Dakota Beacon

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The Black Swan teaches us that history proceeds in leaps and cataclysms, not stages. Wars, assassinations, revolutions, and natural disasters are Black Swan events, perfectly 'post-dicted,' but by definition, impossible to predict. And the consequences are huge and horrible.

The first two years of the Obama administration can be is examined in the context of extracting relevant points from "two books that should top any reading list for progressives who believe in 'winning the future.'" Depicting a latent "version of civil disobedience or revolution [that] will result not in a gradual decline but rather in a precipitous drop in economic production, accompanied by a leap in the unemployment rate, public union strikes, a surge in energy costs, and a collapse in the stock market," the author proceeds: "Throw in a foreign-policy disaster for good measure, and you have a flock of Black Swans." "The results will be a country unrecognizable from the one we currently inhabit.

As we pay tribute to Ronald Reagan, we look back at an era when people around the world voted with their feet for capitalism over socialism. Refugees fled from East Germany to West Germany, North Korea to South Korea, and mainland China to Hong Kong—always away from less freedom and prosperity toward greater freedom and prosperity. Human beings still have the same preference and make the same choice today. Sadly, though, today businesses and individuals are leaving the United States in favor of less economically oppressive locations.

A great president whose understanding of the superiority of the private-property order over socialism contributed so much to freedom and prosperity, both at home and abroad, in the aftermath of the Cold War. Yet the economic understanding that was one of the key pillars of Reagan’s philosophy and policies remains largely unknown today.

So we deny children the exciting smell and look of a smoke-filled room. We deny them time to invent their own games. We protect them from the normal bruises and scrapes of play. We disarm them from the normal boys' knives in schools and public buildings. We plan all their play. We fill their minds with sex. Instead, in the words of Pink Floyd, we should "Leave those kids alone."

I wonder when he’ll pen a story about how Muslims often consider infidels unclean and don’t even want to touch a Koran that has been defiled by kafir hands.  Something tells me we may have to wait for that one, as Day and his militant secular ilk haven’t finished destroying Western civilization yet. 

These dummies just can’t wait to be dhimmis, can they?  

Everyone loves a revolution until it is hijacked. This was true of the French, Russian, Cuban and Iranian revolutions to name a few. America must not kid itself when viewing Mubarak’s departure through rose colored glasses. Egypt’s first election should not be its last one.

America, not to mention Europe, Japan, China and Russia, has a strategic interest in keeping the Suez and other choke points in friendly hands.

We must not lose sight of our good and noble purpose as we help people find the blessings of freedom. As many have said, the United States is the last great hope of freedom for millions of oppressed people everywhere. I firmly believe that. As we see events in Egypt today we see the struggle play out before our eyes how people desperate for freedom will put their lives before
the battle tanks of tyrants.

The commitment to religious tolerance is the result of a struggle from the earliest days of English colonization between the followers of a broad-minded ideal of English America and a narrow-minded view. Although few will be surprised that the roots of American religious liberty go back this far, many may be surprised to learn that four kings of England -- two Protestant and two Catholic -- rather than the people or Parliament were the champions of religious tolerance during this struggle.

The time is now for the state to get out of the retirement planning business, normalize salaries to where interest groups claim those levels should be, empower state workers to control over their own finances, and do so without breaking the bank or creating a never ending bailout.

So people can choose to believe the heart strings-tugging but false argument of spread-the-wealth zealots like Barack Obama and the Economics Policy Institute. But putting policies into action based on that belief would mainly serve to discourage the efforts of the people who create the jobs that funnel the income to people who need the jobs. Without jobs, the poor are unable to buy things. And they have been buying more and more things for some time now. America's lowest earners are far wealthier than their low-earning predecessors.

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So then, in the ditzy liberal quest for a "renewable future," the ditzy French government pulled a typically ditzy liberal stunt: reduce your carbon footprint by increasing your carbon footprint.

There go those darned unintended consequences again. You know, the ones that come from ditzy liberal panaceas?

As Secretary of Education Bill Bennett knew, Ronald Reagan’s memory was not only good but exceptional. In fact, several of Reagan’s closest advisers, two of whom dated back to the gubernatorial days in Sacramento, have told me that they believe Reagan had a photographic memory. Knowing that Reagan’s 75-year-old brain remained sharp, Bennett confidently put Reagan on the spot in front of a group of educators in the East Room of the White House…. This exchange doesn’t strike me as evidence of an addled brain. This clip needs to be watched to be appreciated. Reagan had no notes, no TelePrompter—and no onset of Alzheimer’s.

Calling the U.S. Constitution "The Commandments" may seem like something that an overly enthusiastic, strict interpretationist might do. And that's exactly what Harvard history professor Jill Lepore implies in an article in The New Yorker, titled "The Commandments."

Obama proclaimed “this is our generation's Sputnik moment” which was puzzling to say the least. Anyone less than a half century old probably did not get the connection. His was a clumsy metaphor.

To be sure, the SOTUS avoided depth and appealed more to people's feelings with flowing rhetoric and smooth platitudes. In that case, one may wonder if there is any difference between the SOTUS and Superbowl beer commercials.

SOTUS 2011 quickly fades. Words. Just words. Does anyone even remember them now?

The news from Egypt has thrust President Obama’s State of the Union off the front pages. While that news is critical, so is further analysis of the State of the Union, especially from an economic perspective. My previous column focused on the political dimensions of the State of the Union address, about how Barack Obama has already entered full campaign mode in an attempt to woo the 5 or 10 percent of the swing vote that he needs for re-election. Today, let’s look at the economic aspects of the speech. One would hope that, after two years of failed policies and economic stagnation, President Obama would have seen the need for a changed economic strategy. Alas, beyond a few cosmetic touches, Obama’s approach to economics remains substantially unchanged.

Would Republicans nominate a presidential candidate who pushes thoroughly-debunked biofuel nonsense? Were the party to select Newt Gingrich, it will have nominated, in the Wall Street Journal's words, "Professor Cornpone."

Professor Cornpone hasn't yet officially announced, but he is running for President.

If Republicans stand up for freedom, they will be despised by the ruling class. They will miss the cocktail parties.  They will be demonized by the media. They will be loved by the people.

We sent Republicans back to Washington to represent the people, not the ruling class minority.  They are on probation. We can always vote third party next time.

Increasingly, our government reminds me of a certain old Star Trek episode.  It was titled “I, Mudd,” and in it the Enterprise explorers found themselves in the grip of seemingly perfect androids determined to serve man.  The automatons informed the crew that humans were “self-destructive,” needed their “help” and couldn’t be trusted with freedom.  One of the mechanical masters concluded by telling Captain Kirk, “we shall serve them [humans] and you will be happy…and controlled.”

After Barack Obama delivered his January 12 speech scolding the American left for politicizing the Loughner shootings, one of my readers warned that Obama was leveraging the occasion to draw attention from the presidential destruction of "an entire culture's hard earned lifestyle."  The reader added, "Barry learned in basketball, fake a goal shot with the right hand and score with the left one."

After Barack Obama delivered his January 12 speech scolding the American left for politicizing the Loughner shootings, one of my readers warned that Obama was leveraging the occasion to draw attention from the presidential destruction of "an entire culture's hard earned lifestyle."  The reader added, "Barry learned in basketball, fake a goal shot with the right hand and score with the left one."

In his State of the Union address, Obama played to the middle, paying lip service to free enterprise while making the case that it’s up to government to ensure future prosperity. His call for a five-year freeze on ‘discretionary spending’ was brilliant. While wooing independents and moderates with his talk of fiscal restraint, he must have delighted his leftist allies with his proposal to make the Pentagon bear the lion’s share of spending cuts.”

Obama’s strategy is masterfully conceived. It is a classic ‘two steps forward, one step back’ tactic for advancing his larger progressive goal of increasing the federal government’s power over the distribution of wealth in our society…. Democrats should take heart and Republicans had better watch out. This man means business, and he is already doing what he does best: campaigning. The ‘new Obama’ that some people see is really just the old Obama—a clever, driven politician committed to a permanent expansion of government power.

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What is the remedy?  It isn’t enough to merely ensure that 50 percent of reporters and pundits are Republicans.  Remember that while 40 percent of Americans describe themselves as conservative, only 21 percent self-identify as liberal.  Moreover, leftists have long emphasized the principle of “proportionality” (such as when they want to apply it to Title IX).  Thus, I’m sure they will agree that our media contingents should reflect the ideological composition of the wider population. And this wouldn’t be hard to achieve, either.  For instance, all a paper such as The New York Times would have to do is fire columnists such as Paul Krugman and Nicholas Kristof in favor of Selwyn Duke and S.L. Duke. 

The scientific method is just that--a method. And methods can be corrupted by people.

Today's most notorious illustration of junk science is the human-caused global warming hoax. However, even scientists who genuinely want to perform objective research are capable of practicing flawed science.

Scientists, mere Homo sapiens after all, instinctively see what they want to see. Schooler wanted to debunk the "describing improves memory" axiom. In his early experiments, Schooler probably inadvertently made it comparatively easy for test subjects who were not required to describe faces to recall those faces. Then after the work became repetitive and interest waned, his subsequent experiments were designed and conducted in a detached manner--in other words, objectively. Schooler has therefore never duplicated his early "success."

Last night, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin delivered the official ‘Republican Response’ to the State of the Union (SOTU). I wish there were no official response, and that’s not because I didn’t want to hear from a Republican. I’m a Republican, and I’m even interested in some of Ryan’s ideas for controlling spending. I’d have the same position if the roles were reversed; that is, if a Republican were in the White House and a Democrat were responding. An official response to the SOTU is a recent invention that seems to have no positive effect.

Since 1982 neither party could resist the urge to respond to the SOTU. Even with various formats … the official responses have produced nothing but a string of forgotten events with no discernible influence on policy development.