via Free Beacon.
“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.Read it all here.
The president is not the only writer who hasdrawn 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.
Just wow.
Now even sci-fi is being invaded by political nonsense!
So what if the President likes Spock. That's one thing we can agree with..but to take a beloved FICTIONAL character and to do this hatchet job on him because it helps promote a political position is distasteful.
ENOUGH ALREADY! Everything is polluted with politics...even my beloved Marine Corps. Can I at least have sci-fi without the taint?
HE CROSS THE LINE!
ReplyDeleteWith all respect to the elected President of United States of America... take this BACK you selfish, arrogant political pop star! You did not even close to role of Ambassador Spock not to mention to such respectable human and actor like Leonard Nimoy.
Whatever. One less creepy j ew pornographer.
ReplyDeleteI know it's off topic as fuck, but i had to share this with you guys,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.returnofkings.com/57034/why-are-feminists-ignoring-the-violent-gang-rape-of-porn-star-cytherea
and
http://www.returnofkings.com/57635/mercedes-carrera-explains-why-cythereas-rape-was-not-covered-by-the-feminist-dominated-media
"via SAIC Press Release"........."Single-award" is NewSpeak for "sole-source"
ReplyDeletefrom DOD:
Justifications and Approvals / Sole Source Acquisitions
Justification and Approval (J&A) - A document required to justify and obtain appropriate level approvals to contract without providing for full and open competition as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
10 U.S.C. 2304(c) authorizes, under certain conditions, contracting without providing for full and open competition. Contracting without providing for full and open competition or full and open competition after exclusion of sources is a violation of statute, unless permitted by one of the exceptions in 6.302. (Source: Acquipedia)
"via SAIC Press Release"............prime contract awarded to Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAIC)
The US has several large, innovative and dependable vehicle-producing corporations, but SAIC isn't one of them. Who is SAIC?
NOT ""via SAIC Press Release".........from CorpWatch:
As a March 2007 Vanity Fair article published by the investigative journalist duo Bartlett and Steele put it SAIC "sells human beings who have a particular expertise—expertise about weapons, about homeland security, about surveillance, about computer systems, about "information dominance" and "information warfare." ... What everyone agrees on is this: No Washington contractor pursues government money with more ingenuity and perseverance than SAIC. ... No contractor seems to exploit conflicts of interest in Washington with more zeal. And no contractor cloaks its operations in greater secrecy. SAIC almost never touts its activities in public, preferring to stay well below the radar."
from wiki:
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) is a US company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support. The original SAIC was created in 1969 by J. Robert Beyster. Then on September 27, 2013, it spun off a $4 billion unit which retained its name,[4] while the parent company changed its name to Leidos.
Good luck on a sole-source vehicle upgrade contract to SAIC. (I suspect foul play.)
Star Trek was always about politics, though it was world politics. Until all the new age spinoffs came about, TOS was our world pasted on sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteThe Klingons were the Russians, the Romulans were the Chinese, Vulcans were Taiwanese. Economic collapse, building bridges to help etc was basically the world situation at that time and intent.
Unfortunately, we neglected the Klingons and now they're back.
And the Romulans just stole the plans for the F-35.
Though rumour has it that the 2nd was a ploy by Starfleet Intelligence to get them to waste resources.
some would argue that "Starfleet" itself was wasting scant, better spent resources on the F-35.
ReplyDelete@ Owl
ReplyDeleteyou're doing the same thing. you're looking for a hint of something that resembles what we're experiencing to explain sci-fi. why do you refuse to accept it at face value instead of seeking to make analogies where non-exist. Vulcans Taiwanese? really? seriously? at that time there was no thought of economic collapse. nuclear warfare maybe. environmental catastrophe but no economic collapse.
Don, SAIC is one of your key black ops suppliers. They supply the US Army with a lot of top secret equipment, the kind that gets you a free homestay if you talked about it. They also tied in with ST Kinetics for the Terrex MPC. I suspect some of the tech transfer from ST Kinetics is going into these AAVs. My guess would be the floating armour, the blast seats and "driver interface".
ReplyDeleteAllow me to caveat my comment on sole source. I'm not familiar with the program. It still appears to be sole source but it's complex.
ReplyDeleteApparently there was an award to BAE in 2012 for "Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) Upgrade Trade Study and Design Concept Contract" and last May 9, 2014 contracts to BAE and SAI "firm-fixed-price
contracts for the design and development services to improve the force
protection of the Marine Corps Legacy Assault Amphibious Vehicle
Personnel Carrier Variant Platform. The initial award value for both
contracts is $27,796,449."
An FAS Report here Mar 3, 2015 on:
Marine Corps Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) and Marine Personnel Carrier (MPC):
Background and Issues for Congress
Recent reports suggest the final RFP will be issued in late March 2015 and proposals would be due in April 2016. The Marines reportedly plan to award two Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contracts for 16 vehicles, each to be delivered in November 2016. In 2018, the Marines would then down select to one vendor in 2018 and start full production.
So, now a contract not an RFP according to SAI..
It seems complicated -- I wish I had more time to look at it. Meanwhile, I generally retain my opinion of the SAI award.
Sol, TOS was 30 years ago, and it was very political even then. Racially equal crew, female equality, those were the hot topics of those days and it showed in the series. The "Klingon Empire" suffering a collapse after the USSR imploded in the 1990s was a rather big signboard.
ReplyDeleteKudos to those who can name the first captain of the Enterprise NCC-1701 :)
first captain? which cannon are you talking about? new cannon it would be Archer, old cannon it would be Pike.
ReplyDeleteRobert April?
ReplyDeleteMy comment was deleted?
ReplyDeletedude. first i don't know that site and it looks sketchy to me. second i didn't feel like getting into feminist/black crime issues. third. take it somewhere else. i am tired of this shit. i got hit with the porn star getting raped, a mob raiding a prison to kill an accused rapist, a guy accused of murder and now it looks like a cop did it...i'm tired of delving into these other issues. that's just where i am.
ReplyDeleteadditionally i'm even getting tired of the what the fuck is wrong with the US in general and the military in particular. nothing changes. the world and leadership is fucked up and i just want pure military, military tech, armor, aviation and ships on the page.
Okay Solomon, no more feminist and black crimes.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this one, Sol. I think Star Trek didn't really get overtly political until the 70s when Star Trek's staying power was evident and it became a vehicle for Gene Roddenberry's ideas. 60s TOS's different aliens may have had real world inspirations, but just that, inspirations.
ReplyDeleteStop trying to understand these vehicle programs, at this point, I don't even think the people peddling this crap truly understand these programs. There has been so much flip-flop on what is happening with the MPC ad AAV Upgrade, they really are goners.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the love of God, why are they treating an "upgrade" program as if they are getting an entirely new vehicle with all this testing? They are getting re-built old vehicles. What is going on?
If I had a son, he would look just like Mr. Spock.
ReplyDelete