The midnight landings of two jets at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, after the control tower mysteriously fell silent this week, raises serious national security concerns, security experts and former air-traffic controllers say. I’d say a resounding YES that is a problem when the control tower has fallen silent.Should we be putting out an amber alert for the missing air traffic controller?

The two jets landed within a few miles of the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon and other sensitive government buildings without clearance from the tower because the air-traffic controller on duty did not respond on the radio or telephone.Hello, haven’t we made up our minds..I don’t know about 11 years ago to tighten security for these purposes? Why the hell are we all getting felt up by TSA if the damn air space is not being adequately monitored.

The lone  supervisor on duty in Reagan National’s tower told investigators Thursday that he had fallen asleep while working his fourth consecutive overnight shift, the National Transportation Safety Board said. There is so much wrong with this sentence that I can’t even touch it. All I can say on the subject is that there apparently needs to be more than 1 person on the night shift, especially since this is the air space over our nation’s capital. Perhaps the over night shift controllers should be issued an intravenous espresso drip? Maybe a little government issued crack..Charlie Sheen grade.That should keep some folks awake for a 4 day shift.

The two jets, which were carrying 165 people, landed after pilots were advised by a controller at a regional facility in nearby Warrenton, Va., that it would be OK to do so. WTF? So it was literally phoned in? I so don’t want my flight landed remotely. If you don’t have eyes on the air space aren’t you basically making an educated guess? This could have ended in catastrophe on several levels.

“That’s just not a good idea, especially with the White House right there,” Luckey says. NO shit! Is this the brains of this outfit. Thank you very much Captain Obvious for your astute observation. Any other bright ideas?

 
So it is my mandatory civic duty to issue the  Throat Punch to Sleeping Beauty of the Friendly skies. I understand he is pleading the whole, I was tired defense. FAA, as standard protocol, has issued a drug test. I’d say that is a good idea. Just say NO , my good sir. Drugs or no drugs, it’s a little frightening to think that someone in such a crucial position can nod off due to fatigue. To me that is a certain sign that perhaps the over night shift should be broken down into smaller increments. Perhaps, no more than 2 consecutive days of the overnight shift in the control box…anywhere really but especially in the DC area.This story has me a bit frightened to fly. If I would have been one of the 165, I’m not sure you could ever get me onto another plane knowing that the person on duty, whose position is to be awake and control traffic is indulging in impromptu naps. To you my narcoleptic friend, I give you a hefty Throat Punch, perhaps it will help keep you awake. Sweet dreams!..on your own time that is, not when I’m flying into DC.

It’s getting down to the wire and I am so tired. I was up until 3 am last night trying to get my Project Mom Casting video to upload to You tube. At this moment, I’m typing with one eye open, texting with my other hand, and keeping up with my twitter tread (I’m beginning to think that I may have some sort of social media addiction.There may be a 12 step program in my immediate future.)I’ve had to think about this one for awhile. There has been a lot going on in the world this past week but I don’t think I have the strength tonight to give a roundhouse kick to nuclear reactors, deadly weather, or even all the doomsday prophets. But , fret not, I have someone that I think deserves a good swift kick in the head, punch to the throat and then maybe 1 more to the head.

I am referring to Nicole Imprescia, the mother who is suing the preschool that her daughter,Lucia, was enrolled in because she felt that they were educating her substandardly for the elite elementary schools of New York city and therefore ruining any hope of little Lucia ever attending an Ivy league university. Ms. Imprescia is demanding that her hefty $19,000 tuition be refunded since she was forced to remove her child from the school only after 3 weeks because the school had the audacity to let her 4 year old fraternize with lowly 2 and 3 year olds.

Look, I am not from New York City. I am from the Midwest. I’m not a bumpkin, we have waiting lists and qualifications too for the elite schools. In fact, my own daughter attends one of the most prestigious schools in our city. We were on one of those lists. Would I pay $19,000 for preschool? Not even if I had so much money that I were wiping my ass with $100s. It’s PRESCHOOL. It isn’t even the real thing yet. I know education is important. I work in the field. I’ve seen what dropping the educational ball can do to a child. Here’s my issue; parents you CAN work with your children outside of school to educate them. They are like little sponges.It actually takes more effort, on your part, to NOT teach them something.My problem is that, perhaps, Ms. Imprescia could have been a little more diligent in her exploration and selection process of a school for little Lucia before actually enrolling her. Had she simply, knowing her own daughter, taken into account what the school could offer or could not, perhaps she could have saved herself the $19,000. I don’t know the exact reasoning why this woman is suing the school. Blaming the school that her daughter may or may not gain entry into an Ivy League school at some distant time in the future seems to be reaching quite extensively. If she wants this to come to fruition, perhaps she should bring this suit in about 15 years when Lucia IS actually denied admission to some illusive Ivy League university.

As for now, I am positive that she signed some sort of paperwork stipulating that if she left the school of her own free will that she would forfeit the money.Apparently, she missed the boat on an elite preschool herself or she would have read the mound of paperwork that she signed in triplicate a little bit more closely. So,Mommy dearest, you get the throat punch for not reading your paperwork and getting mad and wanting to take your toys an go home.

But then again, these situations could not present themselves if we didn’t all fork out these ridiculous tuition fees. I think it has a lot more to do with mompetition and a lot less to do with believing that the wrong preschool is going to subtract valuable IQ points from our children.