The Foundation for Moral Law Does What?

It's easy to say that all laws are based on morals, but of course they aren't. Many of our laws, and in our drug ridden culture perhaps most of them, are based on public safety. Think Trump's travel ban on some nations; its basic premise is to keep American citizens safe. The fact that most of the countries in this ban are predominately Muslim is related to the terrorist actions of some Muslims, not in any attempt to keep the Muslim religion from spreading in the United States. Yet, the Foundation for Moral Law considers it one of its causes.

The past few weeks, many have been looking at Roy Moore's Foundation for Moral Law. If you go the FB page of that group, you'll see it's listed as a "Just for Fun" page - we assume to make sure the IRS knows the group doesn't endorse political candidates. It also has a store where you can shop. Yes, really; however, if you click on the link, you're simply directed to a page where you can donate. Apparently you won't even get a complimentary bookmark for you cold, hard cash. 

The group, which has about 3,200 followers, calls founder Roy Moore "the Chief Justice." He hasn't been that in some time, but why should that stop them? A recent press statement from Moore's wife Kayla calls him "the Judge." That must make for great dinner table conversation: "Caleb, pass the Judge the mashed potatoes." 

Moore's most recent legal effort concerns preventing a large cross being removed from a Florida city. The cross has historic value, and we have no doubt is inspirational. Yet how long until a Muslim group wants a symbol of their religion erected next to the cross? Florida already has atheist monuments in place in several cities, so don't say you didn't see it coming.

Ah, yes, Roy Moore. Here to serve the people...unless they're atheists, Muslims, Jews, or Druids. We can hardly wait until he starts in on the Baptists.

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More funny than scary:

 

 

Opioid Town Hall Was a Bust?

From a reader who attended the Opioid Town Hall meeting at UNA:

Johnny Mack in one sentence confused methadone with methamphetamine. When a professor from UNA was touting the benefits and need for treatments like methadone & suboxone -- he cut her off and moved the conversation forward avoiding any conversation of the only approved treatment for this epidemic according to SAMHSA. Our illustrious Mental Health commissioner who has no clue what she is doing then acted like she didn't know what options were out there even though Shoals Treatment Center and HealthConnect both received grant money to address this epidemic locally. 

This was a true political event for the people on the stage including the Attorney General who truly believes the only way to treat them is to incarcerate them and basically wants the cops to be the first receivers of funding to deal with this issue. I was floored and disappointed in the lack of ideas to help the situation and only a defensive attitude of those on the stage who think they know how to deal with it.

If you don't know the difference between methadone and methamphetamine you are part of the problem in this epidemic. You can't arrest our way out of it either...we've been doing that since the 70s...

Mental health is the fix because it's a disease and a nurse who worked in a psych ward for a short stint is not qualified to lead this fight.

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Answering Hugo Dante/ALDOT

We received a Facebook comment from UNA SGA president Hugo Dante. In the interest of fairness, as well as in the interest of replying to two specifics in his comment, we're reposting it here in its entirety. We're highlighting the two most egregious comments to address specifically:

For the sake of avoiding misinformation. The signs each cost the city $11 a piece. In addition, they were put up by salaried workers so the price tag is definitely exaggerated. Even the anonymous author of this article admitted that they were aesthetically pleasing, but more so than that they make perfect economic sense. The university and its students are a $316 million impact in our local economy. While small, building a community feeling between our students and the community at large is a strong investment that will only help grow and develop the downtown which is thriving for no small part due to the students, family, and friends of UNA. If the $220 cost for signs is such an issue, I along with many others would happily foot the cost.

As far as legality, please also express your concerns to the countless universities whose downtowns have a variety of colored street signs (including UA whose street signs on University Blvd are black -talk about hard to distinguish!-). From my understanding, those laws are only applicable on state roads anyways.

Finally, there was no mention of sexual assault being present in our Greek community anywhere. That is an absolutely slanderous suggestion which I am not surprised to see stem from this source. Anyone who looks closely at our Greek community will discover that it is one that is academically, civically, and community minded. Various organizations such as SafePlace, Big Brothers Big Sisters, United Way, Ronald Mcdonald House, Military Heroes Foundation, and more benefit greatly from them. Please research your facts more closely and with journalistic integrity before you contribute to the spread of false and degrading information.

First, the cost of the new signs - We estimated the cost using "20 locations" per the TD article. At some of these locations, signs are placed on each side of the street; we estimated at least 25 separate sites (with more stated to come). Then we computed estimated labor and costs in time; in other words, time to make the signs and to install them.

So, let's see...does Dante's comment on salaried employees being the only ones involved mean that these men/women would have been sitting around a cushy office if not fabricating/installing these signs? We sincerely hope that isn't the case. We also hope Dante takes some refresher courses in economics and logic. 

Second, and more importantly, the sexual assault comment - Those who have read our blog from its inception know that sexual assault and abuse is as important a topic to us as waste/theft by government employees. Again, we're not sure if Dante's problem with this point was a lack of logic or he simply wanted to suggest we implied something we didn't.

The term "physical assault" was used by UNA's David Shields in his letter to the Greek community. A better term would have been fisticuffs or fistfights; however, he didn't choose those words. If you have a problem with this term, see him - not us.

Our point is the term "physical assault" includes violent rape. No one anywhere said there had been a rape or other forms of sexual abuse at these frat houses. It's easy to say rape is merely slipping a little Georgia Home Boy into a girl's drink or perhaps even simply pinning a woman to a bed. No, it's been estimated that one-third of all rapes are violent physical assaults, some even leading to the victim's death. If Mr. Shields 
thinks the term "physical assault" excludes rape, he's sadly mistaken.

As a bonus lesson in logic and debate, listing the good organizations do while defending them for certain evil or illegal actions is not anything that's admissible in a court of law. Apples and oranges...and is totally irrelevant to the victims in these five cases. We'll add that also applies to listing the positive impact UNA has on the Shoals economy; no one has disputed that impact, but it does not and should not offset any illegal actions.

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Did the five assaults really happen? We're always amused when someone, usually not a regular reader of our blog, asks us if certain events we've mentioned "really happened." We understand that this is not the only publication to receive such questions.

Due to vulgar language, we deleted a FB comment on yesterday's blog. In this young woman's comment, she stated these five alcohol-fueled incidents really didn't happen. So, do we believe her or David Shields? If these five fistfights leading to hospitalization and legal charges really didn't happen, we suggest she take it up with Mr. Shields. He would be the person defaming the university, not us.

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A parting comment on the street signs, at least for now. One very erudite commenter questioned the relevancy of ALDOT's opinion on the signs being used, since the streets in question are not state highways. We would have once thought this was true; however, by reason of funding or other influence, ALDOT recently scuppered the plans for widening part of College Street in Florence which is in no way a state or federal highway. We requested a comment from ALDOT in Tuscumbia and was referred to Montgomery. We await.

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Caution: PG language (Love the name Julian!)

Five Assaults This Term at UNA Frat Houses

There are currently 13 fraternities at the University of North Alabama. Of these 13, we don't know how many are involved in the five reported assaults that have occurred since the beginning of the fall term. It could be five separate organizations or only one. Judging from the harsh response David Shields of UNA issued earlier this week, we may infer that more than one have been homes to such violence.

Perhaps the best thing we can say about these incidents is that the university is stressing the assaults were "physical" and not sexual. We'll throw in here that sexual assaults are pretty physical in themselves.

Shields has stated that alcohol was an influencing factor in these incidents, some of which resulted in trips to a hospital, criminal charges, and Code of Conduct charges. 

Now every Greek member at the school must attend meetings on proper and socially acceptable behavior. One more incident? Shields, the vice president of student affairs, has said all Greek life will suffer. 

Ouch!

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We had a question from a regular reader, a very good question, about how many citizens in Florence actually care about the color of street signs on or near the UNA campus. While we personally like the signs and find them attractive, this is why we should care:

1. The City of Florence used tax dollars (around one thousand) to take down legal street signs and replace them with illegal ones.
2. ALDOT and at least three city employees went on record to declare the signs in non-compliance with code and illegal.
3. If anyone is injured at night (or worse) in the vicinity of these signs, the city (read: taxpayers) will face a lawsuit. Oh, and not just the city; you can add UNA to the list of defendants in that lawsuit.

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The Queen would love it:

Christina Marie Carroll - All the Glamour is External

In August 2009, Christina Marie Carroll was living with her mother on Lingerlost Lane in Killen when state troopers charged her with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and driving under the influence of a controlled substance. Two of Carroll's former classmates at Brooks High School have contacted us to say the admitted killer of Kevin Allan Doherty was no stranger to drugs when they knew her. Yes, one may count such stories as apocryphal, but they do seem to fit in with Carroll's track record.

Self-Professed Glamour Model

Since the Friday night hit-and-run, Florence detectives had narrowed down the sought after light colored SUV to a Ford Freestyle. It was just matter of time until all such vehicles in the area were checked for front end damage; Christina Carroll, 27, then turned herself in. Her attorney Tim Case was quoted as saying: “It is a horrible car accident and once (Carroll) tells her side it will be clear that, although it will still be tragic, it was an accident.”

We doubt that most people think the collision was anything more than accidental. If that's the best Case could come up with, we suggest Carroll seeks out Billy Underwood as soon as he comes back from his vacation. 

While the collision may have been accidental, Christina Marie Carroll's fleeing the scene wasn't. We've heard of drivers being so shocked by such incidents that they drive around the block before coming back to check on victims, but four days? We're inferring that neither sound judgment nor moral behavior is known to Carroll.

Carroll's bail was set at $2,500.00 - we assume because a judge didn't think the mother of two now living in the Happy Hollow area would be a flight risk. We may safely assume Christina Carroll is tonight safely at home with her two children. Kevin Allan Doherty is still dead.

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Laws: Break, Wink At, or Change?

If you don't like a law or support it, is it all right to break it? We've always gone on record to support all laws, but also supporting the attempt to change one if it's inherently wrong. We were reminded of this last week when UNA announced new purple street signs near the campus. 

Only a year ago, Phil Stevenson of Florence said such signs were illegal; only white, green, brown, or blue are allowed. We can remember the city having to change out a sign on Mitchell Boulevard which didn't comply to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. One of our regular readers commented that the city could be fined for the new signs.

So who's right? We're pretty sure the law hasn't changed. While we like the new signs, we don't look forward to our tax dollars having to pay a hefty fine to either state or federal government. 

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Now that brings us to attempted theft (poaching) and hunting with baited traps. What kind of person does that? Especially when the person doesn't need the kill for food? How can you even call it sport when you're luring a deer or other animal to you with food? How can you justify taking something from private property that certainly doesn't belong to you...killing just to kill?

So let's say the son of a senate candidate is arrested and indicted for the above crimes; is it the candidate's fault that his child, at the age of 27, has such total disregard for the law? For those who haven't been keeping track, this makes Caleb Moore's ninth arrest in the state of Alabama. 

No matter whose fault Caleb's behavior is, or even if it can be lain at the feet of his parents, this man needs help...and more than the legal variety.

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Just Who Is Craig Construction Using to Build New $38 Million Dollar School?

Say 38 million and most of us think more money than we could ever imagine in a budget. Say Craig Construction and most of us think of a local Florence firm established over two generations ago. Now think sub-contractor. Now think sub sub-contractor...yes, it's not that uncommon. 

If you had asked us to consider a sub sub-contractor, we would have immediately thought of the roofing business where competing companies like to accuse their rivals of using substandard, or even illegal, labor. Yet, it's not that uncommon in all phases of building and remodeling.

Is Craig Construction using sub-contractors to build the new Florence Middle School? We're sure it is since that's the norm in today's building world. Is the company using illegal or shady sub-contractors? That we don't know, but we do know that someone in the Tampa area wants locals at least to think so.

Roberto Cantu-Meza

Cantu-Meza has published messages on a Facebook site seeking two relatively unskilled welders/ironworkers to make about 15.00 an hour to "weld decking" on the new Florence Middle School. He goes as far as to mention Hispanics specifically. Looking at Cantu's FB page established in 2007, we infer that he's probably not Hispanic himself, but a Latino who isn't above hiring illegals to make a quick buck. Nice, huh?

So, is it a joke this man plays in order to stir up controversy in building trades around the southeast? We don't know, but do know the Florence School Board and Craig Construction would do well to find out quickly.

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