I'm just watching a Star Trek DVD I got from Zip.ca (the Canadian version of Netflix), and it occurs to me that the Federation appears to be a military dicatorship of some sort. Frankly, we see about zero evidence of any actual Civilian government- and (I'm watching All Good Things right now) I notice that Admirals tend to say things like "Starfleet Command has decided" or "I've decided", versus "the President decided" or whatever.

Just an odd thought for Saturday night.