Word Smatter

Or do they? Matter? Well the AJC offers examples where they disagree. Pictures are worth thousands of words and the AJC seems to be on a limited quota.

Random Words

AJC Says THIS Is Sex

Justice Sotomayor Is A Distant Cousin

The AJC Has Uncovered That Our Mayor Is A Guy

Dangerous Rice

RanOutOfSpaces

This has been the first in an observational series on "How Technology Has Eluded The AJC."

Hypocrisy Unmasked

You know what makes a Socialist a bad Socialist? Put "National" in front of it. There was a party in Newnan this past weekend and both types, bad and good, showed up. As often happens when competing Birds Of a Feather get all BoF-ed up there was conflict. In this case, conflict resolved by the local gendarmes.

The gendarmes' hammer was a long standing law prohibiting the wearing of masks in public enacted as a reaction (as all too many are) to Klan activities, that even long ago it was politically correct to quash. In this case it was the Good Socialists wearing masks and getting arrested rather than the Bad National Socialists. 

And boy, were the Good Socialists pissed. 

Turns out Good Socialists don't think that laws, particularly laws they don't like, should ever apply to them. In this case since the law was expressly adopted as a reaction to Bad National Socialists the Good Socialists presumed there would be targeted application of this prohibition and that it would only apply to the Bad Guys. Turns out the constitution gets in the way of that and application was applied uniformly to all who actually violated the law. Which happened to be exclusively Good Socialists. Apparently there is something horribly wrong with a legal system that treats everyone equally without consideration for a particular group's self-righteousness. 

Lead By Example

For whatever reason politicians at many levels are ramping up their "there oughta be a law" rants. This time it is about unsolicited phone calls from scammers and telemarketers. Someone wants yet another law prohibiting the practice with today's twist being that the phone companies should be intimately involved in the operation under penalty should they fail. Unlike their no-call list which is an epic failure with zero consequences.

But this is also an opportunity. For leadership. From our pols. See, they could invoke a self-imposed ban on unsolicited political phone calls. The legitimacy of their self-proclaimed advocacy on our behalf would be better supported by having politicians, as a group, get ahead of the issue and lead by example. But that won't happen because that is the real problem for the pols. The real problem is that their uninfringed access to your ears without competing messages coming from any other sources, foreign or domestic should never be limited. Basically these politicians are operating on the understanding that you're an idiot, that you need to conform to their messaging and that requires no interference from other sources. 

Stop Work Order

Suburban re-renewal ain't what they thought it was. They includes the city, DHA and the developer community. Apparently the property on the Most Glorious Re-Jiggered Dunwoody Parkway has been passed between developers. No reports on money changing hands but apparently the city's diktats to the developer fell thru the cracks, specifically the social engineering goal of building an Olde Farte Gulag right here in daVille. Seems the DHA and the city consider "negotiations" to ensure the availability of elevator shafts and Masters on Main in the gulag quite the feather in their cap.  Turns out what hit their collective heads came from a bird but wasn't a feather. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

To understand this cock up you must remember this is the city that forced a road contractor to perform substandard work using unacceptable materials and the DHA glory days ended with the referendum vote and their negotiating prowess is epitomized by their hand in locating a menorah in the most prominent position they could find. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out, every demand from the local authorities running our Permission Society--damn near everything went off the rails. Apparently when the first developer passed the baton somehow the Olde Farte Gulag requirements evaporated and a customer open house did not properly emphasize the "Shafts and Masters" requirements dictated by folks who are neither prospective buyers nor at any risk should the development underperform. It is easy to say what must be done when you're not doing it and not going to pay for it.

So the city cancelled the permits until the current developer updates the blueprints showing the gulag requirements, which will be options, and perhaps has some marketing glossies and price bumps required for hip replacements to play nicely in three floor townhomes. Master on Main attempts to convert a luxury townhome into a tiny flat with a luxury attic and inaccessible basement/garage. Elevators make all floors accessible at the expense of reduced living space and significant capital and operational costs. Gulag Diktats will be options unattractive to anyone who can afford to live here and if our Permission Masters force construction of these configurations they will not sell unless subsidized. By you.

Isn't it wonderful living under multiple layers of HOA's especially when you didn't ask for either one?

Making Sausage

The political machinery that grinds power and money, squizzing it out in an unnatural casing has often been likened to making sausage. And whenever three or more are gathered in the name of politics there will be some playing hide the sausage. Upon that  politically incorrect practice becoming practically illegal a complaint was lodged against a state Senator, Republican of course, by a lobbyist accusing him of demanding she hide his sausage. She refused, then accused. But it turns out she had her own sausage operation and was afraid that same senator would no longer cook her wares and serve it to Georgia citizenry.

The AJC, having procured a copy of the state's investigative report tell us that the document states

"there was no evidence Schafer retaliated towards the lobbyist by killing her legislation"

Her legislation? HER LEGISLATION!?!! That is the real problem. HER name did not show up on any ballot. In fact, due to the AJC victimhood support policy, the paper will not name the woman even though it has now been determined the accusations she made are without merit. But we, the good folk of Georgia who suffer from her activities, are supposed to be concerned about the fate of HER legislation. "Lobbyist" has always been code-word for "something, often unsavory, for hire" but it is baffling why payment terms no longer include sexual favors yet still include screwing the public. Do voters need a lobbyist to get a law passed to fix that?

Education Imagination

You wanna know something funny? "Tar-baby" has a bad connotation. Something sticky that will get all over you and if you touch it you'll never be able to get loose. But there are "good" tar-babies. Ones that are big. Ones that come with huge amounts of public money. Money viewed by politicians as "free." If you can stick yourself or your program to one of these tar-babies you are made. And the biggest of these is public education.

Think about it. Never-ending stream of funding. Max out property tax? No problemo. You think it is hard to pass an ESPLOST? Really? So if you can hook up, in any way, shape or form, with public education it is like being besties with someone who prints money. And whatever it is you offer, product, service, program, it doesn't matter, does not really need to work. At least not any better than the education component and we all know how well that works. 

Problems arise when there are parts of the puzzle that cannot grow at metastatic rates. Social programs are easy. Free lunch not enough? Hey, let's wash their clothes---that'll learn 'em. But what happens when you run out of space? Buildings take too much time for the Silver Bullet Lifecycle and property only helps developers who for whatever reason aren't beholden to PS101. Maybe they have a real job. But the educrats have their bandaid ready: portable classrooms. These are what rednecks would call "trailers" but without all the fixin's. Like that washer/dryer combo. 

But it doesn't fix the "land is expensive" problem. Rednecks to the rescue once again.

All it needs is solar panels and a windmill

Here's where that Education Imagination comes in. You gotta git out yer crayons and construction paper and re-draw these here redneck trailers to be them thar school trailers. Now if you're clever, as some rednecks have been, you can rack and stack these bad boys AND leave all the parking spaces underneath. Here in daVille that would address the hysterical voices raised high and loud over the loss of parking spaces at the high school. Get the Boy Scouts involved and you've got a win-win. Find someone with a welding badge who lusts after Eagle status and have him weld up the frame. That'll work. 

All public education needs to thrive is a little more imagination. Oh, yeah. And more money.

New Restaurant In DaVille

According to the Smart City's very own Convention and Visitor's Bureau, surely the smartest of the smart when it come to Bureaucrats, there is an eatery on Dunwoody Village Parkway:

CVB says this is 1532 Dunwoody Village Parkway

Admittedly, when you're on your back for developers (figuratively speaking of course) or spend all your time at top end Perimeter hot spots you might have missed what goes on in the city the rest of us actually live in. Turns out this location was the main office for the restaurant--but no more. Now it is bare dirt awaiting buyers of expensive condos interested in suburban re-renewal.

But how could anyone at City Hall know this? Could it be because the construction of these condos and the required demolition of the office building identified by the CVB was permitted by the city? Or maybe if someone running this smart city actually got off their Aeron's and went somewhere other than The Mall they might have noticed these buildings were razed months ago. Or maybe they could read their own praises: the city did brag about the significant achievement, on their part, in developing this property.

If Perimeter carves out its own city can the rest of us go back to being unincorporated? Given the current indifference if we noticed any other difference, could it possibly be worse?

The Eagle Is Landing

The Gold Domers have sanctioned yet another city and like those coming before the only votes that will be counted will be those of voters who reside within the proposed boundaries. What is precedent-setting is this time property and asset removal targets not just unincorporated property but would carve some juicy bits from an existing city.

What if this sets a trend? May there be a "Perimeter City" in the offing? Carved from bits of Brookhaven, Sandy Springs, and, hush yer little puppies, even Dunwoody? The viability study could be done with crayon on a CVI business card and would simply prove what everyone already knows: Perimeter Center is the financial crown jewel of the region. Schools would be no problem since there aren't any. Any police would be poached to become mall cops. Literally. That's not a big leap since it is basically what has already happened in Dunwoody. And since only those living in Perimeter Center  could vote the issue, the ballot is a mere formality. Just like all the others.

This could be a win-win. Perimeter gets local control and the rest of Dunwoody gets the chance to prove they're good enough to stand on their own. 

Hear No Evil, See No Evil

And you, dear citizen, will speak no evil...

The City of Dunwoody maintains a See-Click-Fix account and until recently this was the destination advertised by the Police Department to report issues needing their attention. That is until the local Whine Club started taking them up on it. One issue of unrest was around the unenforced truck routes, more specifically the No Truck Routes which were duly reported on SCF. The City claimed forwarding the issue to the PD was some sort of "resolution" summarily closing the issue. Folks re-opened it. The City swatted back, archiving the issue closing it to further comment. Then reports surfaced that it had been disappeared.

But the illegal activity remains unabated. Just this Monday full dump trucks were seen violating the School Crosswalk on Chamblee Dunwoody where folks, and their children, Stroll the Knoll.

We Got Ourselves A Convoy!

Moments later one of many trucks serving stores in the Village was seen headed to the same violation.

Just Another Day Of Deliveries

What do these scofflaws have in common? For one thing their activities are easily known by the City as the one is based on permitted activities and the other is regular as clockwork. For another thing the City turns a blind eye thereby condoning the activity undermining the rule of law and eroding any remaining respect that citizens have for City Hall. Obviously this is unimportant to City leadership and will not change until they are changed.