A fellow named John Hinderaker writes in the POWERLINE Blog, always provides an entertaining start to the day. This morning featured two interesting items in the misogyny column. We have seen a flurry of notable events in that category lately. Mr. Hinderker attempted to just the other new development: all female flight crews in the cockpit and cabin service. He took on some of the Diversity Lobby in his column this morning. It is part of what may be a tipping point in the annals of our current DEI social conflict.
We have no problems with women in the sky. We have an Uncle in the circle whose job with Kodak building gun-camera sighting equipment precluded his active duty flight status. Instead, he worked with the WASPs- the Women’s Air Corps Special Program pilots. Those ladies took on a variety of dangerous assignments, including ferrying combat aircraft to the front and freeing male pilots or direct combat postings. Their contributions were in hazardous duty, and they were justly honored for their service.
But there is another side to all this just coming to light with DEI. The Supreme Court dismissed many Affirmative Action practices in 2022 on the grounds that they were unconstitutional.
We have seen some significant shifts in the values associated with these three initials. Part of it is corporate, with commercial giants like Bud Light and Target committing their products and enterprise to all sorts of odd things allegedly involving the betterment of humankind.
Or something. One popped up yesterday, and it required another footnote to be created on the spot. Second Lieutenant Madison Marsh became the first Air Force Officer named as Miss America. According to Mr. Hinderaker, the development is more evidence that the federal government has gone- in his words- “stark raving mad.” Here are his grounds for that declaration;
“The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.
“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”
Why in the world would the FAA actively be seeking employees with “severe intellectual disability” or “psychiatric disability”?
The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which claims “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.”
Mr. Hinderaker then bemoans the general decline of standards across our society, something I considered a few times when looking up from the surgical table recently. A pal who was a two-time Blue Angle flight demonstration team has declared he will no longer fly commercially. He views the only criterion for flight crews as being merit- which is to say skill at flying.
Any other criteria for selection for flight employment would seem to be, well, stark raving something or other, you know?
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