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You are here: Home / Live Long and Grow the Fuck Up

Live Long and Grow the Fuck Up

by John Cole|  March 6, 201512:43 pm| 123 Comments

This post is in: Clown Shoes, Teabagger Stupidity

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From Matt Continetti, the author of the best-selling The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star (a premise he has since repudiated Corrected! I confused asshole wingnuts named Matt.), comes this gem:

“I loved Spock,” said President Obama, reacting to the death of actor Leonard Nimoy. Why? Because Spock reminds him of himself. The galaxy’s most famous Vulcan, the president wrote, was “Cool, logical, big-eared, and level headed, the center of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future.” Just like you know whom.

The president is not the only writer who has drawn comparisons between himself and Spock. I am also a Star Trek fan, but I admit I was somewhat confused by my rather apathetic reaction to Nimoy’s death. And as I thought more about the president’s statement, I realized he identifies with the very aspects of the Spock character that most annoy me. I don’t love Spock at all.

Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble, his “logic” and “level head” mask an arrogant emotional basket case. Unlike the superhuman android Data, a loyal officer whose deepest longing is to be human, Spock spends most of his life as a freelancing diplomat eager to negotiate with the worst enemies of Starfleet. He’s the opposite of a role model: a cautionary tale.

This is the kind of writing I used to snicker at 25 years ago while reading the undergraduate newspaper op-ed pages. You seriously can not make this shit up. Next in the series from Matt- I used to love Spiderman until he resembles the Obama and the left’s web of lies.

(via SEK)

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Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    Hunter Gathers

    March 6, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    Next in the series from Matt- I used to love Spiderman until he resembles the left’s web of lies they made him black .

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    March 6, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    Second linkie is bad. You fix?

  3. 3.

    dewzke

    March 6, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    Dear dog. Rock…Paper…Scissors…Lizard….SPOCK!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROhPZtLSfDA

  4. 4.

    notoriousJRT

    March 6, 2015 at 12:50 pm

    Matt Lewis is repudiator in 1st link. Lewis or Continetti?

  5. 5.

    philpm

    March 6, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble, his “logic” and “level head” mask an arrogant emotional basket case. Unlike the superhuman android Data, a loyal officer whose deepest longing is to be human, Spock spends most of his life as a freelancing diplomat eager to negotiate with the worst enemies of Starfleet. He’s the opposite of a role model: a cautionary tale.

    Because grappling with ones emotions and trying to make the universe more peaceful apparently make one evil and confused.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    March 6, 2015 at 12:54 pm

    Maybe some of the more expert Trekkers can help me out here. But I don’t recall Nimoy’s Spock ever doing freelance diplomacy while he was a Starfleet officer. Or Quinto’s Spock dissing Sarek. So I’m not sure what this guy is talking about.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 6, 2015 at 12:54 pm

    I can just imagine Papa Kristol’s email: “Good show, my boy! this is how we communicate neo-connery with those young hip people.”

    Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble,

    Google tells me Matty was born in 1981, so he was twenty-two when he had the opportunity to see first hand the kind of non-trouble non-peacenik inclinations bring to a federation. I’m sure the boil on his ass that kept him out of the infantry is the great regret of his life.

  8. 8.

    John Cole +0

    March 6, 2015 at 12:54 pm

    @notoriousJRT: I made a mistake.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    March 6, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    From the actual column:

    “It will take America some time to recover from the legacy of our Spock-loving president,” he concluded.

    It will take America some time to recover from actual legacy of the third rate movie actor president.

    As for Spock, little wonder a wingnut wouldn’t like him. They operate on emotion. Rational thought that doesn’t support the emotion is ignored, tossed aside or ridiculed.

  10. 10.

    NonyNony

    March 6, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    I just…

    The premise of this article is such that my only conclusion is that Matt Continetti is actually a horrible human being. The chain of “logic” (such as it is) that Continetti uses is:

    1. Obama likes the Star Trek character of Spock
    2. Therefore I have to hate Spock because reasons
    3. Therefore I have to publicly state that I cannot mourn the loss of Leonard Nimoy because he played Spock, a character that the President likes and I hate.
    4. Therefore I am a horrible human being and it would be best for the world if I crawled back under my rock and kept my mouth shut for the rest of my life.

    Oh I’m sorry – that last one is my conclusion of what Continetti should do. (I would also take “go fuck himself”, but YMMV).

  11. 11.

    scav

    March 6, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    Because if there was one single thing Star Trek was really all about, it was the uncritical, unquestioning support of anything ‘conventionally’ ‘human’ as defined by contemporary ‘mercan culture.

  12. 12.

    Belafon

    March 6, 2015 at 1:03 pm

    @Violet: Does he ever list any times when Spock was the peacenik he says he hates?

  13. 13.

    notorious JRT

    March 6, 2015 at 1:04 pm

    Not only is the analogy silly, he describes a Spock that I don’t really recall.

  14. 14.

    Violet

    March 6, 2015 at 1:06 pm

    @Belafon: I didn’t read the article. I just provided the link because someone was asking for it. The concluding statement was quoted in the rawstory article.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    March 6, 2015 at 1:07 pm

    More importantly, were can I get free bacon?

    Some people aren’t worth the oxygen they consume. This Matt person seems to belong to that cohort.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 6, 2015 at 1:08 pm

    @notorious JRT: Yeah I was never really in to the series, but at some point in my lazy TeeVee Fuddleheaded youth I probably saw most of them, and have no memory of Spock being some kind of peacenik. I mostly remember the Vulcan death grip, or whatever it was called.

    @Violet: “It will take America some time to recover from the legacy of our Spock-loving president,” he concluded.

    As Michael Grunwald snarked today, 5.5% is double-digit unemployment I know it’s pointless to ask even rhetorically, but what reality do these people live in.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:09 pm

    Memo to Mr. Continetti:

    If one is writing about Star Trek, at the very minimum one ought to have viewed a few episodes.

  18. 18.

    ruemara

    March 6, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    This guy never watched Star Trek. Spock wasn’t a peacenik, he was logical. You can and should wage war with a logical reason for it, a logical procedure for it and logical method for ending it. It makes the wars winnable and beneficial to your interests. Even more obvious about his true lack of geek cred, his failure to understand that the volatile, warlike Romulans were ancestors of the Vulcans who did not care for the restrictions of logic.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    March 6, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    Mostly O/T but space-related, this is amazing.

    The US space agency’s Dawn probe has gone into orbit around Ceres, the largest object in the Solar System between Mars and Jupiter.

    A signal from the satellite confirming its status was received by ground stations at 13:36 GMT. Ceres is the first of the dwarf planets to be visited by a spacecraft. Scientists hope to glean information from the object that can tell them about the Solar System’s beginnings, four and a half billion years ago.

    Dawn has taken 7.5 years to reach its destination. Its arrival has seen it pass behind the dwarf to its “dark side”.

    Over the next month, controllers will re-shape the orbit to get it ready to begin the prime science phase in late April. Over time, the intention is to progressively lower the orbit until the probe is just a few hundred km above the surface. By that stage, it will be returning very high resolution pictures.

    “We feel exhilarated,” said Chris Russell, the mission’s principal investigator from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “We have much to do over the next year and a half, but we are now on station with ample reserves, and a robust plan to obtain our science objectives.”

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    March 6, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I’s the Vulcan nerve-pinch, or something like that. It doesn’t kill, it just knocks you out.

  21. 21.

    Irony Abounds

    March 6, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    Continetti asserts that Obama loved Spock because Spock reminds Obama of himself, yet nowhere in Obama’s statement was that ever stated. Continetti is simply making shit up, trying to reinforce the right’s whiny ass complaints that Obama is a narcissist. There is nothing these jackasses won’t do to make Obama look bad.

  22. 22.

    JDM

    March 6, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    Stupid reality!

  23. 23.

    GxB

    March 6, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    Not at all a trekkie, but I think the analogy Obama drew holds pretty well. Pity he didn’t bring up the bemused resignation Spock had every time the good Captain got his wang dipped.

  24. 24.

    gordon schumway

    March 6, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    @John Cole +0: Also, too, I think you meant “refudiate”.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    March 6, 2015 at 1:13 pm

    @ruemara:
    Oh, I think I know what episode is stuck in his thick noggin.

    The group shows a disrespect for authority and demands to be taken to a planet they call “Eden” (a reference to the Biblical Garden of Eden). Eden’s existence is believed to be a myth, however. The group refuses to cooperate with Kirk, calling him “Herbert”. However, the group is impressed by First Officer Spock, who understands their philosophy. Spock makes an oval “symbol of peace” hand gesture and simply says: “One”. The group responds with the same gesture: “We are one.” They ask Spock: “Are you One, Herbert?” Spock replies that he is not Herbert, and Adam declares: “He’s not Herbert. We reach!” Having developed a respect for Spock’s straightforwardness, the group agrees to go to Sickbay for a medical examination. Meanwhile, Spock explains to Kirk that “Herbert” is a derogatory term for a rigid, hidebound person, named from an unimaginative “minor official”, notorious for his “limited patterns of thought”.

    Hippie-punching is always its own reward.

  26. 26.

    Violet

    March 6, 2015 at 1:15 pm

    I think it’s pretty telling that this guy can’t mourn the passing of an actor because of the character he’s most known for playing. Wingnut can’t separate reality from make believe. Typical.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    @John Cole+0

    No, no no. You’re supposed to leave it as it stands and say sorry to “any who were offended.”

    But I kid. :)

  28. 28.

    jl

    March 6, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    I didn’t see enough, and of those I did see, don’t remember enough of, the Trek movies to know what to make of this profound analysis. I liked the one where they brought the whale back the best.

    This guy should have stuck with the recent Fox News revival of the complaints about how come all the dads are doofuses in standard family TV sitcoms, which demonstrates a liberal plot to oppress and marginalize he-men. He could have worked Obama-hate into that somehow.Surely he could.

  29. 29.

    gf120581

    March 6, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    @NotMax: I’ve barely watched any “Star Trek” in my life and I have a better idea of the character then this clown.

    Whenever wingnuts try to find some hidden leftist message in pop culture, the results are usually hilarious. My favorite: when Limbaugh opined that “The Dark Knight Rises” was an anti-Romney film because the villain is named Bane (Bane=Bain, get it?), never mind that Bane the character was created in the early 90s.

  30. 30.

    daveNYC

    March 6, 2015 at 1:18 pm

    @Amir Khalid: TNG has Spock going to Romulus to try and get peace talks going between the Romulans and the Vulkans. Spoiler, it’s a trap. He ends up staying behind to hang with dissidents.

    That’s about it though.

    I love that this guy went with an article that said “You know that guy that’s really nice and everyone loves? Fuck that guy.”

  31. 31.

    pamelabrown53

    March 6, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Was it “The Next Generation”? I distinctly remember Spock freelancing by supporting “moderates” in trying to broker the divide between the Romulans and Vulcans…which were originally one people who broke apart, took divergent paths and became enemies.

  32. 32.

    pete

    March 6, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    Um, Obama said he loved Spock, thus proving himself a human with emotions. Also, Obama’s ears may be large but they are rounded. Little Matty might want to rethink his premises. But of course he won’t (say I logically) because he is an idiot (say I humanly).

  33. 33.

    scav

    March 6, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    @trollhattan: Plus the whole Mars Ocean thing and the whatisitNova? being observable in multiple times beause. of gratitational lensing. All sorts of things to keep up, and less prone to make one mutter and contemplate intentional rudeness.

  34. 34.

    jl

    March 6, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    I remember a cartoon movie about a family of super-heroes who retired because of insurance problems. That was a epochal liberal-conservative battle ground too.

  35. 35.

    fuckwit

    March 6, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    Cole has been mighty cranky these days, I notice. Probably due to having to navigate a world filled with 1 cat and 6 dogs, 2 of which are puppies. I know I’d be cranky too.

  36. 36.

    The Moar You Know

    March 6, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    Spock spends most of his life as a freelancing diplomat eager to negotiate with the worst enemies of Starfleet.

    A sane person who’d seen the show even once could not possibly reach this conclusion.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    Anagram of Leonard Nimoy is “I’m only a drone.”

    Coincidence?

    :)

  38. 38.

    Chris Ar

    March 6, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    Progressives are getting easier and easier to troll. It’s almost not worth the effort anymore.

  39. 39.

    SatanicPanic

    March 6, 2015 at 1:24 pm

    @NonyNony: lol seriously, rarely is Cleek’s Law so baldly stated

  40. 40.

    BGK

    March 6, 2015 at 1:24 pm

    There was a plotline in the “Next Generation” series about then-Ambassador Spock working alone and covertly to achieve some kind of Romulan-Vulcan reunification.

    Linkage.

    It’s still a stupid point, though. He thought Spock was aces until the colored President expressed his admiration.

  41. 41.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 6, 2015 at 1:25 pm

    Why are paying attention to the verbally incontinent Matthew?

  42. 42.

    David Margolies

    March 6, 2015 at 1:25 pm

    In the mining planet episode, where a silicon-based life form exuded strong acid in order to navigate through rock, Spock did a vulcan mind meld with the creature and suggested accommodation rather than destruction. This turn out really well, as it happens, because the creatures did not value at all the minerals being mined and so were happy to dig tunnels to supplies, saving the mining operation vast sums. But of course destruction was the right way….

  43. 43.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 1:25 pm

    First of all, wat –

    “I loved Spock,” said President Obama, reacting to the death of actor Leonard Nimoy. Why? Because Spock reminds him of himself. The galaxy’s most famous Vulcan, the president wrote, was “Cool, logical, big-eared, and level headed, the center of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future.” Just like you know whom.

    The President did not “compare himself to Spock.” The President said he loved Spock. You decided to extrapolate why the President loved Spock, and then immediately projected your own extrapolations onto him. The fact that you’re not the first person to do this doesn’t change the fact that that’s horseshit.

    Not only do Spock’s peacenik inclinations routinely land the Enterprise and the Federation into trouble, his “logic” and “level head” mask an arrogant emotional basket case. Unlike the superhuman android Data, a loyal officer whose deepest longing is to be human, Spock spends most of his life as a freelancing diplomat eager to negotiate with the worst enemies of Starfleet. He’s the opposite of a role model: a cautionary tale.

    I will never understand this depiction of Spock – the guy frequently raised Dr. McCoy’s ire precisely because he wasn’t a peacenik hippie, preferring to be cold blooded and logical instead.

    I do love the fact that he loves Data for the simple reason that Data wants to be human. Even in a world of complete science fiction, conservatives aren’t happy without an outsider falling in awe of the obvious superiority and rightness of the tribe they identify with.

  44. 44.

    Punchy

    March 6, 2015 at 1:25 pm

    @Violet: It’s more than this. He cant mourn the death of an actor who played a character that……his hated president seems to like.

    Had Obama come out and stated just how much he despised Spock, this shitbag would have wrote a glowing paeon on just how great Spock was, and 14,923 Republicans would have attended Nimoy’s funeral.

    Everything and anything, forever and ever, until Red Giant stage, they do/say can be explained by Cleek’s Law.

  45. 45.

    jl

    March 6, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    On second thought, I think this piece is a great development. It will suck up all the energy of culture war and Obama obsessed trolls into debates over Spock and Data. The debates will be endless. Do you mean TV Spock, or Movie Spock? If Movie Spock, which series of Trek movies? Maybe we will see people dressed up as Data at teabagger conventions!

    An excellent use of their time.

    What I want to know is, what are the obvious implications of the movie where there were two Spocks at once due to fork thingee in the time machine for the nefarious Obamacare unconstitutional?

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    @David Margolies

    “No kill I.”

  47. 47.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 6, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    @BGK: I remember that, it was a multi-part episode called Unification.
    I am surprised he likes Data, I thought he would prefer Lore.

  48. 48.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2015 at 1:28 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t either. The farthest I ever remember him going in that direction is suggesting that they not kill the Salt Vampire because it may be the last of its kind. Kirk did all the negotiating (and thus got all the inspiring speeches).

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    March 6, 2015 at 1:28 pm

    @daveNYC:
    That would have been in Spock’s post-Starfleet career as a Federation Ambassador, wouldn’t it? He wouldn’t have been freelancing then, either.

  50. 50.

    different-church-lady

    March 6, 2015 at 1:28 pm

    And once again the whole “fictional character” concept eludes someone on the right…

  51. 51.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 6, 2015 at 1:31 pm

    I distinctly recall Spock using unconventional diplomacy in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country where he emulated Nixon and helped broker a peace agreement with the Klingons, and in ST:TNG “Unification” where, as mentioned upthread, he tried to broker peace between Romulus and Vulcan. In that episode, he refers to “cowboy diplomacy,” possibly referring to Ronald Reagan (this was prior to the Reign of W), but he got the Klingons to the peace table and exposed the Romulan plot to invade Vulcan.

    Conservatives are either trying to hijack liberal icons (“Martin Luther King, Jr. was really a Republican!” when he wasn’t a commie) or hate them because they’re insanely jealous: all of their icons like John Wayne were dope-addled misogynistic frauds or just severely uncool.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:31 pm

    @David Margolies</a.

    Oh, and let us not leave unnoticed that the Horta in that episode received – gasp – free health care.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:32 pm

    Bad linkage fix.

    @David Margolies

    Oh, and let us not leave unnoticed that the Horta in that episode received – gasp – free health care.

  54. 54.

    different-church-lady

    March 6, 2015 at 1:32 pm

    @ruemara:

    Spock wasn’t a peacenik, he was logical.

    To a Romulan, there’s no difference.

  55. 55.

    Bobby B.

    March 6, 2015 at 1:33 pm

    Not enough attention is paid to the fact that so many conservatives seem to be science fiction nerds. It might not be military service that creates a conservative mindset, but rather formative years spent watching TV and playing video games. And getting pantsed.

  56. 56.

    Karen in GA

    March 6, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    @Belafon: Remember, “peacenik” = “not a screaming hysterical maniac shrieking that we must bomb everyone right now.” So, yeah, Spock was a peacenik.

  57. 57.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    @NotMax: No, Starfleet sent it a bill.

  58. 58.

    Calouste

    March 6, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    @ruemara:

    Spock wasn’t a peacenik, he was logical.

    Reason enough for the right wing to hate him.

  59. 59.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    He’s either referring to the TNG two-parter where Spock was on Romulus hoping to broker glasnost with the Federation (but he wasn’t a Starfleet officer anymore in that and hadn’t been in a long time) or the last TOS movie where Spock does broker glasnost with the Klingon Empire (but he wasn’t doing “freelance diplomacy” in that case, it was with the full approval of the Federation leadership).

    @ruemara:

    You can and should wage war with a logical reason for it, a logical procedure for it and logical method for ending it.

    This is especially egregious if you remember the Season 1 episode where they first encountered the Romulans. Spock was the loudest voice arguing that the Enterprise should stand its ground and fight back, because the Romulans would interpret retreat as an act of weakness and be encouraged to continue. (Again, McCoy, not Spock, was the one arguing “war is never imperative.”)

    So indeed, he’s never watched Star Trek. Either that or he’s just pissed that Spock doesn’t assume this attitude from the outset with regards to any potential enemy in any situation (as our conservatives do in the real world) – only when there’s actually a reason for it.

  60. 60.

    different-church-lady

    March 6, 2015 at 1:36 pm

    @fuckwit: …and one Baltimore Ravens fan. That’s probably the straw that’s really straining the camel.

  61. 61.

    pamelabrown53

    March 6, 2015 at 1:36 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    NOT only does the “fictional” aspect elude them but is there a reason that admiration of both Spock and Data are mutually exclusive?

  62. 62.

    Violet

    March 6, 2015 at 1:36 pm

    @Punchy: Yeah, but that’s another aspect. I think it’s telling that he can’t separate an actor—a real person who died–from the character the actor played. He’s unable to show the proper respect for the person’s passing because he thinks President Obama identifies with the character. It’s so incredibly small and petty.

  63. 63.

    Mr. Longform

    March 6, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    @daveNYC:

    I love that this guy went with an article that said “You know that guy that’s really nice and everyone loves? Fuck that guy.”

    That is hilariously correct, and I think a good example of how the wingnut mind processes and expresses: never mind the facts, but full speed ahead on saying the obviously annoying-to-liberals thing. Making sense is not required and is not really preferred.

  64. 64.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    @jl:

    On second thought, I think this piece is a great development. It will suck up all the energy of culture war and Obama obsessed trolls into debates over Spock and Data. The debates will be endless. Do you mean TV Spock, or Movie Spock? If Movie Spock, which series of Trek movies? Maybe we will see people dressed up as Data at teabagger conventions!
    …
    An excellent use of their time.

    What would be awesome would be if this became a trend; if conservatives took the side of denigrating a massive pop culture phenomenon like Spock, and honestly expect that this will make people side with them and go “Spock was an unacceptably liberal offense against All Right Thinking Americans!” instead of “God, what a bag of tools.”

  65. 65.

    different-church-lady

    March 6, 2015 at 1:39 pm

    @Chris:

    I do love the fact that he loves Data for the simple reason that Data wants to be human.

    Using Continetti’s own thought process, one would have to conclude that he admires Data because Continetti also longs to be human some day.

  66. 66.

    scav

    March 6, 2015 at 1:39 pm

    Is this sort of the mainstreaming of Westboro Journalism: picketing / protesting the funerals of people, especially those with many attending and making use of same events to spout off about whatever hatred-position-mongering one chooses?

  67. 67.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 6, 2015 at 1:40 pm

    @gf120581:

    I’ve barely watched any “Star Trek” in my life and I have a better idea of the character then this clown.

    Nimoy’s best role wasn’t Star Trek but as the driver of the car in the Bangles video for “Going Down to Liverpool”

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:40 pm

    @Chris

    As well as divert time and funds from fighting the Tinky Winky agenda.

  69. 69.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2015 at 1:42 pm

    @Chris: I remember that one, it was a rehash of “The Enemy Below.”. Spock was indeed insistent that the Romulans never be allowed to return to their home base on grounds that would result in many more attacks.

    Whether McCoy or Spock was the aggressive one seemed to depend on the individual script, I don’t recall any particular consistency, but none of the characters were peaceniks. Maybe What’s-his-name has Spock mixed up with Picard, who achieved space-opera infamy by surrendering in his very first appearance.

  70. 70.

    Mandalay

    March 6, 2015 at 1:44 pm

    You seriously can not make this shit up.

    Not really on-topic, but most definitely in the realm of “you seriously can not make this shit up”, John Harwood (CNBC reporter) said on the Diane Rehm Show this morning that some continued “to be skeptical about how just strong the economy is. Consider the forecast of the job number…We keep surprising on the upside!”

    Adding 295,000 jobs in February was bad news to Harwood because that number was better than he expected. The economy is weak because the actual numbers are always better than the chattering classes had predicted!

    Economic forecasters and their paymasters cannot fail. They can only be failed by a president who selfishly lets them down by delivering low unemployment and job growth month after month.

    You seriously can not make this shit up.

  71. 71.

    Amir Khalid

    March 6, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    @Bobby B.:
    One thing I noticed about Ender’s Game, book and film, is how it glorifies military culture, and the indoctrination of children into it. At the end the military deceives Ender and his classmates into fighting an actual battle by telling them it is a simulation. I came away thinking there was something a little sick about Orson Scott Card’s “classic” story.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 1:49 pm

    (sort’a pop culture related)

    Sat., 10 a.m. Eastern, TCM

    Batman: The Electrical Brain

    TCM will be airing the 1940s Batman serial on Saturdays, one episode per week. For those who love to watch or to snicker at “filmed on half a shoestring” productions, check it out.

    Been ages since have seen these, yet still can’t help but laugh at recalling the scene when Batman and Robin are pulled over while in their coupe (no budget for a Batmobile) and the officer asks “Does Bruce Wayne know you’re using his car?”

    It also answers the question of whence Rand Paul derived his coif.

  73. 73.

    NonyNony

    March 6, 2015 at 1:53 pm

    @jl:

    On second thought, I think this piece is a great development. It will suck up all the energy of culture war and Obama obsessed trolls into debates over Spock and Data.

    I do have to admit – at one point I pondered how hard it would be to convince right-wing political junkies to just become Trek fans and argue over this kind of shit instead of politics. While the arguments could be just as fierce, at least nobody ever lost their health care over arguments about whether Picard was the better captain than Kirk or if Spock could beat Data in a chess match.

  74. 74.

    Bostondreams

    March 6, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    @ruemara:

    The Romulans weren’t ancestors. More like cousins. The Romulans rejected the teachings of Surak that other Vulcans embraced and so they left the planet.

    Edit: I just realized how geeky that sounds. Sorry.

  75. 75.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 6, 2015 at 1:57 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Orson Scott Card is a sick individual, read his blatherings about gay marriage if you don’t believe me. As for Ender Universe, it is misogynistic and tribal. Ender’s Game was somewhat entertaining but the other books in the Ender series are unreadable.

  76. 76.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 6, 2015 at 1:58 pm

    @NonyNony: Sisko was the best.

  77. 77.

    NonyNony

    March 6, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    @NotMax:

    TCM will be airing the 1940s Batman serial on Saturdays, one episode per week. For those who love to watch or to snicker at “filmed on half a shoestring” productions, check it out.

    But be prepared for the utterly ridiculous amounts of anti-Japanese racism in these serials. Because woo-boy they are racist. (When the lead villain being played by a white dude in yellow face is the least racist thing your production has to say about Japanese people, you know you are in for it. If it’s the one I’m thinking of – and a quick google says it is – the serial opens with the narrator extolling the virtues of the Feds rounding up all of the “shifty-eyed Japs” and putting them into internment camps. And it just kind of continues in that trend from there. I find it hard to watch, even keeping its historical context in mind.)

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    @Bostondreams

    and so they left the planet.

    Romulans went Galt.

    “It seemed the logical thing to do at the time.”

  79. 79.

    boatboy_srq

    March 6, 2015 at 2:01 pm

    @Calouste: That and being willing to negotiate. The Reichwing cannot comprehend peace beyond the terms of Total Victory™. Anything less than that – anything – is Ignominious Defeat™. This is why their hero-worship includes Reagan (who presumably Won The Cold War For Us, and whose official military adventures never met with setbacks), but neither Nixon nor Eisenhower: both of the latter sat at a table with The Enemy™ which makes them RINO squishes.

  80. 80.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    @Bostondreams:

    IF ROMULANS EVOLVED FROM VULCANS, WHY ARE THERE STILL VULCANS!!!!
    /23rd century teabagger

  81. 81.

    shelley

    March 6, 2015 at 2:07 pm

    It was the Organians who were the peacenik’s. They’re the ones who step in and stop the brewing war between the Klingons and the Fed’s. Still love Spock’s bemused look when Kirk is first sputtering with indignation at the Organian’s interference.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    @NonyNony

    Yes, all that is so, and another thing to snicker at. Even the Flesicher Superman animations had their Japoteurs episode.

    Recall a U.S. government propaganda film shown in history class warning about seeing “nasty monkey men marching through the streets of Washington, D.C.” as a rationale for fighting the Japanese.

    Recognizing context (and the essential stupidity of cultural insipidness) is not the same as affirming it, however.

  83. 83.

    Ruckus

    March 6, 2015 at 2:09 pm

    @Amir Khalid:
    He doesn’t know what he’s talking about either.

  84. 84.

    boatboy_srq

    March 6, 2015 at 2:10 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Actually, every “simulation” at “Command School” (after the Bonzo incident) was real, and presented to Ender and his classmates as a sim. Ender never has a sim once he meets Rakham: all those fights were the real thing, and the sims/fighting went on for months. The film treats it a bit off-handedly and simplistically, but the book is very explicit about both the deception and about Ender’s absolute rejection of the concept once he learns about it. Ender’s final strategy only makes that moment worse: he takes the most horrifingly destructive option available for the final battle not merely to win, but to outsmart his teachers who he thinks are designing the scenario. In his head the idea that this is a simulation continues until the final battle reports come in, and he learns that he’s actually done in real life something anyone (himself included) would denounce as barbaric.

  85. 85.

    shelley

    March 6, 2015 at 2:11 pm

    And the Data character was nothing but a dull version of the Pinocchio story.

  86. 86.

    ellie

    March 6, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    These fucking people are certifiable.

  87. 87.

    Mike J

    March 6, 2015 at 2:22 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Spock spends most of his life as a freelancing diplomat eager to negotiate with the worst enemies of Starfleet.

    You don’t really need to negotiate with your friends that often.

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    March 6, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    @ruemara: Even more obvious about his true lack of geek cred, his failure to understand that the volatile, warlike Romulans were ancestors of the Vulcans who did not care for the restrictions of logic.

    Beautifully argued.

  89. 89.

    daveNYC

    March 6, 2015 at 2:29 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Naw, he was freelancing the shit out of that one. I believe he was still an ambassador (maybe only recently retired), but what he was doing was off the books. Back channel communications with a Romulan Senator that led to Spock smuggling himself to Romulus for a meet and greet. They made it pretty clear that this was not sanctioned by the Federation, which was why Starfleet sent Team Enterprise in to see what was going on.

  90. 90.

    Kerry Reid

    March 6, 2015 at 2:32 pm

    Sorry, I won’t know what to think about the president’s Spock comparison until Maureen Dowd gets shitfaced, starts thinking about the Daddy Void in her life, and shits out another turd of a column.

  91. 91.

    geg6

    March 6, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    @notorious JRT:

    Yup. I saw every single episode of every single Trek show and viewed every single Trek movie numerous times. The Spock he describes is not the Spock I saw over the course of several decades.

  92. 92.

    Dave c

    March 6, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Maybe this is your whole point and I am just misunderstanding, but I don’t think is really viable to read that book as a glorification of the military if you read it through to the end. The last chapter is very somber and really changes the perspective of all that came before it

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    March 6, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    @Kerry Reid:
    Or even worser, Althouse psychoanalyzes Obama and Spock WRT their shared preference for onion rings. And also, too, they’re both colonialists.

  94. 94.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 2:38 pm

    @WereBear:

    In addition, I wonder how many of these people were screaming “DON’T NEGOTIATE WITH GORBACHEV IT’S A TRAP!” at the time of the events these couple episodes were referencing.

    Does anyone here remember? When Reagan and Thatcher were talking to Gorby, when they first tentatively started saying that he was “a man we can do business with” (Thatcher) and admitting that the Sovs had “changed” (Reagan), was there a backlash from Cold Warriors, in a “REAGAN IS WORSE THAN CARTER HE SOLD US OUT!” kind of way? Or did they figure that Papa Reagan and Mama Thatcher knew best?

  95. 95.

    VincentN

    March 6, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    I liked Ender’s Game because it showed what horrible lengths that people can be driven to in times of war. I don’t know and I don’t care whether that was Card’s intended message. The fact that Ender realized how messed up the adults were and that he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to making up for his mistakes seems to indicate that was at least partly the intended lesson. I can’t speak for the other Ender books at I’ve never read them.

    That was what I got out of Ender’s Game. Also, as a kid it was fun reading about other kids going to space and fighting aliens.

  96. 96.

    WereBear

    March 6, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    @Chris: Or did they figure that Papa Reagan and Mama Thatcher knew best?

    It really is as simple as “Our tribe good. Their tribe bad.”

    They shrug off things their side does to the tenth power, while if one of our side does something that is 1/10th as bad, there is shrieking and shirt-tearing and wailing.

    They have like a binary brain.

  97. 97.

    geg6

    March 6, 2015 at 2:43 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Nope, sorry. That would be Picard. You can’t be the best if your ratings suck.

  98. 98.

    Ben Cisco

    March 6, 2015 at 2:49 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Agreed.

  99. 99.

    Kerry Reid

    March 6, 2015 at 2:51 pm

    @trollhattan: Oh man. I just want to put MoDo and Althouse in the same small room lined with razors and electric eels.

    ETA: That would be cruel. To the eels, I mean.

  100. 100.

    Mike in NC

    March 6, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    So Data was a sci-fi version of Dinesh D’Souza, who just wants to be a white man?

  101. 101.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 6, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    @geg6: You can disagree, but DS9 was the best Trek and Sisko was the best captain. TNG had its moments and I like Picard but overall it was a tad preachy and hardly had any conflict.

  102. 102.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 6, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    @Mike in NC: Why do you hate Data?

  103. 103.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    @Bostondreams: Don’t forget the great Klingon leader, What’s-his-name the Unforgettable.

  104. 104.

    Ben Cisco

    March 6, 2015 at 3:07 pm

    @Pogonip: That would be Kahless.

  105. 105.

    WereBear

    March 6, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    I’m willing to admit it. I’m a Kirk fan.

    After all, he set the template. And yes, he was testosterone in velour, but the job called for a swashbuckler, it made him the Id to Spock’s Super Ego and McCoy’s Conscience.

    Yes, he’s a ham, but he’s the finest Black Forest naturally cured ham in the world. Say what you like, but even in a woman’s body against his will, he was a darned fine Starship Captain.

  106. 106.

    Tree With Water

    March 6, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    Then again, Continetti might be putting everyone on. Father Guido Sarducci published a book of letters to famous people seeking their autographs. He introduced himself to president Marcos of the Philippines by saying, “I really like your [Manila] folders”. Sarducci also wrote NASA about his plan to drive to Mars, and inquired how much gasoline it would take to complete a round trip. Someone at NASA did the calculations and sent them back, with a letter that ended “Bon Voyage”.

  107. 107.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    @WereBear:

    The hamminess is a feature, not a bug.

    It made for fantastic William Shatner self-parodies in Airplane and Boston Legal.

  108. 108.

    Chris

    March 6, 2015 at 3:23 pm

    @Pogonip:

    What’s-his-name the Unforgettable.

    I see what you did there.

  109. 109.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    @Chris: :P

  110. 110.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2015 at 3:39 pm

    @Ben Cisco: “Kahless” is Klingonese for “What’s-his-name.”

  111. 111.

    Rich

    March 6, 2015 at 3:44 pm

    “I used to love Spiderman until he resembles the Obama …”

    Actually, that isn’t the premise of the piece at all.

  112. 112.

    Peale

    March 6, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    If Spock were the leader of a country, he would not be freelancing. Just like Obama is not “freelancing” by having the secretary of state negotiate with Iran. Iran is not the Romulan Empire.

    Anyway, at least they’ve written an article decryng the lack of war that doesn’t involve Munich.

  113. 113.

    jake the antisoshul soshulist

    March 6, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    @Amir Khalid:
    That is why I loathed the book, and have read nothing else by Card.

  114. 114.

    Woodrowfan

    March 6, 2015 at 4:14 pm

    I’m surprised he didn’t like the episode “Spock’s Brain”. A guy with his brain removed would make the perfect teaparty member.

  115. 115.

    ruemara

    March 6, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    @Bostondreams: I never said they were ancestors. And I’m never sorry about being geeky.

  116. 116.

    JustRuss

    March 6, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I came away thinking there was something a little sick about Orson Scott Card’s “classic” story.

    I’m not one to defend Card, but that’s the point. The state will do sick things to protect itself, including exploiting children to commit genocide. And of course, Ender himself injures and kills other children to protect himself. You’re supposed to feel sick about it, moral ambiguity is a bitch. If you read the sequels (not that I’m saying you should) Ender feels sick about it too.

    I liked Ender’s Game, but I’ve started a few of Card’s other books and just couldn’t get through them.

  117. 117.

    Tehanu

    March 6, 2015 at 11:46 pm

    @WereBear:
    Me too. I like Shatner, but I love Kirk — just as I like Spock, but loved Nimoy.

  118. 118.

    vogon pundit

    March 7, 2015 at 7:47 am

    Next in the series from Matt- I used to love Spiderman until he resembles the Obama and the left’s web of lies.

    I used to love Frodo, until I read about his wanton destruction of property.

  119. 119.

    henqiguai

    March 7, 2015 at 8:55 am

    @ruemara (#115):

    I never said they were ancestors.

    Yes, you did say they were ancestors. Your comment at #18 —

    …his failure to understand that the volatile, warlike Romulans were ancestors of the Vulcans who did not care for the restrictions of logic.

  120. 120.

    yodecat

    March 7, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    @Bobby B.: Oh, baloney.

  121. 121.

    yodecat

    March 7, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    @Bobby B.: Oh, baloney.@Amir Khalid: How dare you! OSC is a good Mormon!

  122. 122.

    Baldand60

    March 8, 2015 at 11:48 am

    @Violet: @Punchy: It’s a shame that the author never saw Nimoy when he was on Sea Hunt (yeah, the one starring mas macho Lloyd Bridges). It featured Nimoy on the flying bridge of a boat for the obligatory “shoot into the water at frogman mas macho Lloyd” scenes, shooting a WWII era M-1 carbine.

    A man like the author can probably feel a lot more respect for a mindlessly, hopelessly violent person who exercises his 2nd Amendment rights.

    Check out Nimoy’s filmology…he’s done a lot more than Star Trek…even westerns.

  123. 123.

    Baldand60

    March 8, 2015 at 11:54 am

    @WereBear: I’m not sure it’s best to describe Shatner, a Canadian Jewish Dentist, in terms of pork products.

    Just saying.

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