Christians forced to choose in Israel War

October 28, 2023

Is God impartial or does He play favorites? Because the empathy for Israel has been grilled in every Protestant and Catholic church, support for Israel in the present conflict is a no-brainer. Now with the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis the issue is being forced. The Old Testament finds a partial God who allegedly creates and controls the destination of Israel as a “chosen” people. Because of this life-long indoctrination, most Christians have no doubt that Israel continues to be favored by God. According to the New Testament they may be wrong. According to one 2017 ...

Attempts to divert school money continues

October 21, 2023

As soon as those who want to divert public school money heard that there would be a special session of the legislature they ran for the lobby of the State Capitol. They call themselves the “choice” group because “choice” carries a lot of propaganda value in a society that treasures freedom to choose. If the group is advocating only one strategy, it will not be “choice” but it will become a choice of “take it or leave it.” In the “choice” programs in some states, choosers are given options. But would there be a real “choice” in North Dakota? Whether it would ...

Committee looks for ND’s moral core

October 14, 2023

As the members of the Homeland Security Committee filed into the community hall, Chairperson Ork Dorken pounded his Coke bottle on a hollow core door to get control of the melee. “Meeting will come to order – I hope – so we can hear Little Jimmy give us his reason for this special meeting,” Ork announced. Little Jimmy was the only one in town who had a computer so he was taking courses online while his folks were off looking for gold at Sutter’s Mill in California. Little Jimmy stood up and started to explain why this meeting was important to the community. “Our ...

Legislature caught over-reaching – again

October 10, 2023

It’s sad when the people must protect themselves against their own legislature. But that has been the case ever since the people adopted the power of initiative and referendum. Often called the “people’s branch,” the legislature has waged a relentless campaign to restrict or destroy these rights of the people. In recent decades, it has ceased to be the people’s branch. It now has a measure on the November 2024 ballot to make it impossible for citizens to initiate constitutional amendments. Legislators are still angry that the initiative was used to establish medical ...

Are we fed up with democracy?

September 30, 2023

A small band of North Dakotaright-wingers have brought back their proposal to restrict voting as an amendment to the state constitution. This is the second attempt for them but it is no better than the first one. Will 32,000 North Dakotans be gullible enough to sign their petition to get the measure on the ballot? While the right to propose constitutional amendments belongs to the people, the cost of educating the public about the hazards of the proposal will require thousands of dollars, wasted because we’ve been down this road before. Stopping citizens On the other side is ...

Let’s outlaw elephants on railroad tracks

September 9, 2023

Assuming that election fraud is rampant in county offices and in the precincts, a band of 50 sponsors are proposing to pass a constitutional amendment to prevent fraud. The problem is that there is now no voter fraud in North Dakota, never has been, never will be. I have personally been involved in a survey of local election inspectors and states attorneys and did not find any reports of fraud. This is another case of passing legislation to restrict something that is unlikely to happen. In case a circus comes to town and the elephants escape, we need to have a law that prohibits ...