The CDC Should Have Learned By Now To Stay In Its Own Lane

But they have not.

Remember when the CDC decided to have mission creep and pontificate and weigh in on the social side of things, producing studies on bullying and gun control (aside from funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, natch) leaving it woefully inept when it came to deal with its core function - disease control - with the coronavirus pandemic?

Good times.

Well, those times are back.

After all nice sounding platitudes and policy making for social issues real or imagined is easy, dealing with viruses is rather hard. 

Red State: The CDC Is Coming for Your Guns

Yes, the CDC under the Biden Administration is again trying to paint gun control as a public health matter and an epidemic that would call for emergency health powers in response.   

Guns are not a disease nor a virus. While it is impossible for the CDC to not be political, it's not too much to ask that they stick to their core function - disease control - at least until they can perform that core function competently -   before branching out into other Democrat policy preferences outside of the disease arena.

Piper Says: Choose The Life You Want

Piper apparently likes Tash's taste in books, and she's working on living her best life

Always good to have positive books about increasing happiness for consumption around here.

Or is it that she likes the taste of Tash's books?

Yet Another Detroit Corruption Conviction

The Detroit News: André Spivey resigns from Detroit City Council after pleading guilty to bribery

Note that you do have to play "Name That Party" as the article curiously omits to mention his political affiliation. Then again, its Detroit, and it's all about the D in Detroit.

City Council member Spivey is now the second council member to be convicted of a corruption felony this year after getting over $35,000 in bribes.   

Since there is still a few months left in the year, there's a strong possibility for more council members to cop to their crimes.

Apparently his serving as a minister will now be put on hold considering his felony conviction,  he'll just have to wait until after his release to go back to the ministry like Kwame. 

He lives in the district's historic East English Village neighborhood and serves as an executive minister at Oak Grove AME Church.

Spivey will no longer be allowed to practice as a minister and his felony charge will "prevent him from working," Hall told The News Wednesday.

 On top of that his graduation from law school is now postponed.

Spivey told Roberts he hasn't faced any prior crimes. He noted that he is a Central Michigan University graduate and is a law student at Wayne State University, expected to graduate in May 2023.

Good luck passing the Bar's character and fitness review when you have a felony corruption conviction on your record.  Then again, he's one of the special connected people, so he may just get a pass if he claims he's turned his life around.

Note that he's just joining a long line of convicted felons in this rather hotbed of corruption in the Detroit area:

In the last 12 years, more than 110 labor leaders, politicians, police officers and bureaucrats have been charged with federal corruption-related crimes locally, according to a database built by The Detroit News.

Flying IFR - Lesson 28 - IFR Long Cross Country

Last Tuesday the weather had thunderstorms and a cold front along the route scrapped that.

Today was much better with a mix of VFR and IFR along the way but no thunderstorms.

I got to the airport and filed the flight plan for Pontiac to Muskegon then from Muskegon to Grand Rapids and then back to Pontiac. We were flying N3553M, the Archer with the Garmin GFC 500 autopilot.

As we were doing the run up Pontiac went IFR.

No problem, were going IFR.

Took off from Runway 9R and climbed through the layer, first to 4000 and then almost immediately Detroit Approach cleared us to climb to 6,000.

Detroit Approach then had us head to Muskegon as I had filed it, via the Miggy2 departure procedure.

It was just beautiful above the layer.

 

Smooth as silk at 6,000. After flying for a bit we worked on autopilot usage and the GFC 500 is a nice unit.

The cloud layer continued to thin out to practically nothing as we flew westward.

Made it to Muskegon.  We were going to request an ASR approach but they stated they don't have that capability anymore, even as the charts still say they do.  So we switched to an ILS Runway 32 circle to Runway 6.

We used the autopilot to descend and fly the approach down to circling minimums and it worked very nicely.  Hand flew from circling and did a very nice circle and landing on Runway 6.  Getting a lot better at those.

Then got clearance for our next leg and headed to Grand Rapids.

For Grand Rapids we used the GFC 500's Flight Director rather than the autopilot and its a nice way to fly - just line up the chevrons and you're all set. Did the RNAV Runway 8 approach at Grand Rapids and did the flight director all the way to the M AP where I took over and hand flew it to another nice landing.

Then got a new clearance and back up again and headed back to Pontiac at 5,000 feet, again using the Flight Director.  By the time we got there the layer had fully burned off.  Did the Localizer Runway 9R and the Flight Director really helps with getting down nicely.  I then did a very nice landing.

It was an excellent experience using the GFC 500. It's an incredibly powerful tool - assuming you program and use it correctly.    A great long IFR cross country.

All that's left is a whole lot of check-ride prep which means approaches and partial panel work until I puke and then more approaches and partial panelwork.

That's 3.5, .1 of actual instrument time, 2.8 of simulated instrument, 3 approaches and 3 landings.

Your Latest Detroit Corruption News

Democrats and unions have always had an easy relationship with corruption.

While there is lots of news in Detroit now regarding corrupt city council members.

Detroit City Council isn't  the only location for Detroit corruption. 

The Detroit News: Detroit fire union official spent $220K in union funds on trips, booze, furniture, feds say

Unfortunately, city union officials often let power go to their heads and work for their own benefit rather than for their members.  Of course they often work with the corrupt higher-up city officials as well with one hand washing the other, all at the taxpayer's expense.

Some take it a tad too far and so blatantly enrich themselves in such an over-the-top manner that they get made an example of.

A Detroit Fire Department union official embezzled more than $220,000 and spent the money on international cruises, flights, furniture, booze and more during a years-long crime spree, according to unsealed federal court records. 

Verdine Day, 62, of Eastpointe, the retired treasurer of Detroit Fire Fighters Association, has been charged with bank and wire fraud and accused of orchestrating the scheme before retiring in 2019.

The union apparently had no system of checks and balances and let the treasurer write the checks to herself among other recipients with no controls.  This makes for a far too easy path of corruption and embezzlement.  This lack of oversight and control has to be on purpose, as otherwise it might be too hard to use those funds for less than appropriate purposes.

In Other Weird News Of The Day

Allegedly, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are double-teaming Jodi Foster and banging her like a screen door in a hurricane.

The Detroit News: John Hinckley, who shot Reagan, to be freed from oversight

The Mask Karens Have Got Themselves A Little List

A bit of a brouhaha is brewing up in our school district due to our local crop of Karens.

It seems a Karen decided to compile a list of parents with wrongthink based on scouring their social media about their bad, wrong-thinking, negative opinions on masking kids and mask mandates in school.  

Apparently Karen allegedly did this to prevent her kids from playing with the kids of these wrong-thinkers.  Karen has a lot of time on her hands to socur the web and compile a list, it seems.

She then gave it the charming name of: "Anti Mask Families in District.”

Of course, Karen didn't keep the list to herself, but then shared the list with other right-thinking Karens, and the list became public.

Click On Detroit: List of families against mask use in Bloomfield Hills schools causes fear, outrage

This caused those parents who dared offer the unpopular but scientifically viable opinion on social media that masking kids in school is not a great idea to justifiably get quite worried.

Then it gets to be even more fun: Click on Detroit: Hundreds gather in support of Bloomfield Hills School Board president ousted due to mask controversy

The very popular school board President was removed from his position as President of the Board by the Board, because he got pulled into this matter after those on the list contacted him concerned that this would lead to bullying of their kids and other negative consequences as the list was quickly going viral in a Karen-fest of virtuosity. 

So he investigated and asked the school superintendent and the police to see what was going on and if threats beyond the publishing of the list were being made.  The other school board members, many of them complete mask-holes, decided his actions were against protocol and removed him as president.

Let's put it this way -  the best study on masks and Covid so far is that cloth/surgical masks - which are the masks mandated in the district - are all of  10% effective at filtering exhaled covid-virus particles, with K95/N96 (which are not mandated)  filtering about 50% of exhaled particles. Either way, that's a lot of particles getting through.

SciTechDaily: Most Common COVID Masks Only Filter About 10% of Exhaled Aerosol Droplets

So the mask mandates in schools aren't exactly super effective, and it should certainly be acceptable to question requiring them to be worn in schools especially given the massive uptick in mental health issues among kids during this pandemic, lockdown, and mask mandate period.

Lots of studies are also showing that kids and schools are not a major vector of Covid spread  - Washington Post: Schools are not spreading covid-19. This new data makes the case.  and an analysis of the CDC's latest study shows mask mandates in schools are rather statistically insignificant.

Making lists of people for "wrongthink" and daring to have unpopular opinions tends to lead to some very bad things.

Sunday Match Day

Headed to Romulus this morning for a USPSA match. WCRHC always puts on a challenging match, and this was no exception.

Got caught in traffic on the way there as they had closed 96 and 275 was down to a couple lanes and was a mess.

Managed to get through the mess and got there ok, checked in, paid the match fee and got ready.

First stage was a difficult retreat stage.  You started up range with the gun on a table and shot the 4 targets arrayed in front of you and then there were two sets of angled arrays behind you of two targets on each side per array and then a final array behind you of a single target on each side of the range right at the rear fault line. Breaking the 180 was a concern.

I had a plan, did the plan and it went pretty well.

Next stage was pretty challenging with quite a few targets only visible from very fine angles. Had the plan and at port 2 planned to shoot two targets.  Shot two targets.  Wrong targets.

I had moved in just a bit too much and missed the two in the array I should have shot and shot other targets twice so they had 4 alphas each but that doesn't help.  As a result learning occurred.

I did mess up another stage by missing a target in a similar-ish fashion which didn't help any.  One of the more experienced shooters said it happens and that was a very challenging stage, and otherwise I was doing quite well.

Other stages did go quite well.  Still need to improve a lot.

Overall I'm decently accurate but I made these dumb mistakes which cost. Only had one D the whole match, 20 Cs and all the rest of the 175 rounds were As. Still not fast enough.  If I can just stop doing the dumb, I'll be in much better shape, need to figure out why I do that and how to track and ensure I hit the right targets better.

There was a very good bunch of shooters in my squad, also they're a very good bunch of people.   Even messing up shooting during a match is better than not shooting at all.

Two Dogs, One Tug

Unlike the more infamous Internet meme that you really don;t want to search for, this is family friendly.

Up until now, Jett has been ignoring Piper and generally been unhappy with the new addition to the family.  Typically he was growling whenever she approached and didn't want to have much to do with her.

We bought them a tug big enough for the two of them to play with.

They both enjoyed the tug o' war.  Much happy growls from both sides.

Finally they've started  playing together a bit.  Piper will chase Jett until he growls at her, then she'll chase him some more, perhaps nip him a bit, and more growling will ensue and some fun running around then occurs. 

Jett is still not 100% sure about Piper, but he's started warming up to her.

Flying IFR - Lesson 27 - IFR Approaches Holds Partial Panel And Bumps

So I had Sara as my instructor today.

Sort of a mock Stage III checkride but I'm not Stage III yet.

So we had N6288J.

The sky while finally VFR after the last few days of constant rain, decided to be decidedly not smooth for my flight.

Lots of bounciness around, including an un-commanded 60 degree bank to the left which was a bit sporty.  Also we hit a bump in the air so hard we both left our seats but managed not to bash our heads on the roof - yay seat belts!

First we went to Flint where I did the ILS 27 approach with full procedure and it went ok, then did the published miss and hold and boy did I bugger that up.  Got way behind and it did not go well.  Need to work on my hold entries - I get the theory just fine, its figuring out how to do it in practice that is causing me issues.  Need more hold work.

Then on to the VOR 18 Circle to 27.  Went rather well, but started off with some confusion as first they vectored us a bit, then they had us start, then Great Lakes Approach decided to vector us some more, then said direct to the first waypoint so the start was a bit of a mess.  Once I got that sorted out it worked well, and learned a bit on circle to land procedure as well to improve that - in short, you can descend below the circle to land minimums when you're on base for the landing runway and shouldn't do so before.   Went missed but I would have had the runway made.

Then back to Pontiac for the Localizer  Back Course 27.  Sara was very helpful by turning off the Attitude and Heading indicators so I go to use the compass and the other instruments to get back, get vectored to the approach and do the approach.

The compass sucks for flying headings by the way, especially when the world is bouncing around.  It tends to bounce around with it and its hard to know if you're on course or not.

Also lots of fun holding your altitude, pitch, and bank with no Attitude Indicator.

But I did it well enough anyways, and remembered and announced the backup VOR would be reverse sensing the back course (you have to fly opposite the needle to get on course rather than flying to the needle) and flew it in nicely to final if a bit high and to a nice smooth landing.

A few other minor things to polish up on, but overall a good if bumpy as heck flight.

That's 1.7, 1.4 simulated IFR, 3 approaches and 2 holds and a whole lot of bumps.

The Detroit Reparations Push Silliness Continues

The Detroit News:  Advocates for reparative policy argue 'we can do better' at Mackinac Island conference

The panel talk centered on policy decisions and discriminatory practices that contribute to the racial wealth gap and comes ahead of a Nov. 2 ballot question in Detroit over whether a reparations committee should be formed to study ways to boost opportunities for Black residents. 

Reparations is just another word for money transfer to Democrat favored constituencies.   Typically with such transfer enriching Democrat bureaucrats and consultants in the process.

Now Detroit, if I may remind you, is a city that has been run by Democrats, and specifically Black Democrats for the majority if not the totality of the lifespan of most of its current residents, and with said residents having suffered under the corruption and misrule of said Black Democrats,  not from slavery.  Now apparently said City should pay slavery reparations to its Black residents - said residents who have never been slaves in their entire lives.

Does that make sense to anyone?  At all.

Basically it is a quest for free stuff:

Hamilton said during the Tuesday talk that society will never move forward from racism until reparations are addressed. 

"If we want to have solutions, we need to honestly grapple with reparations," said Hamilton, adding that alone "is not enough."

"...we need a government that promotes anti-racist economic rights that ensures that people have a birthright to capital, quality housing, quality health care," he said.

There is no such thing as a "birthright to capital, quality housing, quality health care"  you earn each of those things by virtue of work, savings, and effort.  It's not given to you.  Assuming such a birthright is absolute magical thinking and part of the problem here.  Also, assuming Blacks cannot achieve any of these things on their own is also part of the problem here.

But the article and the statements made by these race hustlers get even funnier:

Note the subtle anti-white racism among the "anti-racists":

Goss added she finds it "disturbing" only six of Detroit's 11 middle-class neighborhoods grew in the most recent U.S. Census and "only because upper, middle-class white families moved in." 

. . .

For the rest of the city, opportunities for middle-class families where housing can be stabilized and where small businesses can grow are needed "without that gentrifying factor," she said.

Yep, curse those gentrifying white people and their (checks notes) increasing of property valuers and increased small business presence in a city rather bereft of them.

On top of that, the hilarity that one can say something with a straight face and then argue for the exact opposite is rather funny.

[Darrick Hamilton, professor of economics and founding director of Institute on Race and Police Economy] Hamilton said change will begin when "somebody's race or ethnicity no longer has transactional value."

Wait a sec, transactional value of someone's race is exactly what he himself is advocating for: Blacks, by virtue of Being Black should get these "reparations"  - If that's not race having "transactional value" one wonders what is so in his book.

The next funny bit in the article:

Perry has conducted research on housing and authored the book "Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities."

Through his work, he found homes in Black neighborhoods are underpriced by 23%, about $48,000 per home, "cumulatively, that's about $156 billion in lost equity," he said.

Wait just a minute here.  

Let's note that the City of Detroit which again is majority Black and at the time was completely Black-run, has been properly castigated for overvaluing Black (and everyone else's homes) to the tune of over $600 million in overvaluation - causing residents to pay higher and in some cases ridiculous taxes on their properties - leading to foreclosure of (you guessed it) Black-owned properties due to non-payment of the improperly high taxes.

You really can't have it both ways, unless you're a Democrat or progressive "thinker" apparently.

Having the City of Detroit vote to pay reparations to its residents is a joke.  Having the State of Michigan which was not a slave state pay any reparations is a joke when the last slave here was before the civil war is similarly a joke.  Pushing reparations for people who have never been slaves is a joke. But, it's apparently a very profitable and politically popular joke to Democrat race hustlers and consultants and for their constituents looking for money for nothing.

Is Anyone Actually Surprised By This?

The Detroit News: Taliban name deputy ministers, double down on all-male team

If anyone truly believed, moral preening statements of the "international community" to the contrary, that the Taliban were somehow going to step away from fundamentalist Islam and include women in their government, well, there's this really nice bridge connecting the two peninsulae of Michigan that I have for sale to you, at a great price.

The Taliban expanded their interim Cabinet by naming more ministers and deputies on Tuesday, but failed to appoint any women, doubling down on a hard-line course despite the international outcry that followed their initial presentation of an all-male government lineup earlier this month.

The Taliban really couldn't care less about an international outcry, and the limits of soft power have now been demonstrated and yes, found wanting. 

Yep, the Taliban are having their very own, and very real war on women, protests of the progressive international community notwithstanding.

Flying IFR - Lesson 26 - Solid IFR Approaches

Today was going to be the long IFR cross country.  Route was going to be Pontiac to Muskegon via the MIGGY2.GETCH transition then to Grand Rapids airport and back to Pontiac via the RRALF3 arrival.

We were going to fly N3553M which has a GFC 500 autopilot so we were going to check out the autopilot functionality.

With a cold front rolling in from the west it was not to be.

So might as well get up and do some actual IFR approaches.

Winds and MVFR conditions prevailed at Pontiac and as we got up to 3,000 feet we were in the clouds and some precip and bumps. After a bit got into some smooth air in complete IMC.

On to Flint in the clouds, did the RNAV 27 approach into Flint and broke out just above minimums to see the runway right where it was supposed to be.

Went missed, flying runway heading and up into being vectored for the ILS 27 at Flint.

Did that approach, then the clouds lifted a bit as we went missed, and went to do the VOR 18 Approach and circled to 27.

Did the chop and drop and did a rather too-fast base on the circle to 27 but brought it around and got lined up and did a low approach over the runway before going missed and then climbing out.  Need to work on that.

Then off to Pontiac and the localizer back course to 27L.  Used the autopilot to fly back to Pontiac, then for the localizer approach.  Overall it did good on the altitude and initial headings but couldn't grab the localizer back course so hand-flew it in and did a good landing with a gusty crosswind.

Overall good approaches, completely IFR conditions throughout with some bumps but found smooth air for most of it.

That's 1.9, with 1.6 actual, and 4 approaches in IFR conditions.

Biden's Befuddling Border BS

The Biden administration, while it is letting in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from Mexico - without them being vaccinated nor even tested for Covid, and with no mandate for illegals to be vaccinated or even tested, persists in keeping the Canadian land border closed.

The Detroit Free Press: U.S. travel restrictions at Canadian border extended another month, through Oct. 21

This is idiocy of the highest order. 

You can fly in from Canada, and now pursuant to the new policy, international travelers can fly in from elsewhere to the USA, but you can't drive in from Canada, because, well, no valid reasons given.

Canada reopened its border to vaccinated U.S. travelers over a month ago on Aug. 9, but the U.S. has not reciprocated. Canadians who wish to enter the U.S. for non-essential travel such as tourism may do so only by flying in.

This is nonsense on stilts, and likely to backfire as the Canadians move to match this stupid and unreasoning policy.  It also harms all the border states' economies due to the lack of vehicular travel, even of vaccinated visitors.

So unvaccinated and untested illegals are still crossing the land border into the US from Mexico on a regular basis and being allowed to remain, but vaccinated and tested Canadians cannot cross a land border.

The US/Canadian border should have been reopened to vaccinated travelers months ago.  Continuing to have it closed is beyond moronic.

When Good Fish Go Bad

Sleeping with the fishes has a new meaning as the fish in Lake Orion really seem to get around.

The Detroit Free Press: Hundreds of fish in Lake Orion died from herpes, Michigan DNR says

Probably an education program for the fish may help. 

I'd suggest catchy phrases with a hook like:

"Wrap your fish stick".

"You're swimming with every fish your fishmate ever had".

"Practice Safe Swim".

How About "None of Your Business"?

One other interesting anecdote from the Covid testing experience.

At the facility we went to, you have to register as a patient, as one often does.

Instead of simply signing up and giving your drivers license and health insurance to take the test you have to give a pretty full health history.

 Note - Photo ID is required for Covid testing - interesting isn't it?

Now, at least it was electronic history so you didn't have to write things out in quadruplicate as at other medical offices.

But it was a very invasive medical history that was requested, especially for simply getting a Covid test.  Quite a few question asked had nothing to do with your medical condition at all, especially this one:

How is having guns present in your home a part of your medical history, exactly?

Sadly, there is no "None of your business" or "Stay in your lane, Doc"option to select. So, I simply skipped over it, as I did with most of the intrusive and non-applicable questions, which meant the medical history was rather quick to do.  But, as usual one spends more time doing paperwork than actually having the test itself performed.

The progressives in the medical establishment  are certainly not giving up their false and inapt gun control as health/epidemic model anytime soon.

Schrödinger's Virus Tests

Thursday Tash had a PCR test in preparation to go to Canada and visit her mom and help out since her mom is still not feeling well and the shingles are taking a toll.

You must have a negative test within 72-hours to visit Canada even if vaccinated.

So yesterday evening we get the results:  Positive. 

Note there have been no symptoms of any kind whatsoever.

This throws things into a tizzy as there is no online alternative for the kids if they can't go to school, and if you are positive or exposed to someone positive you can't go.  Considering it is Abby's senior year losing 14 days of school would be unrecoverable come exam time. Leah similarly would have major schooling issues.  School did not think this policy through, nor do any risk analysis.

So the kids doth freak out.

So we all rush to go to get tested.

We do both rapid tests and PCR to be sure.

All Rapid tests including Tash's, and this type has a very high accuracy rate on a par with the PCR, come back negative.

We get Tash's PCR test from yesterday right now:  Negative. 

Everyone else: Negative.

So, like Schrödinger's cat is she both positive and negative at this point?

We will go with best two out of three and a finding of negative, and the first test likely was defective or inaccurate.

Messed up her plans completely for Canada this weekend though, and her mom could have used some help.

Flying IFR - Lesson 25 - Approach And A First Bravo Entry

Lesson 25 started had a bit of a false start.

On the way to pre-flight N5337F the owner of the flight school asked me if we could monitor the engine analyzer and ammeter and see if the battery was charging.

In short, after a pre-flight and trying to start the engine, it was very apparent the battery was, in fact, not charging.  It would not start the engine.

So we switched to N2885B, a Piper Warrior and headed out to do some more approach work to Ann Arbor, Troy and Pontiac.

I was with Alec on this one. 

The airspace was busy and heading to Ann Arbor we got vectored off the course to get to the start of the VOR 24 approach and had to  sequence in.  Lots of planes and helicopters practicing around Ann Arbor today including two University of  Michigan medical flight copters.

Did the approach, do need to work on my wind correction and getting down faster, overall did ok but can do better.

Did the published miss and hold and then started heading for Troy.

On the way to Troy I got my first clearance into Bravo airspace.

Due to traffic Detroit Approach had me climb up into the Bravo, and Detroit Approach stated I was clear to enter the airspace. Kinda neat.

At Troy I did the RNAV 9 and circled to 27 to land.  Was a little tight to the runway on the circle and could have gone wider on the downwind, and a little high on final as a result but landed, even though it was a long landing.

Then topok off and headed to Pontiac for the RNAV 27 with a miss.  Then after being cleared for the Localizer Back course 27L, Alec failed both my heading indicator and Attitude Indicator so I was partial panel.

Figured something like that might happen so I already had the backup VOR tuned to the localizer.

I used the backup VOR and compass as a result of the failure and did a very good approach, but again was a fair bit too high, but did a good landing.

I do need more partial panel work and I expect I'm going to get a lot of it.

I do need to watch my altitude as I was certainly off it today and not quick enough on step down descents.  While too high beats too low, just right is much better.  More stuff to improve upon.

That's 2.0, 2 landings, 4 approaches and a hold and 1.4 simulated instrument time.

The Woke Attack On School Safety Continues In Michigan

In the name of racial justice and stopping the  mythical "School-to-Prison-Pipeline", Democrats in the Michigan legislature want to get rid of the "effects" zero-tolerance (a policy ended in 2016 I might mention)  and add "equitable" including racial and other factors to the disciplining of students at school

Michigan Advance: Lawmakers introduce bills to reform school disciplinary process

The Civil Rights Data Collection, which gathered information from over 96,000 public schools in the 2015-16 school year, found that minority students face harsher discipline than white students. Black students made up about 15% of the student body but accounted for 31% of the arrests made.

Considering this is actually lower than the  world outside the school walls where Blacks make up 50% of violent crime while being only 13% of the population, the statistic does not appear unreasonable and likely should have some context - namely what were these students doing that caused them to be expelled?  Indeed, should we cap expulsions to ensure racial equity regardless of actions of the individual?

Some politicians apparently think so.

Geiss noted that Black girls are eight times more likely than white girls to be at risk for school arrests. She highlighted that these bills will help to tackle the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure more justice in school disciplinary actions.

With trauma-informed restorative justice techniques in discipline at the school level, we can disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and bring about racial justice in the process.” Geiss said at the press conference.

Again, no contextualization as to why they are eight times more likely, nor a ny accusation that whites are not being suspended/expelled for the same actions, merely that Blacks are apparently committing expulsion-able offenses in disproportion to their percentage of the population.

Oh, you see this is about racial justice, not justice for any of the victims of the expelled.  it seems these legislators in the name of racial justice want programs put in place where the students that disrupt and attack other students are kept in school  "Trauma-informed restorative justice techniques"  where the wrongdoer's acts are excused due to their "trauma", and their victim gets to have them stay in school to continue to torment them.  What could go wrong?

We can note both Trayvon Martin and Nicholas Cruz each received Florida's Promise program that let them skate on disciplinary and expulsion-worthy activities to the detriment of other students and society.  

These Michigan Legislators seem to want a similar program here, which will likely sadly lead to similar results.

How Much Is That Piper In The Window?

Piper is keeping us on our toes.

She likes to get everywhere.  Yesterday, she managed to trap herself inside the shower. Some cute hilarity ensued.

She was released none the worse for wear and still full of energy.

Sadly, she doesn't quite get where to go yet, so as much as she's going outside, she's also going inside, possibly mistaking the carpet for grass.  Much cleaning up ensues.

She has also taken up Jiu Jitsu.  She's in the leg-lock chapter, currently working on toe holds.

The problem is she does the toe holds with her sharp puppy teeth.

Ouch.

She does get people tapping out to it.

Good thing she's cute. 

A Rather Unpleasant And Unforecast Vaccine Interaction

My mother-in-law at 85-years-old, plus health issues, is in the cohort that is rather vulnerable to the more dangerous effects Covid.  

Since she lives in Canada it took for-bloody-ever to get her a vaccine. 

Canadian health care is a mess at the best of times.  

Now it's even worse.  Getting to see a doctor promptly is well-nigh impossible with lengthy delays and even then many are just doing telemedicine which really doesn't help much.

Well, she finally got her shots and then a few weeks later got a rash, which became an even more painful rash and fever, fatigue, and headaches.

It took two weeks since the rash began to get her in to see a doctor and the diagnosis is shingles.  She has had them before so she didn't get them from anyone else. The shingles virus can apparently hang around in your system kept in check by your immune system.

Apparently, per the doctor that examined her, the Covid vaccine depressed her immune system enough for the shingles to break through.  Did not know about this at all before, but apparently it is a known possibility.

 So far she's doing ok, but certainly not comfortable.

So if you have had shingles in the past, there is a possibility you'll get a shingles breakthrough after getting your Covid shots.    At her age and health Covid is likely more dangerous than shingles, but knowing that was a possible interaction would have been good to know so she could have gotten care earlier.  

So if you get the Covid vaccine and have had shingles in the past, be on the alert for a possible rash and get treatment for shingles earlier rather than later.  Not fun.

A Woman And Her Car . . .

May get the experience of a mechanic trying to rip them off, badly. 

Tash's car did indeed need an alignment after getting new tires. 

She took it to an alignment / repair shop that is a chain that goes by the brand name of a king who had the ability to turn everything he touched into gold.

Well, at Midas, they must have thought they struck gold when seeing her bring her car in for an alignment.

They performed a free inspection, then refused to do the alignment and claimed the car was unsafe to drive and needed $11,000+ in repairs, complete with a nice detailed scary report with pictures.

She properly flipped out and decided to take it to our own mechanic that we trust to get a second opinion.

Unsurprisingly, No, it does NOT need $11,000.00+ in repairs.  

But, it does need a couple repairs - new rear struts, power steering reservoir is leaking, and it needs a new gasket for the transfer case and some new front brakes which are actually going to be repaired as a warranty as the brakes are replacements and still under warranty, and the total is not even close to the $11,000 quoted (which is more than the car is worth at this point - but it's paid off and overall reliable transportation) -  it is $1,800 to repair everything.  He is not seeing any evidence of most of what they are quoting as problems and is in fact seeing the opposite of their claims. Our mechanic is furious at Midas for trying to rip her off, as are we.

Now to be fair,  they'd probably pull that on me as well, but I suspect they pull it more readily on women even more due to the stereotype of women not knowing anything about cars or car repairs.  Shame on them for pulling this nonsense.

So yes, if you get a repair quote at Midas, you'd better get a second opinion.

Some Teen And Adult Drama

As I've said before, Covid is causing lots of anxiety and mental health problems, and exacerbating existing mental health problems - and there's lots of mental health problems to go around, especially in high school right now.

Let's take T/S for example.

T/S goes to my daughters' school and is in Leah's grade.

She's T/S because her actual name starts with T but she's recently decided she's a male gender and wants to be called S(name) or They as her personal pronoun.  Hasn't actually "transitioned" and this is instead a mental health problem writ large and one helluva way to get attention and be treated as a special snowflake.

If you dare call her by her actual T name you're apparently "dead-naming" her and that's bad.  The woke high school is apparently ok with this and going along with it and the kids have been conditioned to refer to her as "they" and her new gender name.  Rules of reality do not apply, and apparently you can call yourself Emperor of The Americas and everyone is expected to nod, accept it, and play along with your delusion.

Based on an episode that happened this weekend I'm just going to call her Little ShiT.

While Leah was with me on the  Mackinac Island trip, Little ShiT was with two of Leah's friends at the mall.

Little ShiT was seen by those two friends to shoplift at the mall, which freaked both of them out completely and they told her to stop, put the items back and what the hell was she doing? 

Little ShiT initially put the items back, but then shoplifted them yet again to the other kids' dismay, who wanted nothing to do with her at that point and didn't want to be near her.  One of the other kids actually went into a panic attack over it as yes, Covid anxiety and the fact her companion was thieving right in front of her caused that.

Drama at the mall does not stay at the mall.  

While Little ShiT apparently made a clean getaway, this didn't end the matter. 

She started accusing the kids who were with her at the mall of not being her friends and having a little text war over it.  In her texts, Little ShiT actually admits to the thefts even as she tried to gaslight her friends as to what actually happened and attacks them for hurting her feelings and betraying her and starts guilt tripping them.  No shit.

The group then dragged Leah into it Saturday night after we got home on the text chain and Leah  defends her two friends who were with Little ShiT and tells Little ShiT straight out that she cannot be putting this on her friends who told her not to steal and what Little ShiT did was wrong. Period. F'ing dot.

Little ShiT then apparently calls in some adult backup.  Hence the Adult Drama part.

Little ShiT gets her dad on the chat and Dad starts calling the kids on their phones screaming at them for daring to accuse Little ShiT of being a thief.  Funnily enough, Dad uses Little ShiT's "deadname" in his text and phone demands and the sky does not crack open.

Leah has not told either of us what is happening at this point, but Leak blocks the call.  Smart kid, but she should have pulled us in as soon as another adult starts dipping in, if not before.

But Dad does call and yells at two of the kids, including the one with the panic attack leading to another panic attack and to the other kid.  Real tough guy, yelling at kids for daring to do the right thing and telling his Little ShiT not to be a thief.

The panic attack child at this point is now worrying for her safety from both Little ShiT and Little ShiT's dad. Causing another panic attack. 

Other kid, whose mom happens to be an attorney, and mom hears Little ShiT's Dad yelling at her kid over the phone as it happens and takes the bullying of her child by Little ShiT's dad rather personally - as she should.  Fireworks ensue.

So far it is calm at school but Little ShiT is apparently rather pouty. 

I will continue to monitor and if Little ShiT's dad tries to contact or threaten Leah then I will come out to play. 

Flying - Homeward From Mackinac

The taxi was a two horse-power vehicle.

Quite a fun ride. We got picked up and then he picked up 4 more to go to the Grand Hotel so we got to see it on the way to the airport.

Then we did not go direct to the airport as the taxi required an engine overhaul.

With fresh horses, we headed to the airport.

At the airport I checked the weather again and saw a nice PT-17 had come in after we had arrived.

 

Checking the weather and updating my weather brief, the winds were gusting up to 30 knots from 210-270 which was kinda concerning.  Still within crosswind limits, but sporty.

Did the preflight and all was in order and still with plenty of gas, and kept watching the windsock which was almost always fully extended but kept pointing right down Runway 26, more or less, and not deviating. This made it do-able.

 

I announced on the CTAF that I was taking off, then lined up on the runway and then held the brakes and brought the aircraft to full power. I then took off and the wind stayed pretty much right down the runway so it was a pretty easy takeoff and a 30-knot headwind made for good performance. Windsock stayed right down the runway the whole time.

We headed towards Pontiac and saw the Mackinac Bridge.

 Climbing up we ran into a lot of light turbulence, lots and lots of bumps and directional control was then rather difficult.   Any motion to head to the left was met with massive bumps so we were getting off course due to the turbulence. I was working hard just to keep the wings level.  Bit of a heavily scattered / broken layer above made it hard to get above it, too.

I checked in with Minneapolis Center and got flight following given to me immediately without even asking for it, and I reported the light turbulence.   Other pilots in the area were also reporting wind shear and light to moderate turbulence as far south as Traverse City, and Harbor Springs had some severe wind shear.  

I finally got to a point basically following Highway 75 south to where the clouds opened to a scattered layer, put the throttle all the way forward and climbed up to 7,500 through the hole and got back on course.  Was still able to see the ground the whole time even with it being a bit hazy up there. The air was nice and smooth and Minneapolis Center was ok with my being at that height to avoid the messy air below.

Co-pilot then did some homework in the calm air and I was back on course.

The kid was doing Physics homework in an airplane.  Kinda cool.

Got handed off to Great Lakes Approach Saginaw frequency and continued on.

I checked with Fight Service to get an updated weather report for Pontiac and see if any turbulence had been reported there.  No turbulence, but winds at 210 from 10-20 knots. Very sporty.

Then handed off to Great Lakes Approach Flint and then to Detroit Approach. 

For practice I requested the RNAV 27L approach and got it and I kinda wanted the guidance that comes with an RNAV for the approach.  I was told to head to LEHRA intersection and I started descending as I headed towards LEHRA.  At LEHRA I was then cleared for the approach and contacted Pontiac Tower.  The winds were then 210-230 at about 11-15 which was nicer.  Still, it made it hard to stay on course. I was constantly getting pushed to the right by gusts and was crabbing like crazy to stay on the needles and keep it from deflecting too much.   I was VFR so I could see the runway which also helped stay as lined up as possible even as I kept getting pushed and the needle was a dot left of center most of the time.

A decent descent following the glide-slope and with tons of crabbing and power adjustments due to the gusting wind.  Got lined up and made the landing rather firmly and we were down.  Landed at 6:12 pm.

Then I got to have some fun. I had told Tower that for parking I needed to go to Royal Air East for fuel, so instead of a long taxi around the south-side to get to the north-side, Tower had me do a 180 and back-taxi on the runway to the Hotel intersection and then cross to Delta and taxi to Royal Air East. Very nice of them and I think I'm the first person to get to back-taxi on the new 27L Runway. First time I've ever done a back-taxi at Pontiac.

Got to Royal Air East and still had well over an hour's fuel in the tanks, so my fuel planning was on which was good. Then taxi back to the hangar, wiped all the bugs off the plane, and then headed home with our day's shopping.

2.4 in sporty conditions and a rather sporty landing as well.  Challenging, but I handled it all just fine and I'm quite sure al the IFR training has helped me be both more precise and capable.  Leah had a great time on Mackinaw Island and in the air, except for the turbulence part.  The rest of the family enjoyed the fudge we had brought home.

This is definitely why I learned how to fly, to be able to take the family on neat trips, especially day trips that can't be done by car in a timely manner.

On Mackinac Island

We decided to walk into town from the airport.

Absolutely beautiful day for it.

We waked past the Protestant and Catholic cemeteries that are beside each other that we had seen on that rainy foggy day during the horse carriage tour.

Speaking of carriage tours:

Quite a few passed us as we walked into town.

We headed straight to Millies on Main, as the flight and walk had built up an appetite.

We ordered the fish and chips, as they are the best fish 'n' chips in Michigan.

Impossible to go hungry after eating that.

Then we started wandering around Main Street.

The place was hopping.

 

People were relaxing in the park below the fort.

We checked out various stores, and decided some fudge shopping was required.  After all it's the island's #1 export, so we needed to buy some to export.

We bought some fudge from both Murdick's and Killwin's to bring home.  Both were excellent.  Leah got a caramel apple at Killwin's to eat while she was on the island that was one of the best caramel apples ever.  I typically hate caramel apples but this one was truly great, with real soft and delicious caramel.

We bought a few other things, some clothes that were on sale and some of the local beer.

 An excellent summer beer and it was indeed, after we got home and I had put it in the refrigerator and tried it out, first time trying a Gose-style beer, and as the store promised it was "Shell'a Good!".

Then it was about 3:30 and it was time to head back to the airport, so we called a taxi instead of walking back uphill to the airport.

Flying - To Mackinac Island

I was finally able to take Leah on a trip I've been trying to do for over a year now.  Every time in the past that I've planned a flight to Mackinac Island, I get weather-cancelled.

It looked like yesterday would join that list of cancellations, but the weather turned out better than forecast but still with some fun to keep me on my toes.

We got up, had breakfast and headed to the airport.

I first taxi'd to Royal Air to fill the tanks as the Archer is normally stored at tabs rather than full, and I wanted all the fuel for the trip.

Then I requested flight following to Mackinac Island  and we were wheels up at 10:09 am and on our way.  Heckuva crosswind at Pontiac on takeoff.

The air was nice and smooth as I climbed to 4,500 feet and talked to Detroit and then got handed off to Great Lakes Approach.

 

So smooth my co-pilot decided to take a beauty nap.

 

Getting close to Saginaw I got handed off to another Great Lakes Approach frequency and crossed over Saginaw and then we flew over a part of Saginaw Bay.

 

We then got handed off to Minneapolis Center and they were so busy they did not acknowledge my check-in call.  After a few more minutes tried again and got a "N8428S standby" so that was good enough I suppose.  They certainly had their hands full.

Then we had Mackinac island in sight.

That's Bois Blanc Island in the foreground, and Mackinac island is the farthest one.

Got to 5 miles was listening to the ASOS and the CTAF and no one was on.  I did a radio call to Mineapolis that I had the Island in sight and they then said radar services termianted and squawk VFR. So I did.

Coming out of 4,500 and entering the pattern over the water there was a lot of light chop as we descended and the wind was out of 230 gusting 10-21 knots.

I did the calls for landing on Runway 26 and did the downwind over the water as their noise abatement instructs, which makes for a very wide downwind and a long final.  Called the long final, brought the plane in with a whole lot of crosswind correction as the gusts were indeed gusting, and did a nice landing.

Taxi'd to the ramp and they had me park at the day parking in the front which was nice.

 

Quite a few planes were already there.

We paid the landing fee of $12.50 (It's 12.50 per engine) and signed in and chatted with the attendant.  

We had arrived at Mackinac Island.

An over four and a half hour drive and we made it in under two hours, landing at 11:54 am.

A great day on the island awaited.

2.2 Hours and one nice if challenging landing.

Flying IFR - Lesson 25 - Stage Check II

For the Stage Check II I had Alec as an instructor for the first time. Nice guy who has never flown with me before.

The route would be the same as the last lesson but with slightly different approaches  - Ann Arbor with the VOR 24, Troy with the RNAV 9 circle to 27 and Pontiac with both the localizer backcourse 27L and the RNAV 27L.  So a high-workload and task saturated lesson.

I was in N5337F and it was Stage Check time.

I got everything setup as I wanted to, did the run up, and we got clearance for 27L and a VFR flight folowing clearance for the approaches.

Talked with Detroit Approach and got routed to Ann Arbor for the VOR 24. Overall the approach went well, need to be a bit more on altitude but everything was good. We were planning to do the published hold but a VFR airplane was in the way so we flew runway heading and climbed to 3,000 and then checked in with Detroit approach and got sequenced in for the Troy RNAV approach, as things were getting busy.  Lots of radio calls, multiple aircraft with similar sounding call-signs, vectors all over the place, and lots of fun.   One aircraft made Detroit Approach very unhappy by busting the Bravo, and they got a number to call. Ouch.

Troy went quite well, got in a good approach and good circle to land, went missed and off to Pontiac.

Localizer backcourse at Pontiac went well, did a good lineup and had reverse sensing going to make life more interesting.  No issues and went missed.

Then got sequenced for the RNAV 27L and I rode that approach like it was on rails.  Dead on advisory glideslope and perfectly aligned the entire way.  Instructor said it was the best RNAV approach he's seen a student fly. 

Afterwards we debriefed and he said I did an excellent job and my radio and GPS / navigation systems work is excellent, he loved the RNAV 27L approach and just said to watch the altitude on VOR approaches a bit better,

In short, I have now passed the Stage II Check.

Piper Day 4

So Piper is still settling in and has quite the personality. 

She's very curious, into everything, and wants to be everywhere at once.  She actually made it through the night two nights in a row, for which we are thankful.

She is bonding to us nicely.

So far, two accidents inside today and its only 10 am.  Did get her outside for some activity and she went outside when she first got up before said accidents, which helped cut down overall number of accidents inside. Raising a puppy requires patience and quite a clean-up effort.  Working on better get her outside quick processes and trying to read her closely for when she's about to go inside and try to get ahead of it.  Very mixed success so far.

Outside, she unfortunately distracts herself from doing her business by happily chewing on anything she can find. 

She's already learning about baseball as a good American pup should.

Jett is starting to warm up a bit to this high-energy creature that has rocked his world. He's still a little down though. As an older brother, I, too understand what this is like.

The two of them actually played together for a bit yesterday.

 

This is a good sign.  Mainly he's been staying away from her and she is starting to try and get him to play so we will see.

Containment of the rambunctious and free-flying Piper  has also been attempted.

These walls cannot hold me!

I expect by next week she will be able to launch herself over the wall but for now the doggie playpen used for short stints at least keeps her in one area by us and reduces overall mayhem and we tend to go in there with her to keep her company and play with her.

Currently toes are not safe from the teething Piper.  Those puppy teeth hurt.  We have lots of chew toys to distract her, but she does like to consume toes every now and then. 

She wants to chew everything, including phones.

I'm here to chew bubblegum and eat phones, and I am all out of bubblegum.

She's off sleeping in her hangar (crate) now.  Soon to be let out for de-fueling and refueling operations.

Update:  That didn't last. Less than 24 hours from getting the playpen. On coming home from the office just now after letting her out I put her in the playpen. She figured out how to bust out of the doggie playpen while I was on a Zoom call. Suddenly a pup was at my feet wanting to join in on the Zoom.  Oh well.

Pitiful, Pompous, Pretentious, Powerless Pronouncement

Secretary of State Blinken made a rather pretentious pronouncement regarding the Taliban's interim government [from the Daily Caller]:

Yesterday, the Taliban named a new interim government. We are assessing the announcement, but despite professing that a new government would be inclusive, the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates, and no women,” Blinken said.

“We are also concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of those individuals. We understand the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. We will judge it, and them, by its actions,” he added.

Quick note - the Taliban does not give a rat's behind what Blinken says at this point.  Any leverage Blinked had over the Taliban ended when they took over the country and the Biden administration did the Biden Bugout Boogie. Verily, there are more wanted-list named terrorists in the government than women and that was entirely predictable to anyone not a part of the Biden adminsitration.

Expecting a 7th Century ideology to buy into woke post-modern ideology of "diversity, inclusion, and equity" is laughable if he actually believed they would we need a new Secretary of State pronto.  The Taliban does not want your DIE ideology of "diversity, inclusion, and equity", they want you and all non-believers to DIE.  Not much of a middle ground there.

Expecting the Taliban to have women in their government, when the Taliban at most are perhaps starting to grudgingly let women exit their homes fully burqa'd was an utter joke. The Taliban could care less than nothing for the US and European politicians pronouncements regarding diversity and women's rights.

This is the sort stupid soft power moral pronouncements that while sounding good among the bien pensants are backed by nothing and will be ignored accordingly, and will ultimately backfire.

Flying IFR - Lesson 24 - Zipping From One Approach To Another

For Lesson 24 we were going to see how quickly I could end up behind the airplane.

IFR flight plan from Pontiac to Ann Arbor to Troy and back to Pontiac.

All airports are rather close by and they come up fast on approach.

Did the VOR 24 approach to Ann Arbor with ye olde chop-n-drop.

Then zipped off to the RNAV 9 Approach at Troy after entering and then leaving the published hold after going missed at Ann Arbor.

Then right back to the RNAV 27L at Pontiac.

Again, we got an instruction to keep our speed up right after we hit the Final Approach Fix and had gotten the flaps out, so we were doing 100 knots past the FAF so I was doing a quicker descent than normal but no real issue.

Pontiac Ground was nice and had us cut across the end of Runway 27L to get to the north side during a break in traffic, saving quite a bit of time on the taxi back to DCT.

Overall it was not bad, but I felt behind almost the whole time as the distances involved were very short with little time to get everything setup for the next approach.  I also need to lock in the sight pictures on the Attitude Indicator.

On the upside I did well enough today so that Kevin is sending me for my Stage 2 check again this Friday. We will see what happens.

That's 1.6 with 1.4 simulated IFR, 3 approaches, and a hold, and a rather nice landing.

Happy Rosh Hashanah 5782

May my readers and friends have a sweet new year, and be inscribed in the Book of Life.

שנה טובה ומתוקה

Day 2 Of Piper - 1 A.M. Regerts?

Piper decided she needed a pre-flight at 1 a.m. this morning.

Ouch.  Good thing she's cute and gives off Puppytocin like it's going out of style.

She is crate trained, but decided to let the whole house know she needed out of the crate at 1 a.m.

Ouch.  We forgot or suppressed this part of having a puppy.

Jett is very much not amused.

Look, I gave consent to this idea, but now I'm not sure if it was informed consent.

 

So we got up and let her out and then back in.

Then up at 6 a.m. with the kids and she got outside again, had her fuel like she hadn't been fueled up in forever, I mean she wolfed that puppy food down, and then went out again with Jett. After that I took Jett for a longer walk on his own.

She's a very curious pup, very interested in her new home and checking everything out both outside and in.

Last night she discovered mirrors 

She rather enjoyed checking herself out.

She then got some experience with technology.

She was intrigued to hear music coming from Abby's phone.  Much more interesting than her new squeaky toy.

She's a good pup, very sweet, and quite the handful trying her best to get into everything.