Today's Tribune column: "Can ‘shift happen’ in New Albany, too?"

Blog readers will recognize the reference to "buy local first" in Somerville, Massachusetts, to which I appended ten local commandments from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The latter have been discussed here virtually from this rag's inception. I decided to print them in the newspaper today in the hope that area politicians (and sadly, more than a few merchants) might take notice, most for the very first time.

You already know what I think. We can unite pragmatically as a community to achieve something of substance, or, conversely, we can go back to babbling fruitlessly about abortion, television idols, Obama's birth certificate, immigration, or numerous other topics over which individuals possess exactly zero control on a local basis.

For heaven's sake, even Steve Bush -- a Republican Republican, as opposed to our curious "stroke 'em if ya got 'em" species of Democrat Republican -- now concedes on the record the remote possibility of rehabbing the Annex. Apparently anything's possible, these days.

BAYLOR: Can ‘shift happen’ in New Albany, too?

In the craft beer business, we have creatively adapted an old activist mantra to suit our specific circumstances: “Think globally, drink locally.”