Rock Ridge* sale

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25 Zaccheus Mead Lane, sold at a fire-sale discount from its $9 million asking price for $8.9 million. Built in 1905, this is what the typical Greenwich house is “supposed” to look like for many buyers, and I won’t disagree with them, although, to my eye, the charm is found mostly in its front, while the rear falls short of the callipygian ideal.

But that’s a quibble. The late owner’s obituary, by the way, is here: he was an impressive man.

*No, not that one

Don't worry, you'll probably be dead from medical malpractice, or a bridge will fall on your head before you have time to fly off on vacation

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FAA Faces Major Class Action Lawsuit for Favoring Diversity Over Competence in Air Traffic Control Hiring

The Federal Aviation Administration is the subject of a massive class action lawsuit alleging that since 2013, thousands of qualified applicants have been denied employment as air traffic controllers based on race.

The lawsuit filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation represents nearly 1,000 people who went to school at their own expense to be air traffic controllers through a network of university-sponsored Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) programs. These programs, run in cooperation with the FAA since 1991 to train and test future air traffic controllers, were the entry point for the overwhelming majority of the ATC workforce.

In 2013, the Obama Administration ended the program to increase diversity in ATC hiring. The screening test stopped being ATC-specific coursework and became a "biographical questionnaire." Allegedly, this questionnaire was based on the personality traits of successful ATCs. But its real purpose was to increase the number of "underrepresented" demographics. As if to underscore the point, the FAA provided the correct candidates with a list of buzzwords to use on the questionnaire. Minority applicants were also coached on how to format their job applications so friendly selection board members could recognize them.

According to the “Trouble in the Skies” report, a few days after the FAA process, a candidate for an air traffic controller job received a recorded voice-text message from Shelton Snow, an FAA air traffic controller and then-president of the NBCFAE’s Washington Suburban Chapter. In the recorded message, Snow stated he was aware that candidates “have been getting rejection notices” due to failing the Biographical Assessment test. To prevent [National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation] NBCFAE applicants from failing the Biographical Assessment, Snow offered “some valuable pieces ofinformation that [he had]taken a screen shot of and[that he was]goingto send that to you via email.” The screenshots were intended to show the correct answer to the Biographical Assessment. Snow explained he was sharing screen shots so that as candidates “progress through thestages [of the test],” the candidates could “refer to those images so you will know which icons youshould select.” Snow stated he was “about 99 point 99 percent sure that it isexactlyhow you need to answer each question in order to getthrough the first phase.” In addition, the recorded message stated that FAA “HR Representatives” could “sign off on [theBiographical Assessment] before you actually click it.”

What matter the human cost, if a single psychopathic, blind dwarf’s feelings are spared?

The Secretary of Transportation has set a hiring goal of three (3) percent per fiscal year for individuals with targeted (severe) disabilities.

Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. The targeted disabilities are:

Hearing (total deafness in both ears)Vision (Blind)Missing ExtremitiesPartial ParalysisComplete Paralysis, EpilepsySevere intellectual disabilityPsychiatric disabilityDwarfism

Individuals with targeted disabilities have the greatest difficulty obtaining employment. This is the only protected group for which Federal agencies may have a hiring goal.

The decision to give preference to candidates based on their race or other physical characteristics is not without cost. In 2023, the situation had deteriorated to the point that even the New York Times had noticed.

They were part of an alarming pattern of safety lapses and near misses in the skies and on the runways of the United States, a Times investigation found. While there have been no major U.S. plane crashes in more than a decade, potentially dangerous incidents are occurring far more frequently than almost anyone realizes — a sign of what many insiders describe as a safety net under mounting stress.

So far this year, close calls involving commercial airlines have been happening, on average, multiple times a week, according to a Times analysis of internal F.A.A. records, as well as thousands of pages of federal safety reports and interviews with more than 50 current and former pilots, air traffic controllers and federal officials.

The incidents often occur at or near airports and are the result of human error, the agency’s internal records show. Mistakes by air traffic controllers — stretched thin by a nationwide staffing shortage — have been one major factor.

While the rest of the world scoffed, one intrepid citizen identified and tracked down the perp

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UK Police Release Terrible AI-Generated Suspect Sketch, and the Internet Doesn't Disappoint

I’m ashamed of myself for laughing, and being so unhelpful when this man shouldered the burden and went to work:

(In fact, I think the AI image more closely resembles Mayor Pothole than the photograph released by the Biden conspirators, but either way, just so long as he’s seized and locked up.)

He probably thought that he 'd be applauded for his bold stand against racism and Nazis, but he forgot one thing: he wasn't in NYC anymore

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Hands behind your back, sir

There are too many people like this guy here in New England for me to risk my paint job with a political sticker that might offend them, so I’ve gone with a more subtle approach:

Well God DAMN those dastardly Jews!

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(Somehow, I suspect that her choice of emojis is as sarcastic as my own)

As though brandishing bananas weren’t sufficiently evil, now the filthy, pig Zionists” are tossing mice into the peace activists’ playground!

… Another thing that antisemites are very good at is making up ridiculous claims about the 'Zionists' who are always plotting against them. Who can forget the hilarious charge from Palestinians that Israel was using spy cows -- yes, cows -- against them? And not just cows. Israel also has trained sharks, eagles, dolphins, and pigs to achieve global domination. 

The latest addition to the lunatic conspiracy theories about Jews and the animal kingdom is ... white mice. And not just ANY white mice. 'Injected' white mice. Last night, a secret, diabolical Zionist plot against pro-Hamas protesters was uncovered on the campus of UCLA. 

What the poor dears really need is one of the patented Python self-defense classes.

Oh, the Humanities!

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Scheduling the Revolution

David Strom:

In the midst of all the exciting violence, another more prosaic reality lies underneath. 

The revolution is boring without the violence. 

Can you imagine the sheer tedium of having your revolutionary activity scheduled? 

Waking up to "solidary statements," going to drum circles, listening to people who describe themselves as "Latinx" whinge for Hamas. A "teach-in," something called "Maqluba session" (I didn't look it up, because, why would I?). 

They have "abolition letter writing," which strikes me as a uniquely useless activity. Writing to whom? Can these students even write? 

A "water ritual?" These are Princeton students? 

At Stanford, we learn what a "People's University" is, and it looks like a place that is ideal for the next generation of tech geeks. When you set up your own curriculum it appears that comic books are the main reading. At least you can thrift. 

I wonder if a degree from a "People's University" is a ticket to a high-powered job or to a great graduate degree.

At Cornell you can learn the wonders of revolutionary architecture. Apparently the architecture at Cornell is repressive, since it includes an HVAC system and indoor plumbing. 

Best live in a tent. The architecture school is donating one."

Universities and the repressive [police state could end this immediately, if they wanted to. Set a deadline, say, 2:00 PM this afternoon, after which any remaining “campers” would be arrested and sorted: students to be immediately expelled and barred from ever reapplying; participating professors and instructors fired; illegal aliens turned over to I.C.E. and held for deportation, non-students jailed, and any and all arrestees, regardless of status, barred from benefitting from Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.

Of course, none of that will happen, but at least let concerned citizens take it on themselves to rid their campuses of these people, like so: