The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 341
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...
The Alabama Gazette welcomes its newest contributor: John M. Taylor: Married (Susan) with two sons and two grandchildren, most know me by my nickname “Johnny.” After graduating from Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City and then attending Central Alabama Community College, I earned a B.S. in Transportation from Auburn University. During most of my college years, I worked at Russell Corporation then upon graduation, the majority of my career was spent there in various management posit...
Falsehoods and myths attacking my friend, Jeff Sessions, need to be dispelled. I have known and worked with Jeff for 27 years. Loyal Trump supporters in Alabama have been torn for 3 years over his verbal assaults over the Jeff Sessions recusal from the Russian investigation into the 2016 election. Yesterday, Senator Sessions set the record straight and wrote an open letter to the people of Alabama, making a compelling heart-felt argument, detailing why he recused himself. I encourage all GOP...
As I am writing this (mid-May, 2020), the American people are still suffering from the sanctions that our governors, mayors and other authorities have imposed onto them and the U. S. economy. Unfortunately, most of us are still ignorant of the catastrophic, long-term consequences. At this time, it is impossible to calculate the final cost. But people who are knowledgeable about economics can understand that this three-month shutdown of much of our business will total in the trillions of...
Our Federal and state governments implemented unprecedented measures beginning in March to stem the spread of COVID-19. Informed consent provides a foundation of medical ethics. Did our elected officials and public health experts get our informed consent for policies that have put 30 million Americans out of work? Medical experiments have often been performed on unsuspecting subjects, like the infamous Tuskegee Experiment. The U.S. Public Health Service in 1932 began studying the health effects...
There are many unsung heroes in Alabama’s fight against the Wuhan novel Coronavirus-19. 175 of them are working tirelessly in the Unified Command center, a “war room” set up by the Governor to lead Alabama’s 24/7 response to the pandemic. Located in the RSA Tower in downtown Montgomery, Alabama’s Unified Command for COVID-19 Response is a team comprised of four state agencies – the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), Alabama Emergency Management Agency (AEMA), Alabama National Gu...
In times of crisis every day Americans become heroes. They put their talents to work to serve their neighbors. They truly become their brother’s keepers. A Brooklyn Physician in the Epicenter of the virus in New York may have said it best. She served her mandatory quarantine period after being exposed to the virus and told Time magazine: “I am a mother of three children. I have an 11-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 5-year-old. I chose medicine to really help people. My husband, my parents, my...
I was recently awakened early one morning at 4:00 am with a horrific dream about America. When we were having coffee, I told my wife about the dream, which shook me to the core. The first thing that came to her mind was the New Testament scripture found in Acts 2:17 – “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” I gue...
Toward the end of last year (2019), a new strain of flu erupted in Wuhan, China, spread very rapidly, and soon began killing people. Rumors circulated that it escaped from Wuhan’s level-4 bioweapons research laboratory. Other sources suggested it came from unsanitary preparation of meat from dogs, cats, bats, and pangolins at Wuhan’s world-famous Huanan seafood market—a “wet market” where live animals are bought and sold. The pangolin is an anteater-like creature prized for its scales and Chine...
America needs billions of masks to protect against the Coronavirus, particularly high-grade N95 masks for healthcare workers. Nonetheless, fear of litigation delayed delivery of millions of construction masks to healthcare workers. Should the law be slowing our emergency response? America’s largest mask producer, 3M, will soon be producing 100 million a month. The company normally produces more construction than medical masks; while similarly effective, the medical masks must meet more stringent...
Wednesday on the steps of the Supreme Court Democrat Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer threatened Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Schumer said the following: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price...You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” Sounds like Michael Corleone in the Godfather, not the Leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate. He didn...
Trumps ability to fill stadiums and maintain an unshakable base of support is defined by his adversarial opponents as a cult. To the contrary, in the face of a daily tsunami of hostile incoming artillery, Trump has stared them down and marched full speed ahead championing an over achievement in his delivery of campaign promises. In my lifetime, since working the grass roots in 1980 for Reagan, we have never seen ANY elected official deliver beyond expectations surpassing campaign promises like...
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders contends we should not allow billionaires. His view produced interesting debate exchanges with Michael Bloomberg, who has a net worth of $53 billion. Are billionaires good for America? A first consideration is the source of the riches. Were they earned from a successful business, or by stealing from or swindling others? Bank robbers and con artists do not benefit our economy. For those who inherited their wealth, we should consider the original...
