I early-voted last week. Here are my votes for the most important electoral choices on the Republican ballot (reasons follow):


School board Post 1 — Barry Marchman


School board Post 2 — Mary Kay Bacallao


U.S. Congress 3rd District — Kent Kingsley


NO to T-SPLOST


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With the publication of the GIRMA letter online and in this week’s print edition, the last quasi-legal pretense of the Peachtree City Council majority has been thoroughly discredited.

According to City Councilman Eric Imker, Mayor Don Haddix “stole” nearly $10,000 from the city Read More»

This opinion column begins with some assumptions: We are a nation of laws, not men; we are a state of laws, not men; we are a city of laws, not men. (Ladies, you are included in these variations of John Adams’ famous declaration that he wrote into the 1780 Massachusetts constitution.)

Here in Peachtree City, we have gone off the legal track, and our City Council majority is acting as a government of men, not as a government of laws.

In this column I will show you why I believe the council majority has committed the following violations in taking the recent legislative action that reduced the pay of Mayor Don Haddix from $750 a month down to $75 a month: Read More»

A COLUMN OF OPINION, UPDATED WITH ALL THE LETTERS — After Thursday night’s historically unprecedented Peachtree City Council action, we could use some reason. What we’ve got is raw political opportunism, self-righteous posturing, gross abuse of power and an almost textbook violation of the U.S. Constitution and Georgia Constitution. Read More»

If the contingent of Fayette Free Thought Society members and supporters of newly appointed Fayette Board of Education Chairman Leonard Presberg thought they needed to turn out in strength to protect him from harm — whether mental or physical — from rabid, Jesus-spouting Christians last week, they needn’t have bothered.

The few Christians who showed up at the Peachtree City Library Community Room to question Presberg on his beliefs and worldview were easily outnumbered, mostly silenced and maybe even intimidated by Presberg’s vocal platoon. Read More»

Some readers and online posters have made a case for the ultimate logic of small district voting in the aftermath of the court-forced change in the way Fayette voters choose their representatives to the Fayette County Board of Education.

I suspect those who support the change tend to support the NAACP’s lawsuit contention that a black minority has been denied the right to choose their own representative to the board because Fayette’s at-large voting for all five districts dilutes their voting power.

That’s a separate issue, so first let’s take the district arguments on their merits. Read More»

[ADDENDUM and update follows below this column.] — In the aftermath of last week’s momentous votes by the Fayette County Board of Education, I’m still puzzled.

First, the four members of the board in early November interviewed seven volunteers for the opening on the board created by the Sept. 22 death of Post 5 member Sam Tolbert.

By mid-November, they made their choice unanimously: Leonard Presberg.
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The curious and the curiouser: Enquiring minds want to know . . .

The Fayette County Board of Education has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in capitulating to the NAACP district voting lawsuit shakedown, a suit totally unwinnable by the Democrats on the face of it.

As a result of members Terri Smith, Janet Smola and Leonard Presberg, every Fayette County voter has just been 80 percent disenfranchised. Read More»

It was not for nothing that wags once said, “Lock up your women and children and bury your gold in a safe hiding place. The Georgia General Assembly is in session.”

I often wonder how bad would it be, really, if one year the legislature just simply did not convene. How bad could it be that all those lawyers and oh-so-helpful legislators would just stay home and confine their helpfulness to their immediate family?

Oh, well, one can dream. Read More»

It’s Christmas. Unabashedly, unashamedly, unapologetically Christmas.

And this is a Christmas column.

This is a season that lends itself to sentimentality. But beneath that layer, let’s look at the basic impulse that drives this season: Giving, because of love.

The basis of this season is love that is expressed in giving something that costs the giver but expects nothing in return.

That’s not natural. But that’s the essence of Christmas. Read More»