Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

KAROL MARKOWICZ: How I got kicked out of a Mothers Against Antisemitism group. “It’s not rocket science. Years of melding Reform and Conservative Judaism to leftism, only to find that that leftists wouldn’t spit on Jews if we were on fire, has been a disaster. It has moved Jews away from Judaism and it has functionally destroyed these Jewish movements. If you’re a Jew still sitting in the pews and funding the services that push political nonsense in place of torah, it’s time to go. Stop paying for a rabbi’s 7th grade musings on climate change and stop funding displays of “banned” books that aren’t actually banned. There were lessons in the horrific attacks of October 7th of how Jews should move forward. Let’s learn them now. And I wish the new MACA Foundation, and their totally emotionally healthy leader, all the very best.”

DIVERSITY IS OUR (ONLY?) STRENGTH: Another Story on the Hiring Scandal at the FAA. “This is a pretty clear case where a DEI pressure group— the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees—convinced the FAA to drop standards and then further gamed the new system from the inside for the benefit of the group’s members. All of this including the FAA ‘investigation’ which cleared those involved stinks to high heaven but we’re not supposed to talk about that because we can’t let the right have a win on DEI at this moment in time or, you know, ever.”

Background: “A scandal at the FAA has been moving on a slow-burn through the courts for a decade, culminating in the class-action lawsuit currently known as Brigida v. Buttigieg, brought by a class who spent years and thousands of dollars in coursework to become air traffic controllers, only to be dismissed by a pass-fail biographical questionnaire with a >90% fail rate, implemented without warning after many of them had already taken, and passed, a skill assessment. The questionnaire awarded points for factors like ‘lowest grade in high school is science,’ something explicitly admitted by the FAA in a motion to deny class certification.”

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

I DON’T SEE THIS AS PROPER FCC TURF: FCC reaffirms orbital debris mitigation rules. Orbital debris is a serious problem — I’ve been writing about it for years — but it’s a space-utilization problem, not a communications problem. This is a power grab utilizing regulatory leveraging. I hope Congress fixes this in pending legislation.

THIS IS SORT OF LIKE WHEN WOODY ALLEN PRODUCED MARSHALL MCLUHAN TO SHUT UP A BLOWHARD WHO WAS TALKING ABOUT MCLUHAN’S WORK: This Mark Cuban Story is Too Good Not to Share.

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MYSTERY SOLVED: We Know Now Why Boeing’s Door Plug Bolts Didn’t Do Their Job. “The latest revelation is especially damning: the plane that sparked a new round of questions over Boeing’s ability to ensure its jets’ safety left the factory without the door plug bolts installed. They weren’t just loose — as door plug bolts on other aircraft were found to be upon mandatory post-incident inspections — they weren’t there. . . . If, as the evidence points, Boeing sent the 737 MAX 9 into service with Alaska entirely missing the bolts needed to keep the door plug in place, it seems there’s a lot more oversight necessary to ensure the bare minimum of quality control is achieved on the assembly line.”