Dakota Beacon

True history has much to teach us, but not if we approach the subject expecting it to yield prepackaged "lessons" that are really nothing more than our own preconceptions. The past is full of surprises, often disillusioning.

A drama of survival unfolds at the feeders. How do they do it? How does something as tiny and fragile as a song bird adapt itself for cold weather survival?

. . . Grand Forks was awarded a long-sought designation; Minnesota stands to gain from North Dakota drone tests; Casselton closed out the year with a bang; Bubba is getting a late start; Bravo to Zeeland, N.D., native Kyle “Bubba” Schweigert; retiring GF Herald publisher Mike Jacobs; Case will be succeeded by Bill Marcil Jr; Enrollment has dropped 40 percent; Don’t look for ND stories in the Miami Herald; Why does a school this size need a football team; North Dakota is on a euphoric high; the ND way of death; ND traffic deaths are down sharply; pet store reported four flying squirrels were missing; the proprietor of Grosz Wrecking; DAKTOIDS . . . .

 . . . THE LUCKIEST PLACE ON EARTH; WHO’S GOT IT BETTER THAN US? IT’S BEAUTIFUL -- IT TIES TWO OF THE STATE’S PREMIER INDUSTRIES; A FARMLAND BUBBLE? WIN-AT-ALL-COSTS PROGRAM; RIDING INTO THE SUNSET; THE HOME OF THE GLOOMY; THE PEOPLE ARE FED UP; HOPE, JOBS AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES; TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT; I'VE GOT IT! LATE BREAKING NEWS . . . .

If you make resolutions that require a complete change in your lifestyle, it is unlikely that you will make much headway.

. . . Expect some cooling in 2014; Schmid’s Ten Biggest ND Stories of 2013; Peterson Farm Seed in Harwood; UND’s new football coach; The three counties lost electrical power; There’s nobody that’s worse off than us; Outdoor Heritage Fund; we call them Hollywood Nazis; There’s no one to chase ambulances; 25,000 counterfeit “Beats” headphones; charitable gaming; DAKTOIDS . . . .

The great gift of Christmas is that God became man and became man's atoner. This is a gift He offers to everyone, even though many choose not to accept it.

He never taught that it was legitimate to help one person by trespassing on the rights of another. He never taught that the key to heaven lay in compelling other people do good things.

Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, even secular adherents to a social gospel, fall under the spell of that momentous event so many centuries ago.

Whether a person is a believer or not, for the sake of cultural literacy everyone should read the Bible at least once during their lifetime. I've read the Bible cover to cover many times and find new meaning every time I do so. With respect to the Old and New Testaments, as the saying goes, "In the Old, the New lies concealed; in the New, the Old lies revealed."

If we subscribe to the Orange Juice philosophy, the result is that guys like Cramer will realize that there is no way he can go “too far” to the Left.  If he wants to keep his cushy Washington office all he needs to do is curry favor with the Progressives.  Only they, after all - according to tradition, anyway - will send him packing.

. . . major ramifications for future state budgets; Don’t expect to see a lot more well sites; This is the only base in the world; $155 million Dakota Spirit ethanol plant; entrepreneurs in the ND Oil Patch; Gov. Mark Dayton struck back; flowery remembrances of the deceased; more rigorous admission standards for ND public college students; the home of hard-drinking slackers; I feel like everybody has the right to get whatever they want; The Fargo Crime Report; The Grand Forks Keplin siblings; THIS AND THAT; DAKTOIDS . . . .

Of course, Mandela didn’t seek to purge whites from SA upon becoming president. What he did do, however, was take this racial minority — which had willingly relinquished political power — and initiate the process of stripping them of economic opportunity via anti-white racial quotas. The result is that poverty exploded among Afrikaners, and, with jobs often denied them, it is said that hundreds of thousands of whites now live in squatter camps. Mandela, true to form, had nothing to say about this.

Most people would never guess it, but the arrival of whites in SA dates back further than that of the ancestors of many of the nation’s blacks. The first Dutch settlers (who became known as “Boers” of “Afrikaners”) landed on Africa’s shores in 1652, while many blacks in SA arrived later. After all, since life in “racist” SA was vastly preferable to that in surrounding nations, it had long been attractive to black migrants.

Some carols dating back several hundred years still present Christ’s message unchanged. They sing of God arriving in human form. The 18th century Latin hymn “O Come All Ye Faithful” is a wonderful example.

Why would he do a thing like that? the cities are loath to see enrollment declines; administrators cut and eliminated academic departments; needs of the tribe “were pushed aside in favor of political grandstanding; problems on ND Indian reservations; hand out free cell phones; Leith has been in a state of near hysteria; Best Performing Small Cities; Work to solve its challenges but don’t suffocate it; the phenomenally successful Timbit; Campers and RVs trickle south from ND; crashes on the Red River bridge; Tough times don’t last but tough people do; leaving only two smoking concrete elevator shafts; leftover cash in their campaign funds; ND is noted for a high level of social capital; Would you enjoy a leisurely trip?

What now passes for journalism in the MSM has become a triviality not to be taken seriously. It is little wonder the greater public turns to alternative media sources for their news.

We may not have too long to wait.  Unemployment is rising, jobs are shrinking, and federal policies are making it virtually impossible for new businesses to start.  Thousands of new federal regulations are driving the cost of energy up as regulations are forcing the closing of plants that produce our electricity.  America’s respect and standing in the world is, arguably, at an all time low and sinking.

. . . Wall Street 24/7 again ranked ND the best-run state; solve the challenges of the oil and gas boom; the number of millionaires; my son has a right to flunk out; Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem effectively threw up his hands; Is Marcus Jundt a loud mouth; four rural carriers quit with little or no notice; Eight Bison fans were merrily tailgating; The problem is especially acute in notoriously frigid Minot; On a global basis, we’re still the prettiest pig in the trough; The buoy reported water quality and location. The county is constructing a new $4 million courthouse. Babe and the Blue Ox don’t do it. The Marvelous Fish House; DAKTOIDS . . . .

If people get out of the residential property business because they feel their control of their own business is compromised, the choices for renters diminishes.  What would make you get in or get out of renting to tenants?

Gratitude has also been shown to protect from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, and bitterness, and may even offer some protection against psychiatric disorders. On the positive side, gratitude promotes happiness, altruism, joy, love, and enthusiasm.

The one thing we must not do is try to manipulate history so as to get a result that is comfortable for us today.  Even if we’d like it to be Communists or Cubans, Free or Communist, or Syrians or whomever, we need to let the facts we can discover tell us their story. 

“The enemy sits in Moscow,” Reagan told Joey Bishop. “I call him an enemy because I believe he has proven this, by deed, in the Middle East. The actions of the enemy led to and precipitated the tragedy of last night.”

Before knowing the facts, our community organizer-in-chief condemned the killing, telling the public that if he had a son, his son would look, and presumably act, like the thuggish teen. Heightening the national hype, he went on to tell the public how, as a black man, he experienced racial profiling; when he walked by cars occupied by white people, he could hear them locking their doors.

When a pro-abortion black candidate defeats a white pro-life candidate, Catholic bishops applaud the black man's victory in the name of "humanity." When a black pro-life candidate is defeated by a white, pro-abortion candidate, the bishops are silent.  Does this make sense?

Of course, we have a DoJ that dropped a voter-intimidation case against Black Panthers caught on video wielding nightsticks and intimidating white voters; and an attorney general who, a DoJ whistleblower tells us, carried a card in his wallet that essentially states, “Blackness is more important than anything, and the black US attorney has common cause with the black criminal.”

His latest expedient: Give insurance companies the option to let people keep health plans that the government claims are “substandard” for another year. Note that Obama doesn’t want to do this legislatively. Rather, in a move that even screaming socialist Howard Dean suggests is unconstitutional, the king will grant you a stay of execution. Of course, this only delays the inevitable.

Gratitude has also been shown to protect from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, and bitterness, and may even offer some protection against psychiatric disorders. On the positive side, gratitude promotes happiness, altruism, joy, love, and enthusiasm. In fact, research suggests that the effect of gratitude is larger than the effects of optimism, hope, or compassion.

We are witnessing the disappearance of portions of our vocabulary. If we no longer embrace the ideas behind cultural standards, then there is no need to express the ideas in words. These are words less heard in conversation, literature, TV and movies. Who needs words conveying an obsolete sense of right and wrong, good and evil?

He quoted Martin Luther King, "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

. . . Is ND government spending essential or extravagant? the grand delusion that ND schools and students excel; the overall scores of ND students dropped; still drinking the Cool-Aid; they may be a minority party for a long time; charged with burning the Lone Steer hotel in Steele; a TV reporter was attacked at the Spirit Lake Reservation; Alfonso Rodriguez’s death sentence; the scandal at Dickinson State; new method of measuring poverty; wind farm in Stutsman County; Ethanol fuel is now the No. 1 use for corn in America; rural life early in the last century; DAKTOIDS . . . .