July 23, 2012, - 11:22 pm

Sally Ride Was Pushed Ahead of More Qualified Male Astronauts b/c She Was a Chick, Feminist, Lesbian

By Debbie Schlussel

The mainstream news media and many Americans are remembering Sally Ride, who died today at age 61, as though she were some sort of American hero for being the first female astronaut. She was not. Not even close. Instead, she was the beneficiary of militant feminism, in whose ranks she was proudly present, along with blatant gender-based affirmative action. Many male astronauts and astronauts-in-waiting were far more qualified, had more experience, and had been waiting much longer for a ticket to ride on the space shuttle. But they were passed over because NASA had just instituted affirmative action and wanted to please feminists. This isn’t just me guessing about this or my opinion. It’s fact, and it’s well known and NASA bragged about it, passing over a Black astronaut, Lt. Col. Guion Bluford, who was far more qualified and had trained as an astronaut long before her. Bluford eventually went to space on the next ride, but many others never got to go because they were displaced by Ride and other women who filled the affirmative action quota seat on each major space flight thereafter.


Sally Ride (Center) With Her Feminist Mentors, Billy Jean King & Gloria Steinem @ Ms. Magazine Party

The feminist movement pushed for a chick in the space shuttle and, with Ride, they got it. It’s simply not usual for someone to join NASA and five years later be on the way to outer space . . unless that someone has a vagina. That’s why, at age 32, she was the youngest astronaut at that time ever to go to space–not because she was any sort of wunderkind, but because she was a woman. And she was a pioneer . . . for politically correct incompetence. Since NASA began its affirmative action program for females and put Ride into space in 1983, there has usually been at least one female on the flight crew on every single major NASA mission (which is how she went into space twice, when more qualified men never even got to go once). And in every single case, the woman has less experience and fewer qualifications than any one of the men on board. While America recently scrapped the space program, and no one will be going into space under the auspices of the U.S. government anytime soon, it’s important to recognize this and to note that Sally Ride made no history because she never went into space in her own right and without a gender-based advantage. The feminists turned her into a faux-hero and her mission into faux-history. But there was nothing historic about it. It was a concession to NOW and the other hags of feminism, who knew a woman could not beat most of the men who’d been waiting for years to go to space, many of whom never got the chance. Thousands wanted to go to space, few were chosen. It was an elite crew, except if you were the chick (or the Saudi prince who paid his way on board, courtesy of Ronald Reagan, who was also big behind the Sally Ride/woman in space push and also picked uber-liberal disaster Sandra Day O’Connor for the Supreme Court–he was into disastrous PC “firsts”). Those were always the “gimmes” to political correctness.

Valerie Neal, the Shuttle-era human spaceflight curator in the National Air and Space Museum’s Space History Division, wrote about Ride and other female astronauts who were aggressively recruited because of their gender:

They came of age as the civil rights, equal rights, and women’s movements stimulated changes in American society and opened new career possibilities. They were poised to step through the door opened by NASA’s affirmative action policy and its aggressive recruitment of women and minorities for the astronaut corps.

In one biography of Ride, it gushes that she was the first female astronaut to use the robotic arm to retrieve a satellite. Big whoop (or as I was thinking, B-F-D, “Big F Deal”). A man did it first, so it’s not history. It was done. She was also the first woman to go to the bathroom on a space shuttle. Again, a dude did it first. And he was still more qualified and earned his trip.


And since a man did everything Sally Ride did first–and men who were always more qualified and worthy were passed over for anything she did–she and her career are of no consequence.

Some may say that she allowed girls to dream of going into space. But that’s bunk. Girls can have males as heroes. None of mine were women. To say a girl can’t identify with someone merely because she has different plumbing–well, that’s the very definition of sexism. And sexism is the shaky stuff on which the whole feminist movement–and all of Sally Ride’s notoriety–is built.

Sally Ride’s open lesbianism is the other reason she became the false hero she is. Much of the top echelons of the feminist movement then were lesbians–people like Eleanor Smeal and others. And lesbians were especially loved and promoted. It’s no accident that the first woman to go into space was a lesbian. They didn’t pick her lightly. Sally Ride wasn’t just a woman and a lesbian. She was a NOW activist, speaking at their conventions.

So while I feel for Sally Ride’s family and loved ones for her painful, relatively young loss from pancreatic cancer, which is tragic for all of its victims, including close family members of mine, I don’t remember her today. I remember the many nameless, faceless men who dedicated their lives to go to space–a calling which many answered but for which few were chosen. I remember those men whose names we never heard because they were passed over so that Sally Ride could steal their place not once, but twice, and even more times, as she set the precedent for a gender-based female affirmative action seat set aside on each major trip to space.

I got attacked by liberals (and faux-conservatives) for tweeting it on Twitter (follow me on Twitter), but I’ll say it again:

Thousands of more qualified men were passed over so that Sally Ride’s vagina could fly into space.

I make no apologies for telling the truth, no matter how blunt. If you can’t handle it, tough. Facts are stubborn things. Even more tough: morons who won’t face them.

Oh, and in case, you were wondering, Sally Ride endorsed Barack Obama for President in 2008. Birds of a feather: She got her job because of her vagina. He got his because of his skin color . . . and his vagina.




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91 Responses

Well, NASA’S biggest boneheaded move was launching Christa McAuliffe, a second grade teacher into space. Not a scientist, not a pilot, not anything. Do you know how expensive it is to lift someone into space? It takes 10,000 pounds of thrust to lift one pound into space. She was DEADWEIGHT.

Space shuttles, poorly designed, were inherently dangerous vehicles. She had no business being there. NASA was probably pressured into the move by the NEA.

Incidentally, it was no accident that none of the first seven astronauts were Jewish, nor a number to follow. That was intentional, so that they had the perfectly typical “All American” flying.

NASA was and remains an extremely corrupt organization,filled with graft and incompetency. On top of that, it is now a vehicle for political correctness.

JEG: After Christa McAuliffe, a total peacenik liberal was launched on that flight, Muslim Arabs never stopped bragging about her. She was an Arab, but a Christian one, whose ancestors left Lebanon to avoid the Muslims’ ancestors. But the truth never stops them from hijacking a story for their benefit and propaganda mission. DS

Jonathan E. Grant on July 23, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    Digressing . . . Christa McAuliffe belonged at home with her two children. You could say they were raised by Lloyds of London… 1$ million life insurance payment to husband and children. WHAT A WASTE…

    As goes... on July 24, 2012 at 12:00 am

    Yeah, and McAuliffe too. I had ZERO interest in her and I remember my English/TV Production teacher yelling at me because when he told me the space-shuttle “blew up” I said….”Big deal….it does that all the time.” He looked at me as if I said I ate little children. I thought he meant the space shuttle LAUNCHED into space…not that it burst to smithereens. How embarrassing!

    But again, was not excited about all the pomp and circumstance about her flight…but I felt terrible when I realized that the whole lot died. I’ll never forget that part.

    Skunky on July 24, 2012 at 12:09 am

Thank you for reminding me of Sally Ride. The woman struck me as odd when I was still pretty young. I that her affirmative action boost contributed to the declining interest in the United States space program. The Space Shuttle and later the Space Station became ever more about publicity and showcasing politically correct values, and ever less about actual science.

I am feel sorrow for those men who had the right stuff, but were never given the chance. Sally Ride’s death is an unfortunate thing. However, she was a filled quota, rather than an actual astronaut. She was a portent that manned space flight had reached a dead end NASA, and would eventually die.

Worry on July 23, 2012 at 11:40 pm

Since NASA has been tasked to engage in muslim outreach, they’re gonna have to engineer a space suit that can accommodate a full bur-qua underneath.

Airmet Tango on July 23, 2012 at 11:41 pm

    A burka would make a suitable reentry vehicle. Also, why waste a space suit?

    Worry on July 23, 2012 at 11:49 pm

    Well let’s just hope that nobody flies one of THOSE into a building. I only WISH I was joking.

    Statusmonkey on July 24, 2012 at 12:14 am

I looked at her and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end…

So, I wiki’d her… My gut was right and you have confirmed it… ANOTHER PROUD THIEF. She can stand right next to CONDI…

As goes... on July 23, 2012 at 11:43 pm

I feel foolish saying this but I didn’t know she was a Lesbian! I am gonna chock it up to the 80’s mullet hairdos. Or maybe I have never been that great at scoping out Lesbians if they aren’t overtly butch. LOL I should have known!

I was a full-fledged (silly) pretty militant feminist when she was the toast of the town. I guess I liked (at the time) that a female got to go to space but I don’t remember being all over the moon about it. I was strangely indifferent to her and was like “So what.” Maybe there was a part of me that knew it was kinda bogus. I did get all enthusiastic about female affirmative action at the time but I reckon I had NO idea how stupid (and counterproductive) it all was. I do now! I know if it had been explained to me proper I *may* have rejected it but like I said I erroneously thought women should be given a spot “just because”. Yuck!

I get it now and that is the most important part. I agree with DS 100% on this and it’s a great feeling because she never had to be a feminist, which is a fools errand! Obviously.

As a tennis fan Billie Jean King annoys me. I do love her dedication to the sport but I reject her feminist stupidity of the sport. I don’t support “Title 9” and I happen to think men professionals SHOULD be paid more because they play more and I’d rather watch the men play than females (I do like female tennis thou’).

I wonder why I was so indifferent about Sally Ride as a teen? I’ll have to think about it but I am glad NOT to be a feminist anymore!

Skunky on July 24, 2012 at 12:02 am

    I too did not realize she was a lesbian–I just thought she was homely.

    lexi on July 24, 2012 at 12:51 pm

Debbie I’m confused now about who all has a vagina. But I know I don’t. In the interest of tznius I will refrain from making any speculative anatomic references to any particular female who may or may not read this comment. That’s more third date material.

A1 on July 24, 2012 at 12:12 am

    A1, you perv, why don’t you find a hobby other than whacking off here?

    Skzion on July 24, 2012 at 11:07 am

Wow, this comment section makes no sense. Sally Ride responsible for brining down NASA? And how did you guys manage to turn this into a conversation about Islam?

There are two kinds of Republicans. Those with real money who want to keep it, and those who fear feminism. The later category live in $250K homes and spend weekends at Applebees, but have exactly nothing in common the former.

Jim on July 24, 2012 at 12:28 am

    Hey Jim, what year did the Zombies eat your brain? You know-nothing Liberals annoy me because you know NOTHING and act like you’re right on it.

    Republicans fearing feminists? LOLOL! When will you get it that the only thing people fear from “feminists” is being bored by them and scared of hairy arms and legs and ugly faces!

    Jim, I know the Zombies ate your brain in 1995 but you should have got the message that feminism is a FRAUD because the trouble with women IS women. It’s hard to stick up for ALL women when so many are stupid skanks who wanna be stupid skanks. A thankless and hypocritical task!

    Your “class warfare” has me more board than a feminist waxing poetic on her love of U2. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

    Skunky on July 24, 2012 at 12:40 am

This is some of the most idiotic vitriol I’ve ever read. It was always intended that the Space Shuttle would make space more accessible to more Americans and expand the definition of astronaut beyond what had been imagined before. The shuttle had seven seats and only two of them needed to be filled by traditional test-pilot type astronauts. The other five didn’t need to know how to fly it. This was an unprecedented opportunity for more Americans to identify with the possibility of space travel. The purpose of putting Sally Ride in space was the same as the purpose of putting ANY human being in space, but with a new target audience. No, a man was NOT qualified to accomplish Sally Ride’s mission, which was partly to make studying science seem relevant to young women who may have the aptitude but perhaps not the inspiration. The Space Shuttle was the space program selected by the Nixon administration and launched by the Reagan administration. The Reagan Administration selected Sally Ride as the only shuttle astronaut on the presidential commission to investigate the Challenger disaster, and later, under President Bush, Ride was the only person from the Challenger investigation who returned for the Columbia investigation. But what am I even doing here, trying to write anything sensible, when this is clearly a site for people who are crazy enough to think Nixon, Reagan, and Bush were too liberal. A worldview like that can only be seen from so far down a cave that only one’s own echo can be heard.

Magic_Al on July 24, 2012 at 12:40 am

Girls can have males as heroes. None of mine were women.

You don’t think Clara Barton was a great heroine? How about Chana Senesch, may the al-mighty avenge her blood? Harriat Tubman?

Miranda Rose Smith on July 24, 2012 at 1:43 am

    The point Debbie is making is that if your role models are gender dependent, you are missing out on a lot. Also, you get stuck in the Sally Ride Syndrome. If a woman has not done it, it really has not been done. I would see that as really demeaning to women.

    Worry on July 24, 2012 at 5:06 am

      I have plenty of male role models. The first one was my father, of blessed memory.

      Miranda Rose Smith on July 25, 2012 at 10:55 am

Debbie, I doubt that this one was just a case of pandering to feminists. After all, during that time, the US was in a space race w/ the USSR in not just the actual race itself, but also in PR aspects of it, like having a woman in space, first man on the moon, et al.

Of course, one could argue that since Valentina Tereshkova had already been in space, she, along w/ Yuri Gagarin, had already won that round, so there was no compelling reason to put Sally Ride on there.

We know that Muslims ain’t pc about these things, but I wonder to what extent were the Soviets pc about it? Did they put Tereshkova to make a political statement, or for other reasons?

Sally Ride, RIP

Infidel on July 24, 2012 at 2:38 am

Well, I have always thought the “space race” was a big waste of time, money and dubious talent. As for heroes, I have none, male or female because they are all, in the end, human and fallible. Even Moses made mistakes. Maybe the closest I come to having a hero is Daniel of the Bible. Anything any “hero” ever did that was noteworthy was by the will and inspiration of Hashem and it is to HIM we should give the glory. All else is idol worship.

Italkit on July 24, 2012 at 4:29 am

When will women learn not to belittle other women? This game seems to be most prevalent among white women.Sally Ride, like Marie Curie, had a Ph.D. in physics. Ride was NOT a product of affirmation. Gloria Steinem and NOW made use of her. Don’t spoil the world for today’s young women. Yes, they can regardless of everything else…If your dreams were crushed don’t crush other women’s dreams!

nikki on July 24, 2012 at 4:34 am

    Nikki, Sally Ride went on to write some children’s books and do a little teaching. That is a sign that she was really not in high demand after her two space shuttle flights. Also, Comparing Sally Ride to Marie Curie is as absurd a comparison as comparing a community college calculus instructor with Albert Einstein.

    Also Nikki, are girls so pathetic that they cannot accomplish things unless some female role model is holding their hand? If that is that case, they are ready for a burka, rather than any life accomplishment.

    Also, your last comment is telilng Nikki. Debbie stated that her role models were not confined to women. Are your’s? That is about as sexist as it gets Nikki.

    Worry on July 24, 2012 at 5:02 am

      I agree, Worry. NIkki, women don’t belittle other WOMEN. Immature LITTLE GIRLS belittle other girls and women. When are girls going to stop belittling males both big and small? Belittling is the weapon of an insecure, spiteful small mind that’s feels powerless any other way. I have, however, found females, hard to be sure if they were women or girls, to be the major obstacles and nay sayers in my life. It was always the men in my life, starting with my father, who told me I had brains and ability to accomplish whatever I chose. My father was probably a handful of people in the WORLD who knew what a Astrophysicist was back in 1959 when I think there were about 3 bona fide Astrophysicists living. Yet, he tried to encourage me to become one. The female guidance counselors and teachers in my high school, on the other hand, told me not to worry about going beyond 2 years of math because I was a pretty face and I’d never need it! At the same time, Dr. Carmine Russo, the head of the science dept. was trying to get me into physics. My ability to do math was so undermined by then that I never did it. But that he is one of very few teachers I remember favorably is due directly to his encouragement in this area and I still love physics above all sciences. I don’t mean this as a sexist rant. It was MY experience but I use it to point out that females do not always treat other females, especially pretty ones, well. It’s important to focus on the positive and stop worrying about stupid, petty, negative people regardless of the chromosomes they carry.

      Italkit on July 24, 2012 at 7:46 am

Had to chuckle at the surname. How ironic.

Bronson on July 24, 2012 at 6:25 am

I suspect that Ride’s PhD was, itself, a product of affirmative action, as most women’s PhDs are.

Re MA’s foolish comments about ‘relevance’, whenever I hear the word ‘relevant’, I cringe.

I think about how ‘dead white males’ are not studied, or, at best, are de-emphasized because they are not ‘relevant’, and feminist and non-white hacks dominate the curriculum because they are ‘relevant’.

LA: We know that Stanford is rife with affirmative action. See, Condoleezza Rice, who admitted, “I’m an affirmative action baby,” and was made the school’s youngest provost, without ever having been a dean or department chairman, merely because she was female and Black. DS

Little Al on July 24, 2012 at 7:53 am

When it comes to “women heroes” who broke the gender barrier, I have only one: Janet Guthrie.

If Guthrie were a young woman today, she would be a star. Guthrie earned (before the days of AA) a BS in Physics from the University of Michigan. She practiced as an Aeronautical Engineer for a while before taking her passionate hobby into a full-time effort. To this day, NASCAR fans look at me funny when I point out that a woman once took 6th place at Bristol; NASCAR’s premier short track.

In the mean time, Danica Patrick’s little T&A show seems to be coming to a logical end. Post-race interviews to a driver who comes in 14th is a turn-off to real race fans. Somewhere, there is another Janet Guthrie out there being passed over for swimsuit models.

I have one other example of a minority who did not get his fair chance in auto racing. Bill Lester should have gotten a full-time ride in Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s highest division. Although he started late in life, Lester was an Electrical Engineer (MSEE, Stanford, albeit probably a beneficiary of AA) and a former VP of Hewlett-Packard. You would think that Hewlett-Packard, with all their retail products would have sponsored one of their own as Lester broke into the starting grid of Sprint Cup races. NASCAR needed and still needs a competitive Black driver. But no! Carly Fiorina was CEO of HP and we know what an incompetent boob she is.

Then there is Wendell Scott. The NAACP makes a big deal over the prejudice Scott faced in NASCAR during his day. It is well documented. Yet in spite of all that, one year, Wendell Scott finished 4th in the Winston Cup standings back in the late 60’s or early 70’s. He did it without major sponsorship. If a black driver were to finish 4th in today’s Sprint Cup standings, he would be a household name.

Back in the day when women and minorities really had to overcome prejudice, the great ones still made their mark. That was because they were so good at what they did, nobody could ignore them.

There are competent women and minorities out there. Unfortunately, if you don’t have “movie star looks”, or intelligent people behind you, the cream never rises to the top. Sure! There are a lot of whining, ranting feminists and so-called civil rights leaders out there. Unfortunately, they just want to be power brokers and fill their pockets with cash. The real people struggling to get ahead rarely get a break.

At the end of the day, the system is as sexist and prejudiced with AA as it ever was without it.

Sincerely,

There is NO Santa Claus (aka TINSC)

There is NO Santa Claus on July 24, 2012 at 10:00 am

Don’t forget all the military officers whose careers were terminated by the likes of Patsy Schroeder and other feminists in Congress were were outraged at various times. From Tailhook to overheard innocuous comments at softball games and parties, the hunt was on to attack their enemies.

Don’t forget the USS Cowpens captain Holly Graf. This lesbian witch was a terror who was relieved of command but disappeared into the bowels of the Pentagon only to have her career resurrected later….

John Lindsay on July 24, 2012 at 10:00 am

I’m coming out as of today. No more hiding my identity.

I am a man who lays with women.

There. I said it.

Let the Hate begin, I’m strong enough.

Jack on July 24, 2012 at 10:04 am

What a bunch of B.S. another hate filled blog trampling over someone who died. It’s like reading Ann Coulter. I just love how the author and many of its readers believe there is no possible way a woman or minority could achieve anything without affirmative action. Sort of proves why there should be affirmative action in the first place.

It must be hard living a life so full of hate that upon hearing of the death of someone cause one to immediately write a hateful post about them.

It’s also telling how people claim someone is “liberal” if they don’t think the same way they do.

Btw, for the moron that posted something about class warfare, get a clue idiot class warfare exists everywhere humans are present.

Oh well, I’m going to go back about my business and let all you knuckle dragging, Fox news watching, limbaugh listening, fox nation posting a-holes go back to hating Americans who are different from you.

Daotien on July 24, 2012 at 10:11 am

    What was unhateful about your remarks Daotien? You were incapable of actually addressing what was discussed. Is that a sign of your intelligence Daotien?

    Worry on July 24, 2012 at 3:59 pm

Also you suck for slamming on Christa McAuliffe, too. Why don’t you leave off the the self-loathing attitude? You see to ignore the fact you’re a woman, too…and I don’t see you sitting home baking cookies. Instead you waste everyone’s time with this sort of hate mongering b.s. I hope you burn in hell you fascist jew bitch…and I don’t even hate jews in general. I just hate people like you who give ’em all a bad name!

From DS: There you go, readers. Another anti-Semite. Another Jew-hater. Yay, I’m for women’s rights, even for the “fascist Jew bitches.” Thanks for making my point about the left and the feminists, which are populated with Jew-hating, anti-Israel scum. DS

Sabrina on July 24, 2012 at 10:11 am

LOLOL. It’s 2012…over twenty years where feminism has been proven to be a bona fide fraud and you still got silly bitches like Sabrina and others shilling the “girl power” anthem. How sad, stupid and pathetic.

And we know being an anti-Semite ain’t no big thing when trying to fight anti-Feminism, ain’t that right Sabrina? Hating Joooooooooooos ok but don’t you be talking down to the women of the world!

Skunky on July 24, 2012 at 10:28 am

I love it. Debbie is the only one in the media brave enough to give us the truth.

This political correctness has destroyed our once feared military and can even be deadly and put our nation and troops into danger. Does anyone remember the disaster Kara Hultgreen, the first navy aircraft pilot that feminists constantly gushed about? Then one month into her job, she sadly killed herself, put lives in danger, and caused millions of dollars to go to waste by crashing into the aircraft carrier because she was not competent enough to land a plane.

Then the navy tried to cover up the truth under pressure by liberals, which only came out because of an independent investigation.

John M. on July 24, 2012 at 10:42 am

Debbie…

RE: ‘He was into disastrous PC “firsts”’

Mazel-Tov on getting over the Reagan idolatry.

Red Ryder on July 24, 2012 at 10:48 am

As to “respect for the dead” bear in mind that there is NO better time to praise or criticize a public person than right after they die.

After all, who would care about a piece ripping Sally Ride five years from now?

Red Ryder on July 24, 2012 at 11:08 am

At least the one woman who truly deserved her ride was pilot Eileen Collins. She waited her turn and had the experience to not just fly but be in charge. Unlike Sally Ride Eileen was more low key and did her job without looking for all the fan fare.

Glen Benjamin on July 24, 2012 at 11:10 am

I guess I need to be the odd ball here. As a young girl(5th grade) , growing up in the sticks of PA, I was unaware and didn’t care of Sally Rides sexual preference, or how she used affirmative action. None of that mattered. What I saw, was a woman astronaut, and dreams that I didn’t have to grow up and be a housewife and raise 15 kids.Or, at most, maybe become a nurse or teacher. Some of life’s most valuable lessons come from the strangest and not so perfect places.

Cherie on July 24, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    Cherie, were you born around 1940? If not, who told you you had to be a housewife during the last forty years? Finally, were and are your role models people who managed to game the system at the expense of more worthy individuals? Is that what you admire Sally Ride for now?

    Worry on July 24, 2012 at 3:50 pm

NASA fell into the affirmative action trap and as Debbie pointed out in another article the SEAL’s are now jumping in to that trap. Nothing like lowering the standards to make everyone equal, dumber but equal. See the movie “Harrison Bergeron” for a great example of where this leads.

ender on July 24, 2012 at 12:45 pm

There was an affirmative action broad–Kara Hultgren who crashed her jet on an air craft carrier. Idiot. She had no business piloting a jet but the Navy was pressured.

Fighter pilots who have to land on an aircraft carrier need to have testosterone, in my opinion.

lexi on July 24, 2012 at 12:55 pm

lesbians in spaaaaaaaaaace…

kirche on July 24, 2012 at 1:12 pm

How ironic that Ride endorsed Obama, who then shut down the space program. I wonder what she thought of that?

Concerned Citizen on July 24, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    No problem. Now that she is dead she will vote at least once or twice in the next election for obama.

    ender on July 24, 2012 at 7:58 pm

Well said, DS and to be honest with you, I didn’t know that Ms. Ride was pushed into NASA due to her gender, to me that’s affirmative action. Now if she were qualified for the job, do you think DS would write an article about it? Think about it!

And to you Sabrina, you nazi skank, go back to your phucking nazi meetings and rallies, better yet, go back to Stormfront.org for showing us your true colors of anti-semitisim. And I believe Skunky is right about you and you’re dumbass ilk Sabrina, of the so-called “Girl Power” BS, which to me is feminisim. Lookit, to the few trolls who commented here, did any of you read the article?

If you stupid trolls wouldn’t be demagouging the article and call us knuck-draggers (I’m looking at you Daotien, do you know what that term means dumbass). Debbie isn’t saying that women and minorities shouldn’t go into NASA and apply for positions, she’s bascially saying if your qualified for the job/carerr at NASA, then it’s ok, and it doesn’t matter if what your skin color is or what you’re gender is.

“A nation is defined by its borders, language & culture!”

Sean R. on July 24, 2012 at 1:35 pm

Some moron wrote that the purpose of the Shuttle was to make space more accessible to everyone. To wit I must ask that person if they are moronic? Space travel will always be a limited, costly, and dangerous endeavor best left to the professionals but better yet, best left to unmanned satellites which are a fraction of the cost.

Jonathan Grant on July 24, 2012 at 1:44 pm

This attack on Sally Ride is moronic.She did something constructive which is more than I can say for all the”celebrities”that are worshipped when they are nothing but pampered drug soaked creeps.
BTW my daughter worked 5 long years to get her Phd after spending serious time at the working level hands on no theory in her field.No one handed her a damn thing-and she is a married mother so please don’t go there about career women.She’s been a workaholic since she was a kid.
Gender doesn’t determine grit.

J: Oy, another one of the “BTW, my daughter . . .” crowd. No, gender doesn’t determine grit, but it does determine gender-based affirmative action if you are of the female gender, which means you don’t need grit. That was the point of this piece, which you missed because you are too focused on the irrelevant, “BTW, my daughter . . .” BS. Your daughter wasn’t Sally Ride, didn’t get a spot over a more qualified male astronaut, but likely got a leg up and a ton of affirmative action, as every woman does in Ph.D. programs, where affirmative action is a fact of life. Sad you won’t face facts. Not sure what your daughter, her status as a mother, or being married has anything to do with the price of tea in China or the topic of this post. We don’t care about your daughter. DS

joe on July 24, 2012 at 2:14 pm

Nice closing line, with Obama being the first president to have a vaj

AnusPresley on July 24, 2012 at 3:41 pm

The liberals’ definition of “equal rights” is shoving anointed liberal women to the head of the line, overpaying them, and telling the public that society would just die without them.

The world gushes over Sally Ride, the woman who refused to talk to men on her own astronaut team if they didn’t bend over backwards for her and gush over how wonderful she is. Makes me sick.

As for Christa McAuliffe and Kara Hultgreen, political correctness does not guarantee you a charmed life. If you don’t belong in aerospace, you have a way of being weeded out even when an entire government agency shoves you to the head of the line and gushes about how great you are.

Bo Hunt on July 24, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    Bo:

    The basic problem with America is that we have taken every good American idea to the nth degree of absurdity. In an effort to have all citizens equal under the law, we have woken up to an Orwellian world where some citizens “are more equal than others”.

    There is NO Santa Claus on July 24, 2012 at 10:40 pm

Someone once asked Astronaut Alan Shepard what he was thinking when he lifted off Cape Canaveral to be the first American into outer space. Shepard replied: “The only thing I was thinking was: ‘This thing was built by the lowest bidder’.”

I suppose that has nothing to do with AA and Sally Ride. Yet I think our astronauts became victims of PC that didn’t exist to the levels it does now.

OK. Werner Von Braun was a big shot in NASA back then. Jews were right in there with women, blacks and all the others who were locked out of the system. But slowly, minorities got in because Von Braun’s generation was dying out and the smart kids of tomorrow were Jewish, Oriental and whoever had the brains and know-how to invent stuff.

STILL, that did not stop NASA astronauts from reading from the book of Genesis as they circled the Moon on Christmas Day 1968. Imagine someone from NASA reading from the Bible today! It would be slammed as a violation of the 1st Amendment.

NASA did not start in a perfect world with perfect people. Yet there was a genuine spirit of adventure and competition in that organization. Now we have female astronauts wearing adult diapers so they can drive cross country to murder a rival to her lover. (Remember that one?).

Debbie kvetches about Sally Ride and rightfully so. Yet just as that was bad, NASA has gotten an order of magnitude worse. When it comes to how bad AA and PC has brought NASA down, the words “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!” come to mind. Reading Debbie’s column leaves me to think that perhaps Sally Ride’s Shuttle Mission was the turning point where it all steadily went bad.

There is NO Santa Claus on July 24, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Ms. Schlussel,I thought that your article on Sally Ride was just a little over-the-top. There are both male and female astronauts out there and Sally Ride was among them. I don’t see anything to gain by attacking her and her achievement. It was a little unnecessary. The woman just passed away. At least let some time pass before you do something like this. It seems,to me at least,a little unseemly to be doing this.

Ghostwriter on July 24, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    Ghostwriter, Sally Ride stepped on people far better than herself to get that spot. Also, her subsequent career tells you how how talented she was. I am not into making zeros into heroes to fulfill a quota.

    Worry on July 24, 2012 at 10:03 pm

Whoa….I agree that it was affirmative action, and that Sally Ride got her shot ahead of more qualified people. I mean, most people could see that even then, as a 32 year old jumping to the front of the line didn’t make sense. But I agree with an earlier poster-this was about imagery and competition with the USSR, appealing to our own population, and holding ourselves out as an example to the world. It’s called soft power, PR, outreach, national strategy, etc. It is an undeniably valuable recruiting tool for women and sparked many girls’ interests in science, as well as put the U.S. in a positive light. Selecting people based on the way they look and the package they represent is the rule, rather than exception. Take the first Americans in space. Does anybody think they picked the Mercury 7 simply because they were the most deserving, smartest, best scientific minds? No, those guys were fighter jocks, good looking All-American types, they were picked for image too. If they could fly a monkey into space, they could have flown some egg head scientist as easily as Sheperd, Grissom, or Glenn. Those original U.S. astronauts didn’t need to know anything about flying or piloting, it was even a joke amongst them, they were sitting on top of a candle about to be lit (and maybe blown up). They were and still are heroes for sure, but let’s not say that messaging wasn’t a part of their act, it was nearly all of the act.

We constantly pick people for messaging purposes, and not solely on merit, but I don’t think that diminishes Ride. She after all had to compete (amongst other women) to get that affirmative action slot. We shouldn’t criticize her for ambition and going after opportunity where it exists, that’s called the American way. AS for her sexual orientation or preference, who cares? She never made it an issue in her public life, so why should anyone now (including those championing her as a lesbian hero)?

please on July 24, 2012 at 8:56 pm

I think you’re going off the edge on this one. The shuttle missions call for 2 pilots and a crew of specialists. Given her scientific background and experience with robotic arms, she was basically qualified to do what NASA hired her to do! It isn’t she was hired to fly the shuttle or command the crew. I can understand you do not like the hype of first female, but so what.

Did you REALLY you go through the profile of ALL the female astronauts that followed to find out of they were “qualified” or “lesser experienced” than the thousands upon thousands of men were apparently were gypped out of an opportunity. Most astronauts are pilots or engineering/scientific specialists in which yes many thousands are qualified for.

Perhaps you would appreciate the approach of Eileen Collins, who was one of the first females to enter test pilot school, become air force instructor and waited patiently to become the first female commander of the shuttle and built her career without complaint even though she was legally discriminated because she was a female in the Air Force. For the record she is the first ever to do the 360 manuever on the Space Shuttle on Discovery’s return to flight mission and she rightfully earned all her distinctions.

cat on July 24, 2012 at 11:54 pm

OMG…I Love you Debbie…too good!

Gene on July 25, 2012 at 12:24 am

You should be ashamed of this post. NASA wasn’t necessarily searching for the absolute best and brightest (perhaps Ride would have been among them, I don’t know). NASA wanted to build an astronaut corps that has diversity–not to be politically correct, but because diversity is a good idea among crewmembers on space missions (as it is in so many other facets of life). Gone are the days when only the top-gun test pilots get to become astronauts.

So, with a diverse set of requirements and missions, and all other things being equal among the candidates, NASA chose to add a women to the astronaut corps. Looking longer term and more scientifically, NASA had to build a long-range physiological understanding of the impacts of spaceflight, on women as well as men.

Edward Ellegood on July 25, 2012 at 11:38 am

Edward, no, she should not be ashamed of this. Short answer to your statement, no, she wouldn’t have. Yet another blow hole who would rather have diversity than the best team possible. Gone are the days when only top-gun test pilots get to become astronauts? Well, if people like you get their way, sure, I guess you’re right, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of top-gun test pilots that would like to become astronauts, and are far more deserving of a seat on a shuttle. Just because you’ve gotten bored with space exploration does not mean there are some people out there more deserving of going than others.

Your last paragraph is simply idiotic and is not even deserving of a response.

How about you stop trying to play apologist for people who have no business in space in the first place, if you don’t put in the dedication at least equal to the people who are already in line, what rational person would ignore all that and just start plugging holes and pushing people back in line so they can feel good about themselves? Oh… right… bleeding heart liberals.

Fucking baby boomers…. you guys make my head hurt. Such a messed up and confused generation… not to mention completely pussy whipped.

Brett M on July 25, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    Like Ms. Schlussel, you fail to understand that it was NASA’s goal to include women on spaceflight crews. There were multiple reasons for this goal, not the least of which was scientific. So, if all the men were “more qualified” to fly, would NASA have accomplished its goal by choosing only men?

    Maybe, someday in the future, you’d prefer an all-male colony on the Moon or Mars. Maybe you could join them.

    Edward Ellegood on July 26, 2012 at 10:26 am

Wow. Just…wow. Such vitrol, hatred. Never knew there were so many self-loathing women. Wonder if Ms. Schussel is a self-loathing, closeted gay woman.
Feel sorry of Ms. Schussel and many of the posters here. It is the 21st Century folks. Guess the 19th Century is so great some do not wish to leave it. Faith in humanity just dropped another notch.

Sam Reardon on July 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    Hey Sam, I have faith in humanity. Now stupid libtrolls that’s another matter.

    Ken b on July 25, 2012 at 3:23 pm

    Sam, are you having your fantasies again?

    “Never knew there were so many self-loathing women. Wonder if Ms. Schussel is a self-loathing, closeted gay woman.”

    Dude, you are the biggest sexist of them all. Is that talk for the 21st Century? If a woman does not conform to your ideology, the true misogynist comes out, doesn’t it Sammy? Did you think it was also cool that Sally Ride pushed Col. Guion Bluford to the back of the bus, even though he had credentials and experience that she grossly lacked? If you thought that was an appropriate thing for NASA to do, tell us why? Since you like closets so much, what is in yours? I can see a thinly disguised racist misogynist male who let’s his ugliness out when he does not agree with someone(especially if it is a woman).

    Worry on July 26, 2012 at 8:19 am

Unlike M?s Ride (who lived an unhappy life, may she rest in peace), and Billy Jean King (who sadly took the unalienable life of her child (may that child rest in peace)) I am the happy child of one of ten that my mother bore with my father beginning at age 20 over a period of 13 years with absolutely no thought of birth control or abortion or other unwomanly actions. She had no radical feminist thoughts at all. Her life is and has always been one of virtue, as well as that of my beloved father, may he rest in peace. She, a woman is one of my great heroes. After bearing 10 children over a period of 13 years, she spent another 14 raising them and then with my father’s blessing began training for volunteer work on an ambulance which she did for ten years until she had back surgery. Then, she helped the volunteers and the county association keep their books fluid for years after that. She was unpresumptively, unlike M?s Ride and the radical pseudo-feminists, with the blessing and to the great happiness of the men she worked with, the first woman to house the makeshift women’s bunk at the fire house where she did volunteer ambulance work. She was godly and completely chaste and won the absolute respect of the men she worked with who looked up to her and call her affectionately “Mom”. Their respect for her and my father was so great that if anyone, including a patient on a call, started using profanity, they would join together to silence the offender. On one occasion, there were 6 men with her on a call and the patient, a man, started using profanity. With one voice, the men called out rebuking the man “SHHHH!!! There is a LADY present”. And they meant it. The same could not be said for some of the pseudo-feminists who followed her. She was not forced into the ranks of men by NOW or any other pseodo-womens’ rights groups, but INVITED in by those same men who the radical feminists call “sexists”. Men want women heroes, but not the status-quo forced upon them by our radically sick society.

Gerry P on July 25, 2012 at 3:42 pm

Thanks for writing this. I’m sick of hearing her name beamed into my brain by the media as if she were a god.

Rob on July 25, 2012 at 4:13 pm

Debbie is not correct about her assessment of Sally Ride. The reason why women didn’t have the experience was not because they just didn’t apply themselves…WRONG. As you can see here in this link NASA in starting in the 50’s recruited women but told them they would never actually get very far. Here is a prime example of a WOMAN getting passed over for men: http://www.womeninaviation.com/jerrie.html

By the way the black man Sally Ride passed up…he flew on the next flight…certainly didn’t live up to his potential. Sally Ride went on to break even more barriers, and achieved even more than some of her fellow astronauts. It’s all on Wikipedia if you don’t believe me.

Rachel Connolly on July 26, 2012 at 3:22 am

    Rachel, I looked up earlier on Wikipedia. Did you bother to do so? What did Sally Ride do after she left NASA? Do tell.

    Also, regarding the Black astronaut:

    “Bluford eventually went to space on the next ride, but many others never got to go because they were displaced by Ride and other women who filled the affirmative action quota seat on each major space flight thereafter.”

    Debbie never claimed that he did not make it on to a flight. So I am not sure what point you were making there at all. Next, you have not addressed how other men were bumped.

    I also saw your jab at Guion Bluford. He sure as hell had more going for him than Sally Ride.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guion_Bluford#Awards_and_decorations

    I used Wikipedia as you suggested. You will find all of his academic achievements, his air force career in Vietnam, and his being Vice-President of Microgravity R&D and Operations
    at Northrup Grumman after NASA, etc. Have you seen what Sally Ride did after NASA yet?

    Worry on July 26, 2012 at 7:58 am

Ms. Schlussel,

I’m curious if you fully read the article you linked to. For starters, it’s a publication from the NAACP, from 1982, which specifically states it does not speak for NASA. It does state that Bluford started astronaut training earlier than Ride, but earlier in the same year: they both began their training in 1978. As far as Bluford being “far more qualified,” I’m not sure to what you’re referring, since the given (and admittedly specious) reason for Ride being placed over Bluford was her expertise with their Remote Manipulator System.

It is hardly a well agreed upon “fact” that Ride was placed because of rampant feminism, nor so that NASA “bragged” about doing so. Regardless of Ride’s or Bluford’s individual merits, you have taken a historical scenario which only passingly fits within your blog article’s framework and painted it to appear as though it were damning evidence.

This is sloppy journalism as best, and intentional manipulation at worst. I ask that you please be more conscientious with your research and the publications of your findings. You have the eyes and ears of a portion of the public; misleading them undermines everyone’s stake in the marketplace of ideas.

Alex from Chicago on July 26, 2012 at 11:23 am

How many women were passed over by Neil Armstrong because he was a white male?

stan on July 26, 2012 at 5:18 pm

Dear Debbie,

You’re a stupid fucking cunt.

– Mike

Mike on July 26, 2012 at 9:50 pm

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