South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced today that he will appoint Vern Larson of Vivian as Commissioner of School and Public Lands. Last month, Commissioner Jarrod Johnson resigned from office, effective Aug. 15. The Governor’s appointment of Larson will be effective at the same time.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley today released the testing results of the ignition interlock devices. The devices were added to the 24/7 Sobriety Program in October of 2012. Since being added, 119 participants passed 124,771 tests with a pass rate of 99.5%.

Just in time for Memorial Day, we’re being treated to a generous serving of praise and grandstanding by politicians, corporations and others with similarly self-serving motives eager to go on record as being pro-military. We erect monuments for those who die while serving in the military, yet for those who return home, there’s little honor to be found. Making matters worse, thanks to Operation Vigilant Eagle, a program launched by the Department of Homeland Security in 2009, military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are also being characterized as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats.

In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, outgoing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Steven Miller’s suggested that the targeting of tea party and other groups was in part caused by Congress’ failure to provide “clear rules” on what constitutes political activity. But those rules are already clear, Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens noted.

We are to believe, according to the pro-O media, that President Obama has survived the scandals and his ratings haven’t dropped dangerously low. I don’t believe it. Too much talk on the streets says differently. There are people who like to mess with the poll results, just because they can. There are people who swing back and forth on their opinions on any given day. And, there are people who are probably afraid their answers are being reported back to some central source for loyalty review.

What do you have when you have a theory that is contradicted by observed scientific law? For one thing, you don’t have much in the way of a viable scientific law.

Those words written in the early years of the 19th century by Sir Walter Scott referred to his story of a love triangle with all of the intrigue that ensued. But it could equally represent the corruption and deception rife within the Obama Administration, within the State Department, in the IRS and among far too many of the personnel and bureaucrats existing in an ever growing BIG government. But the big question remains why the State Department and the White House have spun such a web of lies over Benghazi.

So, how long will this system of floating money, fiat currency, and systemic debt last? None of us gets to live in the world we grew up in because the world moves too fast. Things change. What was science fiction yesterday is your cell phone today. One thing we can know for sure is that it isn’t over till it’s over. Yet from a realistic evaluation of the deep hole we have spent ourselves into the future isn’t what it used to be and if the world were perfect it wouldn’t be.

States started with a sales tax. Then they added a use tax to collect revenue that escapes the sales tax. Now the Senate has passed the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) to force companies in other states to collect the tax. Few individuals comply with the use tax, and where everyone is guilty, no one is guilty.