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Policy

Oh My!

Jacob Sullum | 4.13.2011 4:10 PM

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Did Patty Duke appear in an episode of Star Trek? If not, what is she doing alongside George Takei in these painfully awkward PSAs for the Social Security Administration, wearing Starfleety pajamas in front of a blue-screen simulation of the USS Enterprise's bridge? Maybe she's a Trekkie. Or a bad investor (which would make shilling for Social Security especially appropriate).

My favorite line: "Patty, let me be honest with you. Won't filing for Social Security benefits online be confusing?" (To which Patty replies that it's a snap compared to navigating through an asteroid belt.) Note that the SSA apparently did not have permission to use the Starfleet chest insignia, a detail that, along with Patty's anachronistic wristwatch, ruined the suspension of disbelief for me, although I've always been a Sulu fan.

[Thanks to Michele Sullum for the tip.]

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Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason.

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  1. Libertymike   14 years ago

    Are you channeling Dick Enberg?

  2. Jay   14 years ago

    I imagine that France wants to ban this to deflect attention from its racist (anti-immigration) ban on burqas.

    All I want to say is, I want to be in France when the protests start over this....

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....al-pay-sex

    1. The Gobbler   14 years ago

      You can take my French whores when you pry them from my cold, dead hands

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   14 years ago

        Or damp and sticky, as it were.

    2. dbcooper   14 years ago

      FUCK SARKOZY.

      This will be a joke in France.

    3. Otto   14 years ago

      "80% of prostitutes are victims of trafficking"

      Good to know our politicians aren't the only ones to make up complete bullshit statistics.

      1. Shocked   14 years ago

        All depends on your definition of trafficking. They used the "owns on car and drives self around" version.

      2. dbcooper   14 years ago

        Hey man, the knows what he's talking about - he saw Taken!

    4. cynical   14 years ago

      Somehow, I think the ability of wealthy, powerful French politicians to use their wealth and power to nail attractive young women will remain in place.

      1. cynical   14 years ago

        Whoa, wrong article...

  3. Episiarch   14 years ago

    Paramount will murder your children if you even think about using anything Star Trek related (though they haven't been able to get NutraSweet for his Kirk/Spock/Horta slash fic yet); how was the SSA able to get away with this?

    1. Brett L   14 years ago

      Bigger guns, meaner lawyers, more money.

      1. gaijin97   14 years ago

        Photon torpedoes even?

    2. SugarFree   14 years ago

      "Spock screamed, 'NO KILL I' as Kirk's semen sprayed the glowing body of the Horta. The sticky droplets evaporated in a puff of acrid steam."

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   14 years ago

        "Brain, brain, what is brain?!"

      2. The Immaculate Trouser   14 years ago

        "Brain, brain, what is brain?!"

      3. Episiarch   14 years ago

        HE'S RIGHT HERE ^^^, PARAMOUNT

    3. GILMORE   14 years ago

      Paramount will murder your children if you even think about using anything Star Trek related

      Oh man.

      You have obviously never seen this

      Warning: NSFW

      But, SFHB (safe for hash brownies)

      1. Episiarch   14 years ago

        You NutraSweeted the link, dude. Nice going.

        1. ClubMedSux   14 years ago

          Isn't that technically only half-NutraSweeted, since the hyperlink itself works, it just goes to a bad link (as opposed to having orange-colored text that does nothing when you click it)?

          1. Episiarch   14 years ago

            Nope. You screw up the link at all, and you NutraSweeted it.

            1. ClubMedSux   14 years ago

              Duly noted.

              1. Otto   14 years ago

                Here's GILMORE's link.

                1. capitol l   14 years ago

                  That was amazing. I'm now high.

    4. TheZeitgeist   14 years ago

      I think Paramount only starts liquidating your offspring if there is even remote whiff that money could be made from said Star Trek branding, or that people might see it.

      So they're all cool with this.

  4. Tim   14 years ago

    Where's the fooking klingons when you need them?

  5. The Immaculate Trouser   14 years ago

    At least Takei has the good sense and self-respect to look and sound bored as fuck reading those staid lines.

    1. Lurker   14 years ago

      "Target that explosion and fire!"

    2. wylie   14 years ago

      I'm just curious what law Takei broke that he had to appear in this as part of his sentence.

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   14 years ago

        It involved children and a broken teleporter.

  6. The Gobbler   14 years ago

    "although I've always been a Sulu fan."

    NTTAWWT

    1. Joe M   14 years ago

      Damn it that was my joke!

    2. Navigaytor   14 years ago

      Unbenownst to the the rest of the crew, Sulu surreptitiously and repeatedly entered a course heading directly for Uranus...or any other within reach by impulse power.

  7. Fist of Etiquette   14 years ago

    As I recall, in the pilot for The Patty Duke Show, Cathy Lane was the result of a transporter accident. Ironically, it was Patty, the original cousin, who was evil.

    1. capitol l   14 years ago

      What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be trawling the tubez, looking for a reason to hate Tampa Bay?

      Isn't someone here from Tampa? SF? PL?

      I don't know they all look alike to me.

      Ryan Malone wears your ugly mom like a beard! Ha!

      1. NoVAHockey   14 years ago

        i've just decided that they're florida and that it's 1996. that's hate enough.

      2. Fist of Etiquette   14 years ago

        I am on my way to Consol as we speak.

        1. capitol l   14 years ago

          Dude, have fun. Be LOUD!

          We'll all look for you on the teevee.

          1. Fist of Etiquette   14 years ago

            I'm the one in the Lemieux jersey.

            1. capitol l   14 years ago

              You should wear a baby blue Crosby jersey, that way you'd really stand out.

              1. Fist of Etiquette   14 years ago

                Alotta shots second period, not alotta goalz.

                1. capitol l   14 years ago

                  You shoulda saw da third.

                  1. Fist of Etiquette   14 years ago

                    The Con was deafening.

      3. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

        Are we talking hockey?

        1. capitol l   14 years ago

          Steve Stamkos wears your ugly mom like a beard! Ha!

          *scampers off*

        2. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

          'Cause if we are, prepare for pain, bitches.

    2. The Gobbler   14 years ago

      "Patty, the original cousin, who was evil."

      Which is why a "hotdog" made her loose control.

  8. Colin   14 years ago

    Too bad they didn't get Duke's ex-husband instead. The Addams Family & Star Trek. Now, that would be something.

    Can't understand why Takei would do a promo for the SSA, though, when they refuse to recognize his marriage.

  9. capitol l   14 years ago

    Patty, let me ask you a question: Is signing up for Social Security online harder than say, ummm, putting on a bra?

    Cause if so, you ain't gettin' no check.

    Yeah, I looked. Fuck off.

  10. Corporate Drone   14 years ago

    *sets phaser on DIE A LITTLE INSIDE*

  11. wylie   14 years ago

    Difficulty Scale:

    online signup for SS benefits < navigating an asteroid field < filing taxes

    1. Han Solo   14 years ago

      Never tell me the odds.

      1. wylie   14 years ago

        That was the uber-laugh that I desperately needed today.

        However, my assertion stands, since Solo could handle an asteroid field, but never paid his taxes.

      2. wylie   14 years ago

        (still waiting for Star Wars: Episode 16, where he signs up for Social Security, to verify the comparison completely)

        1. Han Solo   14 years ago

          I married a rich chick, what do I need Social Security for? But if I did I don't think I paid taxes since all my revenue was, er, off-the-books.

  12. ClubMedSux   14 years ago

    To paraphrase Ben Folds: "Give me my Snuggie back, give me my Snuggie back, you bitch."

  13. Contrarian P   14 years ago

    And Takei wins scary sounding laugh of the year award!

  14. Ken Shultz   14 years ago

    OMG.

    Urkobold's hacked the Hit & Run servers...again!

    1. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

      When talking Sulu, the proper statement is simply, "Oh my."

  15. Solanum   14 years ago

    This isn't good. A George Takei post and Pro Libertate is nowhere to be seen. Someone please alert the authorities and tell them to bring the cadaver dogs.

    1. Pro Libertate   14 years ago

      I only continue to run Sulu Friday because of highnumber's unabiding love for Star Trek.

  16. Wind Rider   14 years ago

    Well, they may have not done a deal for the Star Fleet insignia rights, but you guys are just noticing the ever rising tide of gov sponsored propaganda health, safety, and welfare informational tv spots that have been flooding all the backwater ad spots on cable television programming. While they didn't splurge for Paramount Rights, they had nooooooo problem shelling out an undetermined amount to Disney to use the Cinderella footage for that rage inducing car booster seat spot. Even at 3am rates on some of the bottom of the viewership channels and a great mass marketing discount (but figure the odds of some aparatchik drone scoring that kind of deal), we've still got to be watching several tens, dozens, probably more millions of dollars simply being evaporated for the benefit of eventually making you want to throw things at your television. Yeah, I'll have another ice cream, thank you very much for asking.

    1. wylie The Progressive   14 years ago

      So, what you're saying is, we need to subsidize TVs?

  17. Zeb   14 years ago

    I had assumed that Patty Duke was dead.

    1. JW   14 years ago

      Judging by those ads, she is.

  18. This Dave   14 years ago

    When you say her watch is anachronistic, do you mean to the 2250's or 1960's?

  19. rac   14 years ago

    Dis she say asteroid, or hemorrhoid belts?

  20. baby clothes   14 years ago

    The good thing of the internet is that i usually come across with unrelated to my interests posts but at the same time interesting.

  21. Nike Dunk Shoes   13 years ago

    thanks

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