the stealth with which the federal government has insinuated itself into our law enforcement but it is there in funding of personnel and "gifts" of equipment and even possibly training. Your local police probably have a repurposed fire station or bus garage full of the stuff.

It is my firm belief that the only way our country will ever become fully healed is for each and every individual American to be taught at home and by educators, both public and private, that Love = Work + Courage. It is up to all of us individually to do everything we can to teach our young that no road is to long or too tough to travel if “Work” is the opportunity at road's end. It is also our responsibility to instill in our young the “Courage” to travel those roads that seek the self-love that “Work” represents.

IS THE STATE TALKING TO ITSELF?; JOHN "JACK" HOEVEN; LIVING HIGH; METH; WHITE SUPREMACIST CRAIG COBB; WHE WASHINGTON POST; STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE; CHEERLEADERS;GOV. DOUG BURGUM; WHITEY'S WONDERBAR; FAMOUS DAVES'S; HOME OWNERSHIP FOR BLACKS; DAKTOIDS

For those unsure who is a professional politician as opposed to a statesman, consider the following:

– A statesman is a person of bedrock principles and unchanging fundamental truths not guided by expediency.

– A statesman is a person governed by a moral compass -- not public opinion polls – but instead a sense of absolute right and wrong.

– A statesman is a person with a true vision of what the community (large or small) can be, is able to identify problems, can craft solutions for both the short and long term to bring the vision to reality.

Perhaps it is time to finally turn off the pundits and turn out all the professional politicians and seek statesmen as our leaders.

In July, the story of Charlie Gard, the baby stricken with a rare and typically fatal genetic disorder, was the center of international news. Tragically, Charlie passed away. Remarkably, a similar story is now beginning to unfold in the United States. In this article, Richard Kocur looks at the fight of Russell Cruzan III, a four-month-old baby from Michigan who suffers from a variation of the same rare condition as Charlie Gard. 

We have been in Boston this week. Cobblestone streets, The squawk of sea gulls. Bracing salt filled breezes to remind one that the ocean is just over yonder-wherever you go there is something that stirs the soul.

Our youngest son is with us and has one thing on his mind-baseball and Fenway Park.

"Iconic" is the word he used to describe the experience of sitting in the green bleachers - the 37' high wall some 310 feet from home plate looms like a "Green Monstah" (that's New Englander for monster) to remind the batter just where he is and what he's up against. 

JOLT IN MINOT; ND HUB CITIES; GRAND SKY; 1HE 11TH ANNUAL UAS SUMMIT; DROUGHT; WAYWARD DRUMMER; IT HAPPENED AGAIN; GUILTY; BOBBY WASN'T AVAILABLE; THE CHURCH OF CASH; LEMMINGS; THEY WANT TO BE "CORRECT"; NEW BOODK; DAKTOIDS

What happened to summer? Suddenly Memorial Day and the 4th of July seem so far away. Signs of summer’s passing are all around us.

Summer passed so quickly. Maybe it is the short summers on the northern plains that makes time seem to fly. Or, maybe the busyness in which we immerse ourselves that distracts us. So much to do; so little time. Rush, rush, rush.

There is a perennial contradiction. It is easy to love summer for its warmth and breezes but hate it for its heat and humidity. This, too, becomes a distraction from the passing of time. In the blink of an eye we soon trade the heat for the cold.

A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT; DIGIKEY; WORTH A TRY; MAKING DO; PRAIRIE SKYSCRAPER; GOVERNORS' HIGHW; A LESSON; THE REIGN OF TERROR IS OVER; CANDISC; CAUTIONARY TALE; SAD ENDING; TREADING WATER; DAKTOIDS

Griffin Internet Syndicate, August 5, 2003 – Speaking as a Catholic, I wish the Vatican would say nothing about same-sex “marriage.” It’s beneath its dignity to enter into debate with a sick joke, and when it does so it only allows progressive-minded fools to change the subject.

Some people have the ineradicable impression that Catholics regard the Pope as an absolute dictator who can change the moral rules at his own whim.

Such fools, some of them nominal Catholics, argue that the Church is a bunch of hypocritical old men nervously obsessed with sex and Jesus told us to be nice to each other and refusing to let homosexuals marry isn’t very nice because they don’t bother anyone and anyway what about all those pedophile priests so let the Pope mind his own business and look to his own house. You get the idea. Like, if the Church doesn’t enforce its own rules, those rules must be invalid.

In 2009, the Manhattan Declaration was drafted to rally traditional Christians to solidarity and to provide guidelines for proclaiming the truth of Christ, boldly and peacefully, in an unfriendly culture. In this article, Dr. David Hogsette revisits the Manhattan Declaration and argues: “The public square is a hostile environment of competing identity politics. However, not all identities are treated equally. Those adhering to Christian orthodoxy do not enjoy the same respect, dignity, tolerance, or acceptance as other identities, despite the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty.”