BROOKLYN, New York — I split hairs but not infinitives as a general rule, but for the exception, I saw Star Trek today. Friends of mine award me the distinction of Worst Nerd Ever because of my near-total unfamiliarity with the franchise. I watched a few episodes while stoned in high school — a friend once recommended a viewing of the Khan episode and then Wrath of Khan — but that’s about it. We can have a lengthy debate about whether and how Iron Man could defeat the X-Men, but I don’t even know what the Prime Directive is, let alone what circumstances might compel violating it. And I’m not going to Google it.

As a result, I’m not really qualified to say anything about the movie, other than that I liked it; it’s nicely plotted and skillfully directed (the shot that opens Young Kirk’s joyride scene deftly shows his sportscar darting away from the camera that chases it); and, for lack of a better term, well-nerded. I notice Jason Linkins tweeted:

I am officially professing MAD APPROVAL of JJ Abrams before Ezra and Yglz and Spencer do their whole LET’S RUIN MOVIES W/ OUR BRAINZ thing!

Nope, not here. T Bogg has a jeans-pissingly funny post about conservatives claiming it’s a conservative movie. You’d have to get really superficial to make that claim — dudes fight each other, sure; and at one point Kirk says "diplomacy is pointless" with the baddies; but that’s about as far as it goes. The Federation remains a "peacekeeping and humanitarian" consortium. I note that the designation U.S.S. on the Enterprise testifies to the fact that American power will be magnified, not diminished, on a sustainable footing once subsumed within such a framework for the purpose of intergalactic collective action. If conservatives wish to embrace that, great! Welcome to liberalism.