NC Legislator Proposes Locating Star Fleet Academy in Greensboro:
When he wasn’t busy fighting for video poker in North Carolina, state Rep. Earl Jones was pushing a bill for such an enterprise (sorry about that).
The bill would fund the creation of a new research facility at N.C. A&T. The bill earmarks $1.7 million to buy land, conduct a feasibility/market study, and create a master plan for a technology research and development building complex called “The Star Fleet Academy Complex."
The conservative Civitas Institute had a ball poking fun at this one, featuring interns dressed as Star Fleet officers and cadets in a pretend video infomercial for the Academy, where students could learn such lessons as how to speak Klingon, use the Vulcan nerve pinch and overact like William “Capt. Kirk” Shatner.
No matter what your politics are, it’s, as Spock might say, "Very curious."
Like most such 'outrages' there's more (or maybe less) to this than meets the eye. The proposed research facility at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University would officially be named in honor of astronaut Ronald McNair, an A & T grad who died in the space shuttle Challenger explosion. And, as another Greenboro News & Record reporter notes: No money is currently dedicated for the project in any draft of the budget.
Still, at a time when the state budget is a month overdue, schools don't know when or how much they'll be funded, state employees are facing across the board pay cuts, people who do work on state contracts (such as your Humble Blogger) don't know when they're getting paid, etc. etc, any legislator who introduces a bill even obliquely referring to Star Trek can pretty much expect to be mocked. Nice tin ear you got there, Rep. Jones.
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