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  • Air Bag Follies

    John Martin|Oct 1, 2025

    Last month, I illustrated the stupidity of our auto engineers in their zeal to make all new cars crushable and become total losses whenever they suffer from minor bumps and bruises. I also illustrated a solution to this insanity, and I’m praying that at least a few engineers in the right places will wise up and take action. But that is not the only engineering blunder with our cars today. They are also overloaded with gross excesses of explosive air bags—sometimes with as many as 10 or pos...

  • The Righteous Cause Myth

    John M Taylor|Oct 1, 2025

    We hear “Lost Cause” commentary ad nauseum from so-called experts, most of whom are political leftists, neocons, Straussians, and others of a similar ilk who claim the War for Southern Independence was about maintaining slavery. In reality, the only threat to slavery was outside of the Southern and Border States (Lincoln and the Republicans made that crystal clear). This arose, at least partially, from the Republican agenda of wanting only White settlers in the West; they consistently aff...

  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NICENE CREED!

    Col. John Eidsmoe|Oct 1, 2025

    It was the fourth century A.D. Yes, I know the politically-correct crowd says we’re not supposed to use B.C. and A.D. anymore, because they mean “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (in the year of our Lord). Those terms, we are told, refer to the birth of Christ and that is offensive to some. Instead, we’re supposed to say B.C.E. (“Before the Common Era”) and C.E. (“Common Era”). But what makes the Common Era common, other than the birth of Christ? Our Founding Fathers finished the Consti...

  • 'The Auburn Screed' according to Roberts

    John Sophocleus|Oct 1, 2025

    Happy 26th Anniversary to The Alabama Gazette! Time to reflect back over a quarter century to herald this brave paper standing strong on the First Amendment; it prints submissions of big government conservatives and modern liberals as well as observations and perspectives of small government conservative/classical liberals like me these past 16 years. Those who regularly consume news from our local East Central Alabama ’Pravda on the Plains’ publications recently witnessed a social media sta...

  • Gerrymander Proliferation and Constitutional Détente

    John Sophocleus|Sep 14, 2025

    Most of my readers will recall Elkanah Tisdale’s iconic political cartoon evoking "Gerrymander" nomenclature for Massachusetts’ redistricted manipulations following the 1810 census. A July 18, 2024 post by Neely Tucker [https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2024/07/gerrymandering-the-origin-story/] featured former chief of the Rare Book & Special Collections Division guest, Mark Dimunation. He offered the following on gerrymandering which has become part of our lexicon these past two centuries: “The term,...

  • "TO THE SHORES OF – WHERE?"

    Col. John Eidsmoe|Sep 14, 2025

    “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…” Most of us know why the Marine Hymn speaks of the halls of Montezuma. It refers to the Mexican War (1846-48) in which the Marine and other American soldiers, led by General Winfield Scott fought a fierce battle from Vera Cruz to Mexico City and stormed Chapultepec Castle. But what about the shores of Tripoli? That’s another story. It goes back nearly 1,400 years to the beginning of Muslim Jihad, but let’s start with 1785. Thomas Jefferson...

  • Building Better Bumpers

    John Martin|Sep 14, 2025
    1

    Every passing year, our automobile engineers continue to fail miserably in their production of quality products. In their efforts to build bling, style, and needless options, they are neglecting the basic essentials—durability, dependability, economy, and most of all—SIMPLICITY. That means easy to build, easy and inexpensive to repair, and the ABSENSE of gimmicks that tend to disrupt basic functions. Among the most neglected car parts are the BUMPERS. Like their names imply, their purpose is...

  • Emancipation as a War Measure

    John M Taylor|Sep 1, 2025

    Although not an “abolitionist” in the strict sense, Abraham Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery. Lincoln’s view was common within the Republican Party. Abolitionists were generally despised in both North and South--many would be considered radical even by today’s abysmal moral standards. Abolitionists, e.g., Wendell Phillips and Lysander Spooner routinely criticized Lincoln for his tepid anti-slavery views. Lincoln’s focus was on maintaining the geographical Union--slavery was a secondary...

  • From One Big Soviet Bill: American Party's birth

    John Sophocleus|Aug 12, 2025

    Comrade Trump’s Big Soviet Bill further mashed the accelerator on our path to the junk heap of history. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act [OBBBA] is now law, adding hundreds more pages of unconstitutional text to the federal register. Echoing Speaker Pelosi (Trump’s past Kabuki Theatre friend when ‘donning’ his longer worn Blue Soviet jersey) shrieks “We had to pass the bill to know what’s in it,” our DC politburo is keeping the trend to oblivion set by Comrades Trump (45) and Biden these past year...

  • Transforming the Union

    John M Taylor|Aug 12, 2025

    Lincoln claimed the North was fighting to preserve the Union. However, fighting to preserve a voluntary Union is a contradiction since force is antithetical to voluntary consent. Alexander Hamilton noted: “To coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised…Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself; a government that can exist only by the sword?” The New England power structure did just that....

  • WHAT WAR BEGAN 75 YEARS AGO?

    Col. John Eidsmoe|Aug 12, 2025

    If you don’t know the answer to this question, or even if you had to think about it for awhile, you’ve proven my point: The Korean War (June 1950 – July 1953) is America’s forgotten conflict. Of all the memorials on the Washington Mall, the Korean War Memorial is my favorite. In graphic detail, larger than life, it depicts in stainless steel 19 gaunt American soldiers in full battle dress as they grimly ascend a hill to commence an attack. Instead of being bunched together, they are spaced...

  • A Geological Mystery

    John Martin|Aug 12, 2025

    Back in 2011, a group of researchers at the University of Bristol performed some ultra high precision analyses on some of the Earth's oldest rocks from Greenland. These were four billion years old—almost as old as the Earth itself at 4.5 billion years. Using tungsten as a benchmark, the studies concluded that tungsten along with our precious metals in the Earth’s crust originated from a global bombardment of “about 20 billion billion tonnes of asteroidal material” that occurred about 200 mil...

  • The New York Draft Riots

    John M Taylor|Jul 1, 2025

    The June 2025 Los Angeles riots have initiated constitutional questions about State vs. Federal authority. Per Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, it is up to the Governor or legislature of a State to request federal assistance; otherwise, the general government can enforce federal laws but generally has no authority to interfere with State affairs. Furthermore, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement. A catalyst for this act was to...

  • PANAMA CANAL: TIME FOR TEDDY ROOSEVELT'S BIG STICK?

    Col. John Eidsmoe|Jul 1, 2025

    South Dakota’s Mt. Rushmore exhibits the faces of four presidents immortalized in stone: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt (TR). As the story goes, one morning in 1979 Washington noticed that Roosevelt was missing from the monument. When asked, Jefferson said simply, “All I know is, he muttered something about it being HIS canal, and he picked up a big stick and started walking south,” TR described his foreign policy as “speak softly and carry a big sti...

  • The Chronic Need for Small Trucks

    John Martin|Jul 1, 2025

    Have you ever wondered why you seldom see any small pickup trucks in recent years? And the few you do see are older ones—1980’s and earlier. Why don’t automakers make and sell any new ones? Today, we see huge hulking gas-guzzling behemoths with big 4-door cabs and often puny 4 to 5 foot beds that won’t haul very much. They are utterly impractical for most farmers, contractors, handymen, and anybody else who needs an inexpensive utilitarian truck to carry stuff around. Of course automak...

  • Anthony Burns Case: Impeding Federal Extradition

    John Sophocleus|Jul 1, 2025
    1

    Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples [1995 Barnes & Noble p. 376] narrative on anti-slavery forces resistance upon Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 passage in the US Senate (re)affirmed the principle of “popular sovereignty” triggering the Anthony Burns [https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/burns-anthony-the-trial-of-1854/] incident in Boston. The Compromise of 1850 included a Fugitive Slave Act requiring slaves be returned to owners, even if in a free State and legis...

  • The Hypocritical Musk Haters

    John Martin|Jun 1, 2025

    There is no doubt that Elon Musk is the world’s wealthiest man. He is also the smartest and the greatest entrepreneur. And unlike his rivals who have a bent toward propriatory monopolization, he is willing to share his technology with others for the benefit of mankind and civilized society. One of his biggest successes is the development of efficient electric vehicles that are capable of drastically reducing the toxic emissions that the radical leftists and “environmental wackos” have been...

  • Souter's Just Desserts?

    John Sophocleus|Jun 1, 2025

    A hotel could’ve been built on Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter’s farm in Weare, NH upon a developer’s request to acquire it via ‘eminent domain’ - yet another term (e.g., democracy, 435, etc.) not in the US Constitution. The “Kelo vs. City of New London” decision supported by Justice Souter proffered this travesty. A private developer evoked Kelo (contrary to the letter and Spirit of our 5th Amendment Civil Right to limit government takings) to build a hotel on Souter’s land. It was the fi...

  • The Original Republic: Gone with the Wind

    John M Taylor|Jun 1, 2025

    June 3rd marks the birthday of Jefferson Finis Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America. Righteous Cause propagandists demonize Davis and others who understand the U.S. Constitution to be a compact between the ratifying States, meaning it is up to the citizens of the respective States to remain in the Union or leave it. Although commonly accepted in both North and South in the early days of the Republic, this view is foreign to many modern Americans. To amplify the present...

  • APLS Chairman John Wahl Applauds Fifth Circuit Ruling: "Relocation Sexually Explicit Content Is Not Censorship"

    John Wahl, APLS Chairman|May 21, 2025

    May 29, 2025 - MONTGOMERY, AL – Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) Chairman John Wahl today praised a recent ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming that public libraries have the right to curate their collections - including removing books that are sexually explicit or age-inappropriate - without violating the First Amendment. The case centered around a public library in Llano County, Texas, where county officials removed 17 books from the library for their content on g...

  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PATRICK HENRY!

    Col. John Eidsmoe|May 1, 2025

    Last October, I had the privilege of conducting a wedding in our little country church. The groom is a retired U.S. Army corporal. The bride is a direct descendant of Patrick Henry. Born 29 May 1736, Henry is the subject of my column for May. Most Americans, when they think of Patrick Henry, are reminded of his timeless words, “Give me liberty or give me death!” They think of Henry as a great orator but not much else. But an orator’s power to move people wells from the depth of conviction in hi...

  • America's Great Fiscal Enema

    John Martin|May 1, 2025

    This year (2025), America’s most powerful man (Donald Trump) has teamed up with our most brilliant (Elon Musk) to create and administer our new Department Of Government Efficiency. It’s mission is to perform our greatest economic rescue in history—a massive colorectal cleanup that has been decades overdue. These two heroes are hustling full tilt to cast off our bureaucratic slave chains and plug our treasury’s massive hemmorhage to literally SAVE OUR COUNTRY from financial collapse and impendi...

  • M.F.N. Tariff Debacles from FDR to DJT

    John Sophocleus|May 1, 2025

    Given ‘woke’ education from soviet educators who truly believe in ‘Hammer & Sickle’ command economies as our nation embraced the path of transferring wealth to specific interests over the general welfare, most have heard the acronym MFN (Most Favoured Nation) trading status, yet have little education with this unconstitutional power. Fellow Gazette writer Johnny Taylor’s book https://www.google.com/books/edition/Union_at_All_Costs/DopXMQAACAAJ?hl=en is the best I’ve read documenting...

  • The Wide Awakes

    John M Taylor|May 1, 2025

    C-Span recently featured John Grinspan speaking about the Wide Awakes, a topic covered on the Abbeville Blog and in Chapter Seven of my book, Union At All Costs: From Confederation to Consolidation. As early as 1856, numerous paramilitary clubs were organized in support of the Republican Party. Examples included the Rocky Mountain Clubs, Freedom Clubs, and the notorious Wide Awakes. This organization differed from the previous group of New Yorkers who wore the Wide Awake moniker. The originals...

  • Truth Matters: Alabama Voter Rolls

    John H Merrill|May 1, 2025

    President Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Until now, I have refrained from commenting or opening the door to counter-criticisms in response to the derogatory comments made about me and my administration by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen. Since taking office in 2023, Secretary Allen has repeatedly mischaracterized both my tenure and the work of the...

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