After all, Kirk’s most enduring trait (and one that apparently continues in the new film, though all I’ve seen are the ads) is that he’s a horndog. If these guys really want to emulate him, they should go out and sleep with a green chick.

Why is it that wingnuts are ready to have their kids exposed to deadly viruses but are so afraid of them hearing new ideas, that they must be home schooled?

Also, can someone explain what secret hand signals the members of the Tribe use that I have been missing?

Star Trek was groundbreaking in its use of a multi-cultural cast. The first televised interracial kiss, having a lovable Russian crew member in the midst of the cold war. The show was also dedicated to the idea that diplomacy and non-interventionism in foreign affairs was paramount, and violence was only a last resort. It also stressed the importance of education and technology (and did you ever see Kirk go to church?).

They were also all total commies. There was no private ownership. No money, no personal wealth. All production decisions were made by a social planner, and everyone (outside of starfleet) worked jobs designed by the gov’t to be equal for all people.

All the wingnuts have going for them is the idea that “leadership, vision, courage, and bravery” are uniquely “Conservative” traits.

By far, the most important character trait of a good leader is the acceptance of responsibility if things go wrong. (Truman’s “The buck stops here”, Ike’s letter of resignation he wrote should D-Day have failed, etc.) Compare that to Bush who, when asked, couldn’t even name a single mistake he made. In fact, can you name a single conservative that ever accepted blame for something that went wrong? No, its always blame someone else.

Can you imagine if Star Trek was actually conservative? It would go something like this:

“Captain, the Romulans are about to fire on the starbase, what should we do?”

Kirk: “Cut taxes!”

Pamin, I’m not a member of the tribe myself, but unless I am very much mistaken, Spock’s famous “Vulcan hand sign” is one half of the gesture that accompanies the priestly blessing given by Kohanim in shul. Nimoy is himself Jewish, and for all I know came up with the gesture himself back in the day.

(Spoilers follow.)

As for Vulcans=Jews, didn’t pick up on it while watching and, in retrospect, frankly nah. The Trike Force guy is off by three orders of magnitude as far as the number of Vulcans killed. And they were killed by not by “Aryans” but by one of their own close cousins, the Romulans. I’d love to be able to think of the Trek film as an extended if veiled discourse on the ancient disputes between talmudic rabbinical Judaism and Karaism, but fear that’s just a tick too nuanced for the guy who directed Cloverfield.

Thanks for the response. I did not know that.

Here at TBogg’s place, it’s really one stop shopping, snark _and_ information.

Yeah, what Nylund said. Doesn’t Star Trek take place in a socialist/communist utopia of the future? Starfleet is essentially a mash-up of the military, State department, NASA, and Cornell University.

I mean, seriously, what the fuck?

And is that a picture of the dude from SNL?

The Boy Scout weekend is far more serious and mature.

It is all relative.

Spock’s sign resembles a peace sign, doubled — could also simply be V for Vulcan.

Not sure about what hand signals the right wingers give each other, but Michelle Obama is still doing hers:

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures…..elle+Obama

She’s evil I tell ya….evil! /snark

Aww, now why ya gotta be so mean to the wingnuts over their women issues? They got their Bettie Page pinups. What else do they need?

—-
Interesting comments on non-Starfleet portion of population. Always did want to get a glimpse of how they related to Starfleet. How they viewed the “sailors,” what sort of news they got of the adventures after the fact, etc.

I love this one:

“Today, I was kneeling down at work to do some cleaning. My co-worker said, “Oh don’t your knees hurt, kneeling like that for so long?” Without thinking how it sounded, I said, “Oh no, it’s not a problem. I’m on my knees all the time.” He’s yet to stop hitting on me. FML”

LOL

They never talked much about life outside of Starfleet, at least in the original series, so I don’t know where all that is coming from. And they have money: it’s called credits (a nice neutral term). Unless you want to use quatloos ….

Dude, they can’t even land a white girl. What makes you think a green one would even spend the night in the same room as them?

You know, like girls; the final frontier

In Rick Lowry’s case, “These are the voyages of the Starburst Evertries.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..31735.html

And someone needs to tell the wee wingnutz that in the rare event they ever reach “girls, the final frontier,” you should turn the warp drive off. Of course, they’re probably not able to even if they try. Lots of premature Starburstation in wingnut world, me thinks. Those poor wingnut lassies…

Perhaps it will be a variation upon the infamous “Dogs and Sailors, stay off of the grass” signs which were used in some US port towns to make the Navy feel welcome.

None of these wingnuts must ever have watched the original Star Trek. The corniest space show ever emphasized and strived for diplomacy in ‘alien relations’, and romantic liaisons between humans (usually the captain) and aliens was pretty much standard fare. Also, the show flopped when it first came but became a cult favourite among dope smokers and nerds.

There wasn’t a right wing thing about it.

Also William Shatner who played James T. Kirk went on to vilify republicans by making a mockery of them on Boston Legal.

Cool story about that sign: When I was in Norfolk, VA in the early 90s, I heard that sometime during the 80s, the Navy got sick and tired of that attitude and closed off the Navy to the civilian economy. No shopping out in town. No contracts with anybody to supply items for the ships to use. Everything sailors needed was brought in by ship or plane from out of town. The town finally gave in and took all the signs down. By the time I came in, Norfolk and the Navy were getting along much better.
Heh! Yeah, that’s a funny image though, Kirk and friends being disrespected because they’re from Starfleet.

Nylund’s right. I’ve been trying to make this point in comment sections for years. Liberals stole Trek away from these dildoes a long time ago, because it was created by them in the first place.

Far too many progressives have been willing to assume that since Jonah Goldberg says he likes it, there must be something wrong with it. If you know anything in this world by now, you should know that Jonah couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if his mommy drew him a diagram on tha bottom of one, so there is absolutely no reason to take his “interpretation” (a greivous insult to the word itself which I use out of necessity) with anything even approaching seriousness.

“For those who like to give the middle finger to the world of the politically correct, buy two tickets, and settle in for a great show.”

What is it with these people’s obsession with circa mid-1990s political correctness? And why are the people who love giving the finger to political correctness always the same ones who cry like babies whenever someone makes fun of Christianity?

Just a point of clarification: Abrams didn’t direct Cloverfield. He only produced it – I believe he was in pre-production on Star Trek and couldn’t devote the time to directing it, so he handed off those duties to Matt Reeves, with whom he’d worked on Abrams’ TV series Felicity.

teapot37 @22,

Abrams didn’t direct Cloverfield. He only produced it

I believe that is central to my point.

Sid58 @10,

clock this, yo. (Scroll down for the piccie.)

In my politically unenlightened way, I thought it was just a fun movie, with reasonably good acting and lots of stuff blowing up. Somehow I missed the part about it being a conservative manifesto. The only conservatives I saw were the nasty little Vulcan kids who wanted to kick young Spock’s ass because he didn’t conform to traditional social norms.

It really is all rather pathetic. These guys are so far out in the wilderness that they have to look to sci fi fantasy to find something they perceive as relevant to their political outlook, and to any normal observer it looks like a whole lot more than a stretch to even make the connection.

And what is it with their obsession with “courage”? I’m getting a serious projection vibe here; the usual “rah-rah war; what, me enlist? Surely you jest!”

And there’s this

“These words and the words that follow were not written only for the Yangs, but for the Kohms as well! – The Kohms?
They must apply to everyone or they mean nothing!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gutY7NnNuyA

Or the objectively pro-terrorist “The Cloud Minders”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysjYoL-F3r4

I think the abolishing of money was a TNG thing.

Star Trek is utopian, especially as compared to Babylon 5 or Enterprise. The Federation works harmoniously and the characters have high ideals.

As I will say over and over, my husband is not a wingnut. He voted for Hillary in the primary and would happily have voted for Al Gore. My husband remembers going to Trek conventions in the 70s when he was a teenager, so his love of Star Trek is probably not connected to anything political.

But remember that Star Trek was conceived of as “Wagon Train to the stars” and much of conservative mythology is about the West and the frontier.

(That is the Missouri primary, before this Operation Chaos was ever heard of)

Parents who want to teach their children examples of leadership and courage — and sacrifice, take the whole family.

James Tiberius Kirk has always been a leadership role model, a character of great courage and vision and purpose.

If memory serves me correctly, Kirk got his command as the youngest Starfleet Commander by cheating. Them’s wingnut values, alright!

Kirk was a sanctimonious asshole. Everybody else on the show dragged him out of his little temper fits and made him act decently. I saw the show as a kid. And, it was pretty crappy science fiction, too.

To those looking for an antedote (sic) to the wimpy, lets live in a risk free world, hang-wringing whiners — this movie is it.

Did these clowns see the same movie I saw last night? The one where Kirk spends a good chunk of his screen time getting the crap beaten out of him?

And what is it with their obsession with “courage”?

Like girls, it’s something they’ve read about, but have little actual experience with…