Where's Martha?

Artificial Intelligence?

Natural stupidity? Core ignorance? [D|M]isinformation? Maybe all of the above? 

We're in the midst of one of the most objectionable election seasons in a lifetime, even Biden's long, long lifetime, and it comes with Helene-ic floods of blather that are just plain wrong. Only thing worse is the pushback with the Biden/Harris tribe branding anything they don't want to hear as "disinformation." Even when they are legit questions with actual, factual answers. Just answers they don't want to say out loud. 

How did we get here? 

Probably started with the wordsmiths, the purveyors of news, olds, the finders of facts and liars of lies. Yep. The media. And they've been subtle, which makes them incredibly dangerous. We've been given this almond-scented dose from the left-leaning Huffington Post:

"a Food and Drug Administration-approved update to the Mammography Quality Standards Act"

Why is this dangerous? Because it is either profound, entrenched ignorance from those who should know more and better, or it is intentional subversive propaganda. And it has been going on for so long that most folks don't even see it for what it is. Do you? You see, the FDA is a federal administration and part of the executive branch. As such, the FDA does not create congressional acts, and congress neither seeks nor needs the FDA's approval because it is the FDA's job to establish regulations conforming to the MQSA. The MQSA passed by congress. Who knew? Apparently NOT the fourth estate, the self-appointed, self-proclaimed defenders of our democracy. 

We're in trouble comrades.

Buck Up, Buttercup!

Two Bucks, Chuck

Martha and Her Entourage

Criminal Minds

Do you watch it, the TV show? It is a fiction, or so one would hope, involving the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, which is in fact a real thing. If Wikipedia is to be considered a reliable source, BAU operation is summarized as:

The BAU focuses on preventing targeted violence by identifying concerning behaviors. For example, active shooters meticulously plan and prepare for acts of violence. Throughout this process, they frequently exhibit worrying behaviors, characterized as observable and identifiable actions suggesting potential progression towards targeted violence. While no individual behavior definitively signifies an individual's trajectory towards committing targeted violence, the presence of multiple behaviors may warrant attention and concern.

It may come as a surprise that the FBI has been studying the issue of School Shooters for some time now and have published a document: The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. Now this document is over twenty years old as a preface is provided by Janet Reno and is based on work beginning in 1999, so there has been plenty of time for this information to be disseminated throughout educational and security communities.

Perhaps it has.

It certainly has not made an impact on mass media with the FBI noting that "[n]ews coverage magnifies a number of widespread but wrong [...] impressions of school shooters," citing specific misinformation: "school violence is an epidemic"; and "easy access to weapons is the THE most significant risk factor." [emphasis in the original]. On the contrary they note "[un]usual or aberrant behaviors, interests, hobbies, etc., are hallmarks of the student destined to become violent," which seems intuitively obvious. There is a strong suggestion that biased media coverage also leads to knee-jerk reactions, but counters with H. L. Mencken's aphorism that "for every problem, there is a solution which is simple, neat, and wrong." Fair enough, but perhaps a nod to Occam's Razor is also in order, after all, adolescent Black females aren't shooting up schools. Finding out why one particular demographic seems to predominate should gather the attention of researchers. Regardless, this document is must-read for anyone with adolescent children in schools, particularly public schools. It will keep you up at night and might have you asking pointed questions at the next school open house.

A couple of sections are particularly concerning. The first fright is Family Dynamics with almost every item being a symptom of, or exacerbated by, the newest fad: gentle parenting. Truly terrifying is the section on Personality Traits and Behavior. Most of these are what you would call "teenager," but what might happen is a perfect storm as many of these traits feed on one another. Others are more concerning, including narcissism, entitlement, pathological need for attention, and anger issues, all of which seem to have become increasing issues with adolescents over the years. In addition, media: TV; video games; and the internet are mentioned, maybe even featured. A particular issue is "fascination with violence-filled entertainment," so if your adolescent enjoys watching "Criminal Minds" they very well may have one.

What Are They Fighting About?

Spend, SPEND!                RESTRAINT!

Tax, TAX, More Taxes!          Just Stop It!

Pave It All!                   Save Paradise!

Give It To Developers!        No, It's OUR City!

Are Crazy People Happy?

The gut-check answer is "no." It's inconceivable that the crazies could possibly be happy. How could anyone be happy with being crazy? That would be crazy, right?

Well, Mr. Gallup tells us that over the last 12 months that 50-60% of folks have self-diagnosed as bat-crap crazy. Who are these people? Partisans, which really means hyper-partisans, because ordinary partisans have either drifted away or joined their thundering herd racing to the extremes. Left or right, it doesn't matter because they've gone so far they've wound up sharing the same cesspool. And what do they find in this hockey-chopper? Floaters? Sinkers? Both? Maybe, but what they are both smeared with is vitriolic hate speech, and one is doing it better than the other. 

The clear winner is, and has been for some time, the extremists on the left. Academics, who consistently bow their sheaves to the left, initially silenced dissent with boycotts and extensive use of the heckler's veto. They followed this up with extreme actions and speech, ultimately ending with blatant antisemitism. While there was some backlash, the extremists remain entrenched, catching their breath, ready to start again. 

Then we get the 2024 election cycle and rhetoric heats up as it simultaneously descends into crazy. And dangerous. That is what differentiates one side from the other. As we all know, Trump and his allies spout some pretty crazy shit. Sorry, but there is just no other word for it. But if you're one of those 40-50%, take a step back and look at the characteristics of what is being said. First, it is incredibly ludicrous. It is hard to believe that anyone believes this blather. Then if you mull it over, you'll realize these are ad hominem attacks. They are technically personal insults, but they are superficial insults based on things like appearance and how someone's name is pronounced. It is grade school humour and makes you wonder if they still tell, and laugh at, fart jokes. Yes, it is infantile, and yes, it is tiresome. But it is largely harmless.

Not so for the left, the Democrats and their allies. And they have many, many allies. They have cultivated homegrown crazies that have resorted to violence to advance The Cause. Shortly after Trump came on the scene, we had the attack against Republican congress members by a homegrown left lunatic. Remember, the left said that words matter. Then they proved it. They have been incessant in proclaiming Trump as an existential threat to democracy as we know it, as in, empowering unelected bureaucrats. So is it any surprise that two crazy lefties have made assassination plans and attempts? And they have help. Even the AJC grooms their letters to emphasize the leftist meme that Trump can only be believed when what he says can be twisted in support of their "existential threat" lies. They love to mention Trump and Hitler in the same rant, though it is highly unlikely any have read Mein Kampf. They've not read the Constitution either, at least not the part that comes before the amendments, or they'd know Trump is going to be no more, nor any less, of an autocrat than the current president. 

What is impressive is how entrenched the left is in media, academia and think tanks. It's not just the aforementioned grooming done by news outlets, or the antisemitism raging across academia, but a BBC interview with an employee of the Carnegie Institute was, frankly, brazen. Ostensibly the "expert" was given airtime to discuss the need for greater Secret Service security after the second assassin came after Trump. She, Rachel Kleinfeld, would have none of it, pivoting quickly to blaming Trump because he is the root cause of inflammatory rhetoric. So she says. It was like the scene from Jaws where the two boys get caught with the cardboard shark fin. You know the one, where one boy points to the other and says "he made me do it."  But it seems to be working, and they seem to be winning. How do we know? Just look at who's getting shot at.

Working The Web

The Village Gets Spidey Sense

Boobs In D.C.

Among other things, Americans are notorious for short attention spans, so it is no surprise that we're not hearing about swamp draining or deep states though it seems like deep fakes are here to stay. Maybe this is due to, or despite, the incredible loss of public confidence in government institutions, particularly of the medical variety. For the CDC, which started the pandemic in damage control having strayed from science into politics, this may have been a fatal blow, leaving them as a very expensive white [coat] elephant. 

The FDA's story is more complicated.

As part of "Warp Speed," the FDA was key in getting life-saving vaccines to market, and while this was at the direction of the administration, it did not become a political hot potato. Sadly, this seems to have come at the expense of therapeutics, but that is not the FDA's fault. In any event, the FDA has always gotten its fair share of criticism whenever something goes sideways.

Some of this criticism is unjustified. Really. It is. Unlike Europe where manufacturers must demonstrate product safety and effectiveness, the U.S. is concerned, almost exclusively, with effectiveness. Everything has side-effects, right? As long as treatments for side-effects are profitable, this isn't likely to change. 

The FDA is also seen as an administration within the executive branch, which some say makes them part of the swamp, while others see that as an opportunity for legislation by regulation. Kind of a swamper thing to do. The real problem isn't with the FDA but with all those who think they can make the FDA do their bidding. This was recently revealed in the Federal Register. You read the Federal Register, don't you? Well, you should.

In the early '90s Congress passed the Mammography Quality Standards Act which became officially effective in '94 with implementation by the FDA in '95. This was a good thing. Slow, but good. Fast forward thirty years, three full decades, and the FDA is updating regulatory requirements to include breast tissue density reporting to both patients and their referring physician. Before you say "'bout damn time," ponder this: do you really want a federal agency who cannot hold a steady course? If so, you've got the CDC.

The fascinating thing about the publication in the Federal Register isn't the meat of the changes which are so inherently reasonable you must wonder why this was not universally practiced already, but what can be gleaned from comments, and the FDA's responses. There are 156, with the publication aggregating similar comments and grouping them accordingly. It can be a fun read, but much of it is mundane, and some clearly coming from sources with a vested interest in influencing the outcome. 

If you're a deep state denier, the FDA responses will give you hope, on account of the logic in their responses, and fidelity to the U.S. constitution. Several commenters seemed to expect that the FDA could, and should, do whatever they wanted and the FDA consistently pointed to the MQSA and the limits inherent in the enabling congressional act. For example, some seemed to think this act, which covers mammography, could be extended to include ultrasound and MRI imaging modalities. Why? Just because. After all, this was under an administration whose leader stood before cameras and declared he was going to do something he knew would not withstand constitutional challenge. Why? Just because. The FDA was having none of it.

Some comments were far worse, but you have to understand the larger context: women's health has long been neglected and it is long overdue for at least minimal communication of this health issue. And minimal it is. Two reports are required, one for the patient and another for the referring physician. Here's where it almost becomes "blame the victim" as the required text in the patient report targets an eight grade reading level. Some comments claimed that was too high, suggesting a fifth grade reading level, and none suggesting anything higher. If it doesn't frighten you that folks (elites?) that have the ear of a critical federal agency thinks the public, women in particular, are illiterates, then it should. It gets worse. One objected to the lowest density classification as "fatty" as this might offend some patients, but the FDA only requires the fully detailed classification in the physician report. The patient report condenses the four classifications down to two: dense, or not dense. Even a woman can understand that, right?

This publication is an interesting read, but stepping back, what is really frightening is that it has taken 30 years to get to this point. Our country's neglect of women's healthcare is a shameful societal failing. Even with something as serious as breast cancer, and even with broad public awareness, we have not done right by the 51%. Shame on us. On all of us.

Buying A Divorce

You know, it starts out great. You've done all the right things; said all the right things. You're on the same page with family, career, kids and finances. But somehow, somewhere it all goes wrong. You're no longer on the same page. You're not even reading from the same book. You know where you are, but you're not exactly sure how you got there.

Until you are. 

After the initial shock, most divorcees find that one of the biggest sources of fatal conflict is money. Having it. Spending it. Saving it. And heaven forbid, borrowing it. And you did discuss this. You came to an understanding, an agreement. Inevitably this agreement is to be prudent, to spend money, yes, but to spend it wisely. And with a common understanding of what, exactly, wisely means. And this is what you do.

Until you don't.

Something happens. Usually one finds that the commitment to prudence escapes them. Maybe the neighbors got a new car and jealousy set in. Maybe deferred gratification isn't your thing. Or, just living within your own means means you won't live with the things you want, things you feel will make your life better, without any way of knowing if there is an ounce of truth to that. But you've made a commitment, a vow, and you will keep it.

Until you won't.

At first, you're sneaky. You're clever and hide your indiscretions. You may even enlist others into your deceptions, but deceive you do. 

Until you're caught. 

At this point the damage is done. The wound is mortal, the relationship is over. It just takes time, often too much time, for both to acknowledge it. To bury the remains of a relationship that upon reflection was dead when it started, when one, or both, said they would do something that goes against their nature. Things that deep down, you knew you could not, you would not, do. 

And you didn't.

So this is where we are. It started with promises of financial restraint. Taking care of our needs and watching out for our greeds. To establish clear priorities, to not deviate, remaining undistracted by outside influences. To remain immune to envy, to jealousy. All the promises you made, so many years ago, you've broken. You've used outside money, one-time funds, to incur ongoing, recurring liabilities with no clue how you're going to pay the bills when the windfall runs out. Do you just pray for another windfall? Certainly you will deceive, you will lie. 

And you have. 

We discover, in the Blue Bag Rag, that "staff have been instructed to not use terms like 'reserves' and 'structural deficit'" in a clear effort to deceive the public. This comes as no surprise from someone who has condoned falsifying police reports, but this deception breaks a fundamental trust. A promise made at the beginning of the relationship. Because of your infidelity, and your constant deceptions, you have created an untenable situation. You have killed what could have been an enduring relationship, perhaps intentionally, certainly without a care. It is time to revisit the charter, not to amend the contents, but to tear it up. You have already destroyed all it ever represented. You're asking for a divorce.

And that's what you deserve.

It's Freezing Out There

Social media is lighting up with deluges of disinformation around city taxation as we have intentionally entered the overspend zone. Yet again. 

One of the key topics coming from the "spend then tax" crowd is that damned legal document known as the city charter. Seems when this fuster cluck was being sold to the electorate the pro-city folks included a maximum millage rate in the charter. The pitch at the time was this would guarantee we'd not end up with out of control spending and taxing, and since everybody agreed THIS city would be fiscally responsible (wink, wink) it wouldn't ever be an issue. Until it is. Like now. Another interesting deception coming from this crowd spins around the word "invest," as in "invest in the city." Sounds good, right? Problem is none of these lip flappers can can actually show how this so-called "investment" actually pays off. They also fail to mention that these "investments" come with ongoing operational costs for security and maintenance. Who's going to pay to keep these twelve foot wide "investments" clean and safe? Oh, yeah, that would be us, the taxpayers. So they are really "investing" in a future of never ending tax increases.

Another deception centers around the property valuation freeze. Left out of these hyperbolic complaints is the fact that this freeze only applies to homestead properties, which, in the state of Georgia, means you must own the property and it must be your primary residence. Interesting side effect: if you're also a citizen it makes you eligible to become a voter. In the city. Ooops. What this set of whiners neglects to point out, front and center, is that commercial properties, including rental properties, are NOT homestead properties. No freeze for these. Just never ending backdoor tax hikes. This might explain why the city has become a proponent of apartments everywhere. The other fact that gets buried is that when a home sells, it is marked to market. Per Rocket Homes, this includes 43 homes sold in August alone (in July the number was 51). So the freeze gets thawed and the city sees a huge jump in a sold property's valuation. Cha-ching. Maybe that's why the try so hard to piss off long term residents. To get them to sell out and move on.

These folks absolutely refuse to entertain the notion of cost containment. They won't even consider slowing the rate at which they balloon city spending. It is as if the world will implode if they don't spend at least 5% more each and every year. Heaven forbid someone should question why a city of this size needs an assistant city manager. Really? They do like to compare Dunwoody to other cities. Notably those in other counties, and cities which by any objective measure are not comparable. They want everyone to share their fear of missing out but they seem terrified of being ourselves. 

Why is that? Because these folks have no vision but they do have an excess of envy.  So when they see someone else getting something, anything, even if it is inappropriate for Dunwoody, well they lust after it. Not because it is any good, but simply because somebody else has something they don't. It is easily mistaken for a herd mentality but it is far worse. It is greed and jealousy. 

This is why we need to "right size" city government. And "right" means smaller.