UP@NIGHT

Well, just when you think that you have carved out a niche for yourself, it seems that the whole planet has moved in.  In June 2008 I posted a blog,” Obama, Spock, and the New Star Trek Nation,” in which I drew a connection between Spock and Obama, and I also discussed how the times might be right (once again) for Star Trek’s positive utopian vision.  I even quoted from Shatner’s (Captain Kirk’s) book, Up Till Now, about how the fans had saved the original Star Trek.

“As a result of this campaign, NBC received, trumpets blare here, more than 1,000,000 letters urging the network not to cancel the show….[It was not cancelled] Perhaps more important the people who wrote the letters suddenly had an emotional attachment to a television program unlike any viewers ever before. They had actually influenced a network’s programming decision. They had ownership. Star Trek really had become their show. This marked the beginning of the most unusual relationship between viewers and a TV series in history.”

I compared this sense of ownership to what many of Obama’s supporters were experiencing due to their involvement in his campaign.  In any case, I/we now have to deal with this:

It seems that sometime last year a toy company, a one Jailbreak Toys, starting selling Obama action figures.   Is nothing sacred?  Or perhaps this is how we express what we most admire in America, we turn them into action toys.

….

UPDATE, May 10.  It turns out the the Jailbreak Toys does make action figures, including ones of Obama, but those of Obama and Biden (above) were from an event held in NYC in which artists created action figures.  The photo, which I thought had come from the company, can be found at iPhoneSavior.

April 26, 2009.  The United States declared a public health emergency today.   Although it appears that no one has died or become seriously ill in the U.S. from a new strain of the swine flu, health officials are taking no chances.  All of the traditional measures to combat epidemics have been set in motion.   Funds will be made available for anti-viral drugs, and time-tested and effective methods for tracking and preventing the spread of disease will be utilized.  The CDC (Center for Disease Control) is reassuring the public, citing its decades of experience in handling epidemics and its recent preparation for pandemics.

However, former Vice President Cheney, through a spokesman, is calling on the CDC to avoid thinking within the box in deciding on measures to halt this attack on our nation.  “We can’t afford not to act with every means available to us,” said his spokesman.   Inside the CDC there is mounting pressure to consult with agents from the CIA to examine how harsh interrogation techniques might be of service.  With fear mounting and pressure growing, expert legal advice is being sought in order to provide the proper “legal cover” for actions that international agreements have outlawed as torture.

“Look,” said a representative from the former VP’s office, “you gotta do what you gotta do.  There are swine out there who, or I should say, that are dangerous.  We need to know what, where, and when.”   The plan seems to be to find the pigs that are harboring the terrorist virus, and apply harsh techniques, torture if you will, in order force them to provide operational intelligence.

There has been some concern that the swine won’t talk.  But everyone should know that swine are among the most intelligent animals, according to experts in covert intelligence.   A spokesperson for the CDC insists that with proper guidance, waterboarding a pig is possible, and it will get the animal to talk, and talk fast.  (He then handed this reporter a copy of Animal Farm.)

Questioned about violating the rights of these animals, a Cheney spokesman said, “What’s the difference?  Whether it’s a human animal or an animal animal.  If it attacks you, or if you believe that it might possibly attack, you go after it.”  There was little response to a question directed to Cheney himself  (as he was walking his dog) by one reporter, “What about all of the innocent pigs, for example, the three little ones, that were just minding their business, trying to build lives for themselves?”  Cheney did say that if we could apply harsh techniques to the virus itself, we would.  But since we don’t have the technical means to do so, as many of the swine as possible gotta be boarded.

Asked to comment, The White House declined, claiming that as an inanimate object it had little to say.   Although a spokesman for the President did say that if the tactics were forward-looking enough, and did not constitute a threat to his domestic agenda, he might be able to get his team behind the CDC.  In any case, no CDC employee will be prosecuted for actions deemed acceptable by agency lawyers.

A spokesperson for the Humane Society claimed to be too upset to return this reporter’s call.

We have all wondered how the financial wizards down on Wall Street managed to help tank the economy.  No doubt creative accounting played a substantial role.   This clip will explain to you, in a straightforward and easily accessible fashion, just how simple creative accounting can be.

A Billboard welcoming the Republicans to their convention in St. Paul, MN. Enough said.