Dakota Beacon

Based on past experience, one could believe that events in the summer and fall of 2012 constituted teachable moments, just as German perfidy and aggression in 1939 convinced western leaders that Hitler was a fraud. Instead, the American embassy in Cairo responded with another Munich Moment, by issuing a statement of such breathtaking pusillanimity that one could wonder which side in the issue they actually represented.

. . . the relation between sports, philosophy and life, the sick sister of ND’s four largest cities, a $100 million expansion of the Minot airport, the nation’s fastest-growing hospital, 2,000 rooms under construction, Dickinson and Williston have each reached a population of about 23,000, a politically appointed director steers the money, special admission standards for student-athletes,, a fondness for alliteration, man camps are an inappropriate solution, the tribe’s dysfunctional social services program, the largest family recorded in Walsh County, Dawn Bad Warrior, Death the ND way . . . .

The artist who seeks to create great art today should enter into a spirit of thought and reflection about the nature of late modern society. In so far as it aims for greatness, outstanding art must reject the current-day atmosphere of political correctness, designated minorities, and relativist aesthetics. The latter are based on "leveling" impulses, whereas great art must aspire to "the high" -- often including elements of history, religion, and the heroic. In some cases, the portrayal of evil, ugliness, and perversity can be artistically brilliant -- but it must be deftly handled.

As the debt balloons toward $20 trillion or more in the next few years, it is probable that Bernanke or his successor will feel compelled to do everything possible to try to suppress interest rates so that the deadly government game of hyper-debt doesn’t collapse. This raises the specter that the United States is doomed to many long, gray Japan-like years of economic twilight, with growth in the private sector being choked off through a rationing of credit so that the government and its Big Business cronies can hog low-interest credit while would-be new businesses that are the engine of job creation are left to fend for themselves.

By setting the narrative, MSM journalists and the Obama administration effectively distract the public from the real issues. In this case these issue are the administration’s disastrous foreign policy failures and Mitt Romney’s justified criticism of the same.

Touting himself as a "movement conservative," he tends to take the debate on policy to a higher level. It is a debate which helped to define Ronald Reagan's presidency and has become his most enduring legacy as a conservative leader

I think the Fed will intervene and attempt to remove money from the system. More likely, I think we’ll see double-digit inflation and a terribly dreary economy that looks like the 1970s.

Just a few weeks ago, Obama and his henchmen, including John Boehner in the House, excoriated sensible and concerned members of Congress, notably Michele Bachmann, when they called for an investigation of the infiltration of our State Department by the Muslim Brotherhood.  These representatives of the people were libeled as “hatemongers”, bigots, xenophobes, racists, you name it. It is the Muslim Brotherhood, of course, that is behind the “demonstrations” which culminated in Benghazi in the brutal rape and murder of our Ambassador there. 

It also undermines resistance to government policies which move away from traditional values. In a Housing and Urban Development ad, listeners are urged to report discrimination. What once was illegal behavior is now codified as acceptable. For example, Christians who object to cohabitation and homosexuality may now be violating the law if they deny rental housing to these groups as a matter of conscience. The Department of Housing and Urban Development pays for radio spots urging citizens to report each other based on new criteria for discrimination. I recall only a few decades ago this was the practice of communist regimes.

It also undermines resistance to government policies which move away from traditional values. In a Housing and Urban Development ad, listeners are urged to report discrimination. What once was illegal behavior is now codified as acceptable. For example, Christians who object to cohabitation and homosexuality may now be violating the law if they deny rental housing to these groups as a matter of conscience. The Department of Housing and Urban Development pays for radio spots urging citizens to report each other based on new criteria for discrimination. I recall only a few decades ago this was the practice of communist regimes.

The facts are there on paper - in numbers not fabricated or exaggerated. As a nation, we are not better off than we were four years ago. Median incomes are down, unemployment is up, cost of living is up and the debt incurred by the government is WAY up and our status in the world has been shaken.

So why am I talking about hope?

The facts are there on paper - in numbers not fabricated or exaggerated. As a nation, we are not better off than we were four years ago. Median incomes are down, unemployment is up, cost of living is up and the debt incurred by the government is WAY up and our status in the world has been shaken.

So why am I talking about hope?

During the British bombardment of Baltimore, Francis Scott Key wrote, "No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave." Let us abolish the U. S. Department of Agriculture and its crushing rules and regulations.

. . . everything else is better in North Dakota; you guys are Beverly Hillbillies “We can’t do anything until money is available”; “This issue is only part of our larger social dilemma”; “government on the reservation is broken”; no comments on the new policy; critical rants from readers; A dangerous business! “shocking indifference”; NDSU athletes and crime; Homelessness grows amidst prosperity; the bigest employers are hospitals and schools; ND’s largest for-profit employers; We don’t want to be Grand Forks; DAKTOIDS. . . . 

Reagan went further. During a National Security Council briefing, the admiral in charge asked precisely how far U.S. aircraft would be permitted to retaliate against Libyan aircraft. Reagan answered: “All the way into their hangar,” into Libya itself.

One recent study of a Florida program offering private school vouchers to low-income families found that test scores at public schools facing competition went up. A Gallup survey found that 61 percent of Americans were somewhat or very dissatisfied with the state of public education. Hispanics in particular ranked access to education as a critical issue, even above immigration. School choice clearly benefits students with low income and high potential.

Does the news media refer to Sharia law as a war on women?  … Crickets….

 . . . “the mood of the country”; NDSU teams at times seem more like criminal gangs; NDSU recruits most heavily in the Twin Cities; ND does better than most states; Norway’s state owned oil company; a $55 million shuttle grain elevator at Bucyrus, ND; financially better off, but had a poorer quality of life; Who pays for infrastructure for new residents?; “It’s a bad combination”; my Cinderella dream day; White Juneberries” (82) was born in the Little Missouri River badlands; Children of farm families often continue to live in nearby farm communities; UND feasted on South Dakota Mines; DAKTOIDS . . .

By the time of the 2012 Democratic convention, party delegates had already (following Barack Obama’s lead) embraced everything from unlimited taxpayer-funding of abortion to gay marriage. How does one get to these positions? Answer: by removing God. Fittingly, then, the delegates

In a world where government imposed poverty, mass murder and prisons have always been the norm, the United States of America has a unique place in history because we are free. If being “bi-partisan” means gong along with replacing our freedoms with the tyranny and socialism that other countries have, then I want partisanship.

In the plan he announced in 2011, Paul Ryan proposed changes to Medicare that would not take effect for 10 years and would reduce benefits only for those who are now younger than 55. By putting off real cuts until 2023, the Ryan plan would still add trillions to the national debt over 10 years. For the sake of future retirees, more radical changes need to be made and the sooner the better.

. . . Spirit Lake seems to be a rudderless ship; a “strike team” to Spirit Lake; The Ft. Berthold Reservation had 493 producing oil wells; N-Flex is contemplating 50 to 100 “micro” mobile plants; Hoeven sees a bargain; we’re feeling a little lucky; Lake Sakakawea is ND’s most significant water source; understaffed and overwhelmed; Hamid Shirvani’s proposed three-tiered system; Why are second tier colleges concerned; Jerry Charlebois (83) is big and good-looking; Germans from Russia; DAKTOIDS . . . .

D'Souza does not preach a gospel. He doesn't have to. Here the facts really do speak for themselves. Could the dream that Obama dreams be nothing more than his frustrated imaginings of a father that never was, and the resurrection of a failed 1950s-era revolt against colonialism? This is the sort of fire-setting that has led in the past to world war.

The word “Christ” means “anointed one”… so how can it be that Christians have pushed into a dark corner the female minister of the rite of anointing? After one of the anointings, Jesus remarked “Verily I say unto you, wheresoever’s this gospel shall be preached throughout the world, what she has done here will be told in remembrance of her.”

I tell my students that student loans are like power tools. With a nail gun you can shingle your roof more efficiently, or you can nail your hand to the roof. So often when discussing student loans, we hear about the people who seem to have nailed a hand and both feet to the roof—$100,000 borrowed for a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies? Where were the parents? There is no bachelor’s degree from any school that is worth that kind of debt. 

. . . “I think people should think about this as a windfall”; hotel developers are investing in Minot; Buffett likes to zig when others zag; Half the locations are in Montana; “New Hi-Tech Oil & Gas Discoveries”; Chairman Tex Hall gleefully signed the documents; a package of reforms proposed by Hamid Shirvani; long lives and large families; The Lone Steer motel; Nodaks are prosperous, but stingy; The 2012 ACT scores are out; amestown trial of black ex-con Leron "Rah Rah" Howard; media coverage, or lack of it; DAKTOIDS . . . 

. . . “I think people should think about this as a windfall”; hotel developers are investing in Minot; Buffett likes to zig when others zag; Half the locations are in Montana; “New Hi-Tech Oil & Gas Discoveries”; Chairman Tex Hall gleefully signed the documents; a package of reforms proposed by Hamid Shirvani; long lives and large families; The Lone Steer motel; Nodaks are prosperous, but stingy; The 2012 ACT scores are out; amestown trial of black ex-con Leron "Rah Rah" Howard; media coverage, or lack of it; DAKTOIDS . . . 

Friedman once said, "The true test of any scholar's work is not what his contemporaries say, but what happens to his work in the next 25 or 50 years. And the thing that I will really be proud of is if some of the work I have done is still cited in the textbooks long after I'm gone."

Despite these intense privations and the incredible hardship experienced by this family and countless others during the period, what I remember of my grandparents growing up in the late 1950s and 1960s was a couple whose dignity and sense of self-worth remained intact.
They wore their best clothing to attend church on Sunday morning and had many friends who would call upon them on Sunday afternoon. The difficulties of the Depression years were stricken from living memory and a modest railroad retirement earned during and after the war along with Social Security allowed them to live a modest, yet comfortable life in retirement. . . Contrast this personal experience with what currently transpires among people living in poverty.

Yes, technology promotes liquidity in markets. However, hubris is Wall Street’s Achilles’ heel, as participants frequently disregard man’s limitations for measuring and predicting future risks. It’s becoming clear that the existing technology infrastructure, i.e., the plumbing of Wall Street, can’t fully support the complexity of high-frequency trading.