S2 E19 - Diversity in the Artemis II Moon mission? Thanks, White Guys!

The Artemis II moon mission in 2024 will include a woman and a Canadian.  They will be the first people to leave low Earth orbit other than the white men who went to the moon.

It might be a good idea to acknowledge the white men who blaze the trails, come back, and take others with them.

Commentary on trending issues brought to you with a moderate perspective.

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[00:00:00] Two American white guys are going back to the moon. They're gonna take a Canadian and a woman along with them to see if their periods will sink up. Somebody had to tell that joke. You heard it today on the 10th. Man,

[00:00:12] I don't make fun of women and Canadians because I think they're inferior or. I make fun of 'em because I think they're strong and like most sections of society that are getting weak, they need to be poked fun at a little bit more. In fact, when it comes to, , the people to the north of us, um, those son of a guns, Are tougher than the average American if you get out in the country.

[00:00:37] Cuz one of the things that, that's gonna turn up eventually as we, uh, move along through uh, our, our dialogues is, uh, a big difference between the United States and say, um, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada and, and possibly. The vast majority of the population of Australia, New Zealand and Canada are confined to small geographic areas, and this explains a lot. What that boils down to is that most of those people are wimp. Because they live in the city, but the ones who don't, those are some, uh, those, those are some tough guys.

[00:01:22] Those are some tough guys. Here, here in the States, we're kind of an in between group. Uh, I say that I live in the country, kind of do, kind of do, but I don't have to drive down, uh, 20 miles of gravel. To get to the store like you do some other places. I remember when I was a kid, uh, my dad took us fishing in Canada and um, we were driving along.

[00:01:46] Went up, , across the Straits, , crossed over at , Sault Saint Marie, and, uh, kept on driving. . Now my brother knows where we went. I really don't know.

[00:01:56] , we drove on for hours until we finally turned off onto a gravel. I said, oh, we're almost there. We were in a pickup camper. Those boys were in the back. So, uh, we turn off onto a gravel road and we drive for a while, and, uh, we're thinking we must be almost there.

[00:02:14] And we drive for a while and we drive some more. We, we, we must have driven, we must have driven two hours on a gravel road. And you look out the window and it had road signs that it said it was King's Highway, such and such. And. I am pretty sure it said Kings Highway. I don't know that for sure. It sound seems odd.

[00:02:32] I'm not that old. . England did not have a king at the time, so we drove for miles on what was a highway, but it was a gravel road. So I don't live anywhere, anything like that. No. But you're gonna find , that the people out in the bush, as they call it in Canada, Our, um, they're, they are some manly men and I suppose, uh, maybe some of the city slickers have some of the same heritage.

[00:02:58] Maybe they do, maybe they don't. So, back to this astronaut thing, front page news that, uh, actually reading it online, I have no idea what page it's on. Anyway, New York Times NASA names, diverse astronaut crew for Artemis II Moon Mission. Okay, now here's what we know from that. We know, we absolutely know that we did not have a bunch of women or, and no offense, I, no offense is intended.

[00:03:27] We did not have a bunch of black men or a bunch of Mexican men get together and build a rocket and populate it with a crew and then say, Hey, let's take a white guy along with. No, you had a bunch of white guys, basically. And, um, if, if they aren't white ethnically, they're definitely white culturally , we did the, uh, there's no such thing as race podcast , if it's not race, what is it? . It's culture. .

[00:03:54] But what you're gonna, you're, what you find is that, uh, if we say for example, that, um, uh, There are more people doing blah, blah, blah, who are white or who are black, whichever one you say, uh, you're gonna find that that group comprises people that are part of that overall white or black culture, not the race.

[00:04:19] Um, to put it another. Oprah Winfrey is as white as I am. She might have grown up black, but she's not black anymore.

[00:04:27] Okay? Everything can be explained by what the nature of men and what the nature of women is. And women have an instinct for nesting and men have an instinct for exploration. That's why it wasn't Christopher Columbus's wife that went to Ferdinand and Isabella and asked for money to cross the ocean and find a route to the West Indies.

[00:04:49] And that's why it wasn't Louis and Clark's wives that decided to go explore the, uh, Louisiana purchase. You know, got some dollar coins here and um, there's a picture of Sakajawea on. Picture of Sakajawea Lewis and Clark didn't get their picture on a coin.

[00:05:07] , they got their name on a submarine, but there, there was not a u s s Lewis and a u us s Clarke, it was a u us s Lewis and Clarke. I wondered how Clark felt about that. Why can't it be Clark and Lewis? But people will say that, uh oh. Sk They couldn't have done it without her. Well, I'm sure she was a. But you gotta realize that, you know, they were going along through the woods, eventually they're gonna run outta supplies, right?

[00:05:34] And she's the one that could say, Hey, if you take, you know this here, this plant here. It's good to keep you from getting scurvy. Uh, that'd be like the roots of the arbor vidi, that's the, the actual arbor Vidi we plant as shrubs. They, they'd make tea out of that. You can keep it from getting scurvy or, uh, you can take this, these leaves, roast them, and then it'd be like coffee.

[00:05:55] So basically they, they took her long to make coffee. So there'd, there're being smart and.

[00:06:02] It, it actually doesn't escape me. That women did a lot of walking around and exploration. They had to go every place. The men did. And uh, and she was also a translator. She would've known some of the languages of the surrounding tribes. And maybe as they went along, they took us other people with them too.

[00:06:18] I don't know. Uh, you know, picked up somebody else. Uh, but basically when they're going through the woods with, Chief Raincloud and, uh, she's walking behind him saying, you're going too fast. Slow down. Watch out for that thorn bush. So she's exercising the , skillset that she had.

[00:06:37] But all kidding aside, , the bare facts , like it or not, we're just talking about the bare facts. When. Lewis and Clark showed up at a friendly tribe and said, we need somebody to take a, to go with us as a guide. They let a woman go because they couldn't spare a man. A man, a woman was, could have considered , dispensable. Okay? And you gotta point out here that. The Indians gave her. Lewis and Clark were awfully glad to have her. They welcomed this girl to go , with them and consider her a valuable member of the team. So getting back to these, uh, two American, two American men, American woman, and a Canadian going the moon, they're gonna go around the moon.

[00:07:19] I gotta say good for the Canadians. It turns out they have made big contributions to the space program. The space program is not the center of attention that it was, uh, back during the, what we called the space race, . , but Canada apparently has, uh, skills in robotics and built a big robot arm that was used at the international space.

[00:07:39] So the, um, woman and the, uh, Canadian, they're gonna be the first non-white American men. Going into high Earth orbit or to go around the moon to, to go into, I, I think they consider that deep space. , they're gonna be the first ones.

[00:07:55] But I'm just gonna say it's noteworthy that it, you didn't have a bunch of women put a rocket together and. Put a man on it. Cause that's never happened. People will say, and, and I'm fine with that. I'm just, I'm, I'm fine with that. But people will say it's because the men wouldn't let them in. Things like that.

[00:08:14] And then they praise her for being the first woman to do so. Well, I gotta point out that back in 1957, the Russians put a dog into space. Alright, so, They put a dog in his space and that little bitch went around the earth a couple times, just like, uh, like, uh, like, uh, I don't know her name is gonna do.

[00:08:36] And we didn't praise the dog. We, we were worried about the Russians getting ahead of us. We did not praise the dog for getting on the rocket. Now the poor dog, I dunno if you knew this, I did not. I did not because the Russians concealed it for years. The dog actually died a horrible. Uh, they had said that either it was euthanized or that it would, it, uh, gently went to sleep when the oxygen ran out or something like that.

[00:09:01] And actually, um, the, the cooling system failed and the poor dog cooked to death. Stray dog from the streets of Moscow, Laika rest in peace.

[00:09:11] But as far as, uh, men being an obstacle, and again, Commenting on the nature of men and women, . Well, you ought to go watch the movie. Uh, the Great Escape. Great Escape. It's about a bunch of Englishmen who escaped from a German prison camp. It's a good movie. It's got a couple American actors in it too.

[00:09:30] Uh, American roles, James Garner and, uh, Steve McQueen, James Garner's, uh, a Yank in the RAF There were such things. , That character wasn't completely out of place. The Steve McQueen character, on the other hand, not so sure how an American fighter pilot would've been in an, uh, prison camp at the time of the war depicted, but at least it's more accurate than say, Hogan's Heroes, where they had a black guy in the prison camp.

[00:09:57] So , , it's all Hollywood. And of course, if we can have a, uh, a woman being Batman, I I don't really watch those movies. I really don't know all of the, , out of place women roles that they have in them. I've seen some of 'em wear the, you got a big, uh, 190 pound, six foot three guy and a woman kicks his butt.

[00:10:20] Yeah. That doesn't happen in real life. And, , putting the woman on the space rocket, I'm not saying that's wrong, but here's what I am saying. You had a bunch of guys, a bunch of men in a prison camp. There's no women unlike Hogan's Heroes, there's no women there. And, uh, a bunch of German guys with guns guarding them and they still all get together, pull together and, uh, .

[00:10:44] If you haven't seen this movie, I'm not gonna tell you too much about it because it's, it was, came out in 1964, I think. Uh, and don't worry it is in color, but it's a great movie. And the things that it depicts are the actual gadgets and techniques that these guys put together in order to try and make a great escape from a prison camp.

[00:11:09] I can still remember the poster hanging out in front of the theater. It's a picture of all the guys, uh, running across the field, which isn't quite, quite what.

[00:11:17] And, and speaking of Canadians, the James Garner character, the Yank and the r a f, that probably would've been more accurate if it had been a Canadian. There were, there were a fair number of, of gangs in the RAF uh, but I would. by percentage. It was probably more Canadians, including one of the greatest ACEs of the war.

[00:11:39] He was a Canadian. He went to, um, let me look up his name. Uh, here it is, George Beurling. B e u r l i n g. Might have been a, Frenchie cuz he was born in, uh, Verdun. Montreal. I know we say Montreal crappy. I think we say it the same way the Canadians do, but I was in, uh, I was in France once, , on a destroyer. We were at a bar, restaurant, something talking to a bunch of, , French sailors.

[00:12:08] And it was horrible. I had had three years of high school French, and it was not like a lot of other trips to Europe where there's always somebody who speaks some English. Yeah. Not this time. And we're talking to a guy and he was talking about, uh, talking about going to someplace in, in Canada and he was just saying and, uh, but maybe with a heavier accent and then mixed in with all the other words of all places.

[00:12:32] Montreal. And I've actually been there, spent a week there one time, and uh, and I couldn't understand what he was saying until finally oh, oh, oh, oh. Of course of. Anyway, uh, George Burling. George Burling, he was a fantastic flyer in marksman. He ended up on, in, in Malta, where they were, uh, greatly outnumbered as like another Battle of Britain.

[00:12:55] Um, you could probably find a history channel of biography of this guy. I recommend you do that because here's the deal. . He was a crack shot, as well as a great flyer. Alright. . So what he was doing is, uh, something you may not know is most of the time, most of the time they would simply try to get behind a guy and shoot at him, and you did not have to worry about what they call deflection, side to side.

[00:13:19] Uh, the guys in straight in front of you, you shoot in front of you, and they, they're, they had gun sites that would, you know, indicate where you should shoot. But this. He was an expert at deflection shooting. So what happens is he goes and he shoots, he's, he's coming out an airplane that's flying off to his right , and he's shooting way ahead of the airplane.

[00:13:39] He's shooting way ahead of the airplane, shoots it down, goes back to base, and he's tell says he is gotta kill. And they go, well George, you didn't shoot anything. You're just shooting out into space because he's got gun. Well, the gun cameras are shooting, , they, they're aiming straight ahead.

[00:13:56] So the airplane he's shooting at is not in the field of view. Now, fortunately, again, they're, this was on Malta, but for fortunately, well unfortunately for the German, Italian, sorry, I think they were fight shooting at Italians and there were some great Italian flyers too. 

[00:14:12] Fortunately the plane, did land on land or crash on on land, and the wreckage was found and nobody else had claimed to kill that day. So he did, , get credit for the kill. Yeah, he was a heck of a flyer. Now, if this Canadian astronaut, if his last name were Beurling, you know, that would be great.

[00:14:32] So another thing about this, everybody that went before was a white American man. Well, yeah. The thing about that is feminists will take , any difference between men and women and turn it into a point of disadvantage for the women. And notice, I try to say feminists. I try not to lump all women into this, 

[00:14:52] So here's the thing about woman astronauts and uh, Christina Hammock Koch. And I wish her well. Having said that, here's the thing with all this complaining about, we , wouldn't let the women go or the women don't get to go. This gal is from, uh, grand Rapids, and I think it's time for us to remember another astronaut from Grand Rapids, and that would be Roger Chaffey.

[00:15:18] Roger Chaffey was an astronaut who was incinerated to death in 1967. Along. Gus Grissom and Ed White. There've only been 12 men to set foot on the moon, and then the other guy circling, I don't know what the total number to go up there, but before those 12 white men went up there, three of them died, three white men died.

[00:15:44] Okay? There's been more white men to die in space than anybody else as. And everybody that wants to, uh, well, here, here's how I basically how I see it. All right? So, uh, I'm a white guy or I can pass for one at least. And, um, I'm not ashamed of being white People want me to be, but, uh, white's pretty much all I got, so I'm gonna go with that, right?

[00:16:07] And I'm not gonna be ashamed of it with that, uh, perspective. What I see is white guys do all this stuff and when they're done, Everybody else comes dancing around and it's not, it's not everybody for one thing. Most people don't have this, um, sense of, uh, race, sex identity that makes it impossible for them to share in the joy or the achievement of another person.

[00:16:31] So it's not everybody, and it's by and large. We'll just say it's the race baders and the radical feminists. But then they come dancing around saying, you wouldn't let us do it. It's like, uh, um, the little red hen, right, who will help me plant the wheat. Nobody's there. Nobody's there at lo at the launch, but they want to be there at the party afterwards.

[00:16:53] We're at a point in time now where most of the achievements of the past 150 years have been accomplished, driven at. By white men. Sorry if that bothers you. I'd say just enjoy the fruits of their labors. And like I said, you know, uh, Elon Musk has built a rocket. There's nothing stopping. The richest woman in the world from building a rocket now is there, but she's not doing it.

[00:17:23] Any more than, it wasn't, any more than it was Lewis and Clark's wives that decided to, uh, explore the, uh, Louisiana purchase.

[00:17:30] That's not a criticism. That's just a fact.

[00:17:33] And I'm not joking about everybody wants to be at the party. I had to look up how many men had walked on the.

[00:17:39] I asked Google how many men walked on the moon. I should have asked how many white , American men walked on the moon. Maybe I'd have got a straight answer. The answer it gave me was 12 human beings. I'm not kidding you. It says 12 human beings walked on the moon. I wanna know how many men walked on the moon.

[00:17:55] If you want to do it right, give us a breakdown and tell us there were zero. But no, it just says 12 human beings.

[00:18:02] But they do have a point. They do have a point in saying it because unlike other countries, America went to the moon, planted a flag, but they left a plaque that said, what? What did the plaque say? The moon is ours. No, no. The plaque said We came in. For all mankind. We came in peace for all mankind.

[00:18:28] God bless those Americans.

[00:18:30] And I say that with poignancy, but I mean it, and I mean the same thing for , the intrepid voyagers who are gonna go circle the moon. They're gonna go around the moon and come back next year. And, uh, um, I used to have a joke in Junior. I used to have a joke in junior high that, uh, that just that they're gonna see if the moon has a, a backside to it.

[00:18:54] And kids would say, well, what do you mean? I said, well, we don't know. No one's ever seen the other side of it. That's why the Moody Blues was it made an album about it. Yep. But then along came Apollo. Oh, which one was it? Eight. I'm just making that up. I don't remember which one. And uh, and you couldn't make that joke anymore after, after 1968 or so, you couldn't make that joke anymore cuz we'd seen the back of.

[00:19:20] So have a safe trip astronauts. After my, uh, comment about Roger Chaffey, I will be praying hard that you do not have any mishaps on your trip. And with that, I thank you for listening to me. Have a great day.