Brian Lyman
Editor, Alabama Reflector. Podcaster, Becoming Lincoln. 2024 Pulitzer finalist. Past: MGM Advertiser; Press-Register; The Anniston Star; Norwich Bulletin; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Politics, history, science, horrific puns.
- I think the best piece of Star Wars storytelling from 1999 to 2016 was Knights of the Old Republic II, because it had genuinely wounded characters and was willing to challenge the core tenets of the franchise, particularly its idea that maybe the Force is an insidious god.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- The Alabama Legislature is still going on this, the final day of the 2025 session, but it's been a strange day. The House has been in recess since about 2 p.m.; The Senate has been in a slowdown from Democrats protesting House handling of local bills, and there are big bills that could still pass.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian LymanThe proposal would allocate $5 billion a year in tax credits for people donating to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships and is baked into the Ways and Means Committee’s piece of a massive reconciliation package to fund President Donald Trump’s priorities.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- It’s the last day of the Alabama Legislature’s 2025 session. This is known as sine die, a Latin phrase meaning “you’re not going to see the sun again today.”
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Really close in Cullman County -- Allbright beat Don Fallin by just 24 votes out of nearly 2,900 cast -- but he romped in Blount.
- Get ready to start arguing with strangers about the Black Sox scandal.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Cutting Medicaid would be a disaster for health care in Alabama, and the Alabama congressional delegation cheerfully ignores health care professionals yelling that through megaphones.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- “The Chinese government tolerates wasteful investment in its chosen initiatives, helping fuel overcapacity. But it is reluctant to make the kind of substantial investments in rural pensions and health insurance that would help lift consumption.”
- Reposted by Brian LymanAlabama GOP chair (and RNC vice-chair) John Wahl will help decide whether Tommy Tuberville lives in Alabama or Florida. Turns out, he uses a Tennessee driver’s license under a different name. www.al.com/news/2025/05...
- The Board missed a 2022 deadline to adopt the new guidelines, and many legislators were angered by Board Chair Leigh Gwathney giving them few answers at a prison oversight committee meeting in October.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Montgomery (thanks to EJI) has become a model for how one confronts a painful past with honesty and compassion.
- Historic evening as my daughter officially entered the ”Dad you’re embarrassing me” era.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- The transgender panic rests on such blatantly false assertions that should provoke much broader concerns that our federal judiciary has either gone along with banning care or has actively helped states like Alabama maintain their bans by lowering the standard of review.
- My column this week. The federal judiciary bent over backwards to elevate Alabama's weak case for its ban on gender-affirming care for young people. And it allowed Attorney General Steve Marshall to make many dubious claims about a law that will create many needless tragedies.
- This is about the UK but you can apply it to Alabama with only light editing. A state that struggles with an aging population and low workforce participation, particularly in rural areas, should be doing all it can to encourage people to come here. Instead, we get hallucinations about "invasion."
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman30% is an enormously high tariff!
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Fordham Experimental Theater, April 1999, “Karate Kid: The Musical.” God I wish you all could have seen it. They later managed to mount some off-off Broadway productions of it.
- FedEx deliveryman pulled up to the house blasting “The First Cut Is The Deepest” from his truck, then sang the song all the way to my door. This is how we rebuild the country.
- In Pink-Frosted Donut, Some in MAGA Movement See an Antagonist
- My column from Monday. Tommy Tuberville has embarrassed Alabama in the Senate. But if he goes into the governor’s office thinking he can dictate policy to the Legislature, he’s going to embarrass himself.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Don’t listen to people over 30
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian LymanRümeysa Öztürk has been freed!!
- Reposted by Brian LymanREAD. THE. SUBHEAD.
- Welcome to Alabama, the Low-Tax State! P.S. Please don't look at your Piggly Wiggly receipt
- It’s a Saturday morning serial with a bigger budget. That was Lucas’ intention and that’s how contemporary critics understood it.
- They read 'em so you don't have to.
- Absolutely shameful -- for ICE, for the court system, and for America.
- The most charitable interpretation of the GOP's 2023 map is that legislative Republicans preferred to hand redistricting over to the courts rather than do it themselves and risk attack in a primary for "helping Democrats." If that was the plan, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Interesting here from @joshmoonal.bsky.social that Doug Jones isn't ruling out a run for governor in 2026. That would be a longshot even in a favorable Democratic environment (straight ticket voting, y'know), but Dems really need a prominent name to charge turnout in legislative races.
- Reposted by Brian LymanSeveral Columbia Univ student journalists are suspended after covering protests (while wearing press ID) in the main library. Their access to campus is blocked, and they can't take final exams. Also: Columbia's acting president is a former ABC journalist www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/05...
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- The cardinals picked an American with relatively few direct ties to the American hierarchy, which says a lot about how the American hierarchy is viewed.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Major thing here (as someone who has lived every minute of this redistricting case since 2021) is the court saying they’re open to preclearance on future Alabama congressional maps, at least for the remainder of the decade. The judges have long signaled that they’re angry with the Legislature.
- Two of the three judges are Trump appointees.
- Reposted by Brian Lyman“The pope will be from Chicago” sounds like an 1880s Republican’s dire prediction for if we don’t stop Irish immigration
- Reposted by Brian LymanVia @jennifershutt.bsky.social: During his testimony Wednesday before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, Cam Hamilton said he personally did “not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
- The Freedom Fries Act of 2025
- Reposted by Brian Lyman[Not loaded yet]
- Studying the papacy of Leo XIII like it’s a trailer for a new season of Mad Men
- New Rerum Novarum dropping
- BREAKING: Robert Prevost has been elected the first American pope in history. He'll take the name Leo XIV. bit.ly/3Za7Efw
- Well dang
- (New pope steps out) It’s me, hi, I’m the papam, it’s me
