Dakota Beacon

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.”

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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. 

THE BIG PUSH; THE BIG TRIGGER; GOODBYE; STUDENT SUSPENSIONS; COLUMNIST LLOYD OMDAHL; MEADOWLARKS; TRI-COLLEGE UNIVERSITY; UNBEARABLE; SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED;  DAKTOIDS

We often hear that a healthy self-esteem is vital to our well-being. But is there something more important than self-esteem? In this fascinating article, Dr. Gary Welton looks at the research and suggests that self-control is more important than self-esteem. Welton writes, “The ability to control one’s activities is more predictive of success than is intelligence.”

Ironically, it is frustration, disappointment and lack of trust in the government process and bureaucracy at all levels that typify the sentiment of many Millenials. On the one hand they are dissatisfied with their lot in life, but on the other hand they do not want to let go of the government security blanket. They don’t like what they see but fail to identify their dissatisfaction with the liberal and progressive policies they grew up with. That is little surprise since they have never been confronted with any meaningful alternative – such as conservatism. The media and public schools have seen to that.

What is this conservatism of which Millenials have been denied knowledge? Conservatism is about everybody's life getting better. Conservatism is about everybody being respected. Conservatism is colorblind. Conservatism has nothing to do with identity politics. Conservatism is rooted in love of people and high expectations of everyone. Conservatism believes that everybody, if things are moved out of their way, can be much better and can accomplish much more than they think they can. It is the freedom for everyone to rise to excellence.

I don’t want to seem unfeeling; I react to worldly horrors much as does everyone else. And it’s understandable: This world is all we know firsthand. The hell we so often create on it we see and hear, as it accosts our senses; we feel it. Heaven is generally just something we try to apprehend intellectually. And the heart has seductions the mind cannot match.

There is something we can do, however. Even if we don’t feel certain truths on an emotional level, we can choose to believe them. That is a proper exercise of free will — one that lends much happiness and meaning to the life God gave us. 

Many sat awkwardly during the speech—almost uncomfortable. Afterward, a vocal minority offered a standing ovation. Was this a pleasant and unexpected surprise? Or was it a mistake? In this fascinating article, Dr. R.B.A. DiMuccio details the recent events from his daughter’s college graduation and defends the commencement address as “a thoughtful, poignant, unabashed, and—in the inimitably dispiriting context of today’s campus discourse—courageous defense of free speech.” 

Leftists are upset about what they view as a double standard with respect to the Baltimore/Ferguson affair and the recent Waco gang shootout. They’re right, too — there sure is a double standard.

And, as usual, it’s their own.

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Oh, as for the adjectives, it’s self-evident that the Waco criminals are thugs. The reason why the point had to be made in Baltimore is that politicians, media propagandists and race-baiting activists had euphemized the rioters as “protesters” who cared about Freddie Gray (whom they would have knifed in a second for 50 bucks) and had legitimate grievances. So even Obama, in a rare and fleeting moment of lucidity, pointed out the obvious: get off it — they’re just thugs.

Free enterprise has lost an innovative leader and champion. Dr. John (Jack) Marks Templeton, Jr., president of the John Templeton Foundation, made many contributions as a medical doctor, a foundation president, and as a family man. In this warm tribute, Dr. Alejandro Chafuen remembers his friend whose unique vision was “grounded in a humble spirit to improve human understanding, flourishing, and freedom.” 

Putin now has our uranium.  

In recent years, however, something unhealthy has occurred in Ireland. Massive propaganda campaigns have undermined confidence in the Church by defaming priests and religious women and fostering false versions of the teachings of Vatican II.

Much damage has been done by the worldwide rebellion against sexual and family morality. In particular, enthusiasm has been growing, in Ireland as in most countries, for pornography, unnatural contraception, homosexual practices, abortion, small families, and forms of "marriage," such as same-sex marriage, previously unknown in the Christian world. The Irish social media have engaged in a relentless campaign for legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

These aberrations may do great damage, but they are too self-destructive to be permanent. If, however, they are incorporated into the nation's constitution by a single majority vote, they can do great damage to the nation's rule of law.

STALKING-HORSE; WATCH OUT!; THE TOWER OF POWER; END OF A RUN; SMALL WORLD; PLAYING FAVORITES; GUESS WHAT SHE WAS COOKING?; THE TOP BABY NAME; WHAT’S THAT BUZZING?; A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE; FEWER RIGS, FEWER STUDENTS?; THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN; ALIENATION; MORE CHARGES; DAKTOIDS

It started with a letter that said, “My mother, Stella Pietkiewicz, had seven sons serve in WW II. She had the honor to christen the plane, Spirit of Poles, because she had the most sons who served in WW II.” In this must-read Memorial Day tribute, Dr. Paul Kengor relates the remarkable story of a Pennsylvania family who had seven sons serve their country in World War II.

To help commemorate Memorial Day 2015, Dr. Mark Hendrickson offers a touching tribute to a man who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country during World War II. Loyce Deen, of Altus, Oklahoma, was a man of “character, courage, loyalty and love.” 

Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding same-sex marriage. The Court’s ruling, which is expected in June, could determine if same-sex marriage is protected under the Constitution and if states must recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

Could one “Irish Catholic boy from Sacramento” hold the future of marriage in his hands? In this must-read article, Dr. Paul Kengor examines Justice Anthony Kennedy’s past decisions and asks: Does religion matter? Of course it does. Kengor argues, “The presence or lack thereof, or level of devoutness, is at the heart of where America—from everyday citizens to justices on the high court—stand on this unprecedented cultural novelty called ‘gay marriage.’” 

Ireland has a referendum on Friday that would add this line to the Irish Constitution: "marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex." FGF columnist, Craig Turner, analyzes some of the arguments being put forward in this debate on marriage.

America is an exceptional nation. America is exceptional not because our people are better than others but because we have created an environment of freedom that allows and encourages Americans to be the best they can be. How else other than American exceptionalism can anyone explain how our nation transitioned to greatness from the American Revolution to placing a man on the moon in less than 250 years? World leadership was our crowning glory!

Conservatism remains the belief that every person contains potential greatness and that everybody can be better than they think they can be.

But, this is not the bottom line. Are Millenials up to the task? There is still more to the story.

ILLINOIS HAS THE WORST RANKING; THE AVIATION SCHOOL IS DIFFERENT; GOOD JOB; THE FORUM GOT IT UPSIDE DOWN; NO PHOTO FINISHES; OIL BOOM BRINGS A DRUG BOOM; THE RIVERSIDE PLAZA HIGHRISES; THE ECONOMIST; THE AMBER LIGHT IS BLINKING; TROUBLE MOVES FROM EAST TO WEST; GOOD LUCK; SHE WAS THE GLUE; DAKTOIDS

As crime rates have fallen across the country, the number of people in prison has increased dramatically. More than 2.2 million people are currently incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons, a 500 per cent increase over the past 40 years. Although the U.S. accounts for about five per cent of the world's population, it houses nearly 25 per cent of the world's prison population.