Dakota Beacon

My old friend Joe Sobran died on September 30, age 64. He was the best man at my wedding. He worked for 20 years for William F. Buckley at National Review, wrote a syndicated column for years, and authored a lesser known but sometimes outstanding column for The Wanderer, a Catholic weekly.

His death caused a stir in conservative circles because in 1993 he wrote a Wanderer column attacking Buckley and was fired. There has been a lot of comment on Sobran's hostility to Israel, discussions of his alleged anti-Semitism ("contextual" anti-Semitism, as Buckley put it), and Joe's countercharge that Buckley kowtowed to the "Israeli lobby." I don't want to enter that war zone right now, although I plan to write something about it later.

The first step toward national fiscal responsibility should be the extension of the Bush tax cuts for only one year while congress implements this most important element of the debt commission’s recommendations. At the end of one year, if congress has not implemented the commission’s recommendations to reform the income tax code, we would know that congress is not up to the other debt commission  tasks and needs to be replaced ( as much as possible, given that only 1/3 of the senate is up for re-election in 2012).

Few Americans notice Bill of Rights Day. That isn’t surprising, since we have done such a poor job of upholding and abiding by its provisions…. Rather than debate individual amendments, let’s consider a more fundamental problem: We poorly understand the elementary concept of rights. Many Americans, both conservative and liberal, further cloud the issue by asserting that responsibilities frequently eclipse rights. We need a correct understanding of both rights and responsibilities.

We need to take the furor over pat downs by women who look like concentration camp guards in bad movies and intrusive scrutiny by scanners that produce something that looks like a 1940 nudist magazine as an opportunity to re-examine our whole approach to flying safety. Instead of disarming passengers, we should emphasize deterrence and punishment. Instead of pursuing policies that convey cowardice to air pirates, we should implement ones that communicate firm resolution. 

The First Amendment forbids Congress from infringing on Americans' right to free speech. But the Federal Communications Commission is not Congress. And Michael Copps, one of four FCC commissioners reporting to Chairman Julius Genachowski, seems intent on ignoring that pesky part of the First Amendment about "abridging the freedom of speech" when that speech is sent out over the airwaves.

The number of state employees (except NDUS employees) grew 6.96% from 2003 to 2009. During the same time frame, population grew by 2.18%.

Number of state employees is growing over three times (3.2 x) population growth.

Just a couple weeks ago, I was interviewed by NPR. … I responded that Obama had governed from the far left. Why? Because that’s what he believes. Further, I argued, if Obama were not such a leftist ideologue, he would have learned from Bill Clinton and compromised with Republicans months before the November 2010 election, when the political writing was on the wall—when it was clear he was facing a political tsunami that would cost him and his party Congress, one poised to wipe out his rising ‘progressive’ agenda…. [Obama is] a man of the far left, incapable of governing from the middle like Bill Clinton. He is no Bill Clinton. The reporter asked where I’d advise Obama to compromise. I pointed to extending the Bush tax cuts. ‘But he won’t,’ I predicted. 'Again, he's no Bill Clinton.' Well, it looks Barack Obama may have just done a Bill Clinton.

Hans Rosling is a Professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Rosling boasts a "fact-based world view." After viewing the video, it would be easy to believe that the professor lives up to the boast.

Rosling presents a dazzling visual illustration of the effects of 200 years of economic progress on the state of humankind. Government policy that sets entrepreneurs free to do what entrepreneurs naturally do is the single biggest cause of human progress. Pay particular attention to how Rosling heavily emphasizes the necessity for people to be free to create the advances in technology and medicine made possible by the private use of wealth.

Every family has at least one… a family member that just can’t seem to “stay above water”. The relative that shows up only when in need of a co-signer or a handout. This despite a long and troubled record of irresponsibility, false promises, unfulfilled obligations, legal and medical problems, un-repaid personal loans, and a demonstrated propensity for outright theft.

Schools don’t teach economics adequately, if at all. Economics is far more than boring classes saturated with statistics, graphs and charts. Beyond that, more often than not, economics courses are highly biased.

A recent Louis Harris poll confirmed nearly two thirds of young people and half the adults surveyed flunked the test of economic literacy.

George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan captured the phenomenon of economic illiteracy in his book “The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies.” Caplan argues that most voters elect candidates based on biases involving economic matters.

The contention that somehow "society distributes its benefits" to individuals is fallacious at best. Precisely when, in the history of civilization, would Mr. Hutton and other collectivist pontificators have us believe that there has existed some mechanism by which societies have functioned as vehicles for distributing "benefits" earned by individuals in said societies?

The three-step process of working, achieving, and reaping rewards of achievement eludes left thinkers, who instead profess that an entity called "society" owes everyone "fair" distribution of "benefits."

How do you get to first base with the ladies? It may be easy if you're as dashing and dynamic as my old friend Taki. He is still handsome, athletic, fearless, and funny after all these years, and is married to one of the most beautiful women this side of Helen of Troy. But what
about us ordinary mortals? Is there any hope for us?

Good news, guys! The encouraging answer is a resounding yes. The secrets of success with women are laid out clearly in an old play called RICHARD III.

I keep thinking to myself that sooner or later, progressive ideologues like Crook have to come to their senses and see reality. But I know deep inside that I might as well wait for Hell to freeze over.

We have seen here a classic illustration of the progressive attitude of infallibility. Progressives ricochet from destructive ideas to catastrophic ideas, bouncing through life with an incurable mindset that their way is the way. Haughty, but horribly wrong, progressives drive axes disguised as panaceas into a nation's skull and then lecture, "Why, oh why, did you people hurt yourselves so!"

Faith in a transcendent God, reverence for the integrity of the family and an unwavering commitment to the preservation of freedom are building blocks in the platform from which he led America through the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and all that came after.  When time has passed and accomplished its work as the great liberator, the truth will stand and be known.

We live in the land of extremes, new and imaginative ways to use your money better than you, they do little for anyone, ND is second only to Hawaii in the amount of earmarks per person, undisputed 2010 earmark leader, Nancy Pelosi is queen, ND has less public land than other western states, If I could, I’d work seven days a week, All three were named Norman, Sargent County Museum, Fargodome hosted its first ever playoff game, They are trying to recover their mojo, “They’re messing with a real fighting Sioux.”, Linda Brown vs. Linda Brown

If we continue to focus entirely on the BIG PICTURE ITEMS concerning our National Deficit and IGNORE programs as useless and unconstitutional as this one, we will never balance the national budget.

THE MINDSET OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AS THE FUNDING MECHANISM OF “ALL THINGS DESIRED” BY ITS PEOPLE MUST END AND IT MUST END NOW…WITH THIS CONGRESS…NOT THE NEXT ONE!

Quite apart from the immorality involved in distorting the Constitution, federal involvement in education is bad policy. The United States is a confederation of 50 states with a variety of traditions and needs. It is not a one-size-fits-all place. Federal controls cannot accommodate all the needs in the country and are necessarily unfair. Furthermore, channeling money up to the federal bureaucracy and back down to the local schools only enriches the power of the federal bureaucrats.

Let’s all begin to embrace EVERY reasonable suggestion to diminish the deficit. And let’s do so with the assumption that no idea is too small to consider!

The ancient Chinese sage Confucius once said, “Wisdom is, when you know something, knowing that you know it; and when you do not know something, knowing that you do not know it.”  Sadly, Goldberg is ignorant of her ignorance.  What’s even sadder, though, is that such people can find a place in today’s media.

With a current unfunded liability of around $1.5 billion, it is important that legislators be willing to openly and honestly look at true reforms, rather than simply pouring more money into the system as the current track seems to show

One of President Obama’s main priorities, for the lame duck session, is ramming the new START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) through before the new Senate convenes in January.   We hear endlessly about the need for bipartisanship as it relates to foreign and defense policy.  Unfortunately, the mad dash to jam through this flawed treaty belies the call for bipartisanship.

In the first 22 months of the Obama administration, Americans have lost decision power over their purchases of household appliances, been maneuvered into an economically murderous energy and household products regime by the "green" movement, and lost control over their very own bodies with the passage of Obamacare.

So then, where does all this lead? How hard will the FDA, in particular, push Americans to comply with nanny-state maternalism? What happens when really smart progressives get around to figuring out that normal everyday rubes like you and I sometimes drink wine with our din-din and then chug down a cup of coffee afterward?

North Korea is not an easy issue. I’ve dealt with it since the early 1990s, beginning at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. I had few answers then, and I still have few today.

It also is not a partisan issue. For over 60 years, Democrat and Republican presidents alike have suffered the daunting challenges posed by this belligerent dictatorship. Some responded weakly, some hawkishly, with neither party characterized by a single response…. What is interesting, however, has been the long battle within the American left over North Korea.

Entitlement spending has brought America to its knees. The American dream can  no longer coexist with the current rate of entitlement spending.  Conrad and the Democrats believe that it is the current standard of living of hard working Americans that is unsustainable. They intend to reduce your standard of living with massive tax hikes to pay for their vote buying entitlement programs.

If you still believe that there are politicians out there who care more about you than they care about themselves, it’s time to come to grips with reality.

Expansion of regulations by federal agencies equates to a vast increase in the size of government. Every time you hear a radio or TV commercial paid for by a federal agency (HHS, USDA, FBI) you are witnessing the subtle indoctrination of the general public -- funded by the general public -- suggesting all solutions to life’s problems come from expansive government.

Not only are there no "vehicle efficiency gains" due adding biofuel to gasoline, but in fact ethanol reduces fuel mileage, damages the environment, results in the release of even more CO₂ than the burning of pure fossil fuels, and may even damage car engines.

Our senators know about these facts. That's what makes their desire to push biofuels on Americans dishonest, even malicious. Furthermore, biofuel production is eating up food crop capacity at such a high rate that worldwide poverty and hunger are increasing as a result of food shortages. That this particular information is so well-documented makes the senators' push for yet more biofuel production (which we'll see shortly) not just dumb, but flat-out despicable.

While the Online Etymology Dictionary doesn’t yet have an entry for this junky usage of “junk,” I’m guessing it was originated by a young man.  And men are certainly the ones who most use it. I also don’t expect men to do much about it.  You could say that my sex rolls with the punches, that we really will take these things “like a man.”  Then again, you could also say that many of us have been feminized to the point where we’re ineffectual doormats.  This is why we’ll listen to blather about “racial profiling” without ever pointing out that men are profiled six ways to Sunday and that what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.  And nothing will change until we junk the politically correct junk and stop acting like capons.

Joy among militant secularists and enemies of authentic Catholicism knew no bounds on Monday as a loosely structured remark by Benedict XVI, brimming with particularized theological meaning, was released by a rebellious, out-of-control L'Osservatore Romano and then bobbled by the laughingly inept Vatican press office. This started an heretical conflagration that rages worldwide, with liberals seeing it as evolving into a repudiation of Church opposition to artificial contraception that stems from the 1st century A.D.  

mythological wounds, Here is the boundary between east and west, We are riding high on the benefits of the land, increase ethanol use and production, overreaching federal government, The Demise of a Community, more snacks, Ryan Taylor (40) will be senate minority leader, the Legislature operates largely on a nonpartisan basis, BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK, The myth that ND has superior students is slowly dissolving, cruel and unusual punishment

It was the mid-1960s. With his father out of town on business, a teenage George W. Bush, the oldest child in the family, and the first with a driver’s license, quickly drove his mother to the hospital. She had just had a miscarriage. George W. Bush has told that much before in his new book, however, he continues the conversation, albeit very briefly. He adds that one thing he didn’t expect to see during this ordeal was the remains of the fetus. Bush writes: ‘I remember thinking: There was a human life, a little brother or sister.’

 “George W. Bush was our best pro-life president, hands down.” Citing a few examples to support his assessment, Dr. Kengor concedes, “As someone who wrote a biography of Bush, I had known only half the story.”