Dakota Beacon

Could anyone else - the four simple authors of the Gospels, for example - have made him up, and put such resonant words in his mouth? "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." That's another claim that seems to be holding up pretty well.

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The 1874 election was like the 2010 election, only much bigger. It was a remarkable repudiation of Reconstruction. The Democrats took 85 Congressional seats away from the Republicans and won two vacant seats. Alabama and Arkansas voted out their Republican governments. Florida voted in a Democratic majority in the state legislature. Even states in such hardcore Radical Republican areas as New England and the Great Lakes elected Democrats to previously solid Republican seats.

The problem for those involved in the “No Labels” charade is that of late, the Left is taking a shellacking as “Independents” realize what the Left really stands for…namely the “equality” that is “poverty itself”. Of course Independents are those that are too busy living their lives to become entangled with the “takers” or the “leave-us-aloners”. And Independents, because of their disinterest, can rather easily be lured into new marketing techniques such as the “No Labels” ruse. Individualists, we have a lot of educating to do!

Progressives are unhappy people who stomp through life feeding gullible lab rats idyllic theories that invite a living hell. Do we want progressives strutting and preaching while “transforming” America, or would we rather shake our heads as they throw tantrums while the rest of us live happy, prosperous, and free?

When the Nazis and Bolsheviks jointly invaded, annihilated, and partitioned Poland. The Soviets seized thousands of Polish military officers as prisoners. Their fate was sealed on March 5, 1940 when Stalin signed their death warrant, condemning 21,857 of them to ‘the supreme penalty: shooting.

The people of Poland got an early Christmas present this year. It’s bittersweet but long awaited, and indeed a gift of sorts—and from an unlikely source: Russia. In Moscow, the State Duma, Russia’s legislature, passed a statement conceding Soviet responsibility for the Katyn Woods massacre, one of the 20th century’s worst war crimes…. The apology from the Duma was something Poles waited decades to hear. It was something many of us who have studied and written about this incident have waited to hear. And it is too bad that Franklin Delano Roosevelt is not around to hear it. FDR? Yes, FDR. Let me explain.

Could it be that President Obama disagreed with Summers’ about unemployment benefits on political grounds thus earning Summers a vote of no confidence? In the face of politically motivated and ideologically driven policies, economic reality will lose every time. Who wants to stick around when their advice is no longer appreciated? Maybe that, among other disagreements, motivated Summers to leave.

For if “morality” is “values” and values are tastes, on what credible basis can you advance humanism’s priorities?  Why should we believe that human advancement or dignity is important?  Who is to say?  Hey, don’t impose your values on me, you intolerant humanist!  This is why any relativism-based conception of virtue — or, as the atheists would say, “value system” (Do you know the difference between virtues and values, Chris, Richard and Bill?  Bueller?  Bueller?) — collapses upon itself.  To put it paradoxically, if humanism is true, humanism is false.

That's right, Washington will spend yet more money that it doesn't have, taken from taxpayers not yet born, to pay people to do worthless things, in order to solve a nonexistent problem.

The man who runs the USDA believes that if he motivates business people to do things that make everything more expensive, then prosperity will rise and "climate change" that cannot be stopped will be stopped.

The important question is this: On what basis did the Obama administration and the Congress believe they could use the force of law (IRS enforcement) to compel U.S. citizens to purchase a service, in this case health insurance, against their will? More specific, where in the Constitution is Congress given that kind of power? The answer to that question, given by Judge Hudson, is a blunt, ‘nowhere.’ The expansive jurisprudence of the New Deal has given Congress and President Obama the boldness to try to augment federal power, to the point where such power has no limits.

This case is about individual liberty, and Judge Hudson’s well-reasoned, 42-page decision aggressively and firmly protects that liberty. What will happen upon appeal remains to be seen.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "The Manifesto of Enlightened Conservatism," published by the Oscar-winning Russian filmmaker and actor Nikita Mikhalkov on October 26, provoked quite a stir in Russia. It revived the old debate between the Westernizers and Slavophiles on Russia's role in the world. The liberal Moscow Times found it "disturbing." But outside of Russia, it has not received the attention it deserves, especially in light of the differing political leanings of President Dmitry Medvedev, a presumed Westernizer, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a Russian nationalist.

The ACLU seems unusually active right now. Maybe it’s the Christmas season, which seems to make the ACLU more miserable than usual. I tried to ignore the latest round of ACLU legal challenges, but they became too much. The surge has been remarkably ecumenical, not singling out Protestant or Catholic interests, whether challenging a public school in Florida or trying to compel a Catholic hospital to do abortions. At least the ACLU finds a way to unite Protestants and Catholics.

In the interest of faith and charity, I’d like to add my own ecumenical offering—a history lesson. It concerns some fascinating material I recently discovered on the ACLU’s early founders, especially three core figures: Roger Baldwin, Harry Ward, and Corliss Lamont. I can only provide a snapshot here, but you’ll get the picture.

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Governor Dalrymple's First Budget Proposal

State Spending Driving Graduates Away

Federal Judge Strikes Down Healthcare Law

Five Reasons the "Tax Compromise" Falls Flat

NDTA Audio Clips

The ACLU seems unusually active right now. What gives? Maybe it's the Christmas season, which always seems to spring the ACLU into high gear, more miserable than usual. I tried to ignore the latest round of ACLU legal challenges against religious Americans, but they became too much. The surge has been remarkably ecumenical, not singling out Protestant or Catholic interests.

Progressives are amazing creatures. They don't live in our world. They live in a world in which the laws of science, human nature, and economics defer to brilliant theories. Perfection dwells in the minds of the enlightened ones who choose to live an alternative reality.

But progressives in general and greenies in particular are now being exposed for the deceitful preachers that they have always been. Americans are refusing to follow starry-eyed zealots into the poor house.

On this topic, I know of what I write. You see, I am a reformed ‘dupe-ee.’ … My argument was that despite being saddled by what I called ‘inherently problematic native logic,’ the appeasement of North Korea as of 1998 had been a surprising success. I was wrong. Having written a doctoral dissertation on the topic of appeasement, including a detailed analysis of how the policy of appeasement had failed to avert war in the 1930s, I was motivated to try to find a positive example. Could there be a case where appeasement worked? That example seemed to present itself with the so-called ‘Agreed Framework’ concluded between the United States and North Korea in 1994, led by Jimmy Carter.

One thing that saddens me about the TSA security controversy is that we’re missing a great opportunity.  Sure, the insanity of patting down three-year-old, blonde-haired lasses and octogenarian grandmothers with prosthetics has caused a great backlash, as more and more people are realizing that our government’s common-sense-blind approach is born of a deadly allegiance to political correctness.  In fact, I’ve even heard a few usually very careful pundits float the idea that we should think about profiling Muslims.  Unfortunately, though, they invariably drop the ball in the debate.

While dishonesty may play a part in the claims and pontifications of Dionnesque progressives, I believe that the main cause lies in reality-hating ideology. Dionne exhibits textbook, self-imposed, progressive blindness. There has never, not once, been an objective, trustworthy study painting anything other than the picture presented above as to how Americans are taxed across the income spectrum. The wealthy always have, still do today, and always will proportionately bear more tax burden than any other segment of taxpayers. But progressives always want more "fairness."

“Nullification – How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21^st Century”

By Thomas E. Woods, Jr. - Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute

 A book review by Lynn Bergman

 Dr. Woods, in this classic review of history, painstakingly reminds us of the authorized and prohibited powers of the federal government of the United States, of the individual states, and of the citizens of the United States, as defined by our Constitution.

By definition, reference in this book review to our “Constitution” means the Constitution of the United States, including its ratified amendments, the first ten of which are called the “Bill of Rights”.

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My old friend Joe Sobran died on September 30, age 64. He was the best man at my wedding. He worked for 20 years for William F. Buckley at National Review, wrote a syndicated column for years, and authored a lesser known but sometimes outstanding column for The Wanderer, a Catholic weekly.

His death caused a stir in conservative circles because in 1993 he wrote a Wanderer column attacking Buckley and was fired. There has been a lot of comment on Sobran's hostility to Israel, discussions of his alleged anti-Semitism ("contextual" anti-Semitism, as Buckley put it), and Joe's countercharge that Buckley kowtowed to the "Israeli lobby." I don't want to enter that war zone right now, although I plan to write something about it later.

The first step toward national fiscal responsibility should be the extension of the Bush tax cuts for only one year while congress implements this most important element of the debt commission’s recommendations. At the end of one year, if congress has not implemented the commission’s recommendations to reform the income tax code, we would know that congress is not up to the other debt commission  tasks and needs to be replaced ( as much as possible, given that only 1/3 of the senate is up for re-election in 2012).

Few Americans notice Bill of Rights Day. That isn’t surprising, since we have done such a poor job of upholding and abiding by its provisions…. Rather than debate individual amendments, let’s consider a more fundamental problem: We poorly understand the elementary concept of rights. Many Americans, both conservative and liberal, further cloud the issue by asserting that responsibilities frequently eclipse rights. We need a correct understanding of both rights and responsibilities.

We need to take the furor over pat downs by women who look like concentration camp guards in bad movies and intrusive scrutiny by scanners that produce something that looks like a 1940 nudist magazine as an opportunity to re-examine our whole approach to flying safety. Instead of disarming passengers, we should emphasize deterrence and punishment. Instead of pursuing policies that convey cowardice to air pirates, we should implement ones that communicate firm resolution. 

The First Amendment forbids Congress from infringing on Americans' right to free speech. But the Federal Communications Commission is not Congress. And Michael Copps, one of four FCC commissioners reporting to Chairman Julius Genachowski, seems intent on ignoring that pesky part of the First Amendment about "abridging the freedom of speech" when that speech is sent out over the airwaves.

The number of state employees (except NDUS employees) grew 6.96% from 2003 to 2009. During the same time frame, population grew by 2.18%.

Number of state employees is growing over three times (3.2 x) population growth.

Just a couple weeks ago, I was interviewed by NPR. … I responded that Obama had governed from the far left. Why? Because that’s what he believes. Further, I argued, if Obama were not such a leftist ideologue, he would have learned from Bill Clinton and compromised with Republicans months before the November 2010 election, when the political writing was on the wall—when it was clear he was facing a political tsunami that would cost him and his party Congress, one poised to wipe out his rising ‘progressive’ agenda…. [Obama is] a man of the far left, incapable of governing from the middle like Bill Clinton. He is no Bill Clinton. The reporter asked where I’d advise Obama to compromise. I pointed to extending the Bush tax cuts. ‘But he won’t,’ I predicted. 'Again, he's no Bill Clinton.' Well, it looks Barack Obama may have just done a Bill Clinton.

Hans Rosling is a Professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Rosling boasts a "fact-based world view." After viewing the video, it would be easy to believe that the professor lives up to the boast.

Rosling presents a dazzling visual illustration of the effects of 200 years of economic progress on the state of humankind. Government policy that sets entrepreneurs free to do what entrepreneurs naturally do is the single biggest cause of human progress. Pay particular attention to how Rosling heavily emphasizes the necessity for people to be free to create the advances in technology and medicine made possible by the private use of wealth.