W_L

New Hampshire is the only one with any amount of great doubt. Maine should be fine. New Hampshire is a weird mix of Libertarian principles and the state motto is "live free or die", my favorite state motto.

DS9 tried, but Berman only let it go so far as one episode, "In the Pale Moonlight", which is now ranked as one of the top 10 episodes of Star Trek both in reception and controversy. If Ira Behr and Ron Moore both had their say; Star Trek would never had needed a restart. Think 4400 government conspiracy mixed with Battlestar Galactica occupation arc, all based on Cardassia after the Dominion war, what you get is a show that take Star Trek planet-side in the future where people have everything they need, but still have issues over politics and policy with one another. Interpersonal conflicts and political conflicts could have brought the 24th century into the early 21st century. For their independent sci-fi series: The 4400 was good, but Ira Behr lacked focus on the storyline to follow through. He was one of the conceptual writers for the Borg on TNG, so he is brilliant conceptually; he just needs a stronger pairing. Ron Moore is the famous show runner of the successful and powerful Battlestar Galactica's re-imagining, but where his failure might be found the last seasons drift and long winded patterns without closing out arcs. Those two guys needed one another without Berman's intrusion into Star Trek show running; they are great show-runners independently, but they each are missing what the other has.

The hard part has already passed. The next deal is whether they can get the signatures; I think the proximity to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont will keep any political battle fair in Maine and New Hampshire due to the financial and grass root limitations on the anti-gay marriage coalition.

It's better not to have huge fanfare. CNN did not record the victories immediately or with much attention either and the national anti-gay movement is not reciprocating as quickly without the fanfare. Luckily, I think they are giving up the northeast, which in turn means the mid-west might become the real battleground soon.

I agree, my IT professor showed us one of the old phones; they were huge! (Both literally and figurately for the advancement) However, I still am convince that Star Trek aided in the development of cellphone technology and micro-processing.

Happy Birthday, Xeran! :worship:

I have to give it to DS9 for trying to balance idealism with reality. Although in a head to head battle, Babylon 5 and DS9 should both be ranked in their category of sci-fi. For movies, I love Wrath of Khan, which has the best elements and themes of movies with a Star Trek setting. Birth, life, and death along with aging and progress. Khan himself is a product of new age genetic engineering and Kirk is visibly older with the need for glasses. Genesis is the beginning of new life, while paralled to the death of Spock. Hands down the best movie in my view. Star Trek IV; Voyage Home, I just like how the 23rd century meshed with our modern technologies. By the 1980's, cell phones imagined on Star Trek had become practical in reality with the first models. Medical equipment had grown and developed due to Star Trek. It's another parallel between reality and fiction. It makes you grateful to have Star Trek. Star Trek: First Contact, Epic space battle and a story of mankind's first steps towards exploration after a nuclear war. It's a story of hope and reaching out to our greatest potentials. There is also a 2nd level allusion that you can acknowledge technologically, humanity destroyed ourselves through nuclear war. The Borg represent the technological nature of humanity and how discovery if used wrongly can destroy us, but the Enterprise crew represents the original Trekkian premise of Benign technology used to raise us beyond our pity difference and reaching a new level of galactic awareness. Well that's it for my film critiquing. Join me next time, when I take on the Star Wars Trilogies: Why I hate the new one? :P

Darn, I want a Bat'leth, now! The fifth one was the worst movie, hands down. The best was the second with Wrath of Kahn. Although, First contact was fun; it would have been number 1 if they just let Lt. Hawk say he was gay instead of putting it in scripts. Dr. Who? Watched the new series and the old ones for Dr. Who, it's a mix bag, too. I don't know, some of it I like, but others I could have done without. For Star Trek, grew up on TNG and DS9, then became a teenager around Voyager. College was filled by Enterprise, which I hated to watch for the first two seasons, third season was okay, and fourth season was definitely good. Enterprise wasn't even Star Trek title first, because it was just Enterprise for two seasons. You can say the series was non-canon.

Maine signed, now it's New Hampshire. Confirmation of Mark's happy Shout! 5th state to approve gay marriage Horray!

You don't have to believe in an afterlife per se, but how about the natural recycling that goes on and your contribution back to humanity, the world, and the universe at large.

Teen kirk or Young Adult Kirk?

Why did you tell us? I am cursed with star trek!

Umm, perpetuate was the option I was hinting towards for that option that it's both an ending and beginning. Open "Circle of life" kind of deal.

To those who don't believe me about my depression status, check out my earlier postings on another board. I made it in January months before me and Mark got into our scuffle over anti-Depressants: posting in january about my lack of feeling I took the advice from my friends over at Jeff's fort and got checked; yes, I do have depression. I don't talk about it, nor do I express it like some others do through their blogs. Depression for me is different than how people view it, I don't mope around talking about how I dislike my life or feel overwhelming sadness; I feel apathy when it strikes. It happens and it goes; I find it is more easy to control or lessen, when you have a focus in life liking working long hours or reaching for a specific goal. I don't talk about my childhood molestation either, because it just happened and I don't feel like talking on a blog makes it any different. I'm 21 years old, but in my brief candle, I have experienced much. Pain, suffering heartache, personal betrayal of my own identity, losing faith, using emotional crutches, and other varied forms of negativity were felt or experienced. Yet, I have also seen people helping out, friendships that last beyond, hopes that abound, and possibilities within everyone. No life is ever truly full, but I have had much in my life to fill volumes.

Knowing there's an end is something that propels people to live as they can. Old Bob, I agree with your idea, very christian concept on free will, but I agree. We make our lives what it can be by our choices and death is always at the end of the road. As for the idea of ending, why do people see death so much as an ending? I can understanding the new beginning process of an afterlife, but a majority do not fear death; yet, they also see it as finality. Even if you don't believe in religion, then you can take the concept of returning to your own roots. Life is only possible through death; in order for a human being to live other things must die even if you are a vegetarian consuming only plant life and fungi. After death, you give something back to the world that created you, the iron in your bone enriches the soil, the hydrogen and oxygen elements return to the earth, and you contribute to allowing another generation of human beings to live. If consciousness is not recycling through reincarnation, then you can still be happy that consciousness was there to begin with. Is conscious reality what defines life and its absence define death?

Dom- 6 days a week, wow! I hope those are not 16 hour days; it is hard to work even 4 or 5 of those. I hope you enjoy your day off and take some time to relax. Writing can wait, if you want to take a small vacation. -WL

This is not a political discussion; more a metaphysical and human discussion. What do you "think" about death as a concept? What do you "feel" about death as a concept? Both are different, since I have realized in discussion many people have varied perspectives on this idea. Death to my views is not a finite ideal; I consider it almost the core ideal to all life. Everything must end, everything must die. It is the unifying identity we share; whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, gay or straight, and any element in between. We will all die. Ultimately, death is perhaps the most egalitarian principle of the universe, if we hold the truth that death is a unity concept and truly the infinity concept of existence. In the life cycle of stars and planets, they die and change into their basic elemental constructs to form new things. In the quantum level, elemental atomic structures age and change their composition resulting in decay and another type of death in reformation. Things change due to death. Emotionally, I feel death is both a fearful unknown and a opening to something else. Even if you do not believe in an afterlife, what death does is free your materials back to the world that made you. When an animal dies, other carnivores will eat them and their bones will decay back as fertilizer for the earth to create new life. It is like a completion rather than ending to existence. How about you guys?

Congrats on reconciling! Alcohol is a strange substance on different people; sometimes, it makes regular people great writers and other times it makes us release inhibitions, where our brains would never go. Reconciling with your boyfriend is great, but the next step is going to be rough. Have you considered reconciling with your friend?

Lucky for me I only like a gluttonous, cynical, and sarcastic tabby cats!

Happy Birthday Comsie! For the GFD Series fame: Careful the cake might bite back.

A - Age: 21 B- Bed size: Queen C - Chore you hate: Shoveling snow D - Dogs or cats: Cat E - Essential start your day item: Large Turbo Ice French Vanilla Dunkin Donut's Coffee F - Favorite color: Green G - Gold or Silver: I want to say Gold, but I prefer Silver. Not everything in life is gold H - Height: 5'10'' I - Instrument played: Piano/Keyboard J - Job title: Administrative Assistant/Tax Accountant/Walking ATM for my sister K - Kid(s): Yes L - Loud or quiet: quiet M - Mom's name: Lisa N - Nicknames: Wendel, Winnie (I had the same political philosophies as Winston Churchill in High School) O - Overnight hospital stay: A lot, eye surgery to keep Glaucoma eye pressure down P - Pet Peeve: People that act nice, but they do not want to tell you the truth Q - Quote from a movie: Two quotes from Other People's Money: Gregory Peck- "I want you to look at him in all of his glory: "Larry the Liquidator." The entrepreneur of post-industrial America, playing God with other people's money. The robber barons of old at least left something tangible in their wake- a coal mine, a railroad, banks. This man leaves nothing. He creates nothing. He builds nothing. He runs nothing. And in his wake lies nothing but a blizzard of paper to cover the pain. Oh, if he said, "I know how to run your business better than you," that would be something worth talking about. But he's not saying that. He's saying, "I'm gonna kill you because at this particular moment in time, you're worth more dead than alive." Well, maybe that's true, but it is also true that one day this industry will turn. One day when the yen is weaker, the dollar is stronger, or when we finally begin to rebuild our roads, our bridges, the infrastructure of our country, demand will skyrocket. And when those things happen, we will still be here, stronger because of our ordeal, stronger because we have survived. And the price of our stock will make his offer pale by comparison. God save us if we vote to take his paltry few dollars and run. God save this country if that is truly the wave of the future. We will then have become a nation that makes nothing but hamburgers, creates nothing but lawyers, and sells nothing but tax shelters. And if we are at that point in this country, where we kill something because at the moment it's worth more dead than alive, well, take a look around. Look at your neighbor. Look at your neighbor. You won't kill him, will you? No. It's called murder, and it's illegal. Well, this, too, is murder, on a mass scale. Only on Wall Street, they call it maximizing shareholder value, and they call it legal. And they substitute dollar bills where a conscience should be. Damn it! A business is worth more than the price of its stock. It's the place where we earn our living, where we meet our friends, dream our dreams. It is, in every sense, the very fabric that binds our society together. So let us now, at this meeting, say to every Garfield in the land, here, we build things, we don't destroy them. Here, we care about more than the price of our stock. Here, we care about people. Thank you." Danny DeVito, responding - "Amen. And amen. And amen. You have to forgive me. I'm not familiar with the local custom. Where I come from, you always say "Amen" after you hear a prayer. Because that's what you just heard - a prayer. Where I come from, that particular prayer is called "The Prayer for the Dead." You just heard The Prayer for the Dead, my fellow stockholders, and you didn't say, "Amen." This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this, and the dollar did that, and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead alright. We're just not broke. And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure. You know, at one time there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future. "Ah, but we can't," goes the prayer. "We can't because we have responsibility, a responsibility to our employees, to our community. What will happen to them?" I got two words for that: Who cares? Care about them? Why? They didn't care about you. They sucked you dry. You have no responsibility to them. For the last ten years this company bled your money. Did this community ever say, "We know times are tough. We'll lower taxes, reduce water and sewer." Check it out: You're paying twice what you did ten years ago. And our devoted employees, who have taken no increases for the past three years, are still making twice what they made ten years ago; and our stock - one-sixth what it was ten years ago. Who cares? I'll tell you. Me. I'm not your best friend. I'm your only friend. I don't make anything? I'm making you money. And lest we forget, that's the only reason any of you became stockholders in the first place. You want to make money! You don't care if they manufacture wire and cable, fried chicken, or grow tangerines! You want to make money!" R - Right or left handed: Ambidextrous S - Siblings: Sister T - Time you wake up: Depends on my mood U- Underwear: Everything, except wool. V - Vegetable you dislike: Cucumbers, no sex jokes asides, I find them bland W - Ways you run late: I get into an argument X - X-rays you've had: Liver Y - Yummy food you make: Oven baked Mac n' Cheese Z - Zoo favorite: Elephants, yeah Republican Animal, but I want a pink Elephant

It's a silent protest and acceptance in American politics. If he is forced by party bosses and his geopolitical position to say yes, but he does not like it and wants to keep face on his platforms in the next election, then he could theoretically go with a passive acceptance and later on say he didn't like it or if it goes well in public opinion polls, he could rehash and say "I approved it". Yet, both would be correct assessments. American politics like any democratic nation has little nods everywhere. If he does nothing and let it pass, then he gains party support and possibly join his neighboring New England governors in reaping certain rewards. If he signs it openly, he would gain enemies with the states old hardcore group and possibly harm relations with moderates that have given him victory in last two elections. If he vetoes it, then he might incur the wrath of party bosses and gay rights' groups, who will surround his state and harm his already tenuous situation due to the drop in land tax revenues and the lack of sales tax, so his only other state sources of revenues are use and excise taxes. One reason why he will be in a difficult situation is that he needs his fellow New Englanders support to keep New Hampshire strong fiscally due to collapsed land tax revenue. Thus: More gay friendly New England states + one hold out state in New Hampshire = Financial ruin for New Hampshire and Lynch's own unseating. He needs the Democrats and he also needs the goodwill of his surrounding states. However, he can't say no to moderate conservatives and Hardcore Conservatives.

With possibility of New Hampshire surrounded by pro-gay rights' states, Lynch, being a democrat, will have a tougher veto against the pressure that he may be facing within his party and outside with his neighboring states. If he does sign it into law and Maine succeeds with their House vote, then we have an interesting new center of gay rights here in the northeast.

One reason why I'd love to do a scramble for Andromeda storyline; it would be interesting to see the Federation expanding into a new galaxy and meeting truly alien life forms that do not have humanoid sympathies or issues. The old milky way races are politically divided and they will continue to be politically divided even the klingon empire after joining the Federation in the future would never be completely content. The Romulans will want to regroup and the Thoalian are still pretty xenophobic. In the current Star Trek novels, written by DS9, TNG, and Voyager era writers, set a decade after the Dominion war, Two aligned leagues have been created in the galaxy: Khitomer Accords league headed by the Federation, Klingon, Cardassian, and Rebel Romulan Republic along with Ferengis and other races as associate mmbers. Then, you have the Typhon Pact league headed by Romulans Star Empire, Thoalisn Assembly, Breen Confederacy, and other powers trying to lay their claims and control of the galactic power. (search for the "typhon pact" and you will find out what I mean) I advise many of the Star Trek fans to read some of these novels; it's very interesting to know that a First world and Second World alliances were constructed of the humanoid races in the Milky way. As for the Borg, they were recently defeated by the sacrifice of Captain Janeway (she died in the novels to take out the Borg) in a climatic battle that nearly destroyed the galaxy and have left many worlds ravaged.

Tom Welling enters the room naked, except for a pair of boxer. He was riding on a large female gray wolf, who was snarling at James for disturbing her, "Grrrr...He's mine" and the she-wolf tried to head back downstairs, but encountered twin Vampire boys at Jame's bedroom door. The vampire twins said in unison, "Grrr...He's ours".