The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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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...
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...
Allow me to deviate from politics to discuss an important event for our state. The World Games 2022 will place Birmingham and the entire state of Alabama squarely in the global spotlight. Believe it or not, this once-in-a-lifetime event is only a few months away with approximately 3,600 athletes from more than 100 countries and up to 500,000 visitors expected to flood Birmingham for one of the world’s largest athletic competitions. Folks, there are many questions about the World Games 2022. Is i...
Eighty years ago this month, with the stroke of a pen, President Franklin Roosevelt in Executive Order 9066 effectively relegated 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. Many of these American citizens were afforded no rights to object to their removal, and there was no procedure to prove loyalty to the United States. These citizens were interned solely because of their ancestry, nothing else. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, there was widespread fear that the Empire of Japan might...
Here I go again with several interesting stories that have happened or are happening as I write this. Let’s face it. The world can be a disappointing place. I call this installment of Bits and Pieces, “Where in the Heck Is...?” 1. WHERE IN THE HECK IS THE U.N.? In my last Robservation, I asked a similar question. Regarding the likely Russian invasion of the Ukraine: Where is the U.N.? What are they doing? What have they said? What actions are they willing to take? As the last month has come...
Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism. Among its claims, it teaches that the color of a person’s skin is more important than as Martin Luther King exalted “the content of a person’s character.” It is antithetical to all we believe as Alabamians. In August, the Alabama State School Board passed a resolution that banned the teaching of certain concepts or tenets that promote Critical Race Th...
For many decades, our elected officials have relentlessly usurped our cherished constitution and fundamental civil rights more times than we could ever hope to count. Many of these violations are imposing severe restrictions on our right to travel and to buy, sell, own, and drive affordable vehicles to exercise that right. Beginning in the late 1960’s, “Uncle Sam” began to impose mandates on auto manufacturers to “reduce emissions” and impose more “safety.” Every year, these mandates beca...
Once upon a time, I’ve been told, students were taught ‘taxation without representation’ as a trigger in our first war for independence. Sadly, it wasn’t something stressed in my government school approved education. Thankfully enough true teachers remained to direct me toward some of the more important clauses of our Declaration and Constitution. Some classmates may also cite old textbooks stored in the back of a high-school classroom where I’d try to hide (bored in trig class, desperate...
I think that you are doing the hardest thing and the best thing for your husband and yourself by facing this right now. When our loved ones are faced with such devastating diseases it’s easier to not face it and believe they will improve. Being proactive will have you prepared. First I will advise that you visit an attorney that can assist you with estate planning. The three basic documents that your husband will need (and you) are a Last Will and Testament, Durable Power of Attorney (health a...
Advertisements for “Lincoln’s Dilemma” have been aggressively promoted. It is said to begin with the January 6, 2020, event that some call a riot and some call an “insurrection”—a so-called insurrection with no weapons, individuals walking around taking pictures and chatting with Capitol personnel, and a few mysterious instigators with seemingly nefarious intentions, e.g., Utah’s John Sullivan (connected to CNN) and Ray Epps. In similar fashion, competing views of the War Between the States ex...
The New York Times’ 1619 Project examines the impact of slavery on America. One essay contends that our economic system was built on slavery. Was America’s ascension as an economic powerhouse due to slavery? Slavery was a repugnant and evil institution. Its abolition is a sign of humanity’s moral progress. Slavery taints America’s founding and was incompatible with “all men are created equal.” Yet Emancipation took ninety years and a terrible civil war, plus another 100 years to extend the...
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” – Psalm 84:11 In 433 A.D., history tells us that St. Patrick was praying for God’s divine protection in his work and ministry in Ireland while facing powerful enemies. He wrote this prayer called St. Patrick’s Breastplate, which is still widely known and recited today. God soon opened the door for him to share Christ with the Irish King Laoghaire and his subje...
The United States surgeon general has issued a report stating the negative effects social media platforms are having on mental health, especially in teens and young adults. The platforms generate feelings of loneliness and erode self-esteem. Social media has proven to offer the opposite of what the name states, allowing users to isolate while constantly comparing themselves to others. This has been exacerbated further by the pandemic. There has been a rise in suicide attempts, depression,...
As the final regular legislative session of the quadrennium evolves, it is apparent that the legislature will not touch any substantive or controversial issues, but simply pass the budgets and go home to campaign. It is election year in the Heart of Dixie. If legislators are listening to their constituents, they are hearing one thing – Alabamians want their legislators to allow them the right to vote on receiving their fair share of the money from gambling in Alabama. They are simply sick and t...
One vision of utopia includes the conversion of weapons of war into farming implements. The Bible anticipates a time when swords will be beaten into plowshares, and spears will become pruning hooks. But sometimes in our modern world, it happens that bitter enemies with blood on their respective hands wake up and realize that compromise is better than conflict. Overcoming hate is less about love and more about recognizing the reality of the devastating consequences of protracted conflict. When...
Guess what folks, it is time for yet another Robservation edition of “Bits and Pieces.” Today, there is just so much going on that it is difficult to pin down just one story. This time, I don’t think any of them are too controversial but interesting nonetheless. As for the first story, let common sense rule. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but in this case, if you agree with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), you are wrong. Sorry. Here goes! 1. Student Loan Forgiveness. I hav...
Biden made history in his first year in office for all the wrong reasons. He has the worst approval rating in the history of modern polling for a President’s first year. When he first took office, he had high approval ratings and the Congress was controlled by his own Democratic party. It has been all downhill since. His presidency and definitely the country would be better off if after his inauguration had he just gone back to Delaware and slept for a year in his basement bunker where he ran h...
