OK, so let's review.
Eric Watson, the Bradley County sheriff with more skeletons in his closet than an anatomy teacher, gets an endorsement from an elected official. Said elected official was a former colleague of Watson when Watson served in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Watson's opponent, Steve Lawson, has received about a half dozen endorsements from other sheriffs, law enforcement bigwigs and chiefs of police.
Hmmmm. Which do you think is better?
Let's put it this way. If you were sick, say you needed a sheriffectomy - a rare procedure that communities sometimes need - would you take the recommendation of other doctors about who would do the procedure?
Taking a politician's endorsement on who is the best choice to lead a law enforcement agency is like turning to an insurance company for the best surgeon to perform any operation.
Even a sheriffectomy, which is not unlike braces for teeth; you need each of them when the root of the problem becomes crooked.
Two messages for homeless
The braintrust that is the Chattanooga City Council took hard measures to curtail panhandling this week.
Good.
At the same time, folks in power from the mayor's office also made hard promises to help the homeless find new places to live, since the growing tent city off 11th Street is on land that is somewhere between Three Mile Island and a McDonald's Filet O' Fish in terms of healthiness.
Good. Again.
That said, is anyone else curious how the homeless are going to be locked up for asking for a dollar, but the city is going to find thousands of those dollars to address living places for the homeless?
Looks a little bit like the homeless people will not have their hands out but the city will.
Shame on state Republicans
I have voted Republican in the vast majority of elections since I was able to cast a ballot.
I own guns.
I believe in the Second Amendment.
But unless you work for the NRA or a company that makes or sells gun accessories, it's hard for me to understand how anyone would be against the bump stock bill that died on the vine in the Tennessee House this week.
For those unaware, the bill was proposed by two West Tennessee Democrats. It was a bill that was going to ban the sale of bump stocks - the devices that transform semi-automatic weapons to automatic machine guns - and it went nowhere because it did not get enough Republican support.
Be prepared to answer questions about this, GOP members.
Because while we can have meaningful discussions about what the Second Amendment should or should not protect and whether it's relevant in a day and age that militia is a dated term and muskets used for killing supper are long gone, nowhere in the Second Amendment is there the right to bear accessories that turn the arms you have the right to bear into absolute killing machines.
Shame.
Saturday stars
Talk about a spring break well-used.
And this has nothing to do with Disney.
According to its Facebook page, the Signal Mountain police force spent several days this past week working on emergency response drills and situations at the three public schools on Signal.
While the kids and teachers were away, the authorities worked on a variety of things.
Well done, gang.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.