As I type these words, I am sitting in my study with three rifles hanging on the opposite wall. They will never fire again. Their role is to serve as a reminder of generations of sacrifice that made this great nation what it is. My grandfather, my father and I each brought home these reminders […]

My pastor recently quipped that it felt like we are in the fifth year of 2020. True that. But in the midst of that sentiment, the question on many minds right now is “how long will the 2020 elections go on?” Aren’t we supposed to have an “election day?” Like, just one day? The short […]

Emblazoned above the doors of the Alabama State House is a Latin phrase that is translated “We Dare Defend Our Rights.” It is a symbol of the determination to ensure that the government does not forget that its people are imbued with certain inalienable rights. Not mere privileges – but rights. In this age of […]

Credit where credit is due. Singer-songwriter John Mayer nailed it with one particular line from his hit song “Waiting On the World to Change.” He said distinctly, “When they own the information, oh they can bend it all they want,” and he was right. The public sphere is now dominated by online media platforms. Recently […]

Recently, my wife and I were preparing to attend a wedding. As we made ready to leave the house, we checked to make sure that we had our masks at which point she lamented that she did not have one that matched her outfit. We both paused on that and then jointly expressed that the […]

Let’s start with clearing the air … generally speaking, I don’t hang out in bars. This is not a puff piece to defend pub crawls. So before any of my folks, fans or friends think that I’m writing this because I was hoping for one last round after 11 p.m., the answer is “no.” What […]

I don’t know if you’ve ever had the displeasure of being at sea when a major storm develops. It is disconcerting, to say the least. As the deck pitches and rolls, the mental review of the all-hands disaster planning takes place in the mind. Pulling into a safe harbor and putting feet on dry land […]

What if I told you that the government could tax you, then shut down your ability to pay the taxes, then provide you the funds to keep operating, but then tax you an extra amount on the funds they sent you. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, we’re on the brink of finding out whether it will […]

The 2020 regular session of the Alabama state legislature is behind us. Did anyone notice? It was a session marked more by what didn’t happen than by what did. One minute the lobbyists were being paid well to try and get marijuana legalized, state budgets were flush, and gambling bills were once again all that […]

As I write this it is mid-morning and I’ve already washed my hands multiple times. I’ve got rubber gloves in my car now. I skipped the gym in favor of a good ‘ol driveway workout but I paid my gym dues anyway. My law firm invested in enhanced video conferencing capabilities. My wife checked on […]

Has there ever been a ballot initiative that reduced the number of politicians? I mean, ever? What if I told you that with the stroke of a pen you could get shed of several ineffective politicians? What if the pot was sweetened just a bit by having that same stroke of a pen do away […]

There is a great deal of effort going on in Montgomery to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. So much effort, in fact, that a review of the draft legislation indicates that the Republican majority may well be asked very soon to throw out every conservative principle that each of them ran on […]

If you’ve followed the news lately you could not have missed the fact that there has been a kerfluffle of the highest order near the Alabama coastline. Like a scene from the old fairy tale, the Three Billy Goats Gruff, the local populace has thrown the “bridge trolls” into the bay and seemingly defeated the […]

This past week, “IT” finally happened. Mississippi surpassed Alabama in overall rankings for K-12 education. What absolute fresh hell is this? In truth, it is not that fresh. Alabama has been limping behind the pack for decades and this year’s “Nation’s Report Card” by the National Center for Education Statistics represented a final bottoming out.

Time and again over the past few years, we have witnessed a disturbing trend among liberals, namely that if you don’t agree with their positions that you are to be silenced, boycotted, or removed. This past weekend, the Executive Committee of the Alabama Republican Party jumped into the liberal playbook feet first when it passed […]

The increased gas tax became law this week amid much Goat Hill fanfare, reminding me of a Clint Eastwood line from an epic western: “I’ve never seen so many men wasted so badly.” The Alabama Policy Institute has said for weeks that improved state infrastructure is important, but that conservative principles must guide the increase: […]