Federal Money Runs Out

An AJC staffer recently published a political op-ed as a pre-emptive strike against upcoming legislation regarding money-follows-the-child vouchers dragging out all the usual objections cloaked in subjective comparisons. The problem with these pieces is they require a setup before the big pivot. The setup was far more revealing than the predictable "we hate vouchers" coming from a voice noted for chanting "public school, public school, uber alles."

In this case the setup was all the federal money, soon to run out, that was thrown at public schools...because CoVid. 

The federal bandaid on their self-inflicted crisis (assisted by AFT) is about to be ripped off, though Cardona prefers to present this as passing the baton to the states. This is predictable and has worked before. It is a common practice for the feds to dump in money to get local governments to start programs which then must be continued, at local expense. The feds have tried this with medicaid expansion that has been successfully resisted by only a few states. And this sell-off of local control happens at all levels. Dunwoody has been doing this through grant-grubbing since its inception.

It gets better. The tee-up includes the rationalization that this money was needed, and used, to address learning loss and mental health issues (how is that education?) caused not as much by CoVid but by the federal government's and teacher union's insistence on closing schools. This has been proven, throughout the world, to be an unnecessary and harmful over-reaction. Unless you were a teacher holding online classes from a beach in the Caribbean. The schools ceded local control to the feds and now they want the money to continue. They have a point: it is all but impossible to shrink, let alone eliminate, a government program. Think: REA. 

But public schools are facing more than a loss of federal funds or parents who have pulled back the curtain in their Emerald City. They are facing the disruption of AI, good for parents and their children, but for public schools-not so much. What parent would not want an IEP for their child, especially the parents of high achievers whose potential is never fully addressed in "bring up the back end" public schools? Who wouldn't want an individual tutor, knowledgeable in all topics? A tutor who is constantly training, who is intimately familiar with your child's current standing and trajectory-long term and short term? And when taxpayers find out the bill for this is much, much lower than the system we have, a system we would not build if we had no system at all, these taxpayers will demand a revolution. Will there be a King Ludd to save public schools? Probably not.

Betrayal

Bureaucrats at city hall are still angry they didn't get the $60M slush fund which put their commitments to Shining PATH in jeopardy. But if they are anything they are clever and their disdain for Dunwoody residents knows no limit. They are going to get their damn "paths" no matter what it takes and frankly if it harms or angers the community they seem almost proud of that. So what they've now done is strong-armed a developer who wants to build three homes on Tilly Mill into planting a twelve foot wide section of concrete in front of these new homes, forcing the cost of this trail, to and from nowhere, on these homeowners, despite the objections of residents in the area who oppose useless concrete especially on the east side of Tilly Mill. For full disclosure, the MJCC doesn't want it on their side of the street if they even want it at all. 

This hodge-podge approach didn't work in daVille with sidewalk widening mandated with property renovation/development. That was until the townhome development came along and they folded like a cheap suit. Or did they? Was it quid pro quo? Seriously, if it is all about master plans and commitment why aren't there wide sidewalks in front of that development? After all there is built-in foot traffic. It is worth noting there seems to be no wide-sidewalk activity with the renovations at the corner of the Parkway and Mount Vernon. All this makes the Tilly Mill situation look like vindictive retribution. 

And what of our Mother Earth Mayor and her Council of Clowns? When it comes to rescuing inflatable yard art due to public outcry, there will be changes, indicating they can at least ask the bureaucrats even if they cannot demand. Despite public outcry against their Tilly Mill vandalism and the rebuke at the ballot box they seem content to sit there and wait for a city bureaucrat to call "switch." It is clear they are willing and capable of action, but they have not (and probably will not) take action in defense of real people with blood in their veins and more than air in their heads. They have made baffling choices as they refuse to include residents in their chosen constituency. 

Where does this originate? Is it that the kumbaya lobbying at GMA has infected Mother Earth Mayor with FOMO? Is it simply the condescending paternalism (and increasingly, maternalism) that runs rampant in the political class: you don't know what is good for you so we're going to do this anyway. Does Shining PATH have polaroids of folks doing something unseemly with a chicken? Is there quid pro quo? Will we ever know? This city is not known for transparency. 

And what is happening in the fifteenth anniversary year of the referendum's passage? Our Mother Earth Mayor and her Council of Clowns have taken turns stabbing "local control" in the back. And twisting the knife.

You Win

The local whining society has been harping for sometime about their dissatisfaction with the business makeup of daVille. Standard fare are the cheap shots about the number of banks disregarding the fact that it has been called "Bankwoody" since before Versatile Video was selling Commodore PET microcomputers. They seem to think we need more pizzerias because after Sal's closed to make room for a larger Publix we just haven't had anyplace to buy a pizza. Or maybe they just don't like Urgent Care facilities. Well, if that's the case, they just got a win as a long time urgent care center in daVille is packing it up and calling it quits. 

Maybe the whiners will get together, pool their money and open one of the trendy restaurants they go on and on about. Or, maybe just another bank.

Got A Bone To Pic

Pulling Your Leg?

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.

Who Hates The Deer?

Turns out to be folks who own, and probably claim to love, dogs. You may have noticed, among other cultural invasions, the sudden rise in folks who bag their dog's poop and then just leave the bag. Sometimes in someone else's yard. Sometimes on the sidewalk as if that is somehow, in some narcissistic alternative world, better. 

But then it becomes more than just unsightly. Ruminants, including deer, have been found to ingest these plastic encased poop bombs. The results can be lethal. Maybe this is their intent. Maybe they think, that by culling the deer [over]population they provide a public service. Or, maybe they just don't think. Maybe they can't.

Like Peas In A Pod

The AJC recently gave a good deal of ink to a local politician who had recently visited Finland, assumably on the taxpayer dime, returning with tales of educational equity and excellence that she believes we can apply right here in the ATL. Really? Equity in Finland, bearing in mind that the contemporary uses of "equity" are the same outcome. Regardless. 

Could there possible be two places, two communities, two societies, MORE dissimilar? We're mostly familiar with the ATL but lets take a look at Finland, demographics in particular. Finland has about 5.6 million people. The. Whole. Country. To quote Wikipedia, "Finland is a predominantly ethnically homogenous country with a dominant ethnicity of Finnish descent." We are a melting pot, though it appears the heat was turned off quite a bit back. Finland is also blessed with official languages, Finnish and Swedish, and we are not. Don't even try. The only thing more unfathomable than a politician spouting this nonsense is the AJC giving it a platform.

The only sensible explanation is that the politician left her guide dog at home.

Keine Stille Nacht

It is time for the annual "assimilation tango" with folks from other parts of the world imposing their customs on the land they've chosen to migrate to but have no intention of respecting. 

Particularly the laws.

As it so happens it is against the law in DeKalb County to shoot off fireworks after 9PM except for a very limited set of days which does not include Christmas Eve (see Division 4, Sec. 16-311). Virtue signalers contend we simply must respect these newcomers' customs and tolerate their openly breaking the law. Well, in some places guns are fired in celebration giving us the term "celebratory gunfire." Will the virtue signalers accept and support that? Where do they draw the line and who are they to draw it? By what authority do they decide who can and cannot break our laws with impunity? Will anyone support and enforce these laws in effect and respected by others? Probably not: think inflate-a-dino.

As politically correct as it may be, perhaps we should follow the lead the UK has set and limit immigration to numbers we can successfully assimilate.

Baffling Math

Math is cool. Has real world day-to-day application. What might that be you ask? Well, sussing out BS in mainstream media. Case in point: in a recent Maureen Downey opinion piece on math scores, to underscore the importance of STEM, we get this:

"Engineers earned the highest median salaries, with an average pay of $97,000..." 

You need to know almost nothing about statistics to smell this road apple. You see, when they change horses in mid stream, from median to average, they're mangling the data to support their viewpoint. You should stop reading the opinion piece at this point and disregard all you've read to this point. Instead you might want to rabbit-hole on the "flaws of the averages" because almost without fail when someone slings around average numbers they're slinging crap. Thought exercise: consider the average household income with two earners in the USA. Doesn't really tell you very much does it?

Talk To The Hand...

...the bureaucrats are busy.

A resident of Dunwoody has been trying to get the city to stop ignoring his requests for discussion. Topic? Stormwater issues. The matter at hand seems pretty straightforward and involves a drainage basin in need of an outlet and frankly the ownership of the basin itself should not result in the city ignoring a resident. And by city we mean the city manager, the mayor and a councilman. 

However, if you want to openly violate the sign ordinance with your inflate-a-dino this city will not only listen, they'll give you the key to the city and rewrite the code to suit your (currently in vogue) style of ticky-tacky. Does anyone we've elected not see what's wrong with this picture?