The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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“The grass fades and the flower withers, but the word of our God stands forever.” During the Ten Commandments battle here in Alabama, this was one of my favorite scriptures to publicly quote as we struggled to keep the monument in the Alabama Judicial Building. The U.S. Constitution is not even a hint equal to the Bible, but, the founding fathers in their immeasurable wisdom, had full intent for the constitution to be strong as titanium standing against every passing fad, whim, wind and doc...
Joe Biden has won the presidential election, although President Trump alleges fraud. Mr. Trump, however, has not yet offered credible evidence of fraud. The current controversy involves “vote harvesting” and raises questions about the effect of selling votes. Vote harvesting involves individuals collecting mail-in ballots from voters. Clearly persons with limited mobility should receive assistance in voting, which relatives, legal guardians, and election officials can generally provide. Harvesti...
With so much news to absorb in recent months, it has been easy to overlook the continuing small business crisis in our state. While we have been preoccupied by the mounting Coronavirus cases and deaths, soaring unemployment, unprecedented political turmoil, thousands of Alabama small businesses have been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. This is not their fault. They were ordered to close their doors. These businesses employ more than half of all Alabamians and are major drivers of our...
After Alabama became a State on December 14, 1819, plans were initiated to establish a State University. Tuscaloosa, the State Capitol (1826-1846), was chosen. Architect William Nichols patterned the layout of the University of Alabama (UA) after the University of Virginia, designed by Thomas Jefferson. On April 18, 1831, UA opened its doors, with Reverend Alva Woods serving as President. UA was initially a civilian institution with many students coming from well-to-do families. These sometimes pampered and undisciplined teenaged students,...
After eight months of abusive, criminal, and unconstitutional Coronavirus-related lockdowns, curfews, shutdowns, travel restrictions, social distancing, and mask mandates, the United States is showing very little progress in returning the people back to normal lifestyles. Our governor, Kay Ivey, continues to extend her oppressions, time after time after time on the eves of their expirations. Governors in other states have done even worse, especially Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who...
As we turn 3rd base, heading for home during this 2020 election cycle, I am grappling about what to discuss in this article, because there is a trojan horse, multi-layered choreographed theatre unleashed on America. It is like lighting the fuse on a pack of firecrackers and all at once there are these uncontrollable, loud, disruptive, unsettling and untraceable mental gymnastics dizzily swirling. All of this is sourced back to the Democrats. I have entitled this article, The Robe and Short...
COVID-19 has killed over 200,000 Americans while policies to stem the virus’ spread have caused enormous economic and societal harm. Any comparison must use a common metric, and economics uses dollars, even for human lives. No one can avoid placing a dollar value on saving lives; always choosing safety just places an infinite dollar value on life. Our only option is whether to evaluate tradeoffs. Economists use the value of a statistical life (VSL) for policies regulating risk. The method u...
Eighty years ago this week, hurricane season ended when the Royal Air Force won the Battle of Britain by stopping the Nazi war machine at the edge of the English Channel. Before the summer of 1940, Hitler had derided Great Britain as a nation of shopkeepers. Göring’s seemingly superior Luftwaffe pilots were outdone by the young British RAF, aided by friendly forces—not the least of which was a squadron of Polish pilots. They had shown the world that the Nazi juggernaut could be countered through...
By now, most of us have heard about Governor Kay Ivey’s September 3 proposal to build three new mega-prisons, ostensibly to solve Alabama’s long-standing prison overcrowding problem once and for all. The new prisons are planned for Bibb, Escambia, and Elmore Counties, with construction beginning in 2021. Their total capacity will be 10,000 male inmates. For a minimum of 30 years thereafter, the state will be obligated to shell out $88,000,000 of our tax revenue to lease them. Before we bui...
Two COVID-19 vaccines are in large-scale trials in the United States. Federal bureaucrats have thus far rejected human challenge trials (HCT), which would intentionally expose volunteers to the virus and speed testing. HCT should be part of our vaccine approval process. Vaccine testing employs randomized control trials with subjects assigned to either a trial group receiving the vaccine or a control group receiving a placebo. Neither subjects nor trial personnel should know who receives the...
Individuals who have recently attended school or worked in the business world are aware of "diversity." During my Russell Corporation career, one company leader was nearly fanatical about it; it often seemed to be more important than making quality products and providing good customer service. Some claim the term itself is classic "Orwellian double-speak" – a word having two opposing meanings. Others reference Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" short story about a dystopian society that p...
The Historic “Abraham Accords” Peace Deal was signed at the White House on Tuesday September 15th, 2020 between Israel, The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The Middle East will never be the same. President Trump signed the documents as the official witness. This is only the second such deal in the history of Israel in which Arab countries formally recognized Israel’s right to exist. The Deal would not have been possible without the intervention and negotiation skills of President Trump. The P...
History is filled with conspiracies and conspiracy theories. I would like to look at a genuine conspiracy from the 1800s. As a teen, I worked in construction and encountered some interesting individuals. One was an older black gentleman who frequently used the expression: “I’ll be John Brown.” I did not know if that was the equivalent of “I’ll be a ‘sob’” or something similar in the entertaining vernacular of the construction world. As I learned more history, it became clear that my assumption w...
One of the best things about living in Alabama is that its taxes are among the lowest in the nation. Of particular importance, the property tax is THE lowest in the nation—by a wide margin. The property tax is one of the most oppressive taxes there is. In essence, it requires a person to pay “rent” to the state to occupy and use his own private property. It can also be arbitrary. A so-called “appraiser” can set, within certain limits, whatever value he chooses on anyone’s property. The owner h...
Knowledge is the basis of economic prosperity, and the knowledge contained in a COVID-19 vaccine or cure would be enormously valuable. We have traditionally relied on patents to reward innovation, but an alternative exists that could be appropriate for vaccines during pandemics. Patents reward knowledge creators with a temporary monopoly. Monopolists generally charge high prices, so patents let inventors recover the costs of research and development plus earn a profit. Patents helped spur the...
After 40 plus years of public service Joe Biden has found a new set of friends and policy advisors, the most radical members of the Democratic Party. This is a terrible sign for all freedom loving Americans. Their overwhelming desire is to transform the United Sates into a socialist nightmare. He clinched victory in the Democrat Party primary with the help of the “old guard”, the establishment wing of the Democrat Party. Once his nomination became inevitable, the former Vice President immediatel...
The American stage is now set and ripe for a new leader to emerge in the black community, but it will not be the likes of Al, Jessie, Elijah or Maxine. Their tactics flamed out decades ago, but there is fertile soil now for a MLK 2.0 to lead the black community into the Promise Land, ascribed by the late Martin Luther King (MLK). King emphasized the importance for whites in the 60’s to look at the content of character of the black man, not the color of his skin. Right here my friends, is the e...
Term Limits One of the most popular ideas is term limits. I have heard quite a few people propose a limit of twelve years for anybody in our congress—two terms for senators and six terms for representatives. In many respects, it sounds like a good idea when we see examples of career politicians like Ted Kennedy (even with Chappaquiddick), Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, and many others who don’t seem to ever go away. The problem with term limits is they also weed out the good pe...
Besides appreciating where I came from, my love for the South and its traditions originated with my late mother, Mary Alford Taylor. She was very easy going; however, if anybody talked badly about the South, she would become instantly defiant. It was ingrained in me from day one that Southern people are special and have been wrongly ridiculed by outsiders. As a youth in the 1960s, I remember listening to WBAM (The Big Bam 740 in Montgomery) and WVOK (The Mighty 690 in Birmingham). Living in Alexander City, I could pick up both stations...
Experts in public health and epidemiology have driven policy making during the COVID-19 pandemic. How much should we trust experts? Critics dismiss Republicans who voice distrust of experts as anti-science. Yet even experts know very little about complex economies and societies. Frustration with experts does cross party lines. New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo recently remarked of experts’ forecasts of hospital usage, “They were all wrong.” The “Wisdom of Crowds” argument, wonderfully...
A police officer has the often-thankless job of seeing to it that we all abide by the law. From armed robbery to running a stop sign, it’s all against the law. This job is not high paying, requires long hours, is personally challenging, and very frustrating. However, unlike must jobs, it is a calling. Most police officers love their job and bend over backwards to do it right, even under the worst circumstances. Chief Finley and Sheriff Cunningham and their officers do an outstanding job here i...
My father, W.O. Giles, Sr., taught my brothers, sister and I a famous slogan we can all recite, even today. He would say: "There is your side, their side, find what is right and do not move." This notion has served me well over the years, because I can hear my father's voice when he would say, "Don't Move," which enables one to face turbulent winds when standing alone. It is my motivation in this article to help you find what is right, and "Don't Move." Coach Tuberville has gained some momentum...
One of America’s greatest tragedies was what many of us call the “Civil War,” also known as “The War Between the States,” “The Great Rebellion,” “The War of Northern Oppression,” and “The War for Southern Independence.” It was the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil by more than an order of magnitude. We suffered an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 (revised) casualties from combat, starvation, disease, and injuries. In many ways, this war was like the American Revolution—a war of independence...
The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin ignited nationwide protests. While we advise jurors to withhold judgment until presentation of all the evidence, video of the incident seems definitive. Mr. Floyd joins a much-too-long list of minority victims of police violence. Justice may be served in Minneapolis. The four officers involved were fired the next day, and Mr. Chauvin charged with second-degree murder. Does this render the protests moot? Not necessarily. Mr....
I feel like I am in the middle of a bad dream. Across our great country, spineless elected officials are turning our streets and neighborhoods over to angry mobs of looters and thieves. At this writing, in Seattle, unbelievably led by members of the City Council, 6 city blocks, including a police precinct, have been turned over to armed members of the anarchist group Antifa. Exact statistics are unknown, but there currently seems to be between 300-400 full-time squatters who have taken up...
