Restaurant Parking Lot Robberies to Continue. Thanks, Bredesen!

Governor Bredesen vetoed the restaurant carry bill. Erroneously called the "guns in bars" bill by the liberal media, the bill would allow people with handgun permits to carry into establishments that serve alcohol. As the law stands now, I have to walk in and out of restaurant parking lots unprotected, leaving my gun unsecure in my locked vehicle, where it is apt to be stolen. I am incensed by the left's semantics, so for the record, let us reflect on the "bars" in Tennessee that we take our kids to all the time-- O'Charley's, Applebee's, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Pizza Hut, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, etc. These are family restaurants with kids' menus that just happen to serve alcoholic drinks. Most of us patronize these restaurants without drinking alcohol. Yet the left with its "guns in bars" hysteria has us thinking of people carrying guns into topless nightclubs at 2AM. People wanting to do that, I dare say, probably don't even know what a legal gun permit is. This was a common sense addendum to our established handgun carry program and a modification available in most other states with concealed carry permits. Let us hope cooler heads prevail in the legislature and Bredesen's veto is overridden. Only then will it be safe to go out to eat in Memphis.

County Was Right to Reject New York Developer on Bible Park!

Modern day carpetbagger Armon Bar-Tur attempted to bring a theme park to Rutherford County but was rejected when he failed to achieve a two-thirds vote on a rezoning appeal. Now the county is enveloped in a chain of lawsuits from property owners and the developer over alleged unconstitutional acts. The developer's lawsuit is nothing more than "sour grapes" whining--"I didn't get my way, so I'm going to sue". Ever since the Kelo v. City of New London decision, developers like Bar-Tur feel that they can strongarm local governments into complicity with large scale developments that enrich their financial enterprises while devastating the property values of others. Theme parks are about as financially rewarding and beneficial to a community as an enclosed mall. Two Tennessee venues come to mind--the Mall of Memphis and Libertyland. Come now, Rutherford County, we all know that we are better off without eyesores like those in our community. The county should have denied the application, and we are all better off without the park, but we would not be in the litigious mess we are in if not for the 12 commissioners who voted for the proposal. The rezoning application should have been a unanimous vote "NO". Thus we would not be fighting over the two-thirds rule. I wonder if some of the 12 who voted for a theme park in the already congested and overbuilt Blackman area in truth wanted it to fail and, knowing that 9 would oppose it, chose to play politics with the two-thirds rule. That type of thinking now has us in hot water. Wilson County apparently learned from Rutherford County's mistakes. Lebanon's hostile stance was obviously so united that Bar-Tur quickly withdrew his plans without any lawsuit threats.