Sheriff Hammond’s program catches flak, but tells of localist orientation

Sheriff Jim Hammond explains the origins and duties of his office in a video. By David Tulis As American policing continues its long road away from peace-keeping and toward a sort of paramilitary occupation, it is refreshing to consider a development that hints at a localist — versus a federal or national — perspective on […]

Thrive 2055 survey pretends to weigh concerns, pushes centralizing agenda

This scene is from a YouTube video peddling the idea of regional planning. By David Tulis Survey results by the marketing company behind Thrive 2055 help us enter into the larger agenda of having a gaggle of 16 area counties join forces to create a new identity. The government-funded program is designed to induce the […]

That’s all Chattanooga needs — more ‘overarching leadership’

A helicopter refurbished by a veterans group is hauled toward its park pole in Soddy-Daisy on Feb. 28, 2014. The private sector pulls the public; it’s not the other way around. (Photo David Tulis) [O]ur biggest obstacle to achieving a larger civic vision is the sad lack of over-arching governmental leadership, vision and collaboration among […]

If stealing country were a tort, getting it back might be ‘action in replevin’

Wendell O’Reilly, Chattanooga attorney The difficulty in strengthening local economy comes from the economic and political interests whose success is crowned by centralization. The government school. Federal welfare. Total surveillance. The usual suspects. By David Tuls Thanks to Uncle’s control of entire marketplaces it sometimes is inconceivable that Chattanoogans will ever be their own masters. […]

Paper ignores free market revival plan, keeps journalists in diapers

My days as a newspaper copy editor are over, but I refer to my fingertips, still, as ink stained. Libertarian powerhouse editorialist Drew Johnson was fired on accusations that a widely noted editorial bore an inappropriate headline that was changed outside of newsroom regulations. The Chattanooga Times Free Press head was, “Take this jobs plan […]

Just as eye soaks in poetry by reflex, train yourself toward lococentrism

Sam Blumenfeld explores the public policy benefits of illiteracy, but hopes his readers will find their way around the obstacles to liberty created by mass schooling. Suddenly — dreadfully — she wakes up. What has happened? Something dreadful has happened. No — nothing has happened. It is only the wind shaking the house, rattling the […]

Boston ‘lockdown’ rejects the value local economy could give in search

Ordering people in Watertown, Mass., to stay indoors, then searching their houses without a warrant, is an affront not just to local economy and its “eyes and ears,” but constitutional protections. (Photo Facebook) A TV blared momentarily behind us as I was chatting with Louis Lee, the spokesman for the Tennessee state guard who was […]

City’s self-identity via a free market might boost voter rates in outyears

The 16 percent turnout among 111,324 registered voters in Chattanooga tells of despair, but of a kind that suggests good things ahead. In the low election turnout there arises the possibility that politics have faded, that the great hope in the voice of the people has weakened, that the inspiration poured into the modern welfare […]

Salatin: ‘Folks, this ain’t normal’ — exit dietary crisis with local food, I

Farmer Joel Salatin tells the argument of his book, “Folks, This Ain’t Normal,” in 4 minutes. For more than 15 years I’ve known about Joel Salatin . Without exaggeration, he IS the cutting edge of the food freedom movement, the family farm’s rebirth, and the New Agriculture, holistic farming that works with nature instead of […]

Chattanoogans, held upside-down, face thrashing; so much for change

So it was that a revolution took place within the form. Like the hagfish, the New Deal entered the old form and devoured its meaning from within. The revolutionaries were inside; the defenders were outside. A government that had been supported by the people and so controlled by the people became one that supported the […]