Musings From Mike's Mind

"Every time I walk onto a plane and see a black pilot, I wonder if he's qualified." ( https://youtu.be/El7Kte3fkeE?si=r3yi3eaU3vQwb5iC ) Do you really think American, Delta, Southwest, United, etc would put an unqualified pilot in the cockpit of an airplane carrying hundreds of passengers?  Do you really think they would take the safety risk should an unqualified pilot make a catastrophic mistake? The reputational risk? The financial risk? I'm quite certain the airline would never recover and would cease to exist. Do you really think American, Delta, Southwest, United, etc have different training and qualification tracks for white pilots than black pilots?  Do you really think the training and certifications are less stringent for black pilots? I am quite certain that the pilots are qualified when I walk on a plane. You can try to weasel out of your ridiculous assertion by saying "DEI makes me wonder", but the slightest critical thinking or curiosity about h...

Eligibility Background The USDA administers the SNAP program. Below is a summary of who is eligible: US citizens Documented refugees Documented non-citizens who have lived in the US for at least 5 years Further, to be eligible for benefits one must meet several income based criteria (gross income less than 130% of the poverty line, net income below the poverty line, and total assets below certain limits) along with work requirements. After 90 days, the work requirements become more stringent. Undocumented non-citizens are not eligible for the program under any circumstances. Who Is On SNAP? According to USDA statistics: 95.6% of recipients are citizens 1.1% are documented refugees 3.3% are eligible documented non-citizens According to a recent GAO report, 51% of SNAP recipients worked at least 36 hours per week for 50 weeks last year. Which means that 51% of SNAP recipients are working fulltime and are chronically underpaid. Who Are The Largest Beneficiaries Of SNAP? That 51% percent o...

We don’t need to know anything about any shooter’s motivations to start making the United States a safer place. The U.S. is the outlier. No other country has gun violence like we do. No other country has the gun culture that we do. Those two things together are the root of the problem. The History of the Second Amendment The founding fathers were concise. The Second Amendment contains only 27 words and all of them are meaningful. The first 13 are critical and modify everything that follows (" A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, [...]") . The founders were worried about a federal army being deployed against the states and wanted well-regulated (i.e., well-trained) state militias to be available to prevent that. State militias were used to enforce slave laws (track down and return escaped slaves to their owners) and the southern states were concerned that the federal authorities wouldn’t help if there was a slave rebellion similar to the o...