Wednesday, December 23, 2009

You might be a hopeless geek if . . .

Having earlier noted Ross Douthat's waste of 773 words on Avatar, now I see National Review's Michael Potemra wasting words on something even more trivial:
I have over the past couple of months been watching DVDs of Star Trek: The Next Generation . . .
Potemra's conclusions about the values exemplified in the show -- which he subsequently elaborated -- evoke scoffing from the Left: Kevin Drum at Mother Jones weighs in, as does Steve Benen of Washington Monthly.

Yet they miss the more important point: Dude, Star Trek?

Of all the things you could do with your leisure hours, you're sitting around watching a sci-fi soap opera? Brittany Murphy is dead, Steven Tyler is in rehab, Tiger Woods is sailing to the Bahamas, and I'm a finalist for the Malkin Award.

All of these important news developments are happening here and now, in real time in the real world -- and you're debating the political significance of Captain Picard's imaginary adventures in the 24th century?

Some people need to get their priorities straight.

(Via Memeorandum and WeSmirch.)

UPDATE: Evidence of Potemra's blunder:
It must be nice to have a philosophy that thinks Jar-Jar Binks was a good idea.
When Pandagon gets to use a line like that against you, it's time to re-think the sci-fi fanboy trip.

10 comments:

  1. Heh, from the Malkin Award comments:
    Posted on Dec 21, 2009 at 4:51 PM by gearoidmm:

    I'm with you on the McCain one. The only problem is that he'll wear this like a badge of honor. Sandy Rios a close second


    Adjusting for your lack of radio show and Fox exposure, taking 14% is a tribute to the smear-tastic efforts of Chucky J. and Patterico, as well as your Clark Gable-esque charm.

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  2. At therisk of having eggs thrown at me, I have been ahead of the curve since mid-July.

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  3. Are you saying that Eye of Polyphemus is a hopless geek? Mr. Jeffords isn't totally hopeless.

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  4. "sci-fi soap opera"? The term of art is "Space opera", thank you very much.

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  5. Of course he shouldn't be spending time watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, when he could be spending that time watching Babylon 5 instead.

    After all, remember the old saying: Never try to apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem.

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  6. You're all missing the point!

    Is Obama really Harold Saxon? (Dr. Who ref.) And is Keith Olbermann a Toclafane?

    Seriously, Dr. Who is better then JL Picard any day. (But Kirk is till the original)

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  7. LOL, Star Trek. Now, Babylon 5 on the other hand is extremely worthwhile and relevant. Can anyone doubt that sinister forces have seized our government and we are heading for a catastrophe of galactic proportions?

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  8. Stacy and Smitty, you know that the biggest Star Trek fan over at the Corner is Jonah Goldberg don't you? Wanna rethink that change in editors?

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  9. Here we part company, sir. Science fiction has been the vehicle for attracting a lot of folks to conservatism and libertarianism, and it deserves repect for that. There's also the consistent theme of improvement through rationality, engineering, and humanity. As a genre, it beats the hell out of political potboilers. I mean, how many books has Allen Drury sold lately compared to Robert Heinlein or David Weber?

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