Wow. Talk about the wrong stuff.

Dr. Sanity (a former psych profiler for NASA) has some thoughts on a culture of toxic narcissism.

Unjustified astronaut worship is one of the unfortunate consequences that lingers on, almost half a century after the Cold-War space program began. Just one more reason to try to privatize things ASAP. And of course, this is going to unfairly reflect badly on all the astronauts who really do have the “right” stuff.

[Late morning update]

Heh. Comment #50:

As another famous pilot once said,

“a trench coat and wig and, a knife, BB pistol, rubber tubing and plastic bags….Gosh a feller could have a pretty good time in Vegas with this stuff.”

[Afternoon update]

It’s already been added to her bio at wikipedia.

I see that she’s only flown once, last July. I wonder when this behavior started? Several astronauts have been profoundly affected by their trips into space. Some have gotten religion, some became addicted to various substances. The Overview Effect isn’t always benign. I wonder if we’ll find out that she had a personality change after her flight?

[Late afternoon update]

I’m a little surprised to see that this has become the news story of the day, at least on Fox. But maybe I shouldn’t be. There’s probably a TCS column or two in this somewhere.

[Another update a couple minutes later]

I fearlessly predict that some kind of “space adaptation derangement” will play a key part of the defense. I say this because I already heard it on John Gibson’s show. Seriously, I do think that it will be played as insanity and a crime of passion. And I wouldn’t rule out the Overview Effect.