A recent commentary of mine evaluated the effectiveness of certain policies, among which was race based school discipline. An article by authors Katherine Kersten and Catrin Thorman in the fall issue of Thinking Minnesota documents the issue. Anyone who cares about our children and their education should be horrified by the egregious conduct of the Minnesota Department of … [Read more...]

The relationship between men and women has been a source of exploration and controversy since the advent of Adam and Eve.  As a young woman I found myself destined to be part of the action. One evening I was with friends at the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, Fla., when a young man approached our table.  “There is someone who would like to meet you.  Within minutes I found myself … [Read more...]

Fellow farmers, with Trump’s trade wars hurting farmers and Trump’s tariff taxes soon raising prices on numerous goods, I urge caution with increasing your debts. I believe two issues are especially driving trade wars. Aluminum and steel tariffs applied because of “national security,” while seemingly silly, allows the Trump Administration to selectively give waivers to … [Read more...]

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”  — Benjamin Franklin In case you hadn’t noticed, the 2018 election season is well underway and as Election Day draws near, so does its impact on the community and this newspaper. This is also the time … [Read more...]

Eric Luoma Fountain, MN I’m endorsing you. Oh, and me too: Us — a pick-up team! Yay! The never-ending task is to save us from a dystopian future. As election day nears, we will witness our National dialog devolve into evermore divisive and hateful rhetoric, because in the perfect zero-sum game everyone loses, and that’s what we are playing today. Most will blame the media, … [Read more...]

I feel like I’ve been writing this column long enough for us to be close enough, dear reader, for me to start sharing deep, personal secrets with you. I imagine the FCJ readers putting up their feet in front of a roaring fire and eagerly turning to my columns with eagerness shining in their eyes, ready to welcome me into their homes as a kooky uncle, or perhaps as the ranting … [Read more...]

By David Webb, MD Lanesboro, MN In his commentary of September 10, Jeff Erding gives a fair description of pragmatism, which however he erroneously conflates with conservatism, and then proceeds to give his own highly distorted view of liberalism. Better to stick to accepted dictionary definitions of terms and to let proponents of various ideologies speak for themselves … [Read more...]

By Aaron Swartzentruber Greenleafton, MN “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before  whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” (Galatians 3:1) The Apostle is writing to a people that believe in Christ, that Christ paid for their sins but now they’re trying to perfect their salvation by their … [Read more...]

If you want evidence of the very first mass extinction event on Earth, begin by looking below your feet here in Fillmore County. Most of us live near limestone from the Late Ordovician Period. The diversity of ancient life (fossils) you may find significantly diminishes as one moves into younger rock formations. This is because 85% of species that were alive during the … [Read more...]

Dear mainstream media (MSM) journalists and writers supposedly concerned about freedom of the press.  Many of us are sick and tired of you and people like you.  As a virtual arm of the left, you have no credibility.  That is part of the reason that, no matter what the Trump-haters daily accuse him of or throw at him, we don’t pay attention to you anymore. You say Trump is … [Read more...]

In these days of fractured and polarized political opinions, it’s easy to forget the facts behind many of the most popular rights of life today in America. Rights that we too often take for granted. Let’s not forget that Liberals: got women the right to vote, created social security and medicare and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty, passed the clean air and … [Read more...]

Recently I received a book in the mail from a reader who was profoundly affected by the contents and thought I might find it of interest.   I found myself reading The Killing of Uncle Sam by Rodney Howard Browne and Paul L. Williams. It is a scholarly work, thoughtful, provocative, heavily documented and an honest effort to assess where we are and what the future holds for … [Read more...]