J.J. Abrams Star Trek: More On The May 9th 2008 Movie

I just happened upon this account of a Star Trek Movie press event attended by Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times.  J.J. Abrams was the host, and four clips from the upcoming blockbuster were shown.  This is the "meat" of what Itzkoff reported (spoilers):  

1. The young James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) is drinking forlornly at a bar in 23rd century Iowa (where they still serve Budweiser). Without much success, he flirts with a young Starfleet recruit named Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and picks a fight with four Starfleet grunts who clobber him. Kirk’s bravado impresses another Starfleet officer, Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who knew Kirk’s late father, and goads Kirk into joining the Starfleet Academy. “Your father was the captain of a starship for 12 minutes,” Pike tells him. “He saved 800 lives, including your mother’s. Including yours. I dare you to do better.”

2. A medical officer named McCoy (Karl Urban) helps smuggle Kirk aboard the starship Enterprise by injecting him with a vaccine that induces the symptoms of a mysterious disease. While his hands and tongue swell up, Kirk races around the ship, trying to convince the crew they’re about to enter a trap set by the nefarious Romulans. We get our first glimpse of the young Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto of television’s “Heroes,” in a mop-top haircut and pointy ears), as well as Spock’s human mother (Winona Ryder) and the Romulan bad guy Nero (Eric Bana, in heavy-duty prosthetic makeup).

3. The Enterprise jettisons Kirk on a remote ice planet, where he meets the aged, future incarnation of Spock (ladies and gentlemen, Mister Leonard Nimoy!) as well as a young Starfleet engineer named Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg). With Old Spock’s help, Scotty completes a mathematical formula that permits living beings to be teleported onto vessels moving at warp speed. (Of course.) As Kirk and Scotty prepare to beam back onto the Enterprise, Kirk wonders if time-traveling and peeking into the future is cheating; Old Spock tells him it’s “a trick I learned from an old friend.”

4. In a lengthy action sequence, Kirk, Sulu (John Cho) and a third, red-shirted Starfleet recruit (don’t get too attached to him) parachute from the upper atmosphere of the planet Vulcan onto a giant drill that is burrowing a hole to the center of the planet. Kirk and Sulu disable the drill, but not before it drops a charge into the planet’s core. Back on the Enterprise, Spock realizes that the charge, when detonated, will create a black hole where his home world used to be – and he now has mere minutes to evacuate the planet’s entire population.

The second trailer was introduced last week.  Here's my review of the movie thus far, based on what I saw:

John McCain, Cindy McCain, Miss Buffalo Chip T-Shirt

John McCain, Cindy McCain, Miss Buffalo Chip , originally uploaded by thisiswar3005.

As you may know, Senator John McCain made headline today because he suggested that his wife try out to be "Miss Buffalo Chip" before 50,000 bikers at the Sturgis Biker Rally in South Dakota. Here's my video take on it:

I read somewhere that McCain didn't know "Miss Buffalo Chip" was a topless contest, but this photo shows that it's possible both he and Cindy saw the t-shirt at the right, which features a topless woman. This was taken before his speech and the gaffe, so even if both of them knew it, I don't think Cindy had any idea Senator McCain was going to offer her as a crowd-pleasing contestant. The author of the blog "DoubleTalk Express" asks if McCain is sexist? Ya think?

John McCain Protects White Male Power Structure & Miss Buffalo Chip

Senator and GOP Presidential Candidate John McCain appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show and let O'Reilly do the talking, and then agreed with him. This is what was said:

Bill O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say you've got to cap with ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif number.

John McCain: In America today we've got a very strong economy and low unemployment, so we need addition farm workers, including by the way agriculture, but there may come a time where we have an economic downturn, and we don't need so many.

[crosstalk]

O'Reilly: But in this bill, you guys have got to cap it. Because estimation is 12 million, there may be 20 [million]. You don't know, I don't know. We've got to cap it.

McCain: We do, we do. I agree with you.

Geez...

Then,on August 4th, my birthday, John McCain stuck his foot in his mouth again. You're not going to believe this, but Senator John McCain, speaking at the annual biker convention the Sturgis Bike Rally said

"I was looking at the Sturgis schedule and noticed that you have a beauty pageant and so I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain said to cheers from the (mostly male) crowd. "With a little luck, she could be on the only woman ever to serve as both the first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

Ronald Kessler and NY Times Big Obama Pastor Lie

Ronald Kessler's the person behind an example of the most irresponsible example of journalism ever seen. In a Newsmax article, Kessler claimed that Senator Barack Obama was "in the pews" for a "hate America" sermon, but in point of fact, at 1:30 PM EST and 12:30 PM CST Senator Obama was in Miami speaking at the National LaRaza event.

For Senator Obama to make the speech, he would have to leave Chicago at 7 AM CST, making it physically impossible for Obama to be there.

Kessler's been hammered with contrary evidence to his story. But what's his response? Get this one he sent to one Obama supporter:

"Obama did speak to this group at 1:30 p,.m. in Miami on July 22, but with a chartered jet, he had plenty of time to attend church in the morning or later in the day in Chicago and give the speech in Miami. "

In other words, Kessler has no proof, just a guess at what he wants to think Obama did. That's not the basis for a story at all. Then it gets worse and here's where Kessler's caught in a lie. He starts to speculate about time, and states that Obama could have made a 7:30 AM service, which means Kessler has no evidence and is just writing a smear article, which is not responsible.

The problem is that The New York Times has reported Kessler's story and so has made yet another error of credibility.

New York Times' Kit Seelye Can't Get Her Black Guys Straight - I'm Referenced and Linked Twice In The Same Article!

Katharine Seelye a reporter for The New York Times wrote an article about tommorrow's CNN / YouTube Debates where she links to two of my videos twice in paragraphs close to each other, but fails to identify me as the same person!

This is both sad and funny. But it's mostly sad and not that funny. Here's the part of the article I'm writing about:

" Another asks the candidates if they would put their friends in important government jobs. “Or are you going to hire the best and the brightest?” he asks. “Or are you prepared to tell us that your friends are the best and the brightest?”

A black man standing in front of a check-cashing store asks the candidates how they would stop predatory lending in low-income neighborhoods. A college student wants to know if the candidates would lower the legal drinking age to 18 from 21.

Now if you click on each link, you'll discover that both lead to videos of me asking questions. In other words, she sourced the same person for two different points of information, but to the lazy eye and finger that would not bother to click on the links -- yeah, right, -- it looks like she's writing about two different people.

Nope. She's not.

Katharine, what's the deal? I've just got to ask why you would reference me twice in this way, one paragraph after the other? And why "A black man standing in front" of a check cashing center, when I wasn't even STANDING IN FRONT OF A CHECK CASHING CENTER. THAT'S A BANK OF AMERICA ATM!"

It just goes to show you how stupid racism is, in this case, institutional racism, where the person thinks they're doing no harm at all in reaching for a stereotype, even if the stereotype tells the story incorrectly.



Wow, this is terrible!

Now, you might be saying "Hey at least she noticed your videos." But that's not the point. It's the principal of the way "Kit" Seelye (as she's called) did it. The best way -- the most direct way -- would have been to write something like "And Zennie Abraham, a YouTube vlogger, has two provacative questions, ..."

Think about it. Read the story. She wrote the article as if I were two different people, rather than the same person. I can't help but wonder what was rolling around in her head.

Geez.

New York Times Editorial Calls For U.S. To Get Out Of Iraq

I just read this path-breaking editorial in today's New York Times which calls for the U.S. to get out of Iraq and lays out a time table in a sub section called "The Mechanics Of Withdrawl.

President Bush should feel the walls closing in around him. Yes, he's a lame-duck president, but one would think that he'd not use this "I can do what I want" status to, well, do what he wants to do and the public be damned.

But that certainly is the way he's behaving.

Look, policy by mob rule is more often than not a good thing, but in this case, it is a good thing. People are plain tired of hearing about -- or in some cases, seeing -- Americans killed in Iraq. It's time to leave.