Election Is Coming

And they are not uncontested.

Maybe we can find a candidate who can read. And understand. And not become so easily confused.

Fern Gully

And They Call It Puppy Love

Over by Dunwoody United Methodist Church, the birthplace of Dunwoody, there is a holding pen for rug rats that is transitioning to a strikingly similar operation hosting dogs. Being labeled "doggy daycare" does little to disguise the fact that it is more like a "doggy hotel" of the extended stay variety. Yes, we're talking sleepovers with proper human chaperones to avoid the near occasion of a doggy brothel. But it isn't the prospect of squeals of delight but incessant barking that has human neighbors lighting their virtual Tiki Torches. One neighbor summed it up thusly:

"The city needs to establish a new code for affluent neighborhoods." 

Now why would anyone think the city must ask "how high" whenever the affluent say "jump"? The easily jumped-to conclusion is "entitlement," but just consider that it might be something else. Perhaps, watching how malleable city hall seems whenever a business needs an ordinance custom tailored to their needs, they might have thought that voting taxpayers, especially rich ones, might carry similar gravitas. Regardless, the neighbors may want to get accustomed to incessant barking as the new business intends to join the BYOB club giving it Most Favored Business Status with the Council. 

Cis-tra, Cis-tra

From the Agnes Scott College Statement on Gender Expression and Gender Identity:

“We support students, including students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or questioning (LGBTQIQ). This support takes the form of a variety of campus services designed to create a safe learning and living environment for all. We recognize and value individuals across the spectrum of gender and are proud of the trans women, trans men, and non-binary individuals who have been admitted and/or graduated from Agnes Scott. We embrace our identity as a women’s college and as a community are committed to inclusive excellence in our mission.”

Exceptional Students

Students must believe they are exceptional because they are always asking for exceptions. It has been going on for decades but has become all but universal recently. They've gone from the first day of class notification that they "are an 'A' student" to threatening to gang up for career-killing course reviews. It is not an idle threat.  Before launching the nuclear option they will demand "extra credit" oblivious to the fact they've not bothered to do the work required of "usual" credit. Once their god-given right to an 'A' seems threatened they run to the department head on their way to the dean. If the institution has integrity the entitled darlings will then provoke their parents to intervene usually leading to a discussion of FERPA.

But if a Prof really wants to screw with their little self-esteems it is easier than one might imagine. All you have to do is tell them they can have whatever grade they want. Don't want to do the work? Don't do it. Take an 'A'. Don't like the project team you're in? Get out. Take an 'A'. Upset because your loopy candidate lost an election? No problem. Take some down time. Oh, and take an 'A'. Turns out the entitled little snots find this 'Take an A' policy insulting. Almost as if the professor is telling them their work ethic sucks, they haven't learned and aren't likely to start any time soon and yet still expect an 'A'. It only hurts because it is true. But they want the transactional appearance of "earning a grade" when in fact they have no intention of doing half the work needed to earn a 'C' a mere thirty years ago.

And the University is in on it. Like any other business it is grow or die. Expand at all costs even if it means lower standards for entry as well as retention. A society that believes a college degree is a pre-req for success is not going to resist the decline past mediocrity into absolute educational fraud. Yet the school doth protest:

"The syllabus did not conform with the university's rigorous expectations and policy regarding academic standards for grading. Rest assured, this ill-advised proposal will not be implemented in any Terry classroom."

As an academic endeavour Business must be laser focused because this statement clearly ignores the history of the University. Turns out the University has a documented history of passing out grades without necessarily handing out tests. Passing grades for ball passers. And this University is not alone. The practice is nationwide. And now it is being expanded from money-making athletics to money-taking academics. All this professor did is what was done before: expose today's 'education'  for the sham it has become.

Trail Of Tears

The Georgia GOP, who otherwise advocate free-market economic policies, have come out against legalized gambling offering this nugget as justification:

legalizing gambling could open the door "for any Indian tribe to venue shop for property to open casinos" around the state

Really, Kemo Sabe? You mean like your forefathers venue-shopped the Cherokee to a distant state or a nearby grave? Do you really find it that offensive that descendants of the original inhabitants might return, buy back their land and operate a business offering a much-wanted service paying taxes, to you, all along the way? Or are you just protecting your gambling business from legitimate competition?

Unenforced Ordinances

Someone with the City was noted for openly pondering why anyone would pass an ordinance that would go unenforced. Perhaps this was rhetorical. Perhaps it was just a thought, meant to remain unspoken, that escaped. Perhaps it was a sincere though naive question from someone new to government in the U.S. and this burg in particular. These ordinances are being used by politicians and bureaucrats to create a totalitarian government destroying what our country's founders intended as a free society.

In his book, The Permission Society: How the Ruling Class Turns Our Freedoms into Privileges and What We Can Do About It, author Timothy Sandefur identifies the radical innovation our country was founded upon: personal liberty derived from inalienable rights and bolstered by self-evident truths.  He then spends the rest of the book chronicling how politicians and state bureaucrats have whittled away at these liberties creating an authoritarian state King George III would envy. One of the most powerful weapons in the statists' arsenal is the at-will enforcement of laws, regulations and ordinances. The ruling class attacks their foes, including you, cutting with both edges of this sword.

At-will enforcement pushed the power of judge and jury to the edges of the ruling class allowing officers and bureaucrats to punish or persecute those who meet with their disapproval. Look no further than Dunwoody's Police Department with a Driving While Black policy so egregious it put the City on the losing end of court cases. Or the City lawyer who took it upon himself to berate and threaten a taxpayer who hired goats to clear his property of weeds and brush because by the lawyer's assessment the property owner infringed on government dictated right-of-way. The other edge is the "don't ask-don't tell" approach to ordinances espoused by at least one member of Council. This allows members of the ruling class, Staff, Mayor and Council, to curry favor with Friends and Family in private and business sectors. The potential for filling campaign coffers or securing personal wealth is no disincentive to this practice.

If you believe the deflective ruse that at-will enforcement is really on-complaint then put it to the test.  Report speeding in school zones expecting serious, effective enforcement and you will be disappointed. Try that with trucks in a no-truck zone and you'll get a dismissive email about insufficient infractions to justify police attention. If you get anything. Try as you might you will find nothing but a City devoted to destroying what our fathers brought forth on this continent.

It's All Your Fault

In his tenure as DeKalb School's chief Michael Thurmond started riffing on the notion that public schools were just fine and the real problem was failures in the communities they serve. Green and his administration brought deflective blame-the-society, blame-the-community to a crescendo complete with pep rallies and self-congratulatory billboards. This strategy does not supersede or obsolete the tried and true tactic of trotting out the teacher-proof student as a shining example of public schools' capabilities. In fact, a staunch proponent of public schools, the AJC is doubling down.

In a recent posting it is suggested that the success of public schools is due to work ethic, another external factor and yet somehow crediting schools, and not the external actors with that success. The author dances a jig around racial issues by singling out successful east asian families, Tiger Parents and their Tiger Cubs, for the high priority they place on academic achievement and the work they devote to that achievement. The posting paints a picture of "this is how public schools can work for you"--dedicated, devoted parents with high expectations taking primary responsibility for their children's care and education using the public schools as one of many tools at their disposal.

The author pulls up short in any examination of the primary and subordinate roles of the featured actors lest the argument backfire exposing that these academic success stories have little to do with public schools or their wrap-around services and bloated administrations. This would required poking around in Tiger Mom's toolkit. Music schools--violin, piano not Sousaphone and marching bands. Math programs--Kumon, Mathnasium, the Art of Problem Solving as teaching mathematics was abandoned decades ago by public schools in favor of "math concepts." Summer math, robotics and computer science camps. Perhaps, depending on what part of "East Asia" the Tigers come from there may be some soccer involved. World of Warcraft? Maybe not so much.

And then the author would need to explore how this works. How does the Tiger Parent find the programs? How do they choose between them? What does the student's schedule look like? You can cite directed, funded research to fill the page, but in Atlanta many folks know or are Tiger Parents. You may start with a beginning keyboard program advancing to smaller studio lessons based on Tiger Referrals, studio visits and recitals. Similar approaches are used to select the math programs, summer experiences and online education where Tiger Cubs acquire their educations. The key element here is why proponents of public schools avoid all but a passing examination of Tiger Families: they have choices and they make choices. Choice is a wooden stake thru the heart of vampiric public schools.

So just how does this all turn out? Well, you can get an immediate sense by googling Kumon locations noting where they are and perhaps more importantly where they are not. Now if you believe they are missing in south DeKalb because the schools in that part of the system are doing such a wonderful job that a market doesn't exist then you need to check some facts. To Thurmond and Green's original point, there are no supplementary educational operations in that community because there is insufficient demand. This drives the on-going wave of self-segregation with Tiger Parents putting miles and sometimes school districts between themselves, and their children, and those suffering from an Elektra complex with regards to paternalistic governments, including schools. Since it is politically impossible for even a concentration of Tiger Parents to break the stranglehold public schools have on education tax dollars they will leverage their political power to ensure that "working for the children" is more than a platitude. If the best teachers, measurably better than others, are not teaching their children there will be changes. This self-segregation and political pressure will continue until the system modernizes giving Tiger Families complete control over the full spectrum of education options. 

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Wikipedia entry on the Dunning-Kruger Effect should include a picture of Dunwoody--Staff, Council, Mayor--the whole schmear. They, like all governments, work diligently to avoid transparency but many-a-time their disdain for competence shines a light. Take this faux-transparency on the Smart City website.

Pretty cool, huh? Who knew this City had any ethics let alone such an abundance that a Board is required to keep up with it? Only one problem with this. See that puke-green text "Ethics Ordinance?" That is one of them-there fancy "hyperlinks." You know, the kind that takes you to another web page. Only this one takes you down a rat hole.

Turns out Dunwoody doesn't have an Ethics Ordinance. Or maybe they do and just don't want anyone to know what it is. Or maybe, just maybe, they are hopelessly mired in the early phase of the of the Dunning-Kruger effect.