And these ain't them. Scotty never went to Star Fleet Academy. Chekov would have been nine years old when Kirk graduated from the Academy. Spock is years older than Kirk and served under Christopher Pike (who was not the first captain of the Enterprise, Robert April was) for over 11 years. Need I go on? For this aging Trekkie, these people mean too much to screw around with their stories. I don't need those stories "reinvented". I would like to see them told, in interesting ways that involve drama and ideas. This movie does not, as far as I can tell, do that.

First, as a dopey anglophile who earned his Ph.D. in the UK, I have to say fuck the spineless British elites who cave to this blackmail. Fuck the "special relationship." It's a code word for America shoving a stick up Britain's ass and laughing when dickheads like Blair and Brown yell "higher!"

Second, if I hear one more idiot tell me about what a great guy our President is, they can go straight to hell. This man is a product of a corrupt system, and a smiling sociopath if this is the kind of behavior he engages in. I am so angry, so outraged, I can harldy write coherently.

Third, I see no way out of this. Glenn G. is doing yeoman's work, but the boat left the dock and the ship of state has set sail for imperial terrorland. I'd love some of the Obama fans to explain to the relatives of the dead civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan what a kinder, gentler man he is than Bush II. The worst thing is that Obama is smart enough to know better, which makes him more mendacious than Emperor Bush the Moron. It's all terrifying.

I mean, how the hell can anyone see this as some vague, ambiguous issue. If these things were done, as an historian I demand that they be released so that the real story can be told. Not made-up bullshit. Not nice lies. How can people not see that only by knowing what happened can anything be made right? If the German government found a trove of photos from the nasty days of old Mr. Hitler, and their Chancellor made these arguments, that it would just spread evil anti-German feelings and "some things should remain mysterious", can you imagine the screems of outrage that would resonate from every corner of the Earth? Wouldn't they be justified? Yet we have Americans, the same people who here said that this stuff never happened, or that we are exaggerating, now saying we have to suppress the evidence of what was done because it's too horrible to reveal! Can you asses your story straight, please. Because once these photos are disappreaed, I'm sure you disengenuous bastards will go back to telling us that this shit was never as bad as we claim and WE are making stuff up.

How else are we going to convince the people that Cheney's lies are just that, lies, if Obama supresses the evidence at every turn that he is lying? And what the hell is this crap about the soldiers--they're soldiers, for Christ's sake, their job is to be in harm's way. That's why we should respect them. If they wanted a cushy job, they picked the wrong profession. It's not our obligation to pervert the historical record in order to keep the troops safe. If Obama was so scared for their safety, he'd get them the fuck out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Period.

I no longer believe that anyone is going to do serious jail time for any of these crimes. Our society and ruling elites have no stomach for that. But we can at least tell the truth. We can at least not lie to ourselves and to our children and pretend that this was not, and likely is not, happening. If we tell the truth, then some kind of change or redress somewhere down the line is at least possible. I don't know if this experiment in liberty and self-rule can or will be saved. But the path to our salvation does not lie in supressing evidence of wrongdoing or playing the expediency game. We've got be be adults, to "man-up" in the politically incorrect but still viable vernacular, and be honest with ourselves. The other path may go down easy, it may even save a few GI's their lives, but it will lead inexorably to the fall of this Republic. And, all you patriots out there, isn't saving our Republic worth something to you?