The CDC Should Have Learned By Now To Stay In Its Own Lane

But they have not.

Remember when the CDC decided to have mission creep and pontificate and weigh in on the social side of things, producing studies on bullying and gun control (aside from funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, natch) leaving it woefully inept when it came to deal with its core function - disease control - with the coronavirus pandemic?

Good times.

Well, those times are back.

After all nice sounding platitudes and policy making for social issues real or imagined is easy, dealing with viruses is rather hard. 

Red State: The CDC Is Coming for Your Guns

Yes, the CDC under the Biden Administration is again trying to paint gun control as a public health matter and an epidemic that would call for emergency health powers in response.   

Guns are not a disease nor a virus. While it is impossible for the CDC to not be political, it's not too much to ask that they stick to their core function - disease control - at least until they can perform that core function competently -   before branching out into other Democrat policy preferences outside of the disease arena.

Piper Says: Choose The Life You Want

Piper apparently likes Tash's taste in books, and she's working on living her best life

Always good to have positive books about increasing happiness for consumption around here.

Or is it that she likes the taste of Tash's books?

Yet Another Detroit Corruption Conviction

The Detroit News: André Spivey resigns from Detroit City Council after pleading guilty to bribery

Note that you do have to play "Name That Party" as the article curiously omits to mention his political affiliation. Then again, its Detroit, and it's all about the D in Detroit.

City Council member Spivey is now the second council member to be convicted of a corruption felony this year after getting over $35,000 in bribes.   

Since there is still a few months left in the year, there's a strong possibility for more council members to cop to their crimes.

Apparently his serving as a minister will now be put on hold considering his felony conviction,  he'll just have to wait until after his release to go back to the ministry like Kwame. 

He lives in the district's historic East English Village neighborhood and serves as an executive minister at Oak Grove AME Church.

Spivey will no longer be allowed to practice as a minister and his felony charge will "prevent him from working," Hall told The News Wednesday.

 On top of that his graduation from law school is now postponed.

Spivey told Roberts he hasn't faced any prior crimes. He noted that he is a Central Michigan University graduate and is a law student at Wayne State University, expected to graduate in May 2023.

Good luck passing the Bar's character and fitness review when you have a felony corruption conviction on your record.  Then again, he's one of the special connected people, so he may just get a pass if he claims he's turned his life around.

Note that he's just joining a long line of convicted felons in this rather hotbed of corruption in the Detroit area:

In the last 12 years, more than 110 labor leaders, politicians, police officers and bureaucrats have been charged with federal corruption-related crimes locally, according to a database built by The Detroit News.

Flying IFR - Lesson 28 - IFR Long Cross Country

Last Tuesday the weather had thunderstorms and a cold front along the route scrapped that.

Today was much better with a mix of VFR and IFR along the way but no thunderstorms.

I got to the airport and filed the flight plan for Pontiac to Muskegon then from Muskegon to Grand Rapids and then back to Pontiac. We were flying N3553M, the Archer with the Garmin GFC 500 autopilot.

As we were doing the run up Pontiac went IFR.

No problem, were going IFR.

Took off from Runway 9R and climbed through the layer, first to 4000 and then almost immediately Detroit Approach cleared us to climb to 6,000.

Detroit Approach then had us head to Muskegon as I had filed it, via the Miggy2 departure procedure.

It was just beautiful above the layer.

 

Smooth as silk at 6,000. After flying for a bit we worked on autopilot usage and the GFC 500 is a nice unit.

The cloud layer continued to thin out to practically nothing as we flew westward.

Made it to Muskegon.  We were going to request an ASR approach but they stated they don't have that capability anymore, even as the charts still say they do.  So we switched to an ILS Runway 32 circle to Runway 6.

We used the autopilot to descend and fly the approach down to circling minimums and it worked very nicely.  Hand flew from circling and did a very nice circle and landing on Runway 6.  Getting a lot better at those.

Then got clearance for our next leg and headed to Grand Rapids.

For Grand Rapids we used the GFC 500's Flight Director rather than the autopilot and its a nice way to fly - just line up the chevrons and you're all set. Did the RNAV Runway 8 approach at Grand Rapids and did the flight director all the way to the M AP where I took over and hand flew it to another nice landing.

Then got a new clearance and back up again and headed back to Pontiac at 5,000 feet, again using the Flight Director.  By the time we got there the layer had fully burned off.  Did the Localizer Runway 9R and the Flight Director really helps with getting down nicely.  I then did a very nice landing.

It was an excellent experience using the GFC 500. It's an incredibly powerful tool - assuming you program and use it correctly.    A great long IFR cross country.

All that's left is a whole lot of check-ride prep which means approaches and partial panel work until I puke and then more approaches and partial panelwork.

That's 3.5, .1 of actual instrument time, 2.8 of simulated instrument, 3 approaches and 3 landings.

Your Latest Detroit Corruption News

Democrats and unions have always had an easy relationship with corruption.

While there is lots of news in Detroit now regarding corrupt city council members.

Detroit City Council isn't  the only location for Detroit corruption. 

The Detroit News: Detroit fire union official spent $220K in union funds on trips, booze, furniture, feds say

Unfortunately, city union officials often let power go to their heads and work for their own benefit rather than for their members.  Of course they often work with the corrupt higher-up city officials as well with one hand washing the other, all at the taxpayer's expense.

Some take it a tad too far and so blatantly enrich themselves in such an over-the-top manner that they get made an example of.

A Detroit Fire Department union official embezzled more than $220,000 and spent the money on international cruises, flights, furniture, booze and more during a years-long crime spree, according to unsealed federal court records. 

Verdine Day, 62, of Eastpointe, the retired treasurer of Detroit Fire Fighters Association, has been charged with bank and wire fraud and accused of orchestrating the scheme before retiring in 2019.

The union apparently had no system of checks and balances and let the treasurer write the checks to herself among other recipients with no controls.  This makes for a far too easy path of corruption and embezzlement.  This lack of oversight and control has to be on purpose, as otherwise it might be too hard to use those funds for less than appropriate purposes.

In Other Weird News Of The Day

Allegedly, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are double-teaming Jodi Foster and banging her like a screen door in a hurricane.

The Detroit News: John Hinckley, who shot Reagan, to be freed from oversight

The Mask Karens Have Got Themselves A Little List

A bit of a brouhaha is brewing up in our school district due to our local crop of Karens.

It seems a Karen decided to compile a list of parents with wrongthink based on scouring their social media about their bad, wrong-thinking, negative opinions on masking kids and mask mandates in school.  

Apparently Karen allegedly did this to prevent her kids from playing with the kids of these wrong-thinkers.  Karen has a lot of time on her hands to socur the web and compile a list, it seems.

She then gave it the charming name of: "Anti Mask Families in District.”

Of course, Karen didn't keep the list to herself, but then shared the list with other right-thinking Karens, and the list became public.

Click On Detroit: List of families against mask use in Bloomfield Hills schools causes fear, outrage

This caused those parents who dared offer the unpopular but scientifically viable opinion on social media that masking kids in school is not a great idea to justifiably get quite worried.

Then it gets to be even more fun: Click on Detroit: Hundreds gather in support of Bloomfield Hills School Board president ousted due to mask controversy

The very popular school board President was removed from his position as President of the Board by the Board, because he got pulled into this matter after those on the list contacted him concerned that this would lead to bullying of their kids and other negative consequences as the list was quickly going viral in a Karen-fest of virtuosity. 

So he investigated and asked the school superintendent and the police to see what was going on and if threats beyond the publishing of the list were being made.  The other school board members, many of them complete mask-holes, decided his actions were against protocol and removed him as president.

Let's put it this way -  the best study on masks and Covid so far is that cloth/surgical masks - which are the masks mandated in the district - are all of  10% effective at filtering exhaled covid-virus particles, with K95/N96 (which are not mandated)  filtering about 50% of exhaled particles. Either way, that's a lot of particles getting through.

SciTechDaily: Most Common COVID Masks Only Filter About 10% of Exhaled Aerosol Droplets

So the mask mandates in schools aren't exactly super effective, and it should certainly be acceptable to question requiring them to be worn in schools especially given the massive uptick in mental health issues among kids during this pandemic, lockdown, and mask mandate period.

Lots of studies are also showing that kids and schools are not a major vector of Covid spread  - Washington Post: Schools are not spreading covid-19. This new data makes the case.  and an analysis of the CDC's latest study shows mask mandates in schools are rather statistically insignificant.

Making lists of people for "wrongthink" and daring to have unpopular opinions tends to lead to some very bad things.

Sunday Match Day

Headed to Romulus this morning for a USPSA match. WCRHC always puts on a challenging match, and this was no exception.

Got caught in traffic on the way there as they had closed 96 and 275 was down to a couple lanes and was a mess.

Managed to get through the mess and got there ok, checked in, paid the match fee and got ready.

First stage was a difficult retreat stage.  You started up range with the gun on a table and shot the 4 targets arrayed in front of you and then there were two sets of angled arrays behind you of two targets on each side per array and then a final array behind you of a single target on each side of the range right at the rear fault line. Breaking the 180 was a concern.

I had a plan, did the plan and it went pretty well.

Next stage was pretty challenging with quite a few targets only visible from very fine angles. Had the plan and at port 2 planned to shoot two targets.  Shot two targets.  Wrong targets.

I had moved in just a bit too much and missed the two in the array I should have shot and shot other targets twice so they had 4 alphas each but that doesn't help.  As a result learning occurred.

I did mess up another stage by missing a target in a similar-ish fashion which didn't help any.  One of the more experienced shooters said it happens and that was a very challenging stage, and otherwise I was doing quite well.

Other stages did go quite well.  Still need to improve a lot.

Overall I'm decently accurate but I made these dumb mistakes which cost. Only had one D the whole match, 20 Cs and all the rest of the 175 rounds were As. Still not fast enough.  If I can just stop doing the dumb, I'll be in much better shape, need to figure out why I do that and how to track and ensure I hit the right targets better.

There was a very good bunch of shooters in my squad, also they're a very good bunch of people.   Even messing up shooting during a match is better than not shooting at all.

Two Dogs, One Tug

Unlike the more infamous Internet meme that you really don;t want to search for, this is family friendly.

Up until now, Jett has been ignoring Piper and generally been unhappy with the new addition to the family.  Typically he was growling whenever she approached and didn't want to have much to do with her.

We bought them a tug big enough for the two of them to play with.

They both enjoyed the tug o' war.  Much happy growls from both sides.

Finally they've started  playing together a bit.  Piper will chase Jett until he growls at her, then she'll chase him some more, perhaps nip him a bit, and more growling will ensue and some fun running around then occurs. 

Jett is still not 100% sure about Piper, but he's started warming up to her.

Flying IFR - Lesson 27 - IFR Approaches Holds Partial Panel And Bumps

So I had Sara as my instructor today.

Sort of a mock Stage III checkride but I'm not Stage III yet.

So we had N6288J.

The sky while finally VFR after the last few days of constant rain, decided to be decidedly not smooth for my flight.

Lots of bounciness around, including an un-commanded 60 degree bank to the left which was a bit sporty.  Also we hit a bump in the air so hard we both left our seats but managed not to bash our heads on the roof - yay seat belts!

First we went to Flint where I did the ILS 27 approach with full procedure and it went ok, then did the published miss and hold and boy did I bugger that up.  Got way behind and it did not go well.  Need to work on my hold entries - I get the theory just fine, its figuring out how to do it in practice that is causing me issues.  Need more hold work.

Then on to the VOR 18 Circle to 27.  Went rather well, but started off with some confusion as first they vectored us a bit, then they had us start, then Great Lakes Approach decided to vector us some more, then said direct to the first waypoint so the start was a bit of a mess.  Once I got that sorted out it worked well, and learned a bit on circle to land procedure as well to improve that - in short, you can descend below the circle to land minimums when you're on base for the landing runway and shouldn't do so before.   Went missed but I would have had the runway made.

Then back to Pontiac for the Localizer  Back Course 27.  Sara was very helpful by turning off the Attitude and Heading indicators so I go to use the compass and the other instruments to get back, get vectored to the approach and do the approach.

The compass sucks for flying headings by the way, especially when the world is bouncing around.  It tends to bounce around with it and its hard to know if you're on course or not.

Also lots of fun holding your altitude, pitch, and bank with no Attitude Indicator.

But I did it well enough anyways, and remembered and announced the backup VOR would be reverse sensing the back course (you have to fly opposite the needle to get on course rather than flying to the needle) and flew it in nicely to final if a bit high and to a nice smooth landing.

A few other minor things to polish up on, but overall a good if bumpy as heck flight.

That's 1.7, 1.4 simulated IFR, 3 approaches and 2 holds and a whole lot of bumps.

The Detroit Reparations Push Silliness Continues

The Detroit News:  Advocates for reparative policy argue 'we can do better' at Mackinac Island conference

The panel talk centered on policy decisions and discriminatory practices that contribute to the racial wealth gap and comes ahead of a Nov. 2 ballot question in Detroit over whether a reparations committee should be formed to study ways to boost opportunities for Black residents. 

Reparations is just another word for money transfer to Democrat favored constituencies.   Typically with such transfer enriching Democrat bureaucrats and consultants in the process.

Now Detroit, if I may remind you, is a city that has been run by Democrats, and specifically Black Democrats for the majority if not the totality of the lifespan of most of its current residents, and with said residents having suffered under the corruption and misrule of said Black Democrats,  not from slavery.  Now apparently said City should pay slavery reparations to its Black residents - said residents who have never been slaves in their entire lives.

Does that make sense to anyone?  At all.

Basically it is a quest for free stuff:

Hamilton said during the Tuesday talk that society will never move forward from racism until reparations are addressed. 

"If we want to have solutions, we need to honestly grapple with reparations," said Hamilton, adding that alone "is not enough."

"...we need a government that promotes anti-racist economic rights that ensures that people have a birthright to capital, quality housing, quality health care," he said.

There is no such thing as a "birthright to capital, quality housing, quality health care"  you earn each of those things by virtue of work, savings, and effort.  It's not given to you.  Assuming such a birthright is absolute magical thinking and part of the problem here.  Also, assuming Blacks cannot achieve any of these things on their own is also part of the problem here.

But the article and the statements made by these race hustlers get even funnier:

Note the subtle anti-white racism among the "anti-racists":

Goss added she finds it "disturbing" only six of Detroit's 11 middle-class neighborhoods grew in the most recent U.S. Census and "only because upper, middle-class white families moved in." 

. . .

For the rest of the city, opportunities for middle-class families where housing can be stabilized and where small businesses can grow are needed "without that gentrifying factor," she said.

Yep, curse those gentrifying white people and their (checks notes) increasing of property valuers and increased small business presence in a city rather bereft of them.

On top of that, the hilarity that one can say something with a straight face and then argue for the exact opposite is rather funny.

[Darrick Hamilton, professor of economics and founding director of Institute on Race and Police Economy] Hamilton said change will begin when "somebody's race or ethnicity no longer has transactional value."

Wait a sec, transactional value of someone's race is exactly what he himself is advocating for: Blacks, by virtue of Being Black should get these "reparations"  - If that's not race having "transactional value" one wonders what is so in his book.

The next funny bit in the article:

Perry has conducted research on housing and authored the book "Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities."

Through his work, he found homes in Black neighborhoods are underpriced by 23%, about $48,000 per home, "cumulatively, that's about $156 billion in lost equity," he said.

Wait just a minute here.  

Let's note that the City of Detroit which again is majority Black and at the time was completely Black-run, has been properly castigated for overvaluing Black (and everyone else's homes) to the tune of over $600 million in overvaluation - causing residents to pay higher and in some cases ridiculous taxes on their properties - leading to foreclosure of (you guessed it) Black-owned properties due to non-payment of the improperly high taxes.

You really can't have it both ways, unless you're a Democrat or progressive "thinker" apparently.

Having the City of Detroit vote to pay reparations to its residents is a joke.  Having the State of Michigan which was not a slave state pay any reparations is a joke when the last slave here was before the civil war is similarly a joke.  Pushing reparations for people who have never been slaves is a joke. But, it's apparently a very profitable and politically popular joke to Democrat race hustlers and consultants and for their constituents looking for money for nothing.

Is Anyone Actually Surprised By This?

The Detroit News: Taliban name deputy ministers, double down on all-male team

If anyone truly believed, moral preening statements of the "international community" to the contrary, that the Taliban were somehow going to step away from fundamentalist Islam and include women in their government, well, there's this really nice bridge connecting the two peninsulae of Michigan that I have for sale to you, at a great price.

The Taliban expanded their interim Cabinet by naming more ministers and deputies on Tuesday, but failed to appoint any women, doubling down on a hard-line course despite the international outcry that followed their initial presentation of an all-male government lineup earlier this month.

The Taliban really couldn't care less about an international outcry, and the limits of soft power have now been demonstrated and yes, found wanting. 

Yep, the Taliban are having their very own, and very real war on women, protests of the progressive international community notwithstanding.

Flying IFR - Lesson 26 - Solid IFR Approaches

Today was going to be the long IFR cross country.  Route was going to be Pontiac to Muskegon via the MIGGY2.GETCH transition then to Grand Rapids airport and back to Pontiac via the RRALF3 arrival.

We were going to fly N3553M which has a GFC 500 autopilot so we were going to check out the autopilot functionality.

With a cold front rolling in from the west it was not to be.

So might as well get up and do some actual IFR approaches.

Winds and MVFR conditions prevailed at Pontiac and as we got up to 3,000 feet we were in the clouds and some precip and bumps. After a bit got into some smooth air in complete IMC.

On to Flint in the clouds, did the RNAV 27 approach into Flint and broke out just above minimums to see the runway right where it was supposed to be.

Went missed, flying runway heading and up into being vectored for the ILS 27 at Flint.

Did that approach, then the clouds lifted a bit as we went missed, and went to do the VOR 18 Approach and circled to 27.

Did the chop and drop and did a rather too-fast base on the circle to 27 but brought it around and got lined up and did a low approach over the runway before going missed and then climbing out.  Need to work on that.

Then off to Pontiac and the localizer back course to 27L.  Used the autopilot to fly back to Pontiac, then for the localizer approach.  Overall it did good on the altitude and initial headings but couldn't grab the localizer back course so hand-flew it in and did a good landing with a gusty crosswind.

Overall good approaches, completely IFR conditions throughout with some bumps but found smooth air for most of it.

That's 1.9, with 1.6 actual, and 4 approaches in IFR conditions.

Biden's Befuddling Border BS

The Biden administration, while it is letting in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico - without them being vaccinated nor even tested for Covid, and with no mandate for illegals to be vaccinated or even tested, persists in keeping the Canadian land border closed.

The Detroit Free Press: U.S. travel restrictions at Canadian border extended another month, through Oct. 21

This is idiocy of the highest order. 

You can fly in from Canada, and now pursuant to the new policy, international travelers can fly in from elsewhere to the USA, but you can't drive in from Canada, because, well, no valid reasons given.

Canada reopened its border to vaccinated U.S. travelers over a month ago on Aug. 9, but the U.S. has not reciprocated. Canadians who wish to enter the U.S. for non-essential travel such as tourism may do so only by flying in.

This is nonsense on stilts, and likely to backfire as the Canadians move to match this stupid and unreasoning policy.  It also harms all the border states' economies due to the lack of vehicular travel, even of vaccinated visitors.

So unvaccinated and untested illegals are still crossing the land border into the US from Mexico on a regular basis and being allowed to remain, but vaccinated and tested Canadians cannot cross a land border.

The US/Canadian border should have been reopened to vaccinated travelers months ago.  Continuing to have it closed is beyond moronic.

When Good Fish Go Bad

Sleeping with the fishes has a new meaning as the fish in Lake Orion really seem to get around.

The Detroit Free Press: Hundreds of fish in Lake Orion died from herpes, Michigan DNR says

Probably an education program for the fish may help. 

I'd suggest catchy phrases with a hook like:

"Wrap your fish stick".

"You're swimming with every fish your fishmate ever had".

"Practice Safe Swim".

How About "None of Your Business"?

One other interesting anecdote from the Covid testing experience.

At the facility we went to, you have to register as a patient, as one often does.

Instead of simply signing up and giving your drivers license and health insurance to take the test you have to give a pretty full health history.

 Note - Photo ID is required for Covid testing - interesting isn't it?

Now, at least it was electronic history so you didn't have to write things out in quadruplicate as at other medical offices.

But it was a very invasive medical history that was requested, especially for simply getting a Covid test.  Quite a few question asked had nothing to do with your medical condition at all, especially this one:

How is having guns present in your home a part of your medical history, exactly?

Sadly, there is no "None of your business" or "Stay in your lane, Doc"option to select. So, I simply skipped over it, as I did with most of the intrusive and non-applicable questions, which meant the medical history was rather quick to do.  But, as usual one spends more time doing paperwork than actually having the test itself performed.

The progressives in the medical establishment  are certainly not giving up their false and inapt gun control as health/epidemic model anytime soon.

Schrödinger's Virus Tests

Thursday Tash had a PCR test in preparation to go to Canada and visit her mom and help out since her mom is still not feeling well and the shingles are taking a toll.

You must have a negative test within 72-hours to visit Canada even if vaccinated.

So yesterday evening we get the results:  Positive. 

Note there have been no symptoms of any kind whatsoever.

This throws things into a tizzy as there is no online alternative for the kids if they can't go to school, and if you are positive or exposed to someone positive you can't go.  Considering it is Abby's senior year losing 14 days of school would be unrecoverable come exam time. Leah similarly would have major schooling issues.  School did not think this policy through, nor do any risk analysis.

So the kids doth freak out.

So we all rush to go to get tested.

We do both rapid tests and PCR to be sure.

All Rapid tests including Tash's, and this type has a very high accuracy rate on a par with the PCR, come back negative.

We get Tash's PCR test from yesterday right now:  Negative. 

Everyone else: Negative.

So, like Schrödinger's cat is she both positive and negative at this point?

We will go with best two out of three and a finding of negative, and the first test likely was defective or inaccurate.

Messed up her plans completely for Canada this weekend though, and her mom could have used some help.

Flying IFR - Lesson 25 - Approach And A First Bravo Entry

Lesson 25 started had a bit of a false start.

On the way to pre-flight N5337F the owner of the flight school asked me if we could monitor the engine analyzer and ammeter and see if the battery was charging.

In short, after a pre-flight and trying to start the engine, it was very apparent the battery was, in fact, not charging.  It would not start the engine.

So we switched to N2885B, a Piper Warrior and headed out to do some more approach work to Ann Arbor, Troy and Pontiac.

I was with Alec on this one. 

The airspace was busy and heading to Ann Arbor we got vectored off the course to get to the start of the VOR 24 approach and had to  sequence in.  Lots of planes and helicopters practicing around Ann Arbor today including two University of  Michigan medical flight copters.

Did the approach, do need to work on my wind correction and getting down faster, overall did ok but can do better.

Did the published miss and hold and then started heading for Troy.

On the way to Troy I got my first clearance into Bravo airspace.

Due to traffic Detroit Approach had me climb up into the Bravo, and Detroit Approach stated I was clear to enter the airspace. Kinda neat.

At Troy I did the RNAV 9 and circled to 27 to land.  Was a little tight to the runway on the circle and could have gone wider on the downwind, and a little high on final as a result but landed, even though it was a long landing.

Then topok off and headed to Pontiac for the RNAV 27 with a miss.  Then after being cleared for the Localizer Back course 27L, Alec failed both my heading indicator and Attitude Indicator so I was partial panel.

Figured something like that might happen so I already had the backup VOR tuned to the localizer.

I used the backup VOR and compass as a result of the failure and did a very good approach, but again was a fair bit too high, but did a good landing.

I do need more partial panel work and I expect I'm going to get a lot of it.

I do need to watch my altitude as I was certainly off it today and not quick enough on step down descents.  While too high beats too low, just right is much better.  More stuff to improve upon.

That's 2.0, 2 landings, 4 approaches and a hold and 1.4 simulated instrument time.

The Woke Attack On School Safety Continues In Michigan

In the name of racial justice and stopping the  mythical "School-to-Prison-Pipeline", Democrats in the Michigan legislature want to get rid of the "effects" zero-tolerance (a policy ended in 2016 I might mention)  and add "equitable" including racial and other factors to the disciplining of students at school

Michigan Advance: Lawmakers introduce bills to reform school disciplinary process

The Civil Rights Data Collection, which gathered information from over 96,000 public schools in the 2015-16 school year, found that minority students face harsher discipline than white students. Black students made up about 15% of the student body but accounted for 31% of the arrests made.

Considering this is actually lower than the  world outside the school walls where Blacks make up 50% of violent crime while being only 13% of the population, the statistic does not appear unreasonable and likely should have some context - namely what were these students doing that caused them to be expelled?  Indeed, should we cap expulsions to ensure racial equity regardless of actions of the individual?

Some politicians apparently think so.

Geiss noted that Black girls are eight times more likely than white girls to be at risk for school arrests. She highlighted that these bills will help to tackle the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure more justice in school disciplinary actions.

With trauma-informed restorative justice techniques in discipline at the school level, we can disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and bring about racial justice in the process.” Geiss said at the press conference.

Again, no contextualization as to why they are eight times more likely, nor a ny accusation that whites are not being suspended/expelled for the same actions, merely that Blacks are apparently committing expulsion-able offenses in disproportion to their percentage of the population.

Oh, you see this is about racial justice, not justice for any of the victims of the expelled.  it seems these legislators in the name of racial justice want programs put in place where the students that disrupt and attack other students are kept in school  "Trauma-informed restorative justice techniques"  where the wrongdoer's acts are excused due to their "trauma", and their victim gets to have them stay in school to continue to torment them.  What could go wrong?

We can note both Trayvon Martin and Nicholas Cruz each received Florida's Promise program that let them skate on disciplinary and expulsion-worthy activities to the detriment of other students and society.  

These Michigan Legislators seem to want a similar program here, which will likely sadly lead to similar results.

How Much Is That Piper In The Window?

Piper is keeping us on our toes.

She likes to get everywhere.  Yesterday, she managed to trap herself inside the shower. Some cute hilarity ensued.

She was released none the worse for wear and still full of energy.

Sadly, she doesn't quite get where to go yet, so as much as she's going outside, she's also going inside, possibly mistaking the carpet for grass.  Much cleaning up ensues.

She has also taken up Jiu Jitsu.  She's in the leg-lock chapter, currently working on toe holds.

The problem is she does the toe holds with her sharp puppy teeth.

Ouch.

She does get people tapping out to it.

Good thing she's cute.