Transparency...

...a word they like to use...down at city hall. And, something they avoid like toxic waste.

When they can. When they can't the get really, REALLY pissed. The most recent target of their ire is Brian Bolden, until recently on the PD payroll. After a perfunctory investigation by Big Sis of the West charges were stacked and Bolden was sacked, presumably "with cause." 

But what was his real sin against god, humanity and all things city hall? Well, he contacted some folks in mainstream(ish) media regarding information that is a matter of public record. In fact, this particular type of record often appears in newsprint under the heading "Police Blotter." So what really went pear-shaped? All things city hall, especially the bad things (an increasing trend) must go through the Truth Butcher for slicing and dicing as the raw, unprocessed truth should never see the light of day. Bolden got out ahead before the Truth Butcher could rinse, repeat and spin. So Bolden gets hung out to dry. 

It is really interesting that between the Parsons and Bolden incidents, Truth Butcher went public airing city hall's commitment to transparency. Want some real fun? Cruise on over to Dunwoody's website and download Big Sis' investigative report. Or even the self-congratulatory Top Cop "There's Nothing Dirty Going On" report on the sexual hijinks in his little bitty pissant country place. You'll want to set a time limit, because despite Truth Butcher's proclamation, you ain't gonna find them. These would be hidden behind their Open Records Request pay wall. That's because you ain't payin' enough taxes for real transparency.

Truck About

There's talk amongst the city bureaucrats (who mostly do NOT live here) about converting the intersection of Roberts and Chamblee Dunwoody into a round-a-bout. Ostensibly this is to alleviate traffic backups but since much of the cause of these backups are downstream of this intersection that is bullshit. So who knows? 

There is another problem, very important to city bureaucrats, with the simple, one lane round-a-bout. It doesn't work for trucks. Yes, given the no-truck zone status of C-D and Roberts (both school zones) this should be a non-issue but since the city all but encourages open violations the actual fact is these (illegal) trucks must be provided free access. And the city has a plan. They're going to make it a double lane round-a-bout. Not because there are so many residents needing to do a 270, but because the extra width makes it that much easier for (illegal) truck traffic to easily clear the intersection. 

Seriously, is there any bureaucrat at city hall that gives a shit about the folks who actually live here?

Pros From Dover

We were told from the beginning, and it is enshrined in the city charter, that we would forgo meaningful representation for the promise of professional, virtually flawless, city operations by hired bureaucrats. Reality has proven to be far from the promise. We've had serious ethics violations, not averted by a city attorney bureaucrat. Odious incompetence and open malfeasance plagues the police department. We've had multiple DWB violations (costly). We've had civil rights violations (more costly). Sexual hijinks (untold costs, to date). Fealty to business over residents (think "bark park" in your back yard) has proven that even if they are competent, they're devoted tocojones anyone but us. And this all lands on the city manager, first and current, who've not the bollocks to do anything (positive) about these train wrecks. Certainly we're getting neither Hawkeye nor Trapper John.

And...given the only lever our eviscerated mayor and council have to pull is replacing the city manager with someone with some cojones we obviously need some changes in who gets elected and the only relevant question during any election debate is "are you committed to changing the city manager?" Or, should we bypass that and fix the city charter?

Concrete Issues

What is with all the concrete trucks racing through the no-truck zones on Roberts and Chamblee Dunwoody? They aren't accessing a work site within that area, they are just passing through.  Quite a few of them so where ever they are headed is a pretty large worksite. The kind of a development might be getting special zoning changes and tax handouts but most certainly one requiring permits from the city. Bureaucrats at city hall might feign ignorance but they are the folks handing out these permits to their developer friends and family so this would be disingenuous to say the least. Applying the "reasonable man" test suggests incompetence or something far worse. No matter, this is just another example of city bureaucrats serving outside interests no matter the harm to residents. 

Is this what you thought you were getting when you voted "Yes Dunwoody!"???

If You Can't Say Anything Good...

That seems to have afflicted the AJC yesterday in their weekly page on Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. Given what has been exposed, by other outlets, regarding some pretty odious goings-on in Dunwoody, the AJC was in bind. They could discuss these issues, which don't look good, or they could continue with their pollyannish PR pieces or they could just keep quiet. They chose the latter. 

What is even more interesting is the coverage by the local rags of the outrageous legal costs we've incurred due to bureaucrats at city hall. The Reporter and the Blue Bag Rag (originally the city's official legal organ, but the city doesn't seem to be printing notices much of late) have been sussing out the legal costs of the hijinks in the Dunwoody Police Department. Best as they can tell, from $115 worth of heavily redacted documents, is the tab, so far, amounts to about $407,000. It is particularly interesting that this appears on the front page of the Blue Bag Rag, since if they still are the official legal organ it would not be surprising to find out that some bureaucrats down at city hall are drawing up the dismissal paperwork for council to rubber-stamp. This is either a courageous act by the BBR, or since we're well past the Dick Williams era, it may just be loss of the rose-colored glasses. Or...could it be...journalism?

As for the legal costs, it is time for the mayor and council to stiffen their collective spines and make some changes. Since they are somewhat hamstrung by the city charter and are left with only the nuclear option, they need to fire the city manager and replace him with someone who will clean out the upper ranks of bureaucrats. The chief of police must be the first to go. Certainly some foot dragging can be attributed to letting him skate into retirement, but this is really beyond the pale. Clearly the rot has spread and many of the top level bureaucrats are past their sell-by date and need to be binned. There are some areas where entire groups need to go. Will the mayor and council do anything? Hard to say, but increasing numbers of folks are ready for them to go all Major Kong on this fiasco.

They Cannot Be Stopped

This could be about cityhood movements that just will not go away no matter how directly and firmly the voters tell them to; they're like that cold sore that keeps coming back. This is about those developers hell-bent on building cookie-cutter clutter buildings. Everywhere. Oh, and they expect the taxpayers to pony up some additional profits. 

And TOD isn't the only one who finds these buildings to be architectural trash and aesthetically odious. Click that link. The entire article  is well worth reading but one of the many knock-out punches is:

The “Stick Frame Over Podium” building—a model of cheap, expedient construction—is creating freight trains of mute boxes cropping up throughout America’s urban landscape. These dreary buildings have made so much money for their developers that the typology is changing apartment living for enormous numbers of people. A code evolution has caused a revolution in how buildings can dominate the aesthetics of our communities.

The article offers many insights into how this plague rots the very soul of our community offering little but profits to developers and possibly to enabling friends and family in city bureaucracies and administrations. Is there any hope? Perhaps a glimmer:

I think we will soon see the inoculation of the recession vaccine. In the coming months, the low interest rates that power development will be jacked up to temper the inflation that post-pandemic expectation has nurtured. When the cost of money rises, the savings of stick-frame-over-podium vanishes. And developers will stop building them.

This hope is mitigated by the reality of this cheap, but highly profitable for the developers, development practice:

But, like the chicken pox, there will be a shingles replay for our thoughtless intoxication with expedience and profit. Cheap boxes do not weather well. Skins intended to keep weather out only do so until their seams fail—and they eventually do. Flat roofs inevitably welcome water inside, and flat faces made of veneers decay in the freeze and thaw, expansion and contraction, of wind and water.

And the author shares his fear that greed will conquer all:

[...]this huge wave of 5-over-2 buildings will fail in just a generation or two. The difference is that while cars can be recycled, we may discover that the rotting sticks of these cheap buildings might be easier to remove than reuse or repair. Will we learn from their failure?

What the author fails to mention, or notice, is that this planned obsolescence is intentional on the part of the developers. This will be timed pretty nicely with the expiration of tax handouts. These gulags will look so trashy that the next crop of bureaucrats and politicians will all but beg them to "re-develop" these odious hovels. And as long at the residents of this city are held powerless by the city charter, we can expect developers to get some pretty hefty tax handouts, just as they did the first time.

It's Gonna Be (Another) Bloodbath

First, it was "Guns Everywhere" and look at the bloodshed that spawned. Next we got "Campus Carry" and protestors ended up writing their signs with fresh human blood. Even the pandemic cannot bleach the stain of those memories from our minds. 

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, the Gold Domers are serving up "Constitutional Carry" allowing anyone who would qualify for a carry license to tote a gun without actually getting a license from the government. Without a government background check. Without offering up their fingerprints for the government's database. 

Just like every time before, there WILL be blood.

This law will open the floodgates. No longer will public firearm carry be restricted to those who rent a license from the government and criminals who care neither about the law nor the government. Now every ole Dick and Jane can run around town with a concealed firearm and the government won't even have a clue. Neither will you. What were they thinking?

And just look at the added layer of protection we currently get from government licensing of the second amendment. Sure, sure, Georgia IS a "shall issue" state and if you qualify they have to give you a license. Sooner or later. But what are the qualifications? Well, the aforementioned fingerprints and background check that must take less than sixty days unless the government decides that the government's delays are "reasonable." Oh, yeah, and it will cost you. In DeKalb that would be $85.25 at the very least. For this minor inconvenience to some everyone else can rest assured that anyone carrying, with a license anyway, is far safer than they would be without one. C'mon man, isn't that just common sense?

Whatcha Think?

A recent AJC reprint of an opinion piece from afar was ostensibly about "critical thinking" in the context of "critical race theory." It is, unfortunately, an agenda piece with no symptoms of critical thinking whilst committing semantic war crimes which have become all too common. 

The first sin against words and meaning is one of omission: failure to define "critical thinking" as used in this context made more poignant by the fact the author chastises his rhetorical opponents for not defining "critical race theory" in their context. Even novice critical thinkers have alarm bells ringing on that one. 

So, let us put a plaster on that bullet wound. One source defines critical thinking as

it’s “thinking about thinking”—identifying, analyzing, and then fixing flaws in the way we think

Another offers this

Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.

What these have in common is that critical thinking is inward, reflections on how the thinker is thinking in an effort to improve that thinking. What critical thinking is not is developing effective criticism of others' thinking. 

So, what about the false flag? Is critical thinking needed in our schools? Certainly. But this requires the kind of thinking skills one finds in mathematics and grammar. Logic and meaning. Thing long abandoned by our schools for being too hard. For the faculty. Therefore for the students. So yes, we need critical thinking in schools, in the workplace and in academia. Hell, we even need critical thinking in journalism, even the op-eds.

Guest Post: Pork Fat Rules

This is yet another food lesson from TOD's rather foul-mouthed but well-intended Calinky cook. Rest assured, the kitchen is cleaner than the language.

Look, I know you girls had it rough growin' up and yer momma, my sister, did the best she could. But yer daddy was on a first name basis with half of SLED and she to go it alone most of the time and deal with that worthless son of, sorry, yer daddy, the rest of the time so it ain't no wonder you didn't learn 'bout cooking. We gonna fix that. We gonna learn pork fat.

When we say "pork fat rules" we ain't talking like that loud mouth bam-bam man, we're about learnin' the rules of pork fat. Most folks think about bacon or maybe fat-back when they hear "pork fat" and I know some folks are out there payin' way too much to somebody slappin' pork belly on a plate. I ain't never seen it and I never want to, but I know it happens. I heard stories and they're just so unbelievable they gotta be true. The rules we're talking about are the magic of making that fat into lard. Yep, we're gonna make pig butter cuz there ain't no better fat in a righteous kitchen. 

Making good lard means startin' with good fat and I know what you're thinking 'cuz I saw that look on yer face. You can pull those eyes back down and start payin' attention. Now there actually are different kinds of fat on a hog and yeah, bacon, back, belly, they're all pork fat. Good pork fat. Not the best pork fat. The best pork fat don't come off the hog it comes outa the hog. We're talkin' leaf fat. Now some folks call this leaf lard, but it ain't lard until we make it into lard, which is exactly what we're gonna do.

I see that. Yeah, that look. Like you wonderin' why you don't just go down to the grocery and buy some lard. Well, they're sellin' lard at most places but it ain't really lard. It's crap. Some kind of high-draw-jenny-ated greasy crap. We don't let that crap in our kitchen and we sure as hell ain't puttin' it in our food. Now you actually can buy lard that ain't all crapped up, but you're gonna pay fifteen, maybe twenty or more dollars for less than a pound.  Now I like me some lard, but that's a bit too proud for my purse.  

And you wanna know somethin'? I went by that university meat market you rant on and on about and I got them to pull me some leaf fat. Cost me less than fifteen dollars for over ten pounds. I know you're not just a smart-ass but you're got some real smarts so you're wondering what this leaf fat really is. Turns out hogs are a lot like other folks, especially the fat ones, because they got some fat inside their bellies. We can't call that belly fat cuz pork belly is already taken, so they called it leaf fat. Now some folks say that is because when you pull it out it looks like a leaf, but I've pulled more than my share of fat outa hogs and it ain't never looked like no leaf I've ever seen. This fat sits around the kidneys and what makes it the best fat for lard is it don't taste of hog. It comes without any bits of meat like the outside fat and that's where the hog flavor lives. Leaf fat is plain, pure fat. Best fat for the best lard. 

Bag O' Leaf Lard

We're gonna turn that bagga fat into the best lard you're ever gonna cook with, which considering you've never cooked with lard ain't a real big chore. Everybody thinks they know how to make lard, you render it right? Yeah, you do, but you probably don't know exactly how to do it and if you don't pay attention you will screw it up. Only a few steps but all real important. We're gonna cut the fat up just enough to fit in that big pot of yers and we're gonna soak it in water. Overnight. Then we're gonna pull the fat offa that tough lining it's hangin' on to. We clean the pot, put the nekkid fat back in and now we can start what most folks think of when they hear renderin'. But they ain't thinking past pot-on-a-burner to melt some fat. Ain't that easy. Or fast. First we add some water. I know, you're wondering why anyone would add water to fat. We're gonna have this over a very low heat but we still don't want to burn any of the fat so we add some water to keep the fat at the bottom from hot spottin' before some of the fat gets to meltin'. Once we get some fat meltin' it won't burn and the water'll boil off. Plus you gotta remember that hogs gots lots of water in 'em anyway and that all has to boil off so a little more ain't gonna hurt noway. Nuther thing lotsa folks don't get is this ain't happenin' real quick. It's gonna take time. Hours. Quite a few. Like all day. In fact you may need to heat all day, turn the heat off and come back the next day to finish it off. 'Cuz you ain't gonna sleep easy with a pot of hot fat sittin' on the cooker and weighin' on yer mind.

How do you know yer lard is done? Because when you render lard you're removing the fat from the tissue the fat comes in and when that happens you not only get liquid lard you get cracklin's. These little bits of precious should be small and they should be lightly brown since they been slow cooking in lard. Once you're at that point, say after six to twelve hours, we'll process some lard. 

Once yer lard is done you gotta strain it and store it. Best to use wide-mouth mason jars for storage and you can use a cannin' funnel to fill 'em up. You'll need a good ladle and something to strain the lard so the cracklin's don't end up in yer lard. I use yer granny's old tea strainer but lotsa folks use cheese cloth. You ever tried to wash cheese cloth? Don't. 

Straining Tools

There's one thing you're only gonna forget once: liquid lard is damn hot. That lesson might head yer way because you're forgetful or a bit clumsy. Like I said, it is damn hot, hot enough that the yer jar might break and if that happens you don't want it just sittin' on a counter cuz you'll end up dancing in broken glass and hot lard. Not as funny as it sounds. Whatcha wanna do is put the jar in one of them large steel bowls you been ravin' on so if it breaks, you're only out a jar and some lard. You wanna strain the lard as you fill the jars and fill them up to the shoulder so there's a bit of air left in the jar. When you put the lid, hand tighten it but remember that there lard is hot and now the jar is too. Treat it with care and an oven glove comes in real handy. 

Liquid Gold

The lid dimples will be standin' proud but as the lard cools over the next few hours you'll hear them ping as they seat in. It'll probably be tomorrow before the lard finishes coolin' and after that you can put it away 'til you need some. 

Hard Lard

And ya wanna know something else? You not only have a load of lard you got yerself some mighty fine cracklin's. 

Fine Mess O' Cracklin

Next time we're in the kitchen we're making some butter milk biscuits. And then? Cracklin' corn bread.