Category: Local economy

EPB’s luscious ‘eminent domain’ upon the field of marriage

EPB is a city-owned utility that teases schoolchildren with hardhats at school, and dudes by online porn flicks. (Photo EPB.net) By David Tulis EPB is the city’s electric utility engaged in the for-profit business of selling pornography through its telecom division. The 2014 earnings from this ribald public service is a meager F$101,080 and for […]

New defense for aliens, liberty lovers: No requirement to obtain driver license

An 1939 court opinion on the state driver license makes clear that it is obtained in equity, meaning by consent, application and voluntary action. Existing statute appears to recognize this prospect. By David Tulis As you pointed out in the first of our two phone conversations, “driving is a privilege.” OK. Licensed driving is a […]

Should city government sell porn? A review of underlying law

By David Tulis The sale of pornography by Chattanooga city government  is a matter of concern because pornography is an ideology that makes war on contentment. The human condition most obviously in view is sexual contentment — with one’s wife or husband, or with one’s state as an unmarried man or woman. Porn incites a […]

Noninflationary payday loans fill gap caused by employers’ scoffing at Bible

ACE Checks Cashed on Brainerd Road and other payday lenders face regulation by Chattanooga city council. (Photo Google Maps) By David Tulis A plan before Chattanooga city council to restrict payday lenders touches at consequences of quick-cash loans but overlooks a cause — namely the abuse of employers’ holding back. The proposal restricts all sorts […]

One plant saved, one shuttered; local economy makes winning argument

Dayton’s Goodman Daikin manufacturing plant is being closed by its Japanese owners. (Photo WDEF News 12, wdef.com) By David Tulis Allan Jones of Cleveland, Tenn., earns millions in a payday loan business that gives him enough capital to rescue a sinking clothing maker in his hometown. His recent buyout of Hardwick Clothes is a picture […]

Give a hand to Thrive 2055 for ‘regional vision’ over free markets

The rippling water staircase has, for now, dried up in downtown Chattanooga. (Photo Chattanooga Visitors Bureau) By David Tulis The marketplace is that great mass of men and women who interact in commerce for the benefit of their customers and in their own self-interest. Its power to produce wealth rests in the fact that it […]

Baylor helps reflate economy with state-sponsored $13 million in red ink

Baylor School in Chattanooga is beneficiary of a F$13 million bond issue by the state. (Photo Baylor website) By David Tulis A government body’s creation of F$13 million in bonds for an exclusive private school in Chattanooga is a picture of commercial government writ rich. Last week a board of a state corporate subdivision known […]

The rise of policing despite constitution; or how cops became legally superior, apart

Protesters in dowtown Chattanooga join thousands around the country in late 2014 protesting police slayings of unarmed people. (Photo Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson on Facebook) Police work is often lionized by jurists and scholars who claim to employ “textualist” and “originalist” methods of constitutional interpretation. Yet professional police were unknown to the United States in 1789, […]

Retail giants care little for customer, want only his money

A newspaper flier for a major chain store in Chattanooga. By Charles Hugh Smith Will we ever tire of navigating the multiple layers of intermediaries between the customer and the provider, while corporate profits soar to unprecedented heights? If we had to summarize what’s wrong with Corporate America and the entire U.S. economy, we can […]