The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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We are rapidly approaching a new and different College Football season. Hopefully we will step into a new normal, and will it be mask free? It sure looks like it from my vantage point. We have Coach Saban doing public services announcements encouraging Alabama fans to get the COVID-19 vaccine – we’ll have to see if that prods folk along. This will be the new normal for the foreseeable future. How many SEC fans will get vaccinated so that all the seats will be filled? Make no mistake, this wil...
Most states have one General Fund Budget. We are only one of five states that have two. Some of you have asked why we have two budgets – one for the General Fund and one for Education. Here is why. During the era of the Great Depression and even afterwards, education in Alabama was woefully underfunded and that is really being generous to simply say underfunded. Our schools were similar to a third world country. We had two separate systems, one for white students and one for black students. M...
Few calendars in this part of the Western Hemisphere will note it, but on July 28, Peru celebrates 200 years of independence. Two centuries of anything is a big deal; it demonstrates generational resilience and that’s something to celebrate. But the occasion also offers us cause to examine, and understand the international, liberating forces unleashed by the success of American Independence, how these ideas permeated through other nations to create a culture of liberty and freedom, and the l...
I first wrote this Robservation back in 2013. Yeah, eight years ago. Sadly, in the context of this subject, things have not gotten better. Not by a long shot. I decided to revisit this subject of our national debt after reading on Breitbart News how the Democrat infrastructure bill will cost U.S. tax payers $5.4 trillion, which will be much more expensive than previously promised. Hmmm, imagine that. Politicians not telling the truth. Who could have seen this coming? www.breitbart.com/politics/2...
Aside from being a practicing attorney I have had an almost lifelong interest in my family history and especially those that were southern soldiers in the War Between the States. I am proud to claim ten, either great-great or great-great great grandfathers that fought to separate the people of the South from a Federal army under Lincoln that had decided they would force the South back into the Union. There are many causes for the War, unfortunately the only cause taught in schools written by...
State and local governments lure businesses with incentive packages. Yet these governments impose rules stifling entrepreneurs starting new businesses, forgetting that Amazon, offered multi-billion dollar deals for its HQ2, started out of Jeff Bezos’s garage. A new Cato Institute study, “Entrepreneurs and Regulations” by Chris Edwards, details the state and local government burdens on startups. Elected officials should carefully weigh these policies’ benefits against the burdens. The adminis...
Our next chapter of “Malice in Hubbardland” type corruption in Lee County reveals even more malfeasance while observing flawless (from jury selection to plea agreement) intendance by the jurist our Alabama Supreme Court appointed to preside over Lee County DA Brandon Hughes’ ethics case, Judge Pamela (Willis) Bacshab. This “retired” Colbert County Judge has many decades of experience ‘in the trenches.’ According to a UNA biography, Baschab started as an Assistant DA in Mobile County before...
We are constantly bombarded with issues instigated by individuals attempting to cause division in America. For example, the 1619 Project (reminiscent of something in the old parody magazine, National Lampoon), Critical Race Theory (an outgrowth of Marxism), and a seemingly endless stream of individuals who insist they are victims. What kind of parent would want their children to consider themselves victims? As Booker T. Washington observed: “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, e...
In 2022, Alabama will elect a U.S. Senator to fill the seat held by Senator Richard Shelby for four decades. In 1986, as a skilled personal injury trial lawyer and shrewd Democrat candidate, Shelby beat the esteemed GOP A|dmiral Jeremiah Denton in a character assassination campaign. As Chairman and now ranking member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations committee, Shelby has channeled billions into Alabama, which has been good for the state economy, federal contractors, but used by Shelby as a...
During the last several decades, various people and groups have proposed term limits as a solution for stopping abuses done by politicians. The big argument is to return political offices back to people who actually want to serve for the public good instead of using the offices for their careers and political objectives. The idea sounds like a noble one. Our country was founded on the principle of citizen legislators—people who volunteered for limited times to perform public services for very m...
Terrell Lamar Best: Age 95 Terrell Lamar Best served almost 32 months in the United States Coast Guard during WWII. His military occupational specialty (MOS) was Signalman Third Class. He received the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon with two bronze stars. Best was born in Montgomery, AL, September 21, 1925, to his parents, Terrell and Louise Best. He was reared in Montgomery and graduated from Lanier High School in May 1943. After working at Panama City for about a month, he volunteered at age 17...
“From the land of Poka-sheen where anything that isn't Bone is no fosh.” That line, in Portuguese, is the description of the Azores on the cover of the Cornerstone CookBook printed at Lajes Field, Azores in1956. I just got the cookbook from my sister. She kept it because our mother has a recipe in it. There is also a connection in the cookbook to a column in the San Antonio Express-News, by Karen Hiram, called “Recipe Find.” Readers write in asking for recipes of something they ate at a restaur...
There are voices in other rooms tonight. Soft voices. Young voices. Granddaughters’ voices. Their brother – the baby – is asleep in an adjoining room. We were all worried if he could sleep, or would sleep. This is his first night ever away from his mama…and when you are one, being away from your mama is a big deal. His being the baby is about to change. He will have relinquished the title and become a big brother before daybreak. He doesn’t know. He will never remember a time before her. He i...
Sometimes God’s Word can feel like an impossible order, don’t you think? Take for example: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6 (NIV) Not partial grace. Not halfway grace. Full of grace. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this, but it’s hard. It’s hard when one of the precious people living in your house gets on your last good nerve. It’s hard when a trusted friend deeply wounds you. And it’s incredibly h...
Although the extreme heat has not been a factor this summer, the extreme humidity been a problem. Even early in the mornings, just working for 1/2 an hour sends one in the house dripping with perspiration. Remember if you are working out of doors for long periods of time, do drink plenty of water or Gatorade. One of the symptoms of getting overheated is feeling dizzy and no longer sweating. Also one can take a cool shower, and rest indoors. I have noticed that since the lockdown, the big box...
On July 13th, voters in Shelby elected Republican Kenneth Paschal in a special general election to fill the seat vacated by former representative Matt Fridy. Paschal will be the first African-American Republican elected to the Alabama State Legislature since Reconstruction – almost 145 years ago. “I want to thank the voters of Shelby County for the trust they placed in me today. I had never run for office before, but I feel like our campaign was really embraced by the people. I think they wer...