There is nothing like watching a spaceship blast upward and disappear into the sky. I was around 12, living in Florida when the Mercury and Gemini programs were taking place. An engineer who worked at Cape Caneveral (before Kennedy was killed and it became Cape Kennedy) took mu up to watch a launch. Later I got to see the humongous VAB (vehicle assembly building). It made a lasting impression and an image that endures in my memory to this day.
Throughout all the turmoil I have observed the image of the rocket blasting off and disappearing has been a constant reminder of what can be accomplished.
I really smiled when I saw Joni Mitchell Blue as the best album. I wore out 3 albums and 5 cassettes and 1 CD over the years. The very best album ever.
I'm sorry I do not have the time to really examine this one yet, but based on the title: "Best of The Free Press: We’re All Gonna Make It In the first installment of our holiday series, Suzy Weiss asks: What if everything’s going to be okay?" I feel compelled to comment that we have been given a narrow window/opportunity to make everything OK - it is not a given. We will have to:
1 ) return to the American Value of Free Speech (like nixing the current ACLU nonsense that "Case Strangiio" is a real man who fights for our core values even though she has stated that she will die on the hill of repressing what we all really think of GI) and
2) put Gender affirmation confirmation ideology medicine quackery on the rubbish heap with eugenics and lobotomy. A number of "professionals" need to be arrested, IMO.
Is it OK for me to say, without ever having seen Taylor Swift perform, that she is a symbol of the mediocrity and hyper-commercialization of popular culture.
I was with you, Suzy, until "The Conclave." The movie paints a totally unrealistic portrait of an actual conclave based on all I've read during my life as a Catholic. Further, why does everyone have to "pick on" the Catholic Church, why not the Methodists or Unitarians? I realize the Pope holds a unique position, but give us a rest, please.
I just completed my first TFP year and am happily renewing. I have a Poe Pourri of thoughts. I felt a bit of sadness for the author, Larissa Phillips, and her thoughts about religion and Christmas. I was raised by my large family, who regularly went to church, and I was an acolyte in my Episcopalian church in Hollywood. But as I went off to school and became immersed in my studies I failed to stay connected to a specific church and still many years later am not. My deep feelings and memories of my family celebrating Christmas and our developed traditions are only topped in importance and happiness by my marriage, children, and grandchildren. They all know that about me and we continue to have Christmas together with great joy. To me, she wanted the beautiful package I think my family has but without deep feelings of connection to the true meaning of what Christmas could be or should be. To be clear I am not a deeply religious church-going person and respect many religions. The comfort and profound joy I get I believe is fundamentally founded in the true belief of the Christmas story. NEXT: I get the picture and explanations they are trying to push on the Red, Blue, White, and Black pill. Unfortunately, there will be too many people who will take them all, at one time or another because they are easily swayed by the talking heads or the latest rage. I honestly think that is how we got to this last decade or so of such divisive rage and the latest activist protest scenes, one after another, that seems to change and swallow up a large group of vulnerable people. Who are willing to jump on the latest because they do not have a solid belief system and need something to heal them for the moment. Last: Very sad and almost frightening to read that complete report and now multiple other reports about how it is true apparently that President Biden from day one was not really in charge of our government. He was a false front and the government was being run by various committees. Unelected and accountable to no one. Try to picture that and to some degree even worse you find that there was a vast number of high-ranking senators, representatives, and people in the cabinet who knew the truth. To put it bluntly, the American people were absolutely lied to and misled by an amazingly coordinated conglomeration of media and TV personalities who swollowed this false story line for four years. It cannot come as a shock that the mainstream media and specifically CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS are feeling the wrath and coming to grips that they are no longer accepted to be our sources of "all the news " tonight. They fed us the "he is great, he is lucid, we cannot keep up with him, he has been the most courageous and effective president in the last 100 years" right up until that one famous Sunday when he wasn't. Some still do not get that they were part of a lie. They sent out our President to be viewed by the other world leaders, who saw his decline and it has harmed our reputation. The massive untethered-to-reality allowance of mass illegal immigrations now makes us realize that they when lumped together are now the tenth largest state in our union. The costs to us in both dollars and death and business from the colossal mistakes perpetrated by our leaders trying to handle the Covid pandemic will slowly be revealed. Four years led not by an elected president but a charade perpetrated by a large group of people who will, of course, never, apologize or be held accountable to us. On the bright side we did survive we did get through it with enough functioning parts and lucid people who can get a solid handle on the rudder and steer us into calmer and healthier waters.
Another "close but could not quite get there" FP piece. Come on, Suzy. For those who see and condemn "the collapsing of so many institutions into groupthink, antisemitism, willful blindness, or chaos", the election was hardly "brutal" it was downright beautiful.
Anyone sad about Kamala's loss did not prioritize those items you listed and is a poseur by voting for Kamala and feigning concern for them. Heck, pretending Kamala was a credible candidate is an act of willful blindness on its own.
I’m a psych nurse at a Yale hospital. We literally had emergency room visits for panic attacks about the election. My sister-in-law is a therapist and said she vomited when the results became clear. Several of my therapist friends stated clients asked for Xanax prescriptions to get through it. These people promote CBT, yet need it the most.
I knew before clicking on the "actual assassination" link that it was referring to Brian Thompson, not the fire marshal at the Trump rally who actually got killed by the kid who was trying to kill Trump. Everyone forgot about that guy overnight; even the Congressmen who felt compelled to explain to reporters how the Good Lord has a grand plan for the Dapper Don. Apparently there was no grand plan for Corey Comperatore, except to act as a foil in the narrative of Trump's resurrection. Don't get me wrong; I'm rooting for Trump to succeed in his mission. But if he does, it will largely be due to the tenor of our times. Most Americans are done with the depravity and faux morality of leftist leadership, and the full reckoning has not even begun yet. Many Democrat leaders are joining the "blue dog" camp, having seen the writing on the wall. All Trump has to do is try to show a little humility this time around, and try to choose cabinet members and policy goals which won't alienate the reform-minded Democrats too much. The ultimate goal, lest we forget, is to incentivize both parties to compete on doing what's best for Americans, rather than serving bureaucratic mandarins and corporate cronies. Which means citizens should maybe stop looking at each other sideways because of how they voted. Merry Kwanzaa!
The many, many, many millions of Americans cheering Mangione would beg to differ with you about how "everything's going to be OK." Everything will continue to be A-OK for the Mangiones of the world and the well-paid staff of TFP, no question. But the masses of angry Americans who voted for Trump will soon find things a lot less "OK" for them when his crazy tariffs and tax-cut stimulus for an overheated economy hit the inflation fan, and double the price of their eggs again. Let's face it: More than ever in our history, there are two Americas. The college educated never had it so good; the other two-thirds, not so much. And Trump will make their economic lives worse, not better.
There is nothing like watching a spaceship blast upward and disappear into the sky. I was around 12, living in Florida when the Mercury and Gemini programs were taking place. An engineer who worked at Cape Caneveral (before Kennedy was killed and it became Cape Kennedy) took mu up to watch a launch. Later I got to see the humongous VAB (vehicle assembly building). It made a lasting impression and an image that endures in my memory to this day.
Throughout all the turmoil I have observed the image of the rocket blasting off and disappearing has been a constant reminder of what can be accomplished.
Revolutionary Road is an amazing book. Devastating. Good movie too with Leo and Kate Winslet.
Suzy, once you are engaged, please share how you met this lucky man. Happily engaged couples is a social contagion that I would celebrate!
I really smiled when I saw Joni Mitchell Blue as the best album. I wore out 3 albums and 5 cassettes and 1 CD over the years. The very best album ever.
I'm sorry I do not have the time to really examine this one yet, but based on the title: "Best of The Free Press: We’re All Gonna Make It In the first installment of our holiday series, Suzy Weiss asks: What if everything’s going to be okay?" I feel compelled to comment that we have been given a narrow window/opportunity to make everything OK - it is not a given. We will have to:
1 ) return to the American Value of Free Speech (like nixing the current ACLU nonsense that "Case Strangiio" is a real man who fights for our core values even though she has stated that she will die on the hill of repressing what we all really think of GI) and
2) put Gender affirmation confirmation ideology medicine quackery on the rubbish heap with eugenics and lobotomy. A number of "professionals" need to be arrested, IMO.
“Why ‘Gender Dysphoria’ is a lie”
https://dionneinlondon.substack.com/p/why-gender-dysphoria-is-a-lie
"Transgender Surgery Isn't the Solution
By Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital"
https://couragerc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TransgenderSurgery.pdf
May 13, 2016: "Transgender Surgery Isn't the Solution A drastic physical change doesn't address underlying psycho-social troubles. By Paul McHugh Editors’ note: This op-ed was originally published on June 12, 2014." https://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-mchugh-transgender-surgery-isnt-the-solution-1402615120
The Scott flight attendant guy even "passed" https://nypost.com/2023/03/23/trans-flight-attendant-famed-for-united-ad-dies-by-suicied/
"When Your Daughter Defies Biology
The burden of mothers whose children suffer from ‘rapid onset gender dysphoria.’
By Abigail Shrier Jan. 6, 2019 3:00 pm ET"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-your-daughter-defies-biology-11546804848
My question is, why did this go on for so long and why is it paid for by insurance?
Why did our Universities get in the sex change business?
Thanks for highlighting the interview with Paul Kingsnorth. I finally had time to listen and thoroughly enjoyed it! Really excellent stuff.
Is it OK for me to say, without ever having seen Taylor Swift perform, that she is a symbol of the mediocrity and hyper-commercialization of popular culture.
Yeah, I didn't think so.
I was with you, Suzy, until "The Conclave." The movie paints a totally unrealistic portrait of an actual conclave based on all I've read during my life as a Catholic. Further, why does everyone have to "pick on" the Catholic Church, why not the Methodists or Unitarians? I realize the Pope holds a unique position, but give us a rest, please.
How does one actually decide what is the best of The Free Press? It's all excellent.
Best of luck in your resolutions for the new year!
I just completed my first TFP year and am happily renewing. I have a Poe Pourri of thoughts. I felt a bit of sadness for the author, Larissa Phillips, and her thoughts about religion and Christmas. I was raised by my large family, who regularly went to church, and I was an acolyte in my Episcopalian church in Hollywood. But as I went off to school and became immersed in my studies I failed to stay connected to a specific church and still many years later am not. My deep feelings and memories of my family celebrating Christmas and our developed traditions are only topped in importance and happiness by my marriage, children, and grandchildren. They all know that about me and we continue to have Christmas together with great joy. To me, she wanted the beautiful package I think my family has but without deep feelings of connection to the true meaning of what Christmas could be or should be. To be clear I am not a deeply religious church-going person and respect many religions. The comfort and profound joy I get I believe is fundamentally founded in the true belief of the Christmas story. NEXT: I get the picture and explanations they are trying to push on the Red, Blue, White, and Black pill. Unfortunately, there will be too many people who will take them all, at one time or another because they are easily swayed by the talking heads or the latest rage. I honestly think that is how we got to this last decade or so of such divisive rage and the latest activist protest scenes, one after another, that seems to change and swallow up a large group of vulnerable people. Who are willing to jump on the latest because they do not have a solid belief system and need something to heal them for the moment. Last: Very sad and almost frightening to read that complete report and now multiple other reports about how it is true apparently that President Biden from day one was not really in charge of our government. He was a false front and the government was being run by various committees. Unelected and accountable to no one. Try to picture that and to some degree even worse you find that there was a vast number of high-ranking senators, representatives, and people in the cabinet who knew the truth. To put it bluntly, the American people were absolutely lied to and misled by an amazingly coordinated conglomeration of media and TV personalities who swollowed this false story line for four years. It cannot come as a shock that the mainstream media and specifically CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS are feeling the wrath and coming to grips that they are no longer accepted to be our sources of "all the news " tonight. They fed us the "he is great, he is lucid, we cannot keep up with him, he has been the most courageous and effective president in the last 100 years" right up until that one famous Sunday when he wasn't. Some still do not get that they were part of a lie. They sent out our President to be viewed by the other world leaders, who saw his decline and it has harmed our reputation. The massive untethered-to-reality allowance of mass illegal immigrations now makes us realize that they when lumped together are now the tenth largest state in our union. The costs to us in both dollars and death and business from the colossal mistakes perpetrated by our leaders trying to handle the Covid pandemic will slowly be revealed. Four years led not by an elected president but a charade perpetrated by a large group of people who will, of course, never, apologize or be held accountable to us. On the bright side we did survive we did get through it with enough functioning parts and lucid people who can get a solid handle on the rudder and steer us into calmer and healthier waters.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Another "close but could not quite get there" FP piece. Come on, Suzy. For those who see and condemn "the collapsing of so many institutions into groupthink, antisemitism, willful blindness, or chaos", the election was hardly "brutal" it was downright beautiful.
Anyone sad about Kamala's loss did not prioritize those items you listed and is a poseur by voting for Kamala and feigning concern for them. Heck, pretending Kamala was a credible candidate is an act of willful blindness on its own.
Those sad about Kamala losing are on Blue Sky.
I’m a psych nurse at a Yale hospital. We literally had emergency room visits for panic attacks about the election. My sister-in-law is a therapist and said she vomited when the results became clear. Several of my therapist friends stated clients asked for Xanax prescriptions to get through it. These people promote CBT, yet need it the most.
Wow. Amazing.
I knew before clicking on the "actual assassination" link that it was referring to Brian Thompson, not the fire marshal at the Trump rally who actually got killed by the kid who was trying to kill Trump. Everyone forgot about that guy overnight; even the Congressmen who felt compelled to explain to reporters how the Good Lord has a grand plan for the Dapper Don. Apparently there was no grand plan for Corey Comperatore, except to act as a foil in the narrative of Trump's resurrection. Don't get me wrong; I'm rooting for Trump to succeed in his mission. But if he does, it will largely be due to the tenor of our times. Most Americans are done with the depravity and faux morality of leftist leadership, and the full reckoning has not even begun yet. Many Democrat leaders are joining the "blue dog" camp, having seen the writing on the wall. All Trump has to do is try to show a little humility this time around, and try to choose cabinet members and policy goals which won't alienate the reform-minded Democrats too much. The ultimate goal, lest we forget, is to incentivize both parties to compete on doing what's best for Americans, rather than serving bureaucratic mandarins and corporate cronies. Which means citizens should maybe stop looking at each other sideways because of how they voted. Merry Kwanzaa!
The many, many, many millions of Americans cheering Mangione would beg to differ with you about how "everything's going to be OK." Everything will continue to be A-OK for the Mangiones of the world and the well-paid staff of TFP, no question. But the masses of angry Americans who voted for Trump will soon find things a lot less "OK" for them when his crazy tariffs and tax-cut stimulus for an overheated economy hit the inflation fan, and double the price of their eggs again. Let's face it: More than ever in our history, there are two Americas. The college educated never had it so good; the other two-thirds, not so much. And Trump will make their economic lives worse, not better.
Biggest regret of the year: I wish I spent more time on my phone.
Said nobody ever