Dakota Beacon

On Memorial Day we honor men and women who served their country in the military and who have passed on to their final reward. Over the years Memorial Day expanded to include anyone we wish to memorialize -- especially parents.

That parents influence their kids is an understatement. Sometimes they impart lessons intentionally, sometimes inadvertently. What they do is as instructive as what they say. By setting the example my parents unconsciously taught me without realizing it. That’s how I came to understand one of life’s important skills.

“Plan ahead,” is what my folks used to say. “If you have a plan, you’ll know where you’re going and how to get there.” That was my father’s axiom.

There would be no need, absent the Electoral College, for a candidate to ever set foot in North or South Dakota, Nevada, Maine, Montana, Utah, or any of the 41 less populous states.  That’s right. As of 2010, according the the U.S. Census, more than half of the population lives in the top nine states.  

When man's concept of “communal living” has included one or more vices such as human sacrifices, human torture, thievery, rape, kidnapping, and the murder of innocents, such a culture has historically reaped the destruction it invited.

So be careful not to summarily dismiss communal living… unless it is devoid of the righteous spirituality that can make such communal living successful. And when you see “communal living” that is obviously failing… understand that man's vices, the products of Godlessness, are likely the cause.

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Coup defined: An unexpected stroke, act, or move; a clever action or accomplishment. An attempt to thwart a constitutionally elected President by an unelected, “non-political” bureaucracy would fit the definition of a coup.

The so-called “deep state” evolved long before President Trump was elected. The major media in collusion with various Democrat administration hold-overs harassed Republican presidents as far back as Ronald Reagan. That high-level Obama administration functionaries worked actively to elect Hillary Clinton should come as no surprise.

Arlington County, located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., has asked the Commonwealth of Virginia to rename the Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington. Alexandria, Virginia renamed the sections of the Jefferson Davis Highway running through their city a few years ago. This is ironic because the great affection that many generations felt for President Jefferson Davis was primarily a result of the cruelty and injustice inflicted on him by the triumphant North.

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For most of us it has been a challenge to sort out the players and their actions. Two items are concise and pithy in providing an understanding of the “Russia” probe. The first is the book. “The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump” was written by Gregg Jarrett and published in 2018 by HarperCollins. It offers the clearest overview of a complicated subject. The second is the letter from the White House to the Attorney General with a legal assessment of the Mueller report. The most effective way to communicate on this subject is by quoting the sources with comment.

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By this time next year the 2020 census will be underway. In December 2017 the Justice Department asked the Commerce Department to include the following question on the 2020 census. “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” DOJ states this would help verify compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

At this point liberals, progressives, and Democrat leaders blew up. The mainstream media concurred.

The census has not included a citizenship question since 1950. Prior to that, from 1820 until 1950, almost every census asked some question regarding citizenship status. This sets a precedent.

Most all colleges and universities have a motto—but what do they mean and how important are they? Especially as the time comes for high school seniors to commit to colleges later this week. In this article, Dr. Joshua Mayo examines mottos of higher education and argues that they are important—even sacred—when making a choice for college. He writes, “In its pith, its power, its appeal to ultimacy, the motto is a bold cry from the heart of an institution.”

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Who is Greta Thunberg? A 16-year-old nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thunberg has become the new face of climate change. In this article, Dr. Mark Hendrickson looks at her rise to fame and argues that the “climate-change cabal has succeeded in making Greta Thunberg a poster child for their movement. Inadvertently, they also have made her a poster child for the cynical exploitation of innocent children.”

One

of Machiavelli’s maxims went like this: “An able statesman out of work, like a huge whale, will endeavor to overthrow the ship unless he has an empty cask to play with.” With a stretch of imagination, choose your whale (fill in the blank -- former presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama or James Clapper, John Brennan, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, a host of Republican Never-Trumpers, and a large field of Democrat wannabes). So, Trump tweets to distract them.

Here is the answer to the question, “What would Machiavelli do?” He would open a consulting firm on “K” Street in Washington, sign multiple contracts with Democrat leaders, take all the taxpayer dollars he could get, and profit handsomely. He might even get hired by the next Democrat administration – if there is one.

In a recent article in The Atlantic, a Wharton School professor proposed a plan where every state would get one senator out of the senatorial seats available and the rest would be apportioned according to population. This plan would give states with higher population more senators. In this article, Constitutional scholar Dr. John Sparks examines the “Senate Reform Act” and argues why it is a bad idea that is bad for America. Sparks writes that this plan would, “deny the political wisdom of the Founders, the history and reasons for the Great Compromise, and one of the stunning bulwarks against the excesses of the tyranny of the majority—equal representation of the states in the Senate.”

This is the paradox of Paris; it is the best of Christian cities, it is the worst of Christian cities.

The people of Paris, a little more than 200 years ago, put the statue of “Reason” on the high altar of Notre Dame and turned the building into a pagan temple.

The blood of martyrs is still there to water Paris, but it will not do so as long as official and Paris-run France persists in glorifying Bastille Day, the Tricolor, “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” and the Marseilles as national symbols, not as symbols of the Terror.

The revival of Notre Dame must be accomplished entirely by people who realize that they are working on a product of the Age of Faith, not the cynicism of the Republic of France.

Some of us will be good slaves as we are bidden.  Others of us will not let this rest because it won’t let us rest.  Better to get the truth out and deal with the consequences.

Easter is upon us and it is arguably the most important observation of the Christian calendar surpassing even Christmas. For those who grasp the full significance of Easter – Hallelujah for them! For those who might not, well, here’s the story. A bit of revelation from above might help.

A logical argument begins with a premise. The premise of Easter must be grounded in the Bible as a record of God dealing with His creation, specifically the pinnacle of His creation – mankind. Without acknowledging the Bible as God’s Word, there can be no further logical discussion.

In a very myopic view, Jesus Christ was brutally executed as a solution to a religious as well as a civil problem. The Jewish leaders wanted Him gone because He challenged the established religious order even claiming to be God. The Roman occupiers wanted Him gone because He was a threat to civil order and stability. They did not know who He was, why He came, and the cosmic plan at work far exceeding anything they could possibly comprehend.

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Can Yale Law School refuse to allow students who benefit from several financial aid programs to work at organizations that have a religious mission? In February, the Yale Federalist Society invited Kristen Waggoner—a lawyer from Alliance Defending Freedom—to speak on campus. The invitation caused opposition and a petition. In this article, Jeffrey Trimbath examines the situation and contrasts Yale’s response with a recent Q&A Waggoner participated in on the campus of Grove City College.

A man’s home is supposed to be his castle. But this is no longer the case in New York City, according to a Brooklyn man who says that Big Apple officials are aiding and abetting a next-door neighbor’s attempt to steal his property.

It has been a long ordeal for John Hockenjos, 62, and his wife Irina, one whose twists and turns include a false arrest by the NYPD. The problems started in 2009, they say, when the couple Argo and Elen Paumere “purchased the home next to them with plans for an ambitious overhaul. According to the Hockenjoses, red flags flew fast when they were approached to sign documents turning over a two-foot easement to their new neighbor,” as Bklyner reported in 2013.

Add a new term to the election vocabulary – “ballot harvesting.” Take note: As the 2020 campaign season heats up this term will be heard more often. Why?

This term is incendiary guarantying fights along party lines. Rule of thumb: Democrat-held legislatures and governorships generally advocate for ballot harvesting. Republicans oppose. Laws favoring ballot harvesting are on the books in California, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, and Nevada among others.

What is “ballot harvesting?” Ballot harvesting is the process where organized workers or volunteers, total strangers to the target audience, collect absentee ballots from voters and deliver them to a polling place or election office. Straight forward, right? What could possibly go wrong?

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Here’s to the faithful taxpayer, whose rewards will soon abound;

Beyond the April deadline, which will surely roll around.

Here’s wishing you more health and wealth and bonuses aplenty;

Happiness is – as happiness was – to keep just one more penny!

Earlier this week, Sate Representative Stephanie Borowicz opened the PA House of Representatives session with a prayer. The two-minute prayer that Borowicz offered immediately drew criticism from some. Why are so many people crying foul over a prayer? In this article, Mr. Jeffrey S. Trimbath looks at the controversy and argues that “the whole situation calls for is a renewed sense of true tolerance.”

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March 21 was World Down Syndrome Day. The statistics from around the globe are staggering: 67% of pregnancies in the United States end in abortion when there is a positive test result for Down Syndrome and it grows to almost 100% in Iceland, 98% in Denmark, and approximately 90% in Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and Belgium. In this article, Dr. John Coyne looks at the troubling numbers and argues, “We have the medical technology and governmental policies that work together to create a genocidal situation for unborn babies who test positive for Down Syndrome.”

Men Without Women

This is the title of a reasonable essay published in 1978 by Michael Novak wrestling with the appraisal of homosexuality in society. I came across the essay in a volume of quaint and forgotten lore.

Novak passed away 02/17/2017. He led an active life serving as a diplomat, American Catholic philosopher, journalist, and novelist. His book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism offered a reasoned defense of capitalism as an ideal.

Novak wrote with a gentle heart the considerate essay “Men Without Women: Meditations on the Half-Life of the Homosexual.” His essay is straight forward and says nothing about the LGBT activism which would come later with the politicizing of the homosexual life style.

Tomorrow, all 30 Major League Baseball teams will participate in the long-standing tradition of Opening Day. To help celebrate this occasion, we share an article by our presidential scholar Dr. Gary S. Smith. In this book review that first appeared at Claremont Review of Books, Smith discusses Curt Smith’s “The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Baseball and the White House” which details how many of America’s leaders were big fans of the game.

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