License to blog?

By William R. Toler

I love North Carolina. It’s a beautiful state, from the miles of beaches on the Atlantic Coast to the hazy hills of the southern Appalachians. But sometimes the idoacy the “powers that be” make me sad to be Tarheel born and bred.

A blogger could be facing jail time. His crime: wrting about the Paleo Diet.

After Steve Cooksey was hospitalized with diabetes in 2009, he decided to fight his ailment by changing his diet, the Carolina Journal reports. After experiencing positive results from the low-carb, high-protein regimen, Cooksey decided to start a blog.

Depsite having a disclaimer at the bottom of his blog stating, “I am not a doctor, dietitian nor nutritionist… in fact I have no medical training of any kind,” Cooksey received a letter from the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition.

Isn’t that nice? We have a Nanny State agency to “protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of North Carolina from harmful nutrition practice by providing for the licensure and regulation of persons engaged in the practice of dietetics/nutrition and by establishing educational standards for those persons.” How did we survive before 1992?

Six years gone and the dream lives on

It’s now been six years since the first issue of the Independent Register rolled off the presses and was distributed across CravenCounty.

A dream of three budding journalists fulfilled after three days of writing, editing and designing. The product of blood, sweat, tears and ink.

Sadly the life of the alternative newspaper was to be short. Five months to be exact. Nine issues in (mostly) glorious black and white.

But in 2008, new life was breathed into the dream when the current blog which you are reading was launched.

Branching out

Readers of the Independent Register will soon have a new medium to receive information.

In an effort to combine different media formats,  Managing Editor William R. Toler has decided to start making documentaries. Independent Register films will be a collaboration between the I.R. and Media Blitzkrieg bringing the topics covered by the Independent Register to an audio/visual medium.

The first film will document the 2009 Edenton Tea Party rally with an introduction of the history from the 1774 event.

There is also a series planned to show local violations of constitutional rights. Some of those stories can already be found on this blog.

Keep checking back for more.