The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1883
Campaigns based on punishing public employees for their thoughts inevitably run up a tab taxpayers must bear. Coach Tommy (TuberGrubber) Tuberville built his post‐football fortune on an AU paycheck for not coaching. His social media feed is now busy building another paycheck for not teaching. Long time readers may recall Auburn's politburo does not pay these tabs; productive (non‐parasitic) Alabama taxpayers pay them. Little wonder why last year's $228 million in college coach buyouts is att...
Just in time for Mother's Day, Fathom entertainment is re-releasing the 1991 film, "Fried Green Tomatoes" in movie theaters nationwide on May 10th. It is the 35th anniversary of the motion picture that is based off of the novel by Fannie Flagg, "Fried Green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café". With Flagg being a native of Birmingham, Alabama. Fannie Flagg helped adapt her novel into the script for the film for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for the best screenplay adaptation. The...
In the history of the United States, and possibly in the history of the entire world, the radical Left has never hated anyone as intensely as they hate Donald Trump. The reason is obvious: he has stood as a colossus, almost singlehandedly thwarting their plans to convert our constitutional republic into a secular socialist society. Having lost at the polls and having lost in the courts, the Left now cries in desperation, “Invoke the 25th Amendment!” How would you respond? That’s pretty hard...
I am not a litigator and will have to think back to law school and look at statutes but I think I may have an answer. First let’s explore the danger and whether the individual (presumably a customer) had a duty to act. Then let’s look at the possibility that the individual may have contributed to his injuries through his own negligence. I applaud the gentleman that sought to protect the employee. All I know is that the customer that sought to intervene was injured whether through assault by a w...
Like the Alabama State Senate, the State House of Representatives will have very little turnover. Our state legislative seats are becoming analogous to congressional seats when it comes to incumbency. Over 80% of the legislature is unopposed. The partisanship makeup and faces will be pretty much unchanged. The House will have a supermajority Republican complexion. It will remain 75% Republican. There will be a strong continuity of leadership in the House of Representatives between this...
There was a time in Alabama when one word dominated every budget discussion: proration. Year after year, state government faced the prospect of across-the-board cuts as revenues failed to meet expectations. But “proration” was never just a budget term—it was a warning sign of failure, and its consequences were felt far beyond the halls of the State House. Schools did not simply “adjust.” They cut teachers, increased class sizes, and delayed essential materials. Administrators were forced to...
One hundred years ago, in April of 1926, Reza Khan Pahlavi was crowned Shah of Iran. His coronation marked one of the most significant turning points in the country’s modern history. It symbolized far more than a change of monarch: it represented the end of the declining Qajar dynasty, the birth of the Pahlavi regime, and the beginning of a sweeping program of modernization and centralization that would fundamentally reshape Iran. The centenary of Reza Pahlavi’s coronation reaches beyond a mer...
Exactly when Montgomery, Alabama got its nickname “Monkeytown” might be lost in unrecorded history. Some people claim it started perhaps in the 1930’s or ‘40’s, when a single monkey escaped from the Oak Park Zoo’s Monkey Island and caused considerable mischief all over the local area. In the 1960’s and ‘70’s, when every trucker had a CB radio to keep in touch with the other truckers, they kept themselves informed about everything from good places to eat to the locations of the local speed traps...
“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler The present Iranian conflict has rekindled discussions of the Just War Theory, which can be traced at least back to Cicero, the Roman orator who lived before the birth of Jesus Christ. Chr...
Macon County has espoused indefensible interpretations of administrative, legal, and environmental laws. “Without accountability, their arrogance festers like cancer,” wrote Frank Dillman, a long-term county resident, watchdog, and now independent candidate for Macon County District 4 Commissioner, recently qualified for the November 3, 2026 election. The legislature, molded and fed by the ACCA [Association of County Commissioners of Alabama] fails to provide a resource for citizens to reg...
Well, here we are. By the time this edition of the Gazette hits the streets, we will already be in May. Time flies for sure. For me, it has been a slightly challenging 2026 thus far but I can definitely see light at the end of the tunnel and it does not appear to be a train headed in my direction. In my very first Robservation way back in 2010, I wrote an entire column on the potential of war with Iran. In all, this is my fourth Robservation on the topic. 16 years after my first, here we are; at...
I recently came across a quote that says, “The prettier the garden, the dirtier are the hands of the gardener.” It got me to thinking. Everyone admires a healthy marriage from the outside…the smiles, the connection, the stability. But what people don't see is the work that goes on behind it. You see, marriage is like the garden. And the people in it are like the gardeners. Love isn't automatic, it's maintained. Let's be honest, real love is messy. It means confronting your own flaws, your partn...
Who are we without our mothers? Our very basis for existence on this planet is ushered in by the person who probably receives the least amount of credit, the mother. Despite their foundational role, we formally celebrate them only one day out of the year. What we call Mother’s Day could just as easily be “Mother’s Month,” as a longer reflection on the people who quite literally shape our lives. While a single essay cannot capture a lifetime of impact, it can begin to explore how mothers profoundly influence both our health and society. From th...
A feature-length animated interpretation of George Orwell's novella, "Animal Farm", is being released this weekend in movie theaters nationwide. Yet, the cartoon-like movie is receiving some criticism for being more of a modern day somewhat crassy spoof of Orwell's political satire rather than a serious take on the storyline. With George Orwell's novella typically interpreted as one that reveals how quickly absolute power rewrites what is considered by society to be the truth. The animated film...
April 29, 2026 - ALABAMA - Long before such groups existed, Terri LaPoint has been fighting for health freedom. She has now been endorsed for US Congressional District 3 by the national group Stand for Health Freedom as well as by Health Freedom Alabama. LaPoint served families as a labor doula and childbirth educator for many years before becoming an investigative journalist, primarily focused on stories of medical kidnapping -where state agencies have seized children from innocent families...
There is a campaign video circulating in our state right now. A candidate for one of the highest offices in the land takes a piece of paper with a corporation's name on it, throws it in the air, and shoots it with a gun. He calls it campaign content. He posts it for applause. I will not name him. This is not about one man. This is about a sickness in our politics that has gotten worse every year, and if we do not say something about it now, it is going to get someone killed. In December of...
There was a time when late-night television served as a pressure valve for the country, a place where Americans of all stripes could laugh at the absurdities of politics and culture without feeling like they were being lectured, divided, or openly mocked for who they are and what they believe. That time is long gone, and no better late night host represents that decline than Jimmy Kimmel. What once passed for humor has curdled into something far more corrosive, a steady drip of partisan...
I’ve been proud to represent Alabama in the United States Senate over the past five and a half years. Unfortunately, something I’ve noticed during my time in D.C. is that the swamp seems much more interested in preserving their own power than doing what’s right for the American people. In fact, too many politicians go on TV and say the right things, but behind the curtain, all they really care about is getting re-elected. Well, that’s not why the people of Alabama sent me to D.C. back in 2020...
Legitimacy and credibility are required inputs for successful leadership; little worth to those who subjugate others in a kleptocracy. This explains much occurring at AU according to productive (non-parasitic) faculty who have contacted me after recent columns. AU's BoT installed Vini Nathan as provost in May 2023 after the original job posting stated the interim provost would be ineligible for the permanent position. Dr. Nathan was the interim provost. The Board gave her the job anyway. The...
High above hostile ground in the mountains of Iran, with enemy forces closing in and no margin for error, an American officer made a decision that defines not only his character, but the very essence of who we are as a nation. After ejecting from his aircraft into enemy territory, injured, isolated, and hunted, he did not wait for rescue to begin fighting for his survival; instead, he moved with purpose, climbing more than seven thousand feet through unforgiving terrain, knowing that every step...
There are moments in public life when the issue before us is so clear, so urgent, and so morally unambiguous that hesitation itself becomes a failure of leadership. House Bill 347 is one of those moments. The Alabama Legislature now stands at a crossroads, not between competing political ideologies, but between action and inaction in the face of a rapidly evolving threat to our children. The weaponization of artificial intelligence to produce and distribute sexually explicit imagery, including c...
April 7, 2026 - MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Most people do not spend much time thinking about the role of lieutenant governor, but in Alabama, the position used to carry real influence particularly in the State Senate, where committee assignments and bill referrals determined pieces of legislation that actually moved forward. For years, the lieutenant governor was the one office with the authority as well as the time to assign bills to the appropriate committees, which ensured legislation was directed...
April 2, 2026 - AUBURN, Ala. - Dismissal proceedings are underway at AU against a high-profile Professor who has publicly criticized and disciplined administrator malfeasance. The charge is reportedly "repeated acts of insubordination" - i.e., this professor voiced inconvenient things effectively enough to disturb power brokers [grubbers] enjoying substantive wealth redistributions. Proceedings were initiated by Vini (Interim-to-Permanent) Nathan, an illegitimately serving Provost whose installa...
"Defend the Guard" is proposed State-level legislation prohibiting overseas deployment of National Guardsmen to combat operations without formal congressional declaration of war. Authority to declare war is specifically assigned to Congress according to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution. Since unconstitutional creation of the National Guard (further decaying State sovereignty) the federal government has wrongfully mobilized National Guard personnel without war declarations....
I would like to say there are zero legal issues associated with Resurrection Sunday, popularly called Easter but unfortunately there are issues. Even with the innocent secular emblems of Christmas there are issues. It makes me think about a friend who is a local professional artist. He had painted several Santa Clause images which by the way were very good. But he needed them protected as intellectual property so that some other individual could not legally use his now copyrighted images in a...
