In January, the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) released its Comprehensive Annual Financial Reform (CAFR) for the 2013 fiscal year. The report was received with little fanfare. During an election year, no politician wants to run afoul of the RSA and the billions it invests in Alabama.
The last several decades have marked a continued erosion of the rule of law in America's federal government. The gradual change has resulted from Congress ceding its constitutional powers, leaving essentially a type of ad hoc rule by the President and the executive branch agencies.
As the father of two boys with another little one on the way, the holidays seem like more of a blur than usual. Gifts, decorating, traditions, family and friends are remarkably enjoyable but hardly helpful for organizing thoughts. Yet, the smallest things are sometimes just what we need to remind us of the redemptive message of Christmas.
Over the last several months, liberal politicians, members of the media, hospitals and even the head of Alabama's retirement system have renewed their calls for Alabama to expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In the South, political perspectives are as likely to be shaped by conversation between friends at the corner store as they are by The Washington Post or CNN. Most of us who take the time to vote make the decision based on the information at our disposal, cast our vote at the polls, and move on with our lives. The choice belongs to us, and we know our interests better than anyone else.
I flew into a Washington airport a few days after the government shutdown began. With my first meeting about an hour away, I had a long cab ride ahead of me. To pass the time, I struck up a conversation with the driver, Israel. It is a conversation I will never forget.
What happened outside the town hall is what we have grown to expect in Alabama. Pick your team, pick your side, and fire away at the other. If the discussion about ideas is too complicated, simply go with character assassination accompanied by a side of fear.
President Obama has asked Congress to authorize the use of American military force in Syria against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Recent American history in the region demands that the United States exercise tremendous prudence and discretion in how it handles the war in Syria
In 1996, President Bill Clinton stated that "abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare." President Obama echoed that sentiment in 2010 when asked about his own perspectives on abortion. Sadly, the pro-abortion slogan of "safe, legal and rare" fails to accurately describe abortion in America.
In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama stated that "[i]t is our generation's task...to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth - a rising, thriving middle class." For many of us, that idea seems reasonable.