Fletcher Farrar

Uneducated in either racehorses or wine, I pick mine by the name. If I saw Lazy Bones Carbernet on the store shelf, I’d buy it to support cleverness. Of course I picked Journalism to win the Kentucky Derby. But I’m not sorry Sovereignty won. In retrospect I think journalism is already getting too much press, […]

With spring and Easter come flowers and signs of hope. Harvard sues. The Supreme Court asserts itself. A senator visits the man deported by mistake. Protests mount. Markets protest. Still, there’s trouble all around. “Resurrection happens in the midst of darkness,” is the Easter message of Sister Kathlyn Mulcahy, OP, a member of the leadership […]

I used to think China had political and economic advantages over the United States because, as a dictatorship, it could move quickly, building dams in a decade and cities in a year, while eliminating political opposition by thuggery and violence wherever it cropped up. In my mind, however, that advantage of speed was outweighed by […]

Interesting to hear President Donald Trump scheming for a third term, despite the Constitution. One of the ideas is for whoever is elected in 2028 to voluntarily step aside and turn the reins over to him. Sort of like the arrangement he has with Elon Musk. The problem with that scenario is that even unelected […]

“St. Louis was shrinking until the immigrants arrived,” according to the March 9 New York Times. The long article details the city’s efforts over the last several years to attract immigrants. In 2023 the region added 30,000 foreign-born residents, almost enough to replace the 34,000 native-born residents who had left. Now parts of the city […]

In his long speech to Congress March 4, President Donald Trump celebrated the disruption he has brought to Washington and the world since he took office in January. But he never explained how his chainsaw approach helps get us to the Golden Age he claims. The connection remains unclear between indiscriminate firing of government workers […]

It may be too soon, but if things get any crazier in Washington it will be time for level-headed conservatives to start thinking about forming a new political movement, like their ancestors did 170 years ago. Back then the Republican Party was formed by anti-slavery activists; now, what to be against is less clear – […]

Years ago in southern Sudan I had a dream. We were sitting around the camp circle when generators shut off and lights went out, revealing a black sky, star-spangled and wrapped in quiet. Awestruck, we went to our tents. Soon I was flying low in a crop duster over fields of soybeans thriving in what […]

Visitors to Palestinian towns often return with a souvenir, a large iron skeleton key that resembles a ceremonial “key to the city,” except this one looks old and rusted. For Palestinians the key symbolizes the key to the homes they were forced to leave in 1948, when war created the modern state of Israel. That […]

It could be that DEI was already a nice-sounding euphemism for anti-racism programs, with the thought that nobody would oppose diversity, equity and inclusion. But the anti-anti-racists now in power in Washington were not to be fooled. They have launched a full-scale attack on DEI, with its teaching about how racism can infest systems and […]

While chaos reigned in Washington this week, there was rare joy in Israel and Gaza. So far, the cease-fire is holding, and hostages are gradually being released in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Reunions anywhere are emotional, but no sight was happier than the picture of thousands of […]

The Bishop of Washington, D.C., got all the attention when she spoke truth to power, asking her listener to “have mercy on the people in our country who are scared” because of his threats. But in Springfield on Inauguration Day there were petitions and prayers just as strong. The Frontiers International Martin Luther King Jr. […]