Black History Month

February is "Black History Month."

Personally I was never a fan of any of the various "months." They didn't bother me but I just never saw the point especially given that they made the shortest month of the year "Black History Month" (yes, I know that it coincides with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass which is why it's February).

Why should we celebrate subgroups of Americans? Why are we constantly dividing people into competing groups? Celebrating the accomplishments of individuals is different. I don't see anything wrong with that as long as the individual and the accomplishments are worthy of celebrating. The melting pot concept was much better than having groups that are constantly competing with each other rather than working toward a common goal.

I also hear people mixing up equality and equity and sometimes using them as interchangeable.

Equality and equity are two very different things. Equality provides equal opportunity while equity requires equal outcomes which is a little absurd. I can give you the opportunity to bat in a major league baseball game but I can't guarantee that you'll hit the ball.

The FAA and DEI

With the collision of an American Airlines plane and an army helicopter in DC the other night, and then Trump blaming the collision on DEI, I figured I should look into this a bit.

Having had some interaction with the FAA while training as an aircraft mechanic I can safely say that at least back then these were not people about to cut any corners. Safety was their first, last and middle names for obvious reasons.

But that was a long time ago. What about now?

What I do know is the FAA was using a "Biographical Assessment" test as a screening tool from 2013 up until 2018 for ATC candidates. 

Some critics argued that the questionnaire could lead to hiring less qualified candidates but proponents disagreed. 

There is an ongoing class action lawsuit related to the "Biographical Assessment" test. It was replaced in 2018, due to Congress passing a law banning its use, with the "Air Traffic Skills Assessment" test.

Personally, having not taken either, I know nothing about these two exams beyond their names.

However, the "Biographical Assessment" test was apparently intended to broaden the potential pool of ATC recruits. It's been my experience that broadening the pool of applicants is a good thing unless it's done artificially.

Regardless, both the "Biographical Assessment" test and the "Air Traffic Skills Assessment" test are screening tests. I would assume that the people who score the highest are then accepted for the rigorous training associated with becoming an air traffic controller.

So I would have a couple of questions. First, what effect did changing the screening test have on the number that passed the test? Second, how did those who passed the different screening tests do in completing the training? Were any adjustments ever made to the training requirements in order to get more candidates successfully through the training?

Of course I'll never get any answers to these questions but perhaps someone else might.

Regrets About Voting for Trump?

A lot of people are claiming that Trump voters are regretting their choice given the chaos that has ensued and the clown choices for the cabinet. You'll excuse me but I don't buy it.

I don’t see a lot of regret among Trump voters. Most of them seem to be cheering him on and I’m afraid that will be the case for a long time.

The formula seems to be as follows:

(1) anything that goes right is because Trump is a genius and made it go right and 

(2) anything that goes wrong is the fault of (pick one or more) Biden, Democrats, Obama, DEI, the Deep State, the biased media, China, illegal immigrants and Trump is working very hard to fix the problems caused by (pick one or more) Biden, Democrats, Obama, DEI, the Deep State, the biased media, China, illegal immigrants.

It's going to be a long four years.