The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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War crimes are defined by the four Geneva conventions, which speak to certain aspects of war crimes. Additionally the Hague convention also speaks to war crimes. War crimes began to be addressed as early as the 1400s. The International Crimes Court could be a court to address Putin’s crimes. While many countries are signatories to the ICC, there are several that do not accept it’s jurisdiction. To accept it’s jurisdiction could mean that a matter could be taken from the hands of a sover...
Incumbency is a potent, powerful, inherent advantage in politics. That fact is playing out to the nines in this year’s Alabama secondary constitutional and down ballot races. Several of the constitutional office incumbents do not have Republican or Democratic opposition. Of course, having a Democratic opponent is the same as not having an opponent in a statewide race in Alabama. A Democrat cannot win in a statewide contest in the Heart of Dixie. Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth will be elected to a...
Had she lived, the Queen of Soul would have been 80-years-old in March. For at least 60 of her 76 years, Aretha Franklin shared her vocal gift all over the world. In addition to bringing her both critical and commercial success, her voice became a symbol for a new generation of Americans. Older generations rooted in staid and static smugness frowned upon popular culture for breeding new forms of entertainment and activism, which promoted an expression of unique, differing and contrasting ideas....
Okay, the title is a lie. Nobody hates being right. Let’s talk Ukraine. Everybody reading this has been inundated with news from Eastern Europe for the past month and little of it is good. Except that the Ukrainians are taking it to the Russians, killing a lot of their soldiers and making Mr. Putin rethink his own calculus with this whole invasion thing. Like I wrote in one of my prior Robservations, when asked what the Ukrainians were thinking, one older gentleman answered, “We are thi...
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” No truer words have ever been spoken. I am worried that the Alabama Republican Party is forgetting the past and what events lead to the rise of their party in Alabama. The year was 1986. The Democratic Party was in control. It was time to pick a successor to George Wallace who had dominated Alabama politics for two decades. Lt. Governor Bill Baxley had been waiting in the wings since the early 1970s. He had served as Attorney Gen...
Throughout our history, we have had some great presidents, and also some terrible ones. There are few people we can trust to judge our past leaders with much accuracy. Most scholars correctly rate Washington and Jefferson at or very near the top. But these same “scholars” have very often ranked some of our very worst up there with them. Nearly all of the popular polls and lists are very wrong. Sadly, these people have used the wrong procedures in making their judgements. Most have used the quant...
Longtime Alabama Gazette contributor Sheriff Derrick Cunningham’s service as President of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association (since January 2020) came to a close with installation of Sheriff Jay Jones last month. One can easily imagine Sheriff Cunningham, among the most respected Gazette supporters, was ready for a break after quickly walking into the Covid response quagmire. Perhaps Sheriff Cunningham could impose on Sheriff Jones to submit articles of interest at times as his succeeding Pre...
Court historians and perpetuators of the righteous cause myth have devoted much attention to the abolitionist John Brown. Heavily financed by the Secret Six (mainly Northern Industrialists and Unitarians), Brown led a rag-tag band of murderous misfits. The first person they killed in Virginia was Heyward Shepherd, a highly respected free Black man intelligent enough to not join their gang. Brown was eventually arrested, tried, convicted, and hanged for committing treason against the...
Much is being written in the areas of law and ethics on the “character” of corporations, their corporate cultures, whether the corporation is a moral agent, etc. These writings focus on Aristotle and Virtue Ethics, Immanual Kant and Kantian Ethics, externally imposed Corporate Compliance and Ethics Programs mandated for public corporations by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and external evaluations by courts when following the United States Sentencing Commission’s guidelines for the sentencing of organ...
Not too long ago a small child told me there were 2 holidays this April – April fool’s day and Easter. How cute is that statement. One of my favorite expressions is “April showers bring May flowers.” This is my rule of thumb in the garden setting as to when I sow seed and set out small plants. Usually by mid March to late March, the chances of a hard freeze dissipates, so I begin sowing seed and setting out plants for spring and early summer garden. Once these seedlings and plants get establishe...
Another turkey season is just around the corner. Even though I’m excited about the possibilities, I’m reminded again of my distaste for the characteristics of this bird. Yes, he’s beautiful. Yes, he’s hardy. And yes, he’s a wily competitor. But his best contribution is his shining example of all that I don’t want to be and all that I detest in seeing in others as well. His pride is evident and that ought to be enough to make me want to blow his head off. But there are other problems I have with...
Courage is defined as “the ability to control fear and to be willing to deal with and face something that is dangerous, difficult or unpleasant.” Another source defines courage as “the quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action.” This certainly describes Jesus Christ, especially during Holy Week as he faced the brutality of the Roman form of execution on a wooden cross....
Gunnery Sergeant Jamie Michael LyBrand Gunnery Sergeant (GySgt) Jamie Michael LyBrand served 20 years in the United States Marine Corps. His Military Primary Military Occupational Specialty (PMOS) was Military Police, and he held other Additional MOS’s (AMOS): Prevention/Physical Security, Small Arms Weapons Instructor, Marksmanship Instructor, Martial Arts Instructor, Marksmanship Coach, Formal School Instructor and Recruiter. His decorations, medals, badges, citations and campaign ribbons a...
The Alabama Legislature has once again introduced a lottery proposal that would give voters the opportunity to choose whether or not Alabama can have a lottery. It is one of the only states in the union not to have a lottery. They do this every year. I write about it every year. They meet, and talk, and wring their hands, and second-guess themselves. They open it up for public discussion. Then they get anxious and table whatever plan they were considering and agree to start over from scratch...
Before He was ever crucified, Jesus gave the perfect summary of the foundation of Christianity. I just saw this in His Word for the very first time. I was thinking about Easter and thinking about the cross, when I remembered something Jesus said in Matthew 22:34-40. The greatest commandment deals with our VERTICAL relationship with God. The first, and most important relationship issue that we must settle in our lives is our relationship with God. It was broken by sin, but the bridge upward to Go...
I was surfing the web, looking for ideas for my next article. I came across several articles that caught my eye. They were articles written about the fast food restaurants that on the surface sounded like they are serving the standard fare for a typical fast food restaurant: hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, gumbo, biscuits and gravy, and grilled-cheese sandwiches. What caught my eye was that most of the descriptions of the food were missspelled. You could tell what they were trying to describe bu...