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.
- An amendment that was a direct response to post-Civil War southern governments feverishly working to make Black Americans aliens in their own country.
- “Actually, the Radical Republicans didn’t mean the 14th Amendment to be universal” is a profound misunderstanding of the historical context and the authors’ views of citizenship, many of which were forged by fights against discriminatory state laws in the north in the 1850s.
- The Roberts Court’s most poisonous legacy could be discrediting the federal judiciary as an effective, disinterested arbiter of constitutional questions. SCOTUS often failed in that role, but the protections U.S. courts offered to minorities against states like mine were real, and are endangered.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: The Alabama Legislature made the Board of Pardons and Paroles' funding from the 2026 General Fund budget conditional on the board adopting new parole guidelines, a reflection of mounting bipartisan frustration with the board and its members.
- Historic evening as my daughter officially entered the ”Dad you’re embarrassing me” era.
- 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."
- 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
- This thing is nothing but an outrage machine, picking and elevating targets simply for attention, and it’s tiring to pretend there are some legitimate beliefs underneath it.
- Don’t listen to people over 30
