Splendid Isolation

Bullying With Bureaucracy’s Tools

September 14, 2022 Kim du Toit Education, Homeschooling

Here’s a good one (“good” in the sense of fucking evil bastardy):

Madison Bratcher, the mother of a girl who was enrolled in the Bridgeport Independent School District (BISD), received an odd reaction from her daughter’s school after withdrawing her.
“Her daughter was bullied, exposed to inappropriate sexual talk by other students, and mistreated in classes and on the bus. Bratcher said she raised these issues with her daughter’s school, but they were not addressed,” according to a report from The Texan.
“All of these incidents show that Bridgeport doesn’t have the best interest of students at heart,” Bratcher told the news outlet.
Bratcher and her husband made the decision to homeschool McKinley, their daughter, who is in the sixth grade. They sent an email to the school notifying them that they were removing her from the school.

Which, according to Texas state law, is all you need to do if you want to homeschool your kid. The response from the school?

The parents did not receive a reply to their email. Later, Bratcher received a phone call from the school informing her that registration was now open. She told the individual that she would not be enrolling her daughter and would be homeschooling her instead. School officials called twice more even after being told that Bratcher was educating her daughter at home.
On the third phone call, an official told her that she needed to fill out some forms indicating her intent to withdraw her daughter. This person also asked probing questions about what program Bratcher would be using to educate McKinley. “At this point, Bratcher said she became very uncomfortable and asked the school to send her the forms via email.”

And as for the content of the “forms”:

The forms required her to acknowledge “dangers, concerns, and disadvantages” of homeschooling. One of the forms also said the district could investigate a family if it has “reasonable cause … to believe that the assurance” given that the child would pursue a bona fide program of homeschooling is not true.

All of which is total bullshit, of course — the “investigation” procedure does not exist, is not backed by any Texas law or regulation, and is pure intimidation.

This all happened at the school level, apparently, because when Our Intrepid Mom got hold of the school district brass, she got a groveling apology, and an assurance that the “forms” were not authorized by the district. (One hopes that this would result in someone getting fired for cause, but I wouldn’t put money on it.)

Why would the school stoop to this level? Ah… follow the money. Each student pulled from a state school means reduced state funding.

Texas residents, take note. Other states’ residents: find out the steps required by the state before you pull your kid.

Worthy Cause

September 14, 2022 Kim du Toit Friends and Family, Plagues and Poxes

Longtime Reader Tim V sends this appeal:

A buddy of mine is suspended without pay for refusing to get vaccinated and is currently in court over this issue. The Go Fund Me link has all the details. He is looking for financial help for the legal expenses.
I thought you might be interested in supporting this GoFundMe, https://gofund.me/511282ac.
Even a small donation could help Jonathan Lucas reach his fundraising goal.

Because this mandatory-vax bullshit has gone far enough, I’ve donated a small amount. Do thou the same, O My Readers, if possible.

Living Without The Past

September 14, 2022 Kim du Toit Good Stuff, Lies and Untruths

Much of what ails us today is a refusal to learn from the lessons of the past. It’s called “presentism” (an actual word, not a manufactured one), and Edward Ring describes how it affects just about every aspect of our polity and society. An excerpt:

The climate emergency, along with the inequity of white privilege, are existential threats to humanity, and therefore both require a “reset” to put things right.

To make it almost impossible for Americans to unite and stop the destruction of their way of life, in case the sacred and urgent consensus regarding climate and equity isn’t enough, Americans are also trained to hate each other. And that trope, repeated endlessly and everywhere in myriad iterations, goes like this: If you are a member of the heteropatriarchy, you are an oppressor. If you’re not, you’re a victim.

Of course, the entire narrative must be questioned because it’s all a pack of lies.

Which it is. Read the whole thing; it’s excellent.

That Awful Colonialist Elizabeth

September 13, 2022 Kim du Toit Africa, Politics

A whole bunch of racist assholes (and disaffected Argies) have been rejoicing at the death of Queen Elizabeth II, as a “colonialist” and all that rubbish. Accusing Elizabeth of colonialism is the same as accusing (for example) Joe Biden of slavery — i.e. it happened a long time ago and in Elisabeth’s case, was an inherited legacy.

That nitwit in the first link says that “we should examine the role of Queen Elizabeth in colonialism.”

Okay, let’s.

Why don’t we see what happened to all those British colonies in Africa, for example, following Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953:

Sudan: 1956
Ghana: 1957
British Somaliland (Somalia): 1960
Nigeria: 1960
Sierra Leone: 1961
Tanganyika (Tanzania): 1961
South Africa: 1961
Uganda: 1962
Kenya: 1963
N. Rhodesia (Zambia): 1964
Nyasaland (Malawi): 1964
Gambia: 1965
Bechuanaland (Botswana): 1966
Basutoland (Lesotho): 1966
Swaziland: 1968

The dates following the countries’ names refer, of course, to their full independence from Britain and becoming thus fully-fledged nation-states.

And all happened during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Some colonialist.

Back To Greenbacks

September 13, 2022 Kim du Toit Anti-Gun Nannies, The Gun Thing, Two-Minute Hate

How convenient:

Credit card giants Visa, Mastercard, and American Express will start categorizing sales of guns from gun shops using a new merchant code from the International Organization for Standardization. Previously, individual sales from gun stores were categorized as “general merchandise.”

And:

Now, the gun control lobby will go to banks and start pressuring them not to take credit card sales from gun shops. And isn’t it convenient that the banks can now easily identify gun sales by the code that was just approved by the credit card companies? Visa, Mastercard, and other credit card companies are middlemen between the merchant and the bank, and pressuring large banks to refuse to honor credit card sales would potentially devastate the firearms industry.

Most people should have enough “spare” cash on hand for a SHTF situation which can be used for this purpose, but I appreciate that in these times of Bidenflation, that may not be the case.

My suggestion: assuming that you don’t have enough “ready” cash on hand to make the purchase, draw cash from your credit card (up to whatever the monthly limit is) until you have enough to buy the gun you want. Use the first cash withdrawal to “hold” the item, and pay the balance when you’ve collected enough. Most gun stores will do this for you, as I recall.

There are all sorts of other ways to circumvent this (e.g. private sales between individuals), and I welcome suggestions in Comments.

After November, let’s start a concerted lobbying effort for Congress to write a law that disallows this practice, as an infringement on the Second Amendment.

I’m saying all this because all my other thoughts are a great deal blacker and more, shall we say, drastic, but let’s not go there.