The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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I drove by Fannie’s old house last week. I don’t know what even made me take the long way home that way from Thomasville, but I did. I haven’t driven that direction in years, and for years…it used to be my way home. Granny lived on Clayhill Road, and I guess it is her absence that has kept me away so long. But time has a way of distancing us from sadness enough to remember the joy. The hillside where she lived was central to my life when I was young. It is where my mother grew up. It is where s...
Did you know that God has already forgiven you? You just need to forgive yourself. I do know what weigh that you are holding onto right now. It may be from something that happened a day ago, a month ago, a week ago, a year ago. But it does not matter because God has forgiven you! It’s out of His mind. It’s clear. Psalm 103 says “God has separated us from our sins as far as the east is from the west.” It’s gone. It’s erased! God has given you grace. And if it’s out of God’s mind…if He has...
On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade, ground zero for saving lives of the unborn children is taking place in approximately 72 pregnancy resource centers across the state. Post Roe Vs. Wade, the pressure at these centers has intensified. This good news is traffic has increased, yielding in saving more lives, but the interchange is soaring operating cost. Phone calls, office visits, counseling sessions, expanding office hours and demands on staff are being felt in these...
It’s official and final, Alabama will elect our seven member congressional delegation under new lines next year. The federal court has spoken. The special master drawing the lines has acted and the final omnipotent power, the U.S. Supreme Court, has concurred and confirmed the decision. It is over. The result that the plaintiffs desired has been decreed by the courts. There will be a new second majority Black Congressional district. This accomplishment has been sought for decades. Now the q...
In 1978, Congress passed a new tax code which included a new provision in the Internal Revenue Code, being section 401(k). The 401(k) provision is used by employers in the private for-profit sector. The 403(b) provisions are very similar but used by non-profits. Since the 1980’s the 401(k) and 403(b) section retirement plans have become generally favored over pension plans. Pension plans were entirely driven by the employer. Pension plans make the employer consider the length of service of t...
As I write this Robservation, I must admit that I am angry. I once got some words of wisdom from a writing mentor and he told me that you should never write when you are angry. Once your words have been set loose, they can never be recalled. It is much like the spoken word. That is exactly the reason I refuse to argue with my wife. We have been married for 38 years now and I cannot tell you the last time we had an argument about anything. 30 years? Probably. When I was young and dumb no doubt....
America is falling far behind in the global arms race – specifically in the realm of hypersonic missile technology. With China and Russia making leaps and bounds, boasting speeds of Mach 10 and Mach 27 respectively, the United States finds itself in an unfamiliar, even precarious, position: playing catch-up. To truly grasp the magnitude of the challenge we face, it's essential to understand the sheer speed of these hypersonic missiles. Mach 10 is an astounding 7,672 mph, while Mach 27 is an a...
Imagine a country in the 20th century that in a matter of 30 years went from a per capita income of $500 to one of $50,000. Imagine further that the country had no natural resources and was roughly 150 times smaller than Alabama. And what would we think about a leader who achieved such spectacular results? Meet Lee Kuan Yew, who, had he lived, would be 100 years old this month. From 1959 to 1990 he served as prime minister of Singapore and was largely responsible bringing a third world country i...
If you have read any of my previous work, we talk a lot about economic, social, moral and constitutional conservatism. This level of conservatism does not happen by accident. It takes years to develop a depth in conservatism; this is why you do not want a novice Republican running for office, they will always disappoint you. One cannot wake up one day and say Republicans are winning, decide to qualify, color in the conservative squares and off you go. Very Shallow Thinking!! Let’s discuss the S...
As expected, the three Judge panel in Birmingham rejected another disingenuous Congressional district voting map submitted by our Montgomery politburo. Much ink has spilled w.r.t. keeping ‘communities of interest’ intact… one manifestation of ever cascading collateral damage driven by addressing symptoms instead of repairing the problem as population continually increases. We’ve witnessed far too much rhetoric evoking the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Section 2 of the Voting Ri...
During a recent speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio, I asked to see the Columbus statue near City Hall. My hosts sadly informed me that, after a protest that claimed Columbus had engaged in violence and enslaved Native Americas, in 2020 the statue had been placed in storage and will be replaced by “a work of art that better represents the people of Columbus.” Why, we should ask, did Columbus come to America? It wasn’t to prove the world is round; every educated person in 1492 knew that. Isaia...
This month marks the 483rd anniversary of Hernando de Soto's great battle at Mauvila, a location that so far has not been found and examined. But one thing that has been discovered is a small mound complex that yielded the graves of important natives who had fought there, possibly including the great chief, Tascalusa. The Pine Log Creek site (1Ba462), in the Alabama-Tombigbee Confluence Basin, might have seemed to be a routine native-American burial at first, but it has turned out to be a...
WASHINGTON, D.C – This week, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), John Boozman (R-AR), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) in introducing the Prioritizing Offensive Agricultural Disputes and Enforcement Act to protect U.S. agriculture while ensuring that the food which appears on U.S. store shelves meets U.S. health standards. The Prioritizing Offensive Agricultural Disputes and Enforcement Act establishes a joint task force o...
Recently, the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) lobbied the Washington Commanders football team to bring back the Redskins name. Billy Dieckman, Kiowa Tribe member and NAGA adviser, described Redskins as “a status symbol for elite warriors.” (Fox News) A poll was cited showing 90% of American Indians see it as a positive term. It is also likely that some American Indians do not appreciate being canceled, such as the way Land O Lakes terminated the “Mia” image (some Indians support...
Did you see the report – “Parenting priorities: international attitudes towards raising children” – conducted by King’s College London that found American parents are the least likely to think good manners matter for children? The survey included participants from 24 countries asking them to choose five qualities they thought were essential for children to learn at home. Those choices were good manners, tolerance, independent, hard work, and respect for others. In Egypt, parents evidently...
Hi friends! Thought of the day…Can we please stop doing two things? Adding “and” and “but” to the end of God’s plans. Here’s what I mean by that. We have a tendency to want to put our own spin on things. So often when God shares His plans with us, we say “Yes, I will do that AND I’m also going to do this other thing that I want to do.” Or God will tell us to do something and we’ll say “I will follow the plan, BUT maybe not this one part of it because I don’t want to do it.” God’s plans are perf...
As the long hot summer ends and Labor Day approaches, let’s take a look back at what occurred over the last three summer months, politically. First of all, it was one of the hottest summers on record. Temperatures soared into the hundreds as early as late June. On one of those late June days, one of the hottest political events of the year occurred. The annual Tomato Sandwich Lunch event hosted by Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate was the biggest, yet. The twentieth annual Tomato S...
One Hundred years ago, President Warren Harding died unexpectedly. Occupying the White House for a little more than two-and-a-half years, he was a popular president having been elected with the largest margin of victory of any presidential candidate before or since. Following his death, several scandals, both public and private, tarnished his reputation and obscured several significant accomplishments. Though he had been involved in Ohio state politics, the highest state office Harding ever...
As a regular Alabama Gazette columnist, it always does my heart good to hear of letters sent to the paper. Good or bad, without feedback, you rarely get a full appreciation of how readers are responding to your work. As someone who has written a couple of books, several screenplays, over four dozen book reviews, close to 200 columns for the Gazette and other papers and professional journals, I have opened myself up to a lot of positive and negative feedback. I welcome that. But to be a writer,...
There may be those that think the Chief Justice and the eight Associate Justices on the Alabama Supreme Court may not be the legal minds as found in the United States Supreme Court. I can assure you that each of them are exceptional as to their backgrounds. They may not on the whole have participated in the Federal judiciary but the brief backgrounds that I will give I think you will find most impressive. These ladies and gentlemen are not only civic minded in serving their state but also...
2,014 years ago, around the 9th of September of 9 A.D., two events were happening that would change the world. In Galilee, a Child was growing up who would die on a Cross for the sins of the world. And 1,500 miles to the northwest, in Teutoburg Forest of northern Germany, some 18,000 Germanic warriors were waiting in grim silence as the 17th, 18th, and 19th Roman legions drew near. Little did they realize that the blood they would spill that day would decide the future of Western civilization...
Have you ever thought about what goes on in the funeral industry? Have you ever wondered why just about every product and service related to a funeral is grossly overpriced—with a price that is often not even disclosed until after the family is stuck with paying it? Welcome to America's most extreme price gouging—gouging that is MANDATED BY LAW. In our early days, families took care of their own according to their own traditions and religious beliefs. Procedures varied widely. Some might see...
A most stirring column this year explains the economic lynching of Mr. Willie Philpot and his growing business [ViroTek] killed by Lee County. This anticompetitive, ACCA/BCA type clown-show of politburo members is currently led by the most corrupt ‘public servant’ Commissioner Gary Long. Lee County voters removed the previous anti-business/pro-cronyism ringleader [Ham] in the 2022 primary run-off. ‘Follow-up’ to my March 2023 Gazette column [https://www.alabamagazette.com/sto...
Alabama ranks among the top three states in land owned by foreign interest, a startling fact that places at risk Alabama’s large number of vital military bases and facilities and, by extension, our national security. Our soil in the wrong hands can function as a base for spy operations, a safe haven for terrorist activities just to mention a few potential consequences. This unsettling reality has not gone unnoticed. Concerned citizen and Lafayette native Greg Lowery, whose family's t...
The enemies of the South are all around. One of the most repugnant is Elizabeth “The Fake Indian” Warren. You also have Lloyd “The Wokester” Austin, who seems to have periodic battles with the English language; Mark “The Mannequin” Milley, who appears to have had brain surgery that went awry; and a gang of so-called historians who worship at the foot of Abe Lincoln and blame America’s “ills” on the South. As the Brits would say: bollocks! The political football that leftists and “race hustler...
