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Opinion

Once is chance, three is propaganda.

National Columnists

Hamas is winning the propaganda war against Israel. And it's picked up an important ally in The New York Times, supposedly America's newspaper of record. The New York Times has repeatedly supported Hamas propaganda with misleading stories. Here are three egregious examples. First, on Oct. 17, 2023, the Times ran a story headlined "Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say." Hamas' claim, validated by the Times, triggered protests in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Tunisia and the West Bank. Jordan's King Abdullah canceled a summit meeting with President Joe ...

Do looks really matter?

National Columnists

It's the controversy that has launched a thousand X posts. Elon Musk, who is a fan of Homer, has kicked up a fuss by objecting to filmmaker Christopher Nolan casting the black actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy in his forthcoming movie version of "The Odyssey." The epic production presumably won't rise or fall based on its depiction of Helen, the legendary beauty who precipitated the Trojan War. That conflict is portrayed in "The Iliad," while "The Odyssey" follows the Greek warrior Odysseus on his return home after the war, a story that doesn't feature Helen prominently. The ...

Many changes have happened in world in 10 years

National Columnists

Ten years ago this month, Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination for president, with a platform that was vastly different on trade and foreign policy from other recent presidents, Republican and Democratic alike. How fares America – and the world – 10 years later? In some important ways, things have moved in Trump's direction. In 2016 and since, he complained constantly that Europeans were not contributing their fair share to NATO. That had been the position of previous administrations, but none emphasized it as Trump did. Early in Trump's first term, only ...

AI CEO's are their own worst enemy

National Columnists

Much of our rising energy costs comes from a decades-long campaign of progressive environmentalists and Democrat backed regulators to tear down coal-fired power plants, block nuclear and natural gas expansion and make America reliant on wind and solar. Data centers get blamed for higher power bills, but the reality is inflation has much more to do with those rising costs. The fear about data centers, however, is spreading with misinformation about rising costs, social harms, etc., spreading from a well-organized propaganda campaign similar to the campaign against fracking a ...

Minot shines through storm

Letters to the Editor

I was in Minot for the funeral of MSU Professor and fellow Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch Board member Dr. Brent Askvig on Thursday, May 14th. We'd taken a break from Quarterly meetings in Bismarck to attend. If I heard correctly, for the first time ever the NWS issued a Blowing Dust Warning for that day. As we departed Minot, southbound Highway 83 was a nightmare, a topsoil blizzard. Visibility was near zero at times. Traffic in front of us came to a complete stop. The truck from the concrete company behind me pulling a heavy load could not stop or see much and slammed into us, ...

Consequences matter over compassion

National Columnists

One of the most frustrating aspects of contemporary conversations about politics and public policy is how often the deleterious effects of terrible programs – local, state and federal – are brushed aside with distracting (and even deceitful) claims that the intentions behind the ...