Thursday, August 20th, 2009
The nice man over at AuricTech Musings noted that Bill Whittle has an excellent video explaining the reality of the comparison of our Dear Leader and Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and why Spock was never a good choice for that center command chair.
To keep in this meme, I present Leigh Scott’s theory that if Obama is Spock, Sarah Palin
is James T. Kirk.
Sarah Palin is Captain Kirk. Why? Because she just passed the Kobayashi Maru.
…
Since Sarah Palin burst onto the national scene she has been savaged. The media, the Left, the Right, the Middle, you name it. People either love her or hate her. In the media it seems people love to hate her. The “elites” on both sides of the aisle hate the populism she represents. Traditional feminists hate the fact that she has both a family and a career; something that their paradigm teaches is impossible. Her future rivals hate her because she isn’t a typical politician. Her authenticity makes Mike Huckabee look about as real as the Guinea Pigs in “G-Force”.
Palin was faced with her own Kobayashi Maru. How could she effectively govern the state of Alaska while facing ridiculous ethics charges and the scrutiny of the national media? How could she increase her exposure in the lower 48 while staying true to the people in Alaska who elected her? Perhaps if the wingnuts in Alaska didn’t stalk her with silly lawsuits she would have simply put her larger ambitions on the back burner and continued to do her job as governor. But it wasn’t meant to be. She was perfectly set up to fail. Her popularity in Alaska would decline. The national media would point to it as an indicator of her overall effectiveness. The Klingons…I mean the left, would have won.
But Palin defied them. She changed not her strategy, but the very rules. She resigned her position, turning the state over to her loyal Lieutenant Governor to continue the plans and policies she put into motion. Like any good story, it was an unexpected twist, yet when viewed in retrospect it was the only way it could play out.
..
For all his talk of being different, representing “hope,” and bringing “change” Obama has turned out to be quite the bore. He is the consummate insider, a recycler of old ideas and failed policies. People wanted to beam up to the starship and explore strange new worlds. We wanted to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before. Obama is in the wrong franchise. He and crazy Doc Brown, I mean Joe Biden, gassed up the DeLorean and took us back in time. To 1976.
Palin passed the Kobayashi Maru. She is qualified to command the ship. She has all the qualities we want in a captain; valor, principals, vision and most of all, the ability to change the rules.
Go watch the video and read the article. Both Mr. Whittle and Mr. Scott make solid good points.
Tags: Barack Obama, incompetent, James T. Kirk, Politics, SciFi, Spock, Star Trek
Posted in Our Dear Leader, Politics, Science Fiction, Star Trek | 2 Comments »
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
I admit it, I have watched all three seasons of Heros. Not a great show, but not horrible either. Good acting and engaging characters. Plot holes you could drive a semi through, but hey you can’t have everything.
Ok, fair warning, I’m going to discuss plot points, so there be spoilers here.
First off, the writers must have figured out that time/space powers shared by Hiro & Peter were just too unstablisling and was giving them headaches in the writers meetings, so those had to go.
There was that little trick with a transfusion of Claire’s blood. That is how the Company brought back Noah from the dead. I’m not talking about pining for the fiords type “mostly dead” either. This was a “bullet entrance wound in eye, tunnel through the brain and blow out the back of the head” type dead. If you have Claire, you don’t need to screw with Sylar’s brain after he just cut Nathan’s throat. Ok, maybe they are going to pull some crazed crap like Noah never knew, or asked, how he was brought back to life, and Nathan’s body is on ice somewhere, ready to be reanimated through the magic of Claire’s blood after Sylar figures out that he is Sylar. I expect Parkman to be rather pissed off if he finds out, unless he’s moved on from Daphne and is back on track with his ex-wife, who was cheating on him with his best friend.
Ok, I’ve got that out of my system.
Let’s move on. The SciFi channel’s new show Warehouse 13. Ya, I know know the idiots there changed the spelling, but that is their little episode of idioticy.
I like Warehouse 13, and ya, Steve Jackson Games did a GURPS book about it first, so go collect your geek cred somewhere else. They admit they got the idea from the first Indiania Jones movie anyway.
The characters are fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it is more serious than the Librarian movies. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch all the episodes aired so far at Scifi.com.
Tags: GURPS, Heros, Science Fiction, SciFi, Warehouse 13
Posted in Science Fiction | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
I never was much of a Star Trek:Voyager fan. Just didn’t like it. Janeway was cool, because she was seriously hardcore, but the rest of cast/crew just never passed passed cardboard cutout stage.
I finally saw the final episode of ST:Voyager, it was in the “Best of Time Travel” set. If that was the best they could do, then the entire series was set on Lame. Except for Janeway, who was still hardcore.
The third season of Enterprise had better episodes, including several multiple episode arcs, that were much, much better than that epic fail of a series final episode the Voyager cast and crew foisted on their much abused fans.
Tags: Science Fiction, SciFi, Star Trek
Posted in Science Fiction, Star Trek | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 17th, 2009
The Running Man
An Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1997. California in 2017 has become a police state in the wake of the world’s economy’s total collapse. The hero is wrong accused and tossed in a brutal prison along with Yaphet Kotto’s character, who is there for teaching kids about the Constitution of the United States of America. Ya, I know, it sounds like where America is heading under the reign of our Dear Leader. Besides that, it’s a fun film with added bonuses like Jesse Ventura, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mick Fleetwood, and great performance by Richard Dawson. It was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, From the Starsky and Hutch TV show, and choreography by Paula Abdul.
Friday B-Movie Archive
Tags: Friday B-Movie, Movie, Politics, Schwarzenegger, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
John Ringo’s first novel, and the first in his Posleen War Series, also know as the Legacy of Aldenata series. A ripping good yarn. It has back stabbing alien “allies”, really bad bad aliens, and ends with a massive battle on an alien planet.
Ya, I know it’s Tuesday. I’m late.
Monday Book Pick Archive.
Tags: Baen Books, book, John Ringo, Military Science Fiction, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
A delightful murder mystery wrapped in some really good SciFi. The hero, who really is not a nice man, finds himself back on Earth in a new body. A bit of suprise, since his last one was killed on another planet, involved in crimes that should have kept his consciousness in storage for quite a bit longer. It proceeds to get weird from there, but in a good way for the reader.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Eye of the Storm by John Ringo
The latest by best selling author John Ringo. It’s the next book in his Legacy of the Aldenata series. “Iron Mike” O’Neil is back, and boy is he pissed!
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Baen Books, book, John Ringo, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Trekkies
A way funny documentary of rabid Star Trek fans. I’m talking serious fans. Worse than me, and I own a Bat’leth. Great movie if you are into Star Trek.
Friday B-Movie Archive
Tags: Friday B-Movie, Science Fiction, SciFi, Star Trek
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction, Star Trek | No Comments »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
A fun romp through Interstellar politics, romance, advenure and the Android’s Dream, an electric-blue breed of sheep. Yup, that’s a big tip of the hat to Philip K. Dick. There is also a big jab made a religion based on the rantings of a SF writer of “modest talents.”
The Monday Book Pick Archive.
Tags: book, John Scalzi, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Conquistador by S.M. Stirling
Another alternate history book by Mr. Stirling. In this novel, a WWII Veteran, shortly after the end of the war, finds a gateway to an alternate Earth, one where Western Civilization didn’t take hold. The planet is lightly populated with people and still mostly an untamed wilderness. Most of it takes place in California, and what would be California in this alternate world.
A fun and exciting read, with a nifty Sluggy Freelance reference near the end.
Monday Book Pick Archive.
Tags: Alternate History, book, Monday Book Pick, S.M. Stirling, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »