The Conservasphere has been having a field day with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin story. The jokes write themselves – Bezos sending six not too bright female celebrities into low orbit space on a phallic looking spacecraft owned by a company whose CEO is named… David Limp. Predictably, the Dinosaur Media has been gushing over the project. PJM’s Scott Pinsker gave one of the better summaries of the story, and if video is more of what you’re looking for, my two favorite takedowns were from Megyn Kelly and Black Conservative Perspective. So what could possibly having me defending this ridiculous publicity stunt?
I’ve been lamenting for a while now how as a country America has stopped looking to the future and for progress and innovation. Seven years ago I mused on this with the short post Remember Tommorow (Land), and three years ago I made a similar observation in Robert Heinlein’s Past Through Tomorrow – What We’ve Lost As Americans. Back to Pinsker’s column
For a moment, here’s a roundup of how the press covered the story:
USA Today: History made: Katy Perry, Gayle King go to space on Blue Origin flight
NPR: Katy Perry, Gayle King and others reflect on their brief but historic trip to space
CBS News: Blue Origin’s all-female crew talks training, historic spaceflight and inspiring others
MSNBC: Blue Origin’s all-female crew returns to Earth after travelling to the edge of space
Elle: Blue Origin’s All-Female Flight Crew Isn’t Afraid to Take Up Space
The Guardian: Lauren Sanchez’s all-female space flight is about to blast off — and will challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX
The Hill: All-female Blue Origin space flight prepares for liftoff
BBC: Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King reflect on all-female space flight
People Magazine: Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez Go to Space and Back in Historic All-Female Blue Origin Flight
Now back to my Heinlein post:
But what is it in these stories that we’ve lost?
In a word, optimism. While humanity is not perfectable, its achievements in TPTT are amazing. Science is used as a tool for improvement and exploration, unlike current times where “science” has been perverted into living in fear of the weather, locking down humanity in the name of “public health” and mutilating children. We even see the general stupidity of our culture where The New Yorker is scolding Musk and like minded entrepreneurs for daring to use their own money to open up space. Or there’s Vanity Fair whining that Musk is spending his own money in space instead fo helping people on Earth. Of course, never among these geniuses is how much of our money our various levels of government waste an various garbage. No, it’s the private citizen’s fault for daring to dream.
Did you notice what was missing from all of these columns from the Lefties? That’s right, gone is the usual scolding. Instead of harping about how Bezos could have used his money to pay every Amazon worker $1,000 an hour or how Bezos could have ended child hunger by writing a massive check to the UN or some other corruptocracy. No, the simpletons in the press got their marching orders and all sang the same tune about how wonderful space travel is. Apparently the worthiness of how billionaires spend their money is dependent on their politics. But given today’s political climate, I’ll take it. If the media is on board with encouraging innovation and exploration, then I’m happy to acknowledge the stopped clock being right twice a day. And I would call on Bezos for more of this.
What say you?
NEW: Gayle King lashes out against people calling her ten-minute trip to space a “ride,” compares herself to Alan Shepard who walked on the moon.
King suggested that people are being misogynistic by saying she, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sánchez went on a “ride.”
“I’m very… pic.twitter.com/uPHKa3WsOO
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 16, 2025
These skin tight spacesuits are like something from a 70’s Bond film. pic.twitter.com/lwrLl3uhVH
— Moral Tourism (@moraltourism) April 15, 2025
Brother Bob is no longer on Facebook (although you can see his archives there), and is back on Twitter again, but is ramping up on Minds and Gab, and has his biggest presence on MeWe.
Cross posted from Brother Bob’s Blog
Now, making fun of the women on the trip is another story!
Now why isnt Kamela on board the Flying penis to fame? Oh been there did that.
In your 2022 article you made a vital point that the Left never gets:
[H]umanity is not perfectable.
Gosh, I wish the Left got this truth.
Lefties constantly try to “legislate” perfection.
If Bezos little ride for the ladies helps chip away at the Left’s idea that humanity is perfectable it would be a net plus for which he should be lauded.
Surely the left, through years of experience, realize perfection is impossible.
I think you’re absolutely right.
But the Left doesn’t use that premise just as a part of a belief system.
They use it to give them the excuse that they can force you to “perfection,” thru new and more constraining laws.
In other words as an excuse to define what perfection is and force you into it, or else.
They expect perfection when Republicans are in office buy will happily accept failure, disaster and embarrassment from their own.
History is littered with piles of skulls at the hands of people who thought that humanity is perfectible.
Alan Sheppard rode a rocket that had the irritating habit of exploding. All your observations aside, what I noticed was that these hags couldn’t wait to get all their makeup applied. I saw Perry making her profound statement and noticed she was wearing lipstick which, if they had to don an oxygen mask in the spacecraft (or world’s tallest elevator), she would have blown her lips off. Then I noticed other pictures of them prior to launch that they, properly, were not wearing makeup (no closeups, please). So, as soon as they got back to the ground floor, they rushed to get all their faces did because, first and foremost, it was an historic event.
It looks like the “How dare they spend their money this way!” ire is being directed at the women. And they brought a lot of it on themselves
They bring it ALL upon themselves. This is an amusement ride. Sure, the most expensive and dangerous amusement ride, but that’s all it is.
That’s the sad part. Had they just taken the ride, said it was cool and expressed gratitude for the experience brushback would have been minimal.
That said, even this negative blowback is serving an inadvertent far greater good – the more this story get talked about, the more we normalize the idea of normal citizens going into space.
Ignore the annoying “all female” hype, or arguments about the spacegirls competency.
This moved space tourism forward. That will only help the space industry.
Jeff did a good thing here.
Amen to that. More of this!
RIDE SALLY RIDE
I see what you did there