Dakota Beacon

Earlier this week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview, “No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars.” This is the latest in a series of public admonishments of Americans whose wealth values over $1 billion. In this article, economist Dr. Mark Hendrickson discusses the many economic errors in statements against billionaires. Hendrickson writes, “It is morally perverse and economically stupid to demonize, persecute, and seek to eliminate billionaires.”

Tomorrow is the birthday of Mozart!  We should all celebrate this amazing genius.  Whether you enjoy opera, chamber music, the symphony or the dramatic Requiem, you will find something wonderful here.  It can't be helped.  His music is a real pillar of western culture.

Today would mark the 261st birthday of Scotland's greatest poet, and arguably the world's greatest poet - Robert Burns.  Tonight, around the world - literally - people who love Burns will remember him and raise a glass to his Immortal Memory.

In keeping with its general deviousness, the pro-abortion side fears recognition that abortion is a crucial issue, one of those issues that define the very nature of a society.

Our Constitution has been misinterpreted, misunderstood and misrepresented by those who have taken the words, " . . . promote the general welfare . . . " to mean provide government subsidies for all of the basic needs of the people.  Nothing could have been farther from the intention of the Founding Fathers who authored this document.  Our folly in taking these words and manipulating them to mean something they did not intend has caused great damage to our economy, our social fabric and even our foreign relations.

The liberal socialist hotbed of academia became the feeder network for illegitimate and corrupt government practices as early as 1896. John Dewey was an early pioneer establishing his Laboratory School. Children were to be treated as lab rats to test his philosophical and psychological ideas. His alma mater, Columbia University, would eventually produce future teachers who would, in turn, spread across America to teaching colleges raising up a trained cadre of teachers. These, in turn, populated primary and secondary schools and ultimately colleges and universities. Ivy League schools became the primary conduits for a massive, expanding, and largely autonomous federal bureaucracy.

Truth be told, plenty of academics in Ivy League schools and other universities are not necessarily smart. There is ample evidence the current crop of academics are very close-minded and very comfortable with Marxist-Leninist ideas and practices to the exclusion of any other ideas. To wit, the vigorous if not violent rejection of conservative speakers on campuses and the intimidation of conservative professors. They are close-minded non-critical thinkers. Their views are not well-thought-out. Rather than well-reasoned and cogent opinions they conform to the drivel of political correctness. They are indoctrinated believers, what Eric Hoffer identified as the True Believer. Their teaching is the froth of mottos and slogans and secondhand thoughts. The rot that passes for higher education and liberal government should be rethought by those capable of doing so.

One should never live in the past under the sentimental illusion of “the good old days.” On the other hand, redeeming the time by restoring the fundamental values of what is good and true is always a prized objective.

We have come to the last Amendment of the Bill of Rights.  It is a key Amendment - very important and something our legislators should consult and our citizens should stand behind and hold fast to.  One county sheriff, Sheriff Richard Mack, of Graham County, Arizona, challenged the Brady Bill on the basis of the Tenth Amendment.  It was an important case with ramifications far beyond the original issue - the Brady Bill, a gun-grabbing effort.  We also take a look at the fact that gun-free zones promote gun violence.  Who woulda thought?  (Hint:  yours truly). 

Despite the ginned-up fears in Richmond, and likely some hopes for some kind of violence with which to frame the passage of anti-gun rights legislation in Virginia, the thousands who assembled in the state capital were all law-abiding, peaceful and responsible American citizens.  We should not fear our Second Amendment - we should fear losing it to the muddled thinking and/or the totalitarian ambitions of the gun-grabbers.  We also review our Ninth Amendment!

At the moment we have one after another local jurisdiction - city councils, county commissions, even states, deciding which way to go on resettlement of "refugees".  There are different ways to look at this.  We could either resettle the persecuted peoples from other lands - Christians, Jews and other minorities in Islamic-controlled regions, people we know are suffering.  That would be one way, the way I would suggest.  Another is to simply say, "no".  Either of these would tend to make America a safer place and preserve our values as a people.  The other way, and sadly the one which I suspect will prevail, and the least beneficial to everyone, is to resettle Muslims in our country.  If your local jurisdiction is likely to do this, please share this article with your neighbors and your representatives.

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They say that great expectations lead to great accomplishments.  We could say that about the Spanish Riding Academy of Vienna, a 450+ year-old institution which today still provides breathtaking equestrian feats.  Some of us have been fortunate enough to see some wonderful horsemanship in the Mounties' Musical Ride.  Some of us have found the horses the most exciting part of a circus.  A lot of us just love horses.  For all of you who have ever loved these beautiful creatures, this week's Sunday Special is just for you.  Maybe you have been lucky enough to see these horses perform live yourselves.  If so, this will be a lovely reminder, if not, maybe an inspiration to see them for yourself!  The Lippizaner of the Spanish Riding Academy of Vienna . . .

It's a cold night in one of the world's coldest inhabited places.  A hot toddy is not enough.  So I resort to dreams.  People, Places and Thinks is my hostage.  We're going to the Caribbean.  That's it.  At least for tonight.  

The Eighth Amendment deals with "cruel and unusual punishment", excessive bail, fines, and what we view as acceptable in a civilized world.  But our world is becoming less civilized and we can expect challenges even to this reasonable and enlightened Amendment.  We must remember that our culture is under siege and every time we bring into our midst those who cannot or will not accept our way of life, our values and our law, we are setting ourselves up to lose it.  We cannot establish parallel systems of justice.  Think about this as you consider the Eighth Amendment.  Next, an update on a story we brought you a few weeks ago - the rumble going on in the Crookston Diocese, where an intractible bishop is stonewalling parishioners' efforts to bring justice and closure to some terrible violations.  Now another - innocent - priest is paying the price for evil.

As an experienced hydrologist and civil engineer, it has always astounded me that journalists, leftist politicians, and other special interests favoring larger and more intrusive government would gullibly accept individual weather events as further proof of “global warming”. And even more unbelievable is the tendency of the same folks to deem the terms “global warming” and “global climate change” interchangeable. Factually, the first is, at best, a theory and the latter a fact of life. The first is employed by politicians to alarm us to vote a certain way; and the latter is something we should factor into every decision we make as individuals. Individuals can make a difference whereas government can seemingly only magnify differences…

So the next time you hear someone on television, cable, or radio warning that any single weather event proves that global warming is a fact, not just a theory,,, or claims that anyone with a brain denies that climate has always been changing...laugh out loud as I do!

Today's posting is perhaps a little peculiar - while I wanted to stay on track with our Bill of Rights review, our Seventh Amendment does not provide as much room for exploration as some others.  And meanwhile the world keeps turning. We have Democrats decimating each other on the debate stage, the usual assortment of desperado jihadis found packing knives, at last a decisive rebuke to a terrorist regime and impeachment, impeachment, impeachment.  And cold weather.  I picked the rebuke to the terrorist regime.  

To honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., historian Dr. Earl Tilford relates personal stories of his time in Alabama in the turbulent 1960s. Tilford writes, “With time, many white southern hearts changed. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of peaceful resistance moved America toward his vision.”

Our Sixth Amendment explains what America means by "due process", alluded to in the Fifth Amendment.  Recent events have shown us that we can in no way take this right for granted.  Our current impeachment process is one case in point, where the House has basically denied nearly every provision of this essential principle of due process to the President - he and the American public have been deined a speedy trial; the President has not been given access to witnesses, either for him or hostile to him, to question; there has been no specificity of charges against him to which he could answer.  None of our rights should be considered "automatic".  Each must be fought for, exercised and defended.

It’s the process! It’s the process!

President Trump is a pragmatist – a goal-oriented person who focuses on solving problems. He sees a problem, understands it must be fixed, and proceeds to fix it.

Trump was elected to get things done -- not to continue executing some mundane process. He was elected to blow up the “process.” That is the very reason so many of the inside-the-beltway crowd despise him including Democrats, moderate Republicans, and never-Trump conservatives. Globalists, foreign and domestic, also hate him. He is destroying their comfortable international “processes” in favor of America first. As Bob Dylan wrote, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”

Trump is the enemy of globalism and the leader of a populist army. He entered the arena willing to lead a growing body of citizens tired of being boxed in and controlled by regulations and taxes; by politicians and bureaucrats.

The Fifth Amendment is an intersting combination of criminal and civil laws.  This amendment ensures that we have due process, that we cannot be compelled to testify against ourselves and that we cannot be tried twice for the same crime.  But it also has protection against the seizure of our property for non-public purposes.  This part of our Fifth Amendment has been badly abused by our courts and our local governments.  

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The Fourth Amendment is a cornerstone of our freedom.  If we are not secure in our persons and property, we are not "free".  Our massive immigration and various other factors in our times are undermining this vital freedom.  We must be aware of the "unintended" (scare quotes used advisedly) consequences of various public policies and movements.  When we import the cultures of other lands without adequate concern for their impact on our own we risk losing all and becoming the land these people have not left behind but brought with them.

The conventional wisdom regarding Nancy Pelosi’s holding of the impeachment articles is that, as someone put it, she’d pulled the pin on the grenade and then didn’t know what to do. Yet even if she has bumbled into her current predicament, which seems likely, is there now some method to her madness? Has she found a way to turn lemons into at least a thimble of lemonade by using the situation to damage the presidential candidate she doesn’t want to see capture the Democratic nomination — burgeoning Bernie Sanders — and help the establishment choice, Joe Biden?

Recently, leaders of the United Methodist Church have agreed in principle to an amicable parting of liberal and conservative factions. What does this mean for the future of the UMC? In this article, Dr. Joseph Horton examines the agreement and writes: “There are three key elements to the emerging agreement: pensions, local church property, and start-up money for a conservative denomination.”

The guitar is a truly amazing instrument - its six strings can be made to play complete, beautiful and often very complex, multi-voice music.  Here are a few examples of some fine guitarists playing a wide variety of music on the classical guitar!  Enjoy your Sunday escape!

In the Red River Valley we find the home of the Metis - a colorful and unique North American culture bringing together the traditions of Europe and the indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States.   Here is an all-too-brief look at this fascinating culture and its history.

In the early morning hours of Christmas Day 1979, Soviet forces began invading Afghanistan. The international community was shocked by the intervention. For American President Jimmy Carter, the invasion was the latest and most troubling in a series of foreign policy crises. In this article, Benjamin V. Allison revisits the events from 40 years ago and argues that even today the world is still dealing with the results.

Everyone's a critic.  Well, to be honest, I've been a critic myself, but not on the matter of killing a terrorist who has been responsible for hudreds of deaths of others, many of them American soldiers.  Today among Democrats (who we expect will raise a stink) are a couple of otherwise reasonable Republicans.  Senators Lee and Paul have taken exception to the reasoning of the Defense Department and the miltary.  It is true that no president has the right to declare war or enter into war without a declaration.  But this is not what happened in Iraq the other day.  What happened there was the termination of two terrible people, the top terrorist of Iran but also the Hezbollah authority who had conducted the attack on our embassy there two days before.

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Our Second Amendment has been coming under attack as has our First Amendment.  If our First Amendment is essential to freddom itself, our Second Amendment is essential to that First Amendment and all of the others.  It is the "business end" of our Constitution.

There is an old adage that helps us understand political jockeying – “Follow the money.”

How is it that politicians of modest means are elected to office, enter the Washington, DC’s culture, and become wealthy? In most instances the practice is quite legal and not due to loopholes. When in office long enough many politicians learn to game the system and parlay their position to their financial advantage. Term limits anyone?

Two recent books are a must read for anyone intent on understanding money, politics, and corruption. Both are authored by Peter Schweizer.