About

Who are you? What is this website?

My name is Dan Roberts and this is my blog, Daily Dixie. I started it to complain about state politics and as a way to explain some reasoning about the way I think about things. The posts contain a mixture of my opinions and the “facts,” but I try to make it obvious when I’m stating my opinion.

Most people in this world probably can’t name both of their US Senators. I imagine almost no one in Alabama can name their state senator. Despite this attitude, I find that local politics and government are often just as important individually to each person as national concerns. So I wanted to create some sort of online area for people to be able to read about and discuss these issues.

What qualifies you to write about Alabama politics? Are you a journalist or a lawyer or something?

No. I am completely un-credentialed.

Who are you then? What’s your life story?

I grew up near Birmingham, Alabama. I wasn’t exactly a model high school student, so I considered my options after graduation and decided to join the Marines. Boot camp was in Parris Island. After that it was combat training in North Carolina and the Navy air traffic control school in Pensacola, Florida. All that took about a year.

Then I spent the next 4 years as a Marine air traffic controller stationed in Beaufort, SC, although I deployed often. Deployments weren’t too special — mostly training. A lot of Marine controllers don’t deploy, but I was on a Marine Mobile Team. That’s basically a small group of ATC specialists that are expected to take over a make-shift or captured airfield in support of combat missions. I never actually ended up doing that, but I did deploy to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for six months in support of OEF.

In Bishkek, I was designated as an aviation liaison. The airport was owned and operated by the Kyrgyz people, so we basically sat in the tower and coordinated coalition assets with the host controllers. (Don’t tell anyone, but we also took over when the traffic got more than they could handle). Nothing too sexy, but it was a fun time.

A while after I got back to South Carolina, I was offered a year extension with the Marines in order to deploy to Iraq. I almost took it, but I had already made plans to go to the University of Alabama and was about to sign a lease. This had nothing to do with my agreement or disagreement with the war.

So I’ve been an electrical engineering student since the Fall of 2004. In February of 2007 I married the former Sara Clem. We live in Duncanville, which is basically the woods southeast of Tuscaloosa. We have two cats, Spooky and Shooter. While I’m finishing my bachelors, Sara is getting her masters degree and wants to be a librarian.

In November 2007, I accepted a position in Huntsville. So I’ll be moving there when I graduate in May.

I like politics and good beer — two things which should go together more often. I’m also a big technology nerd and things like that which I’ll just gloss over (no one visiting this website seems to care about Fourier analysis). Sara and I try to travel as often as we can. Our next big vacation will hopefully be Greece in 2009. In the meantime, I blog about politics, do things for Free the Hops, and work on career advancement. On weekends you can usually find me having a few brews with friends or watching a movie.

What are you trying to do with this blog?

Sometimes I write very opinionated pieces about current events. Sometimes I try to explain legislation that’s being proposed if I think it’s important. Sometimes I talk about beer. Sometimes I post pictures of my cat.

Who are the other people who write on this blog?

Although it’s mostly my website, I do have a few other individuals who have administrative privileges. These people can write posts, edit posts, delete offensive comments, etc. In addition, there are a few “contributors,” like State Representative Mike Ball, who I have invited to write posts and give their unique perspective.

What’s your angle? Are you liberal? conservative? Anarchist? Socialist? Neo-disestablishmentarist?

I don’t even know what those words mean anymore. I just know that I want to live in a free society, and that in a free society governments exist only to protect the life, liberty, and property of the individual. That’s why we have a US Constitution — to limit the oppressive potential that governments will always have.

So with that model I’m against most things that the federal government involves itself in. I’m not an anarchist — a federal government is important. But I think it goes too far. I prefer that they stick to the concerns spelled out in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

When it comes to state and local government, I see broader authority. The more local government becomes, the more authority it should have over your life, but I still believe the primary purpose of government is to protect the life, liberty and property of the individual. Federally, this is accomplished in accordance with the US Constitution. For state and local government, it becomes a little more tricky. States, obviously, should create and enforce most criminal laws. They also should provide primary oversight and organization of public education. At the local level, fire protection, public water, and traffic organization are important.

I honestly think most problems come when a government assumes the wrong level of authority. For example, when the federal government starts worrying about the fire codes of every city in the United States or the education standards of local school districts. Then there’s the problem of when any government assumes authority that no government should have over an individual — like when the state tells you what kind of beer you can drink even socializes liquor.

There’s more to my political philosophy than this model, but it’s generally where I start. Again, I try to make it clear where the “facts” end and my opinion begins.

Are you going to run for office?

We’ll see.