The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Friday September 14, 2001 – President Bush Called For Prayer – On Friday September 14, 2001, I was awakened at 3:00 am with overwhelming grief for our nation on the heels of the September 11th attack. All I could see was the Statue of Liberty crying over her nation and was compelled to pour my heart out on paper, reflecting the pain felt by every American during this time of a national tragedy. Her name is Liberty and she is a 22-story tower of strength overshadowing the NY Harbor, which sym...
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...
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...
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...
If the 4th of July has a pre-game, it is June 15th. On that date in 1215, the Magna Carta was signed, beginning a gradual process of defined individual rights and limiting the power and authority of the British crown. The Declaration of Independence, which outlined the colonists’ desire for freedom from the edicts of King George, is a direct descendant of the Magna Carta. It would be foolish to argue that the Magna Carta anticipated all the rights and freedoms we enjoy today, but it certainly p...
Full disclosure mandates that I aver that I graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery in 1968. Technically, the actions of a governing organization in the Capitol City regarding name changes for three high schools aren’t anybody’s business if he/she doesn’t live there. And my family now resides in a rural area of Elmore County. However, a lot of folks who now reside in the Lake Martin area attended Montgomery public schools when the integration of that school system was in its i...
The 12-month change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) exceeded 4 percent in April for the first time since 2008. Many economists have been predicting inflation following a 25 percent increase in the money supply in Spring 2020. Has inflation finally arrived? Inflation was a major issue in the 1970s and early 1980s. We experienced double-digit inflation between 1974 and 1981, hitting 14 percent in 1980. The U.S. has dramatically reduced inflation since then. Economists distinguish between...
Your silence is not only viewed as an endorsement, but adversarial notions will prevail with no visible opposition. A Change Agent has their finger in the dyke, while a Conformist runs for cover. The human body has been divinely created with adrenal glands, producing the natural chemical Adrenaline, which triggers the flight or fight reactions. America was born out of opposition to Great Britain’s overreach; America can be defeated without the first shot being fired. Nikita Khrushchev, former P...
What are PGMs, you ask? They are platinum group metals. There are six of them—ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They are noble metals—highly resistant to corrosion, acids, and decomposition. Like gold, they are also very rare—the rarest and least abundant stable metals in the Earth’s crust. Here they are listed in milligrams per kilogram (below right). Below, they are listed in parts per billion. Two sources show considerable disagreement on some of them. The discrep...
President Biden and the Democrats led by Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, self-avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders, have proposed an unbelievable $6 trillion budget for fiscal year 2022. This budget would have the federal government spend more as a share of the economy than at any other time since World War II when we were fighting for our survival as a country. According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation this level of spending would immediately slash economic growth while killing tens of...
Critical Race Theory at its face is racism and a violation of our Constitution. The United States started as a country with many different people and different cultures. Our history has dark elements, specifically slavery, something everyone should recognize and be willing to face. However, our history does not define our present. Instead, we should study history so we may avoid its pitfalls. Unfortunately, for many in our higher education institutions and government it is being ignored. Yet...
Always the catch-all political crime, an accusation of treason is used to punish rivals and remove them from civic engagement. Autocrats use the insinuation of treason with brutal efficiency to banish, if not execute, a political problem or inconvenient idea. While treason is bandied about to characterize someone with whose political beliefs we disagree, our founders made treason a particularly difficult crime to prove. As with so much of the Constitution, the terms were specifically written to...
Occupational licensing involves government-imposed requirements for practitioners in different professions, or what critics call government permission slips to work. Despite a lack of evidence of benefits to consumers, licensing has been proliferating across Alabama and America, with the percentage of workers covered rising from 5 to over 20 percent. A new report from the Alabama Policy Institute and the Archbridge Institute offers some potential reforms. “Not-So Sweet Home Alabama: How Licensin...
For well over a century, America has always remained the most powerful nation on the planet. In that context, it is a good thing; no other nation would lay a hand on us unless it wanted to be annihilated. However, this power also has a dark side—opportunities for warmongers and profiteers to generate huge fortunes from unspeakable destruction around the world and the mass murders of millions. From the 20th century onward, we have been at almost continuous war. World War I was claimed to be ...
“The rivers are full of crocodile nasties, and He who made kittens put snakes in the grass.” Ian Anderson I attended and briefly spoke to House State Government committees in Montgomery in support of House Bill 242 and in opposition to House Bill 43. It was quite an experience observing how the political machine functions in the State of Alabama. The assault on Alabama’s Southern and/or Confederate history was eye-opening, especially discovering who was for and against some of these bills. A noticeable degree of animosity also seeped throu...
Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, May 12, 2021, Republicans quickly voted to oust Cheney from her position. Stefanik was voted as her successor the following Friday. In February I authored a Resolution that was adopted by the Alabama State Republican Executive Committee calling for the removal of Never Trumper Liz Cheney from her position as Chair of the Republican Conference. Unfortunately, she is still in her position of power. With each passing day it is becoming more and more apparent that Liz...
One of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s current legislative pushes is to fund new prisons, improve the current institutions, and reform the criminal justice system, to which she has faced many obstacles. This article written by John W. Giles and published in the Alabama Gazette May 2019, is good to review in light of the State’s failing, overcrowding prison system ... ------------------------------------------------ Recidivism rate is the tendency of a criminal to commit a crime and return to pri...
The Biden Administration seems intent on renewing the war against fossil fuels to combat global warming. Before going down this path, I hope Americans will consider Alex Epstein’s argument in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. A moral argument requires a standard of value and Mr. Epstein’s is human life. As he explains, “I think that our fossil fuel use so far has been a moral choice because it has enabled billions of people to live longer and more fulfilling lives.” Many environmentalists do not...
On January 5 of this year, baseball legend Henry Aaron received his COVID-19 vaccine and then promptly tweeted that Coronavirus vaccinations are safe and that all black Americans should get the shots: “I was proud to get the COVID-19 vaccine earlier today at Morehouse School of Medicine. I hope you do the same!” Two and a half weeks later, on January 22, Aaron passed away. Some people suspect that it was a result of the vaccine. Since the new Coronavirus vaccines were administered, people have s...
We observe many modern instances of government overreach. A look at Abe Lincoln’s regime will echo much of what we now witness – Clement Laird Vallandigham’s case is an example. [Denied free speech & habeas corpus rights.] Vallandigham, born in 1820 in New Lisbon, Ohio, was educated at New Lisbon Academy and Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He built a respected law practice and became a popular political speaker. In 1845, he became the youngest member of the Ohio State legis...
Joe Biden’ Infrastructure Plan is not about Infrastructure but about a radical transformation of the entire American economy. This is what the world’s elites like to call “The Great Reset.” Joe Biden campaigned and was elected as a good ole moderate Democrat. He pledged repeatedly to work across party lines and reach a consensus on issues that all Americans regardless of party affiliation, can agree upon. He has governed however, just the opposite. As Professor emeritus of political science...
Inequality is one of America’s most contentious issues. According to a popular narrative, higher taxes on the rich are needed to control growing inequality. New research from the Johnson Center offers a different perspective. My colleagues G.P. Manish and Steve Miller have edited a new book titled Capitalism and Inequality: The Role of State and Market. The volume features contributions from leading economists on thinking about and measuring inequality and government policies making i...
There has been much debate lately about how we name public buildings and whether we should remove some names because of long ago actions that no longer conform to contemporary societal practices. Public buildings are always tricky to name as evidenced by the fact that just a couple of years ago, the University of Alabama Law School was named after Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. in acknowledgment of a very generous donation. However, Culverhouse’s donation was later returned and his name was chiseled f...
In March of 1999, my phone rang and it was General Charlie Condon, the Attorney General for the State of South Carolina. I was the newly installed President of the Christian Coalition of Alabama as of January 1999. He gave me a strong sober warning about the future plague consuming our state, if we legalized gambling. His warning in that conversation will never be forgotten and I wanted to share it with you. I was in the Fob James Administration in 1998, when Lt. Governor Don Siegelman unseated...
