"Star Trek" star Leonard Nimoy (Spock) has both joined -- and corrected -- U.S. President Barack Obama when it comes to the U.S. congress. Nimoy did so on Friday, tweeted his modification to the statements that Obama made that same day.
Earlier in the day, Obama showed his lack of true "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" knowledge. While he does know both of the two series, he also managed to mix them up.
Speaking of the sequester, Obama said:
I know this has been some of the conventional wisdom floating around Washington, that somehow even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow, you know, do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.
Yep, a Jedi mind meld. Those who are more familiar with the "Star Wars" series know that Jedi can use the Force to affect the weak-minded ("The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded."). It does not involve a mind meld, which is a Vulcan technique, and thus a "Star Trek" feature.
Mind melds are completely different. As Wikipedia says:
A "mind-meld" is a technique for sharing thoughts, experiences, memories, and knowledge with another individual. It usually requires physical contact with a subject, though instances of mind-melds without contact have been seen (for example, in the episode "The Devil in the Dark"). Vulcans can perform mind melds with members of most other species, most notably Humans, with Jonathan Archer ("Star Trek: Enterprise") being the first known Human participant in such a ritual in 2154.
Typically, Vulcans do not have the capability to force those melded into action. However, Wikipedia says:
For example, in the TOS episode "A Taste of Armageddon," Spock was once able to induce uncertainty in the mind of a prison guard on Eminiar VII.
That sounds similar to how Obi-Wan Kenobi affected weak-minded Stormtroopers in "A New Hope."
At any rate, on Friday, Nimoy, being a little more familiar than Obama with the ins-and-outs of mind melds, tweeted:
Only a Vulcan mind meld will help with this congress. LLAP
LLAP, of course, and President Obama might not know of this, is Nimoy's traditional close to all his tweets, meaning "Live long and prosper," as Spock would say.
A series of mind melds from the TOS episode "Spectre of the Gun" is embedded. There, Spock is using a mind meld to convince the others that any bullets fired from the guns of the Earps and Doc Holliday are illusions, and will pass through their bodies without injury.
Comments