7. The Johns Hopkins Spars post
Coming up at 2:30 today, after the aeroplane and jazz post.
6. Thank goodness there are good women out there
In response to this guff:
Biden Education Dept to reverse Trump-era rule critics say silenced student victims of sexual assault [The Hill]
Harmeet K. Dhillon replies:
This framing is a lie. Obama era rules denied the accused — mainly men — due process, and infantilized women.
You all know my hobbyhorse - when their attempts to split men and women fail, we [both genders] are then on the road to defeating Woke.
5. Certain "new" dangers in flying
It's a good article and though I disagree with one of its conclusions, that's no reason not to look at it. I also run some personal risk today as I'm close to certain ladies, so why would I make a rod for my own back, leading to a "friendship divorce" by the fairer sex?
Yet I must press ahead as you know. There are various factors to be weighed and balanced in this and if I shift the discussion to why I, personally, would or would not get onto a plane with a lady pilot, then that's my choice and mine alone. Ditto with you in your case. Perhaps we can start at the article's start:
I have a friend who is fearful of commercial airlines.
At the gate, before boarding, he asks the agent the following question: "What is the captain's name?" If the answer indicates the pilot is female, he will not board that flight. Any criticism of my friend's lack of confidence in any qualified aviatrix is answered along these lines: "She can't drive a stick shift. I should trust her with a Jumbo Jet?"
My friend is right to be cautious about flying, but for different reasons. Like most air travelers, he doesn't know what he doesn't know.
After a career of being closely associated with the air traffic control system, I can confidently opine that female pilots should be near the bottom on anyone's list of safety concerns. Closer to the top of that list? Affirmative action.
Women in general are good at following procedures and sticking to details. Therefore, when that lady pilot brought that airliner safely to water, she stated that she had just followed procedure, the procedure was good but she was being too modest - there was skill involved, plus there are always two pilots consulting.
The danger, as the "former U.S. Marine and ... FAA air traffic controller" wrote, is in the "affirmative action" and that affects pilot recruitment just as much as affecting those at head office or in ATC. When there is utter silence over a woman being appointed, while the gamut of scrutiny is still applied to the men, something will eventually give.
I'm speaking here of down the track, long after it's become the norm and yes, I am speaking USS Fitzgerald and collapsing Florida bridges.
Who's to blame for the need to overcome prejudice and fight for the right to fly? Initially men of course, of which I am one - we were the ones scrutinising and getting nervous, just as when a girl has a gun in her hand - I've been in that situation with a girl with a gun in the backseat letting it fall around, whilst laughing, joking and concentrating on everything except the gun and it getting jolted, so pardon me if I dismiss objections to my view.
The problem with our attitude - and it was not just men either here - was that not only the Woke women but the evil muvvers of diversity as a whole just redoubled their corner cutting until a situation existed where women were doing their own appointing and the type deciding these things were now either feminazis and/or pussified Woke top brass.
In short, a situation where a woman could make it on her own merits, by her own lights, no longer existed - she had to be "promoted", a way cleared for her, a narrative written to blow away any objections.
And that was what Confessions of a GI Jane was all about. The irony is that I would probably trust Christy herself with my life - I do have enormous respect for various women in their own fields and she is one tough gal. But she's still a gal as well in her rambling way.
In fact, it's a great litmus test. If she read this section, her reaction would be to refer me to her video, whereas I know certain ladies reading this now who would be apoplectic at me.
And that's the sign of a feminist.
I believe someone like Christy would accept that men and women are not the same, each has his/her strengths and weaknesses, his/her own way of approaching things - each gravitates towards certain activities because each is good at those activities.
When an ideologue comes in and plays on women's insecurities to turn them into "I'm better than any man" monsters, then any rational behaviour is lost in the "teaching him a lesson" imperative. And there is a track record with such facilitators, plus the promoted women themselves are bubbling with suppressed righteous indignation. The complication is that there is most certainly a Hultgreen-Curie track record for the pioneers to live down.
They could easily hit back about incompetent men, especially today while society is being re-engineered and with all the pussified males about, plus the Woke at the top - no argument.
But the writer is correct in attributing the problem to affirmative action, such poison insinuating itself into every sphere of activity today. It's not an even playing field we're dealing with, each case taken on its merits.
That's fine in the safety of our own keyboard space but it's a different matter when I'm in a long, cylindrical tube at 30K feet and a woman is trailblazing for women up front. No thanks.
And were there a male up front, one steeped in Wokery from training courses - I'd also be concerned in a matter of life or death. Just as I am with an experimental, gene-altering poison jabbed into unquestioning people's arms. No thanks, I'll wait.
4. Night follows day [cheers, haiku]
I thought we had put this sort of idiocy behind us, but I see it's back again. In 2011, some German politicians suggested the country's youths be required to obtain some sort of internet driver's license following a party that got out of hand after a private Facebook invite was accidentally made public. Somehow, obtaining an ID to use social media services would prevent this from happening in the future, but officials were extremely light on details.
Five years later, our own DHS came up with pretty much the same idea. The DHS's attaché to the European Union suggested the online presence of terrorists and child pornographers demanded an across-the-board reduction in privacy for everyone. The only difference here was the analogy: rather than a driver's license to use the internet, all internet "travelers" would have to display some form of internet "license plate," making them readily identifiable to the government.
Talking of ladies in high places, the Oz Government (Conservative) now has THREE Ministers for Women. I doubt any of them can fly an airliner. Meanwhile I wait at the bus stop for our first Minister for Men. I have been waiting a long time and must wait some more.
ReplyDelete