Dakota Beacon

Books offer more than entertainment and information. The written word imparts understanding for the reader. I knew a man who engaged his books in “conversation.” After “conversing” with a book he not only knew the author’s point of view, but he could explain the subject and why the author wrote what he did. The book imparted enlightenment and understanding.

Book lovers are in a world of their own. Bibliophiles, the technical term for these gentle, bookish folks, have unbridled affection and unquenchable thirst for the printed word. The history of books reveals some startling accounts of bizarre behavior shown by book lovers on the fringe. Some book lovers have found their affection addictive. As with other areas of human behavior, bibliophilia has its dark side. What happens when the desire to obtain, own, store, and read books goes awry?

As an undergraduate in college, I took part in a School-to-Work project for one of my professors. He assigned a bibliographic essay on a particular topic. A bibliographic essay is a type of academic writing that analyzes and evaluates the existing literature on a specific topic. Instead of arguing a new idea, a bibliographic essay maps out what scholars have already written. What follows is a greatly modified bibliographic essay of books in my library on the topic of Islam.

Publisher's Note: If he were still with us,Joe Sobran would be celebratinghis 80th birthday.Below is one of his columns recounting his 60th birthday.

The root of this mental illness can perhaps be best explained in a hypothetical example. As a married couple’s daughter is contemplating leave home for college at age 19, her mother abruptly decides she no longer loves her father and wants an open marriage. But why?

Western globalists insist that civilizational clashes aren’t real. Even after President George Bush’s failed “nation-building” gambit; even after the exposure of Muslim rape gangs trading local girls as sex slaves in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France; even after communist China’s saber-rattling regarding Taiwan and promises of world domination; Western globalists insist that civilizational clashes aren’t real. Huntington begs to differ.

Years after writing “The Clash of Civilizations” Huntington has been vindicated. Entering the second quarter of the twentieth century, we will see a renewed reality of civilizational conflict. In the real world, values matter, culture matters, religion matters, the past matters. As one wag put it, “In the real-life bullets fly faster than words. In the real world, people fight, cultures compete, and civilizations clash”.

An odd nod to Black History Month – odd because the following two gents would never be nominated by liberal Black history proponents. These two influential Blacks taught me what I know about economics. Both are highly qualified economists, academics, authors, and social commentators. In tribute, let them speak for themselves in their own words.

            Getting older does have advantages. With modes of technology advancing so rapidly, it becomes possible for folks my age to see the birth of technologies forward into their maturity.

Take drones for example. Toy drones began appearing as household playthings in the 1980s when Japanese toy manufacturers released what is widely credited as the first consumer toy drones. They were simple, remote‑controlled indoor helicopters with a plastic body and a small electric motor.

Remote‑controlled model airplanes certainly existed even prior to that. Radio‑controlled planes flown by hobbyists were popular in the 1950s and 1960s but they were not mass‑marketed as toys.

Sometime around 2009 toy drones advanced to the point where they were Wi-Fi controlled and included cameras. Arguments arose among townspeople over privacy, zoning, and noise requirements. Drones really became a nuisance when they invaded airspace over homes and began peeking in windows!

“They are programmed…,” Soviet defector and ex-KGB man Yuri Bezmenov warned decades ago about the ideologues we call “leftists.” “You cannot change their mind…. You are stuck with them.”

It’s common for people to say today when contrasting our two major ideological groups, “Conservatives think leftists are misguided; leftists think conservatives are evil.” I, though, am different.

I know leftists are evil.

Peter Schweizer’s new book “The Invisible Coup” opens a wide panorama on America’s problem with illegals and what to do about it. In his thesis, Schweizer argues that US immigration policy has been turned against American citizens by American elites, non-government organizations (NGOs), foreign governments, and criminal networks for personal and political gain. Over time, these entities intentionally devised the immigration flow to alter US political outcomes for their own personal and political gain. He frames the argument as an “invisible coup” -- a slow, systemic subversion rather than a single dramatic event. As you will see if you read the book, if you dismiss his argument as mere conspiracy theory, then you do so at your own risk. “Houston, we have a problem.”

In reality, the extreme focus on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti’s death is a distraction. It may sound terrible to say because, of course, human life is sacred. (Now, if only the Left accepted this on abortion.) But the real point here is not that Pretti is dead, but what got him that way. And, no, it wasn’t blood-lusting ICE agents salivating for their next victim.

It was this: a vast network of power-hungry demagogues, foreign financiers of intra-US destabilization, astroturfing communist/socialist activists, and expendable useful-idiot protesters.

How popular are the anti–Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in the US?

A leading China analyst, Gordon Chang, warns that the increasing surge of protests across the US may not be as home grown as they appear. He alleges that networks tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are covertly financing and directing the unrest.

Appearing January 19 on Newsmax’s Newsline, Chang said the CCP has a well-documented history of using proxies to destabilize adversaries, including the US, while maintaining plausible deniability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1EA2ohrt5Q

Anyone who thinks the Democrats oppose border control, or even deportation, in principle doesn’t grasp the principle operative here.

Leftists, morally relativistic/nihilistic to the core, don’t have principles—only provisional preferences. They could one day support the strictest immigration control imaginable, too. When? Well, while I’ll elaborate more on this later, here’s a hint:

No one wants the apple cart overturned when it’s his apple cart.

Question: Who in their right mind would choose a Toxic “Spanberger and Hashmi” meal while declining a steady diet of experience in Winsome Earle-Sears and John Reid?

Answer: Racist Virginia Republican voters that chose to stay home because a perfectly qualified Republican candidate for Virginia Governor happened to be Black.

On December 30, 2025, ABC News reported more than 100 immigration judges were fired nationwide during 2025 - something that may affect the immigration backlog in the near term.

Jeremiah Johnson served as an immigration judge for eight years. On Nov. 21 he was one of five judges let go on the same day.

"Immigration judges are employees of the Department of Justice. We are appointed by the attorney general. Part of the law indicates that, as an immigration judge, we should use our independent decision making, authority and discretion as independent immigration judges. So, we are protected. We should be protected from firing, from termination," said Johnson.

What?! No accountability required? If only the immigration judges’ decision making were truly independent! Read on.

A book review by Lynn Bergman

“Pagan Threat” by Lucas Miles

Pastor Lucas Miles, an ordained minister since 2004, is the lead pastor of Nfluence Church in Granger, Indiana, the President of The Nfluence Network, and the Senior Director of TPUSA Faith, installed by the late Charlie Kirk prior to his assassination.

I remember my dad referring often to Longfellow’s quote, “Of what had been and might have been (and who was changed and who was dead)"  . . . 

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency exists to fulfill a specific mission. That mission is to protect the United States through immigration enforcement and criminal investigations, with an emphasis on national security and public safety.

People breaking the law to protect law breakers – as is the case of the Minneapolis anti-ICE anarchists -- suggests the highest form of dishonesty.

On January 10, 2026, ICE officials released a legally verified partial list of criminal illegal migrants arrested, or re-arrested, during the ICE surge in the sanctuary state of Minnesota. Since this writing, ICE has arrested over a thousand more. Included are child rapists and murderers.

This migrant “protected class” that Democrat politicians and activists call "neighbors" roamed freely in Minnesota. Some of these criminal aliens have had final orders of removal for 30 years but are still protected by Minnesota sanctuary policy.

This column could easily have been titled “Grist for Ridicule”. There is a way to deal with liberal-progressive change agents who would force their aberrant views on us. Laugh at them. Laughter is the best medicine in more ways than one. Laughter is neither prohibited nor hate speech.

Ridicule typically uses humor along with satire to trash an opponent. It is one thing to laugh with a person. It is quite another to laugh at them. To laugh at a person, movement, or ideology is a kiss of death. Ridicule portrays individuals, movements, philosophies, and ideologies as the ridiculous pantomimes that they are.

I came across an article the other day by David DeMay in The American Thinker written December 21, 2025, titled “Why America Must Relearn Situational Awareness”.   I know this topic may not excite the reader. It may even sound a bit weird. But for one’s own safety and the safety of others the attribute of situational awareness must be understood, taken to heart, and practiced.

Many of us never give a second thought to situational awareness and many more may not even know what it is. But in today’s American cultural environment, especially in public places, awareness of what is going on around you could save your life.

Debt, Irresponsibility, Class Envy - roots of American problems

Somewhere it has been said that a person will identify with the Four Stages of Christmas between childhood and adulthood:

I believed in Santa Claus.

I believed my parents were Santa Claus.

I realized there was no Santa Claus.

Now I am Santa Claus.

In case you didn’t hear about it, and you might not have given that the outcome wasn’t media-narrative friendly, there was another tennis “Battle of the Sexes” yesterday. And, boy, it was not a good night for feminism and the “transgender” agenda. 

In case you didn’t hear about it, and you might not have given that the outcome wasn’t media-narrative friendly, there was another tennis “Battle of the Sexes” yesterday. And, boy, it was not a good night for feminism and the “transgender” agenda. 

Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer greet Christmas shoppers in their hustle and bustle. Excitement builds to a crescendo. But after Christmas the commotion subsides. What then? Surely, there must be more to Christmas than mere superficiality.

The Christmas story, recited over the centuries, must be told again.

The true and ancient roots of Christmas lie captured in the music of the Nativity. Regrettably, secular and commercial music has drowned out the traditional carols in the public square. Traditional carols, if played at all, are usually instrumental versions minus the words and the profound message of Christmas. Purging the Christian message from our culture becomes endemic.

Carols dating back hundreds of years present Christ’s arrival and His purpose unchanged. They sing of God the Father arriving in human form. The 18th century Latin hymn “O Come All Ye Faithful” offers a wonderful example.

With NATO’s raison d'être, the Soviets, gone, why does it still exist?

And given that our treaty obligations could draw into a (ultimately nuclear) war with the Kremlin, should we really be risking American blood defending left-wing Europe from right-wing Russia?

Early in my commentary career, I found myself debating the meaning of one of my articles in an online chat with a woman who’d read the piece. Why the argument? Well, I was mischievous, I’ll confess, and, having a little fun, didn’t tell her I was the author. Towards our interaction’s conclusion she told me, quite confidently, that I didn’t understand what the writer was trying to say! (I lack self-knowledge, I guess.)

At least, though, inherent in the exchange was the idea that original intent matters. I mention this because people today often behave as if it’s irrelevant. Just consider, for instance, the “birthright citizenship” issue, currently before the Supreme Court.

Do you know that Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan, a man who coauthored the Citizenship Clause, clearly explained what we’re all now arguing about? Read on.

As the holidays beckon some folks are grudgingly considering physical fitness in their New Years resolutions. The over-50 crowd may feel like a million bucks and want to prove it. Funny how the mind says, “I feel like a kid again” but the body says, “Give me a break!”

For all the good intentions, it is wise to ease into physical activity especially for anyone who has abstained for any length of time. Standard advice: check with a doctor and follow his or her guidance. Feeling fine and being fine are two different things. Your doctor can best assess your ability to manage physical stress.

Christmas ‘tis the season for giving! What better way to say “I love you” than with the gift of a book? As a prerequisite, a recipient should harbor a wee bit of inquisitiveness about the world around them. Suggestions to follow include books meant to broaden a person’s perspective. They are all quite readable but not at all superficial. They might resonate with bad timbre or good. Take the bad first.

Reacting to invasion (im)migration trends years ago, Ambassador Alan Keyes put it bluntly.

“We’re being colonized,” he said.

And if ever there was proof of this, and the low quality of many post-1965 newcomers—and of the lie of “diversity”—it’s a viral video posted by one Wajahat Ali.

Mr. Ali is a Pakistani-descent Muslim whose parents came to the U.S. in 1965 and lived the American dream—and an un-American scheme. That is, they served prison time in the mid-2000s for conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for defrauding Microsoft out of millions of dollars.