Mr. Kiesche, tootling about in auto, insists not ‘driving a motor vehicle’
Eric Kiesche insists on a difference between a motorist and a driver. A legal quibble? Or a point of substance? (This essay is the second of two parts. Please read Part I for a review of controlling court cases.) By David Tulis Eric Kiesche stands before city court Judge Sherry Paty, he says later, surrounded […]
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 […]
Unpaid moral debts of DesJarlais reflect unpayable IOUs of the people
Dr. Scott DesJarlais, as seen on his re-election website, looks over an X-ray of a patient in Jasper, Tenn. By David Tulis The re-election of federal Rep. Scott DesJarlais to an East Tennessee district puts us in mind of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties that the Puritan founders in the colonies drafted in the 1640s […]
Insane criminal verdicts; or how Christianity lost cultural influence
The visit in Chattanooga on Monday of Mohandas Gandhi’s grandson was covered in the local newspaper under a story on the same page, B1, about a man pleading guilty to the strangulation death of his son. When I read the stories in the Chattanooga Times Free Press I couldn’t avoid considering the state of Christianity […]
Ambiguous words from prosecutor as he cheers Chattanooga mosque
“And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it. *** We know that an idol is […]
As Gibson lowers lips to kiss hoof, Uncle, in show of grace, lifts it
These instruments are made by Gibson Guitars in Nashville, a private company that recently opened a plant in Memphis. (Gibson.com) By David Tulis I snapped up the CD edition of Gulliver’s Travels after my 9-year-old had enjoyed it and have been howling at the satire so acidly penned by Jonathan Swift, whose look at 18th […]
Mike Little: Cited to city court, you are wise to know your rights, its limitations
Mike Little is an experienced criminal defense attorney in Chattanooga and an adjunct law course professor at UTC. The candidate for Hamilton County criminal court shares his insights into rights of the defendant and traffic stops. [I feel it will be most useful to hear Mr. Little’s unfiltered explanations about how inferior courts work, given […]
The nobility of dissent; we say no to status quo, urge alternative
I am thinking today about the 193-page court opinion on Obamacare — National Federation of Independent Business vs. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services — and how to avoid adding to the cloud of commentary that many worthies have offered. But before I can take the hours to read it, I give a […]
City enforces Bible law vs. theft, but will abolish office as antiquated
A scale at Bi-Lo lets shoppers estimate prices on produce before they are weighed on the cash register scale. By David Tulis For probably more than 100 years Chattanooga city government has had an office called sealer, whose duty is to enforce honest weights and measures. “The table of weights and measures provided by law […]
Group rankled by public prayers in Christ’s dread, awful name
Critics of religion have fired an opening salvo against the Hamilton County Commission for public prayers uttered before meetings by the elected representatives of the people. Ferf, or the Freedom from Religion Foundation, based in wintry Wisconsin, sent a letter this week to commission chairman Fred Skillern demanding that the civil authority cease prayers in […]