Dakota Beacon

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.

TOO CUTE!; UND AND BOSTON COLLEGE; DR. MARY WAKEFIELD; CONGRATULATIONS; S.D. MAKING IT THE HARD WAY; HEADS UP!;  PLEASE DON’T TRY IT AGAIN; THE NORTHERN CROPS INSTITUTE; THE MINNESOTA CIVIC CAUCUS; TWO BROAD PROBLEMS; WHAT TO DO?; BE NICE!;  THE ENCHANTED HIGHWAY; DAKTOIDS

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.

WHERE ARE YOU BETTER OFF?; NOT SO FAST ND and SD; UNMANNED AIRCRAFT; THE TEACHER SHORTAGE in ND; FINGER-POINTING; IGNORE BLOGGERS; FEARLESS RESTAURANT CRITIC; FIGHTING SIOUX REDO; MINNESOTA HMONG; HMONG REFUGEES 40TH ANNIVERSARY; A DASH OF MN BUREAUCRACY; CANVASSING THE BAKKEN OIL FIELDS; DAKTOIDS

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.

FARGO'S DUBIOUS NEW DISTINCTION; RACE AND CRIME; IS THERE A SIMPLE ANSWER?; SECOND-GUESSING; THE WILLISTON HERALD; NICE, OR NOT?; ANOTHER HERALD READER; CALL THE LAWYERS; THE WEST SEGMENT COMMISSION; SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES; SD’S ATTORNEY GENERAL; ACCOUNTING GRADUATES FROM UND; DAKTOIDS

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.”

"THE WORLD ENVIES US”; WE’RE BIGGER THAN WE LOOK; LUXURY HOMES; PREPARING FOR TAKEOFF; ND OIL COUNTRY; WATFORD CITY; MINNESOTA SHOWDOWN; HOW TO MAKE THINGS WORSE; GERMANS FROM RUSSIA; AND SHE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE; THE FEDGAZETTE

Two hundred years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. The battle was a major historical event, and yet its bicentennial has come and gone essentially without notice. In this interesting op-ed, Dr. Earl Tilford examines the historic battle and asks, “Two centuries on from Waterloo, what have we learned?”

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” This line was taken from Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest.” It was spoken by a fellow who was shipwrecked and was seeking shelter next to a sleeping monster.

Politics, too, sometimes makes strange bedfellows.

President Obama must feel miserable having to depend upon a Republican majority to pass his trade bill and cement his legacy.

House Minority Leader Pelosi and many Democrats must feel miserable having to break ranks with their president by refusing to support his legislation.

Conservatives in the House and Senate must feel miserable having to break ranks once again with House Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader McConnell.

The piece of legislation known as the Trade Promotion Authority Bill, or simply the trade bill, is one of the more quirky measures with which congress has had to wrestle.

On June 12 liberals aligned themselves with conservatives to block a vote in the House of Representatives on sending President Obama his fast-track trade bill. Obama’s 

Maine Gov. Paul LePage signed a bill last week that requires the state to leave Smarter Balanced, the testing consortium that provided the common-core aligned assessments state students took this past spring.

But the explicit heading of the announcement of the Governor’s signing of the law is highly significant – "TO PROTECT STUDENT PRIVACY – NO COLLECTION OF PERSONAL STUDENT DATA"!

"Department of Education shall terminate the State's membership in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the use of the Smarter Balanced Assessment used to assess student achievement in the 2014-2015 school year." 

ND AGAIN LED NATION; OIL IS KING; MONTANA; UNNEEDED TOWNS; WHICH WILL COME FIRST?; SOMETHING FOR HIS RETIREMENT; COLUMNIST MIKE JACOBS; LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES; A POPULAR WILLIE NELSON SONG; AN EPIDEMIC; CRAIG COBB; “CHILDLESS DOES NOT MEAN HEARTLESS"; DAKTOIDS

Sir Tim Hunt is a darn good scientist. So good, apparently, that he won the 2001 Nobel Prize in physiology. But none of this matters to the University College London, which just forced this esteemed mind to resign over a joke he made. 

It must be just awful, as the 39 words uttered have now ended his career. Here’s the joke he told attendees:

“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry.”

No, I’m not joking. That’s it. Nothing more. Yet it inspired social-media campaigners to hunt for Hunt, and the 72-year-old was ousted from his research position. 

It is not nice to tell a lie. But race lies are commonly pushed from the highest levels of government, academia and the liberal media. Police are a mortal threat to black Americans; police pose the greatest threat to black Americans today.

Subordinate lies surround and prop up this Big Lie. 1) The criminal justice system is biased against blacks. 2) A black underclass actually does not exist. 3) Crime rates are comparable between blacks and whites.

These lies, pushed by race agitators claiming “police brutality” in response to curtailing criminal behavior, served as the focal point for a series of riots and demonstrations.

First there was the Eric Garner incident in Staten Island, New York, July 17, 2014. The 350-pound asthmatic Garner died from a heart attack while resisting arrest and not from a choke hold. On December 3, 2014; a grand jury decided not to indict the arresting police officer Daniel Pantaleo. Hundreds of “police brutality” demonstrations, some turning violent, ensued nationwide.

Have you heard about the millions of Chinese flooding into Tibet? With their displacement of the native peoples and the supplanting of Tibetan with Chinese culture, anthropologists and human rights activists have labeled the colonization “cultural genocide.” (See here, here, here, here, and here, for example.)  It is a cause célèbre with its own popular bumper sticker.

Interestingly, this situation corresponds precisely to what’s happening in most Western countries — most notably the United States — except for one minor detail:

No compassionate liberal activists call it cultural and demographic genocide.

They call it “diversity.”

.....

The people make the culture and government, not the other way around. Import enough Mexicans or Muslims into the U.S. and you no longer have Western civilization; you have Mexico Norte or Iran West. Would this be preferable? If you’ve evaluated south-of-the-border cultures or Dar al-Islam and concluded it would be, then you should accept that “Our strength lies in our diversity” really means “Our strength lies in our destruction” — and welcome it. 

Does President Obama’s domestic legislative legacy rest in the hands of the Supreme Court? A forthcoming ruling may significantly alter the Affordable Care Act. In this timely op-ed, Dr. John Sparks examines the landmark case and offers insight into how the justices may rule. 

UND PRESIDENT ROBERT KELLEY; UND PROVOST THOMAS DILORENZO; PRAISED AND LOATHED; NEVER THE TWO SHALL MEET; ONE LESS PRAIRIE CHURCH; DRUG PIPELINE TO ND; NO REMORSE; CALL TO ACTION; RIVERSIDE PLAZA; EUPHEMISMS; NOT WHAT YOU THINK; DAKTOIDS

Last month marked the 750^th birthday of Italian poet Dante. In this interesting article, Dr. Andrew Harvey reminds us of Dante’s genius as he examines his 14^th century epic poem the “Divine Comedy.”

This is a personal tragedy for Hastert and his family. But it also paints a vivid picture of institutional corruption in Washington, how men and women of modest means are elected to public office and, before long, become very wealthy, using their public positions to do so.

How, we may ask, did a former high school teacher who held elective office from 1981 to 2007 leave Congress with a fortune estimated at $4 million to $17 million?

Today, a consuming awareness of the immediate and the present without regard for our Christian heritage leaves us with an incomplete appreciation of liberty. Attack and remove the premise of an argument, and the argument cannot stand. In our culture, marginalizing Christianity and replacing the Biblical premise of liberty with a secular premise may well result in reverting once again to imposing external government.

Every generation must determine for itself the precepts by which it will live. Some generations are up to the challenge and some are not.

In this interesting Q&A, Dr. Paul Kengor sits down to talk about his new book “Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage.” In part one of a series, Kengor discusses the history of the movement to redefine marriage and family.