Before I begin this rant, let me just say that Barack Obama didn't have my vote to start with. I have always disliked him as a politician. As a person, though, I tried to reserve judgement because I don't personally know him. Until now. That nice neutral opinion turned to ash this week when Obama made a joke that was, in my opinion, downright blasphemous.
Did anyone else hear about this? He apparently jokingly expressed the desire to do a "Jedi mind meld" on Congress. I'm sorry, but you do not mix franchises like that. NPR did a very nice bit in which they explained the difference between a Jedi mind trick and a Vulcan mind meld, and they even had a sound clip of what a Vulcan mind meld on congress would sound like ("THE PAIN!"). I feel that is not enough, however, and that the president really needs to understand the magnitude of his error*. Star Wars and Star Trek are two very different things, and I'm fed up with people assuming that they're pretty much the same. Sure, they're both hugely popular sci-fi series, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. I mean, Buddhism and Judaism are two major religions, but no one assumes that they're pretty much the same. If you assume they're the same, the Jews and the Buddhists get angry at you, so that's why you don't do it. So why is it okay to make Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans angry?**
The really ironic part of this is that Mr Obama was presumably trying to seem like your average Joe by making this humorous pop-culture reference. Instead, he has offended every nerd in the nation and revealed without a doubt that no, he is not your average Joe. More like your average Warren Auguste Poindexter the Third or something. And of course the media isn't about to let this go. I look forward to at least another three months of bad jokes about this incident. I will await them, and in the meantime I will be killing Klingons with my lightsaber (kidding!).