The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Without specifics about yourself I’ll make this answer generic in a personal and in a business sense. I’m presume you looked at your financial estate planning (401k, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, life insurance, etc) and as you do you also think about your legal estate planning. After all you are a year older; you may have gotten married, had a new child, had a child reach the age of majority (19 years), gotten divorced or suffered the death of a spouse or even a child. Your financial est...
Before us stretches a new year, a new beginning. The old is past, put away forever. God invites us always to forget about all the distrust and fears, all the anxieties of the past, all the resentments we have been holding against others, all the grudges, all the criticisms--to put them away and begin again. The question that hovers over us as we close this book is….on what basis am I going to live in this new year? Will it be on the old basis of it-all- depends-on-me, do-it-yourself goodness bef...
Writing about politics is rarely encouraging. In fact, I've been at a crossroads for a few weeks and admit I have been struggling with putting words to paper. When asked to contribute monthly to The Alabama Gazette in October 2010, I was incredibly honored that someone considered my thoughts and words worthy of print. Initially, writing was somewhat easy because there was so much to discuss – so many battles to fight – so many people who fervently believed we could reverse the political cou...
So what in the world is a Pastafarian? The Pastafarians “worship” the Flying Spaghetti Monster and their “church” may also be referred to as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It seems in 2005, that a Bobby Henderson wrote a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education complaining about their decision to teach intelligent design/ creationism in addition to evolution. In his letter he argues against intelligent design and said that any time a scientist carbon dates any object that a...
A lot has happened since my last Robservation. The Paris terrorist attacks, the Russian airline shoot down, the increasing concern over Syrian refugees coming to the States, President Obama's pathetic, sad and disgusting speech in Turkey, Rhonda Rousey getting knocked out, you name it. I want to touch on them just a little. 1. Russian airliner shot down: Not much to say here. Russia has finally admitted that their plane was brought down by a terrorist attack and yes, Vladmir Putin is pretty...
Most Gazette readers require no reminder of the ‘unplanned’ birth of Jesus we venerate during the Christmas season. Matthew 1:18-20 explains Joseph’s love for Mary and belief in God was so strong he followed the angel’s instructions to continue the betrothed course and not quietly divorce Mary as she was indeed bringing the Son of God into this world. Fewer readers may be familiar with US District Court Judge Myron Thompson’s recent Planned Parenthood ruling further assaulting the civil rig...
November 25, 2015: Last week I gave you an alphabetical list of the 18 potential horses in the 2018 Alabama Gubernatorial Derby. We will begin this week handicapping them in descending order. The Number 18 horse is current Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard. We will know whether the beleaguered Speaker of the House will remain in the derby by next March. He is on trial in Lee County. A grand jury indicted him over a year ago on 23 felony counts of ethics law violations. If he is convicted on any...
Faith is what we really and truly believe. It performs some remarkable functions that do not depend on its ties to religion. All of us believe that we exist in a physical environment on the face of the earth and that by observation we can come to understand that environment. We take for granted that the objects that surround us have names and that there are words that we can use to identify and describe them. Because we live in a social environment in with others who share those same words and...
It's that time of year again. December has come and with it all the joys of Christmas. But what is the real meaning of Christmas? Is it the gifts under the tree, the lights in the windows, the cards in the mail, turkey dinners with family and friends, snow in the yard, stockings hanging in the living room, and shouts of "Merry Christmas" to those who pass us in the streets? Is this really Christmas? For many people, Christmas is a time of sorrow. They don't have the extra money to buypresents...
I can still hear my father’s wise words from my youth, typically shared because of some school-related disappointment that I’m not sure I now even remember. Perhaps it was the failure to make the tennis team, cheerleader selection or any number of rejections that many children encounter daily because someone is either more talented or better qualified to receive the accolades. Compassion was expressed as well as encouragement to either work harder and smarter to attain that particular goal or...
Over two years ago I first penned this column and not surprisingly since then there have been an increasingly number of senseless gun attacks reported. Just this year we had the South Carolina church shooting, the television reporter and cameraman in Roanoke, Virginia and just the other day a shooting at the Fort Meyers, Florida Zombie convention. And as usual, out come the knuckleheads insisting on complete gun control and the dismantling of the Second Amendment. I figured now might be a good...
This series of articles has been reviewing important United States Supreme Court issues since the Alabama Gazette began publication in 2000. My how the times have changed. The, Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council , 555 U.S. 7 (2008) case seemed to be more about common sense than anything. Knowing that the Navy had scheduled training missions off the coast of California for 2009, the environmentalists sought to stop their use of sonar. The environmentalists claimed that the use of sonar...
I am currently teaching a course about faith in my church. I make the rather obvious point that faith is what we really believe. I’m afraid that sometimes we don’t really believe what we say we believe. We always act consistently with our faith. Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruit.” But if our actions always reflect what we believe, then why don’t we always do what we know is the right thing to do? Plato thought if a person knows what is right, he or she will act consisten...
Every person with even a whit of common sense knows that bribery is illegal and fundamentally wrong. But people still do it all the time. Some are rather petty. I know a fellow, whose name I will not mention, who has used bribery as a means of getting out of traffic tickets. Back in the days when he was a practicing doctor, he faced many situations where getting to patients and appointments promptly was crucial in administering aid to save people’s lives. As a result, he was often caught e...
Our country is facing a myriad of crises both at home and abroad. These include but not limited to an effective foreign policy in which President Obama has diminished over a century of the U.S. role as a major force in maintain some semblance of order among rogue nations in the Mideast, Russia and China. As a result, the America we once knew is no longer considered the number one world power and, consequently, has lost its influence world-wide. The chaos which has been allowed and to some...
Boundaries are essential to healthy relationships and, really, a healthy life. Setting and sustaining boundaries is a skill that takes practice. Having healthy boundaries means “knowing and understanding what your limits are. I. Give yourself permission. Fear, guilt, negative life experience, and doubt are possible barriers to preventing one from creating healthy boundaries. If one sets and enforces boundaries, you might feel guilty by speaking up or saying “No” to a family member. One might fea...
Thanksgiving is upon us and that means Christmas is closely following. Often we put so much of our focus on Christmas, we miss this important American Holiday. I like that fact that Thanksgiving is not about buying presents or decorating trees and homes, etc., but it's about getting together with family and friends and doing what we all love—eating! And more importantly, it's about giving thanks. Thanksgiving was established by President Washington on November 26, 1789. It is a religious h...
Article III, Section I of the Unites States says, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Because the supreme law of the land is vested in the United States Supreme Court, lets look at some cases since 2000. In 2000, in Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640, a five to four vote stated essentially that, “the presence of that person affects in a signi...
Okay, I get it. I really do. The Syrian refugee crisis is a tragedy on a monumental scale. The picture of the dead child on the beach, the long lines, barbed wire fences and all the scenes reminiscent of the worst of WWII movies and documentaries, all work to pull and tear at our collective heart strings. But as with almost any story, there is always more than meets the eye. It is a little difficult writing about this but alas, I feel the need to. Before someone reading this opines that I am a...
I must begin with great delight in wishing the Alabama Gazette a very blessed Sweet Sixteen Anniversary as she remains a courageous “Voice of Reason” in our State. I honored to be a Gazette writer for a third of those years. Again I ask forgiveness from all those who write/tell me they do not agree. I do not write seeking agreement, but to advance thinking as charged by the moniker Loretta assigned my column in 2009. One of many lessons I’ve learned from Jesus’ teachings is those struggl...
This column will focus on the privatization of dispute resolution in arbitration. Congress enacted The Federal Arbitration Act that required arbitration in all matters involving interstate commerce where there was an arbitration agreement many years ago. In the 1980's the United States Supreme Court upheld that legislation. Since that time there has been extensive privatization of a very large amount dispute resolution. With rare exception Court proceedings are public proceedings, but arbitratio...
Many topics will dominate this presidential election cycle, yet nothing stirs emotions on either side quite like the national discussion on immigration. But this issue is hardly a new one as our Founding Fathers were debating it during the early years of our Republic. Our Founders were scholarly and visionary men, and their careful deliberation of the issue of immigration is still relevant today because our national identity remains at state. As much as our Founders embraced the idea of...
October 7, 2015: In 1986 Richard Shelby was a 50-year-old congressman from Tuscaloosa. He was elected to congress eight years earlier, after two successful four-year terms in the Alabama State Senate. However, Shelby was ready to move up again. He was planning to run for the United States Senate. Shelby had never lost a political race. He was six for six in races to represent his beloved Tuscaloosa and the people of West Alabama. He was a conservative Democrat, who had a stellar conservative...
In my last article, I explained the failures and consequences of welfare programs for the so-called “poor” or “less fortunate” members of society. But there are also various welfare programs, mostly state and local, for the rich corporate giants. They are frequently touted as “economic development” or “economic incentives.” These come in various forms—outright grants, land, site development, roads, tax breaks, and various other freebies. Alabama is no exception. Practically everybody who doe...
Coping with day-to-day stressors such as marriage, kids, work, finances, and life in general, is an important topic to examine. We all go through some type of struggle in our lives. I think the key is to remember that how we respond to those stressors has an impact on what happens next. Most of us tend to focus on what we cannot do and not what we can do. By that I mean, we focus on how horrible the situation is-how we will not be able to get through the problem. We tend to have a negative...
