Why Do They Do It?

Why? Suicide? Corporate suicide that is. 

The latest "victim" of self-inflicted destruction is none other than the Associated Press. Now we all know that this affliction ran thru the mainstream media during the pandemic like the virus ran thru the populace with the level of disinformation reaching cosmic and comic proportions second only to Hunter Biden's laptop. 

It's one thing when the gray lady soils her clothes but this is the AP, the same AP that publishes the style guide used by journalists in the know. These are the folks who declared that Black should be The Big Guy and white is the little folk. Fine. Honestly that is innocuous enough but they really blew it on an article damning the folks they allege took down Claudine Gay, though plagiarism makes it a clear academic suicide. 

The article started out as a typical bias-hit-piece currently of no surprise from this outlet but quickly went to "roll up the pants it's too late to save the shoes" when they casually laid out the "fact" that scalping was a practice used by white (note the little-w) colonists against natives. Fair enough, there were times that was true, but the lie is one of omission and a monstrous lie it is. Scalping did not first arrive on this continent with the white colonists (it is now politically incorrect to call them settlers as "colonist" has become a weaponized pejorative even used here in Dunwoody) and the colonists actually learned of the practice after they arrived. Wonder how?

Indicative of shifting winds the AP was blasted for this horrible example of yellow journalism (can you still say that?).  The AP's response? A re-edit, unacknowledged by the AP and not noted in the article that can best be described as weaselly. It is the journalistic equivalent of sorry-not-sorry which has become the only expected response from what, decades ago, was responsible media. 

With mainstream media remaking themselves into the journalistic equivalent of professional wrestling this election year is going to be very entertaining.

Above The Noise

There have been some recent threads on social media regarding the existence of an enforceable noise ordinance in Dunwoody. The response has generally been "no," with a member of council suggesting this is difficult to enforce when the source of the noise is an automobile. Furthermore, excessive noise is left to the interpretation of the officer as in fact it is with the offended resident. A brief read of the noise ordinance indicates it is, as implied, poorly crafted.

How poorly?

Steam whistles? Really? With the example signaling quitting time like that happens in a city that is so moderne that it is undergoing "urban renewal." Where did they plagiarize this one from? It does call out "exhausts" but by neglect excludes motor vehicle exhaust specifically calling out steam engines, stationary ICEs and motorboats. Are steam engines (and whistles) that thick on the ground in Dunwoody? Who wrote this crap and when, exactly, will they be fired? With cause. 

If plagiarize you must, and that is what this city does, then why not steal from a good source? It is like this city is a cheater copying answers from the class dunce when they're sitting right beside the curve buster. And who might this curve buster be? That would be Athens Clarke County whose noise ordinance is far better. Notice how subjectivity for both the offended resident and the cop is all but eliminated. Can you measure a distance? Hope so. Can you hear the prohibited noise? Then, based on time of day and day of week this would be a violation. Cuts directly to the heart of the problem: is the noise so loud to the human ear that it constitutes a disturbance?

Another thing we might purloin: ACC has a Public Safety Civilian Oversight Board.