Dakota Beacon

I've spent many evenings by the fire this winter reading James Michener's historical novel, “Texas”. I had started reading it a decade ago but was diverted from it by a severe case of political activism.

Midway through the novel, old Mexico's social order (caste) was revealed, included eighty-five categories reflective of a person's percentage of Spanish, Indian, Negro and Chinese blood. A Spaniard born in the Iberian peninsula (Spain) was a “peninsular” (gachupin) possessing a glorious heritage. A Spaniard born in Mexico to peninsular parents was a “criollo” (Espanol) possessing a prideful heritage. A likely Spaniard who could not prove that both parents were Spanish was a “limpio (clean) de origen” possessing an almost acceptable heritage. This social order insured that the purity of the Spanish race was protected and the infiltrations of lesser strains identified. The levels of social order below these so-called “superior” heritages.

FORM'S MIXED VIEW OF TRUMP; REFUGEE COST; EMERSON, CANADA, NORTH DAKOTA TAXPAYERS; OIL OUTLOOK; DICINSON STATE UNIVERSITY; BAD LOANDS; JCPENNY; LEND ME YOUR NEWS; INTERSTATE 94; THE LIGNI9TE COAL INDUSTRY; A NATIONAL CHAMP; THE BOHEMIAN MELODY BOYS; 

The following tribute to General McMaster recounts his role in a legendary battle of the Persian Gulf War. This battle, little known by the American public, is intensely studied in military schools as a classic of modern tactics. Within twenty-three minutes a U.S. Army cavalry troop, out-manned and out-gunned 5 to 1, reduced an Iraqi motorized rifle brigade of the Republican Guard to scrap iron without itself suffering a single casualty.

This is the story of McMaster’s role in the Battle of 73 Easting, the last great tank battle of the 20^th Century.

DAPL PROTESTS; PROTESTS WERE PROFITABLE FOR SOME; STANDING ROCK FACES A HOLE; ND ATTORNEY GENERAL; THINNING THE RANKS; GOOD IDEA UND; UND INSTITUTE FOR UNMANNED AND AUTONOMOUS RESEARCH; BET IT SELLS WELL; A “MEAN-SPIRITED STUDY”; A LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY?; TWO ND BUSINESS LEADERS; FULL OF BEANS;  CHANGES AT MDN; DAKTOIDS

if Lincoln was so great, we must ask why nobody seems to have realized it while he was still alive. The abolitionists considered him unprincipled, Southerners hated him, and most Northerners opposed his war on the South. Only when the war ended and he was shot did people begin to transform him into a hero and martyr of the Union cause.

Shard. A piece of ceramic, metal, glass or rock typically having sharp edges. Often enough The Passing Scene is just that -- a shard. The objective is to nick the intellectual bombast surrounding us in order to deflate the pompous superficiality of the contemporary pop-culture. Here are a few shards.

Is former President Barack Obama the 12^th-best president in U.S. history? According to a newly released C-SPAN presidential survey he is. Dr. Paul Kengor, the executive director of the Center for Vision & Values, was one of 91 presidential scholars who helped determine the C-SPAN list. In this article that first appeared at The American Spectator, Kengor examines the survey, offers insight into the criteria, and argues that some “liberal scholars were not able to separate their partisanship when it came to objectively judging Obama.”

A CONFRONTATION; DO THE NUMBERS; A TITAN STRUGGLE; REORG HURTS KULM; UND PRESIDENT MARK KENNEDY; GANG OF THREE; SAME OLD EMPIRE BUILDER; THE FORUM IS SORRY; EMERSON, MANITOBA; DEVILS LAKE; PETTY GRIEVANCE; WINONA LADUKE, DAKTOIDS

A new Gallup poll found that nearly 84% of recent U.S. college graduates did not believe their career services office was very helpful to them. This stunning number may indicate that something is absent in many career services departments across the country. But what is it? In this article, Dr. James Thrasher, senior fellow of career services at Grove City College, studies the Gallup poll along with other recent statistics and argues that many career services have a missing link: Vocational calling. 

Betsy De Vos maintains that if you like your government school, you can keep your government school. If you don’t like it, then having a choice becomes a means of escape for parents to improve their kids’ education. The not-so-well-to-do families have a friend in Betsy De Vos. For this the unions and bureaucrats will never forgive her.

The sale of health insurance as interstate commerce is often cited as a pillar of healthcare reform by proponents of market-based solutions. But is it actually possible? In this article, Richard Kocur examines the health insurance market and argues that a solution is possible—but it may be a slow process. 

Newsflash: When a branch of government is continually trampling the rights of others and violating the Constitution, we’re already in a constitutional crisis. Showing the judiciary its impotence isn’t the disease — it’s the cure.

Only power neutralizes power. It’s shocking how we’ve betrayed the letter and spirit of our nation’s founding and have allowed the courts to run amok. We can continue drinking the judicial-supremacy Kool-Aid and committing national suicide, or we can drain the swamp infested with black-robed tyrants. It’s impotence for them — or irrelevancy for us.

THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE; LINGERING COSTS OF PROTESTS; THE STANDING ROCK TRIBE; GOV. DOUG BURGUM; THE NEW SANFORD MEDICAL CENTER; SECOND PRIZE; REFUGEES; FLEEING TO CANADA; FARMLAND PRICES IN ND; CRAIG COBB; ALFRED FRAPPIER

In late 2016, the family of an 8-year-old Cub Scout in New Jersey accused the organization of expelling him for being transgender. Recently, the Boy Scouts of America said it will begin accepting members based on their gender identity rather than an individual's birth certificate. In this article, Dr. Joseph Horton looks at the Boy Scouts recent announcement and argues that popular culture is forcefully promoting the belief that gender is determined by feelings instead of biology. Horton warns, “Well-meaning parents caught up by the glorification of gender transitions in popular culture are risking significant psychological and physical damage to their children.”

For the uninitiated, that’s short for “cisgender,” a silly term for someone who, shockingly, actually identifies as the sex he was born as. That’s awfully presumptuous of Alison, though. How does she know I’m cis? Maybe I aim to supplant Milo Yiannopoulos as the new fabulous thing on college campuses. Speaking of which, it’s bad enough when college-age lunkheads use the term. Becker is 39 years old. Not only that, but when I mocked her for parroting the cis nonsense and, uh…impugned her intellect (okay, I called her an airhead), she responded with the following:

In tandem with the anarchists, today’s news media serves the purpose of agitprop – agitating propaganda. During the Cold War the Communists were quite skilled at using propaganda (fake news?) to agitate mobs into sympathy for their cause. The Communists were great at creating terrific “optics.” Today, the strong anti-Trump attitude shared across the spectrum of the mainstream press is a natural fit for agitprop activities. The anarchists do the behind-the-scenes legwork and the media provides the call to action.

Last week President Donald Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Much of the media coverage of the event focused on Trump’s critique of the low ratings of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “The New Celebrity Apprentice.” But that wasn’t all the president talked about. In this article, presidential scholar Dr. Gary Scott Smith reviews Trump’s entire speech and asks: What did Trump say that provides insights into his own faith?

The Supreme Court was only meant to be supreme among courts. Instead, in a government supposedly of, by and for the people, five lawyers can determine what law means for 320 million Americans.

With Trump poised to transform the SCOTUS, conservatives may say that now isn’t the time to question its power. But Republican judicial nominees have often disappointed. Moreover, draining the swamp is fine, but if we want the right kind of governmental revolution, perhaps we should start by listening to the revolutionaries who created our government. 

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump announced his judicial nomination for the Supreme Court: Judge Neil Gorsuch. Many conservative pundits believe this to be a marvelous selection. But who is Judge Gorsuch? And how has he ruled in the past? In this comprehensive review, the Center for Vision & Values’ constitutional scholar, Dr. John A. Sparks, thoroughly examines Gorsuch’s history on judicial philosophies, religious liberty, and right to life issues. Sparks observes that Gorsuch “possesses sterling credentials and a judicial demeanor and temperament. Despite a quiet manner, he is a judge who values ‘courage.’”

DAPL GREEN LIGHT; AFTERMATH OF PROTESTS; MORE TO COME; BLUE LAWS; ND HOUSING PRICES; DEVILS LAKE TO GROW; KEYSTONE HELD UP SINCE 2011; LIKE PULLING A TOOTH; RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS; PRESIDENT TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION ORDERS; DALTPODS

Nearly every day we hear discussions about media bias in the United States. Is it sincerely just bias or is something larger happening, something like: Bad reporting and myths? If so, are these myths influencing how citizens view policy? In this article, Dr. Caleb Verbois examines the current fervor over President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily halting immigration from seven Middle Eastern countries and reducing the number of total refugees to the United States. Verbois argues that the biggest issue is not the policy but rather the “real story is how badly our professional story tellers in the media have botched the truth.”

A few hours after being sworn in as America’s 45^th president, Donald Trump signed an executive order directed at the Health and Human Services agency to minimize the financial burden of Obamacare on Americans, states, insurers, and healthcare providers. This is the start of “repealing” the law. But what happens next? What will “replace” actually entail? In this article, Richard D. Kocur looks at the current healthcare situation and argues, “The key to successful healthcare reform for millions of Americans impacted by Obamacare lies in individual empowerment and control over their own healthcare choices.” 

The fact is that the Democrat Party, liberals and progressives are in the wilderness with no vision of a pathway out. Only old white folks hold leadership positions in the party. These old white folks are using the same tired old playbook of failed strategies. The Democrats have not developed depth of leadership with up-and-coming young people. That speaks volumes about their enduring denial.

Sad.

And the calculation is simple: If one million Muslim migrants enter a nation over time and just 1/10^th of one percent are or will become terrorists, that’s 1,000 dangerous jihadists. Are you willing to bet, your life, that this estimate is liberal and not conservative?

Yet as dangerous as terrorists are, there’s a bigger picture here, a deeper con being perpetrated by the Arab world via the mass migrations. As Zahran warned, “I have to be honest; you read Arab magazines and Arab newspapers [and] they are talking about, ‘Good job! Now we’re going to conquest [sic] Europe.’ So it’s not even a secret.”

Zahran called this process “the soft Islamic conquest of the West” and noted that what Muslims “couldn’t do in the last 20 years, now the West is doing for us for free — and even [is] paying for it.” 

THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE; BOLD PREDICTIONS; PLEASE LEAVE; GOV. BURGUM; HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER AL CARLSON; YIN AND YANG; HATERS ARE LOOSE; KILBOURNE GROUP; COLORFUL INAUGURAL GIFTS; UND HAS AGREED; THE GRAND FORKS METRO AREA; ARCTIC CAT; RICH KIDS;  MOORHEAD’S BUSINESS COMMUNITY SUFFERING FROM "SOCIALIST FISCAL POLICY'; DAKTOIDS

He is gone and none too soon. Former White House occupant Barack Obama flew off into the western sky Friday afternoon leaving behind the carnage of a leftist ideologue. As expected, Red Star babies threw a hissy fit as only the spoiled self-centered sycophants they are.

Obama may be an “ex” but he isn’t leaving town. He will linger down the street from the White House in Washington, DC in hopes of resurrecting a leaderless and decimated Democrat Party. If the Democrats are to compete in the midterm elections they will need leadership. As Obama lingers in Washington, he will receive a tutorial in true leadership by Donald J. Trump.

Seeking rights without character is like seeking health without nourishment. Washington himself observed, "Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people” while fellow founder Samuel Adams warned that “public liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals." The DC vixens-cum-vice peddlers should take note.

Fortunately, there are millions more women making history by, every day, molding the next generation to be well behaved — and to not mistake boorishness for bravery and sexual snake oil for sophistication. 

TIGHTEN THE SCREWS; HUNKER DOWN, SOUTH DAKOTA RUNNING WELL; WOMEN IN LEGISLATURES; DICKINSON, WILLISTON, AND MINOT; WHERE ARE THE FATTIES?; NDSU PRESIDENT DEAN BRESCIANI; NOT A GOOD IDEA; NEW REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT; DENTAL THERAPISTS; ENROLLMENT TRAP; MAD AT FARMERS; SMALL TOWN GIRL; NOT A WALK IN THE PARK; THE MINNEAPOLIS FED PRESIDENT; WAS OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY SUCCESSFUL?; DAKTOIDS

As Lincoln is said to have asked, how many legs does a dog have if you count its tail as a leg? Four — because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.