Will God Be in the Voting Booth With You?

Our founders wrote separation of church and state into our constitution. Our constitution is subject to interpretation. American religion is also subject to interpretation according to the actions of its citizens. According to the Minot phone book, there are 44 different churches in Minot. There are 16 miscellaneous Protestant churches of various ideologies. Additionally, there

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A Republican Primary Process Predicament?

Polls are somewhat similar to a carpenter’s tool. They are as valuable as the skills of the artisan utilizing them. I recall a very pleasant one on one dinner in 1995 with the head of a “special interest” group based out of Washington, D.C. My dinner companion was a self-made man who due to talent,

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The Real Results of Proposed Property Tax Reforms?

The many questions I have asked about the elimination of real estate taxes have not been answered. There are more which were not included in a prior article. Minot has a high percentage of sales tax revenue for obvious reasons. Thanks to the grace of God and industrious citizens, Minot is the regional center for

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Weighing In for the Battle for Local Control

In 2024, North Dakota voters will probably vote whether or not to eliminate real estate property taxes. It looks like it will be a proxy war between the obvious factions within the North Dakota Republican party. Republicans in recent history have comprised roughly 75% of North Dakota voters. Is the Republican party still the party

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Is The Twilight Zone Our New American Reality?

Imagine a science fiction episode in the classic old black and white series, The Twilight Zone. The main character is a middle class woman in a middle class town in the Midwest called Lake Flaccid. The woman has a toothache. She goes to her dentist. Her dentist doesn’t treat her but instead offers her his

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Something’s Not Right

There is now a petition being passed around with the stated goal of protecting election integrity in future North Dakota elections. There are several questions the citizens of our state may wish to consider. County auditors are the boots on the ground regarding North Dakota elections. Do they think there is a problem? The North

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Will 2024 Governorship Race Deliver Red, Blue, or Black & White?

Is it too early to speculate about next year’s North Dakota gubernatorial race? If Governor Burgum doesn’t run again, what can we expect and who will try to succeed him? We should feel safe to assume that if the Democrats field a candidate, he or she will more than likely have several disadvantages. Let’s start

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Is An Accounting Coming?

I don’t claim to have all the answers, but being curious by nature, have several questions. My friends in the Republican party are against waste, fraud and abuse in government. They have been in total control of state government in Bismarck since 1994. It would be very educational to have an itemized list of the

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Their Personal Lives Were None of My Business and Other Legislative Musings From a Long-time Democrat

It is very gracious of the Minot Voice to give me a voice. Like the Federalists and the Whigs of early American history, the North Dakota Democratic party may be on the road to being a mere memory. Why and how that has happened, I will leave to historians. There is plenty of blame to

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Ehh, What Did These Wise Guys Know Anyways?

Our nation’s founding fathers were in search of perfection in an imperfect world. The American experiment, although flawed as is any other human endeavor, is something that has had immeasurable benefit for those of us who are lucky enough to live in this country. Separation of church and state is one of their lasting legacies.

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Saving Snowflakes By Banning & Burning Books?

I recently completed reading The 1619 Project. I may or may not have bothered, but the fact that many political types want to ban it from public schools piqued my curiosity. The book is a compilation of essays by a number of authors of African descent giving their opinions on race relations in the USA.

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Support for Socialism Unites North Dakota Leadership

As the 2020 election is approaching, America appears to be deeply divided. Finding bipartisan consensus is becoming uncomfortably difficult. In North Dakota, however, we have apparently achieved consensus on one important issue. That is the benefit of socialism. North Dakota, at the state level, has been a one-party state since 1994. During that 26 year

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Musings on the melting pot

I recently attended a conference in Chicago where one of the featured speakers was a well- regarded demographer from the University of North Carolina. According to his research, for the first time ever in the USA, children in the first grade with brown skin, outnumber children with white skin. By his definition, children with brown

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Can we admit we’re part of the problem?

Reasonable people should at least agree in concept that some degree of control should be exercised by the federal government at the Mexican border. The Mexican border is ground zero for immigration. Canadians appear to be content with high taxes, socialized medicine, expensive booze, expensive gasoline, and less than balmy weather. We should hardly blame

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Are there works of literature, music or pop culture which somewhat describe current events in our nation’s capital? Could it be Dante’s Inferno? Could it be Alice in Wonderland? Could it be To Kill a Mockingbird? Could it be The Crucible? Could it be The Emperor Has No Clothes? Is it like watching One Flew

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Minot, you’ve come a long way!

In a matter of weeks, I will be retiring from the private practice of law. It has been an interesting run with victories, defeats, joy, and pain. I won’t be completely idle, however, as I am involved with several endeavors of interest to me. Minds, like bodies, can atrophy without some stimulation. When I moved

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