Super Bowl 46 Predicted WITH SCIENCE!

   01.29.12

As a long time New Yorker and occasional (says my tax forms) New Englander, many of you have been asking me* where my loyalties lie vis-à-vis next Sunday's Super Bowl. But I have to tell you, I can't let my heart decide such things. For me, it all comes down to science**:

 

 

*I mean "you" in the less frequently used sense of "no one in particular."

**And a suprisingly poor grasp of modern video editing software!

 

Means Testing Social Security

   01.08.12

I know that as a Democrat I'm not supposed to say this, but shouldn't we be means testing Social Security?

At its heart, Social Security is an insurance program. (And a public option buy-in, at that.) But what other insurance program pays out, even if you don't need it?

That's like buying fire insurance and then getting a payout even if your house never burns down. Social Security is the only insurance program that pays out if things DON'T go badly for you. It's death insurance. It pays out if you, through no fault of your own, don't die.

How crazy is that?

People who are rich, don't need Social Security. The idea that we continue to give money to people who don't need it, in an era of deficits and debt, is just ridiculous. Heck! It'd be ridiculous in an era of surpluses.

Democrats are supposed to be the party that fights against income inequality. Democrats are supposed to be taking a stand against taking money from the working class and giving it to the rich.

Why do the 99% pay payroll taxes to give Social Security to the 1%?

 

The Plot of STAR TREK 2 should be...

   12.03.11

Complete fanboy post. Apologies.

I'm sure this won't happen, but what I really want to see in STAR TREK 2 is:

Older Spock, realizing time won't rip apart if he tells the new crew about his timeline, spills about Khan. Khan, in this timeline, is still in suspended animation in his spaceship (The Botany Bay) drifting lost in space. So Kirk and crew decide to secure the ship before Khan can wake up, get crazy evil, kill Kirk's son and sort of briefly kill Spock.

(Older Spock's perspective allows us to trade not just on how big of a threat Khan was in his first appearance, but on the threat he turned into years later in Wrath of Khan.)

Meanwhile, the crew of a Klingon ship have also identified the Botany Bay, and they want to dissect Khan to learn more about genetic augmentation. The crew of the Klingon ship are sort of a Bizarro Enterprise, both in terms of casting (get Kal Pen to play a sword-wielding Klingon) and character/competency.

Basically, it's crew against crew in a tactical battle in the middle of a dangerous area of space, and the ticking time bomb is "What if Khan wakes up." Which of course he does, forcing the Enterprise and the Klingon crew to team up in the third act.

I figure the Klingons "beat" the Enterprise, "win" Khan, and then he wakes up, takes over their ship, kills half of them, and then the Enterprise have to work with the survivors to beat Khan.

STAR TREK 2 is in pre-production now, and will presumably not remotely resemble any of the above.