MINOT, N.D. — While conservatives are traditionally seen as friends of big business, in recent years, it sure seems like it’s our liberal friends who enjoy that alliance. When North Carolina passed a state law concerning transgender bathrooms, the woke left successfully pressured the NBA into announcing they were pulling their All-Star game from Charlotte. When Georgia…
We Must Do Everything We Can to Send Kids Back to School This Fall
MINOT, N.D. — I am a father to a 12-year-old who, last year, was just completing her first year of middle school. Thanks to coronavirus, the last months of the school year were rough. We did our best with the online assignments, but the online system our school district deployed to track assignments was clunky.…
Grand Forks Democrats Pledged to Boycott Facebook Ads Over Hate Speech, Then Apparently Took the Pledge Down When One of Their Candidates Bought a Facebook Ad
MINOT, N.D. — On June 28, the District 42 chapter of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL posted a pledge on their Facebook page to boycott Facebook ads during the month of July. “Facebook has shown that in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and so many others, they idly…
What if Pipeline Companies Behaved Like Their Political Enemies?
MINOT, N.D. — Earlier this week, there was a lot of heavy breathing in the news media over a statement from Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, which made it seem like they might defy a court order to shut the line down. That lasted for a hot minute. After the…
Friday Mailbag: ND Political Polling, Dems Attacking PPP Loans, Accountability for Cops, and the Dakota Access Pipeline
MINOT, N.D. — Remember that old Dick Van Dyke movie about the flying car? The one called “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”? It was one of my favorites when I was a kid, and I always thought the odd name referred to the sound old cars made when starting up. I recently learned the actual origin…
Fargo Police Finally Get Around to Handling Osmundson Situation Appropriately
MINOT, N.D. — “Osmundson’s actions should have been investigated by an entity outside of the Fargo Police Department,” I wrote earlier this week, referring to disgraced former deputy chief Todd Osmundson. “That’s not what happened, and it only contributes to the erosion of trust in the department that Osmundson’s actions began in the first place.” Today…
ND Democrats Dunk on Burgum’s Company for Taking a Small PPP Loan
Recently a federal court ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline shut down. That line carries nearly half of all of North Dakota’s oil output. The oil industry pays more than half of all the tax collected by the State of North Dakota. The North Dakota Democratic Party didn’t issue a statement about that, but they had plenty of…
Defending the Rights of the Accused Is Not the Same Thing as Victim Shaming
MINOT, N.D. — “[T]he mob is the most ruthless of tyrants,” wrote Nietzsche. If only he’d been around to bear witness to our society under the influence of social media. We do everything on Facebook now. Or Twitter or Snapchat or Reddit. We used to see the internet as a sort of utopia—a place where…
…And That’s Why North Dakota Will Vote for Trump Again
MINOT, N.D. — Not so long ago, I wrote a column in which I wondered if President Donald Trump was losing political favor here in North Dakota. A place which has been, since the dawn of his presidency, one of most ardent bastions of his political base. Then a federal judge ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline emptied.…
North Dakota Needs Voter Registration
MINOT, N.D. — North Dakota is currently the only state in the union without voter registration. Folks, it’s time for that to change. Our June primary, conducted entirely by mail because of the pandemic, went off without a hitch. That system has been in place for a while and was already used extensively in some…