Less than 2% of the workforce works for the minimum wage. A full 50% of those working for minimum wage are younger than 25. They typically live with their parents, have little or no education and only work part time. Minimum wage and below is not a living wage. It is rather a starter job rate for those who lack the skills necessary to earn a living and have a career.

As school boards across the state disappointingly sink their teeth into cutting their 2011-2012 budgets as mandated by the South Dakota Legislature and Governor Daugaard, we are seeing a variety of watered down budgets surfacing. With the reduction or elimination of programs in our schools the question must be asked, were they necessarily needed in the first place?

The best of the best articles at Dakota Voice last week, including: Homosexual Activists Assault Pro-Marriage Demonstration; WI Dems Radical Enough to Surprise Communists; Ellsworth B-1s Join Operation Odyssey Dawn; Wisconsin Teacher Charged With Death Threats Against Lawmakers; Gravity and Absolute Truth; Herman Cain Wouldn’t Appoint Muslim Judges, Cabinet Members; Teflon Donald, Quintessential Republicrat; The Face of Leftist Hate for America; and more!

At present, revolutionaries in the Middle East are most likely motivated by one of two objectives, neither of which are democracy in the sense of freedom for all. In the Islamic world, namely the twenty-two member states of the League of Arab States, the concept of democracy does not—indeed cannot—follow the same understanding held in the West. Modern interpretations of the Islamic religion include intrinsic barriers to freedom for “all persons regardless of race, gender, religion, and ideologies.” Liberal democracy is a uniquely Western concept that could not have arisen without Christianity.

The 2011 South Dakota Scholastic Chess Tournament was held today in Rapid City, with students coming from all over the state–many from the Sioux Falls area–to participate. It was my homeschooled daughter Karissa’s first chess tournament, and though it was challenging, she and her team came away with a trophy.

The Rapid City Journal editorial staff recently made the claim that an informed consent law passed by the South Dakota Legislature “distract[s] the Legislature from more important business.” Thomas Jefferson said, “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” I can’t escape the question of what could possibly be more important than saving innocent human life.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty J. Jackley announces that he has joined 21 State Attorneys General requesting the EPA to defer its greenhouse gas regulations so that Congress may have an opportunity to evaluate the regulations. Other State Attorneys General joining in the EPA request include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Guam, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming and Florida.

About 150 leaders from the 28th Bomb Wing and invited guests witnessed the unfolding of a new era as Detachment 1 of the 28th Operations Group was officially activated during a ceremony April 1 in the 28th Operations Support Squadron auditorium at Ellsworth AFB, SD. Det. 1 will bring the MQ-9 Reaper ground control station mission to Ellsworth, along with 280 civilian and military personnel to operate the remote aircraft.

Years of political myopathy have brought America to the brink of financial and moral bankruptcy. Both conditions threaten the republic, and we cannot recover from one without addressing the root causes of the other. Our collective pursuit of “a more perfect union” must be one that takes into account the many dimensions of human society and the human person. This endeavor requires leaders who will put the country first, and who have the courage and vision to see past the current election cycle. Cut corners in pursuit of the easy win, and nothing will ever change.

Republicans have today within their ranks some individuals that actually stand for something. Democrats, who have fair party unanimity in their comfort level to go on growing government and aborting our children forever, relish watching internal Republican tensions and potential splits over principle. So taking things to the brink is just fine with Democrats. They don’t see any big problem to begin with and by certain calculations, Republicans would bear all the political costs.

In the fight to protect America from her external enemies, in our struggle to preserve America from the ruin of liberal policies, it is this kind of Leftist rot from within our borders with which we have to contend. This is a video of liberals on the day after 911, running down America and claiming 911 was our own fault. One of those at this rally used to be one of President Obama’s czars, and he remains a powerful component of a major media outlet in this country.

Class envy, progressive tax systems, sticking it to the rich, penalizing success…these are all Marxist ideas that are contrary to American principles and our very way of life. What’s more, they simply don’t work as advertised. As Bill Whittle illustrates in this video, using some work done by his friend Iowahawk (iowahawk.typepad.com), even if we throw law and freedom to the wind and eat up the wealth of the rich, we can still just barely stretch to cover our out-of-control spending for a single year.

Wisconsin teacher Katherine Windels has been charged with sending death threats to 16 GOP lawmakers because she was angry that they were imposing financial responsibility that crimped her lifestyle. This is one of the people teaching young children in Wisconsin. More of that famous love, peace and tolerance from the Left.

In the latest Louder with Crowder, Steven Crowder interviews Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) on why he wants a waiver from ObamaCare when he supported forcing this unconstitutional monstrosity on America last year. Let us just say that his answer is, um, interesting. It is also, of course, reminiscent of Animal Farm in the way that under socialism, some animals are always more equal than the other animals.