Yeah. There were some things that were really sweet about that coda but it sure didn’t make for a coherent and satisfying end to the series that kick-started the modern era of Star Trek television.

Tam Elbrun and Ariana (from the episode Haven) were outliers and should not have been counted.

I don’t think there’s a real rule. In Haven, Lwaxana Troi says basically anything is possible even for people who probably aren’t telepaths.

What’s kind of wild is all the times Deanna’s empath abilities work over ridiculous distances mainly because there’s a subspace transmission involved. Apparently the specification requires support for telepathy to the extent she can even sometimes understand the emotional state of Ferengi.

Pedro the Lion (like Priests And Paramedics and A Simple Plan), the Sixpence None The Richer album This Beautiful Mess particularly Love, Salvation, the Fear of Death, some of Rich Mullins like much of A Liturgy, a Legacy, & a Ragamuffin Band.

I think the ethics mostly come into how you raise them, religion or not. It’s ethical to teach kindness and empathy. It’s ethical to allow your kids to explore while asking them questions that help that exploration. You can do those kinds of things no matter what faith (or non-faith) you practice.

Speaking as someone who was raised in an environment that gave lip service to kindness and empathy but was really very harsh, judgmental, and rigid, only one of my siblings kept something reasonably approximating my parents’ faith. The rest of us are mostly some variety of pagan. Each of us had a painful journey out of our parents’ faith to something. No matter how you raise your kids, they are their own people and will come to their own conclusions. You can make the path much more difficult than it needs to be or you can set them up for a much less traumatic journey.

I’m not sure what version they’re running on their flagship but I last posted from there on March 20th and my blog federated to Mastodon.

More for the OP but if you’re looking for a blog with a comment section, I wouldn’t recommend WriteFreely at present. Customization is also unnecessarily painful.

It does federate. Social features are rudimentary. I end up using my existing microblogs to promote the posts anyway.

I knew all that going in and chose it anyway. It’s not for everyone but it does what I need it to at a price I’m fine with.

Mostly I agree but I disagree in this way:

Face to face, especially in a small community, some people take it upon themselves to establish what they see as the right and proper rules for the community. Everyone must have a grassy lawn cut to exactly three inches is kind of the least terrible end of this.

“Queer people are a danger to our children”, “Everyone must be in a straight, monogamous relationship, that produces children who aren’t autistic or disabled in any way,” etc. and, because it’s in person, they have much more power to ruin lives.

We see some of that behavior in online communities but people generally have much more ability to “vote with their feet” or even abstain online.

I had Instagram for five minutes before they started trying to share my account with acquaintances who didn’t know I was queer. (Which is a crime as far as I’m concerned but not relevant.) I immediately closed my account. Imagine that had been a neighborhood I’d just moved into. It might not even be possible for me to move before I faced months of the real life consequences of being forcibly outed by a neighbor.

There’s a veneer of politeness in meat space. Sometimes there’s more than a veneer to it. But often not.

I’m not sure hate is the right word. When you’ve got someone stabbing you in the back multiple times, is it really hate you’re feeling toward them? Or is it anger, fear, and danger?

I “hate” it in the sense that it’s built on theft and requires the exploitation of underpaid workers to develop and maintain it. I “hate” it in the sense that we’re living on a burning cinder with dwindling fresh water resources and “AI” is adding fuel to the fire. I “hate” it in the sense that it’s being used to further undervalue artists and writers. I “hate” it in the sense that it fills our spaces with crap that so often looks like it was cribbed off of Rapunzel, Wreck-It-Ralph, and some other things.

That’s a task that probably would be better served by purpose-built machine learning. Using “AI” for that isn’t what anyone means by “AI art” though.

Assuming that the person saying that is an American, I think that they don’t understand economics and probably aren’t as socially “liberal” as they might like to think they are … or they haven’t thought that hard about either topic. I think that based on the numerous people I’ve heard say that to me in the past.

It’s fine to not really have thought about these things that much. Not understanding economics isn’t a moral failing either. The people preaching about the economy usually have an agenda that isn’t well-served by accurately describing economics and it can be hard to know where to find good information. I would rather hear “You know, I think those are important topics but I’m not sure where I stand on them yet” though.

No. If the versions of reincarnation where your placement in your incarnation is the result of your past deeds (or trying to release the sense of guilt over those deeds), the incarnation itself is doing the work. Making things worse for the person might clear up their “karma” faster (using that term advisedly) so the vengeance aspect isn’t satisfied by making things worse for them.

I don’t think vengeance (“punishment”) is justice anyway. I think it’s important that we let state level actors know what terrible pieces of shit they are in this life. This gives them the opportunity to make some recompense in a way that might actually help the victims. Not that making George W. Bush spend the rest of his life feeding orphans in Iraq could possibly make up for what he’s done (note: every U.S. president who has served during my lifetime has been a war criminal; I just don’t feel like getting into an unrelated argument).

Ensuring justice (reputational and restorative) in this lifetime also discourages shitty behavior from others.

Not necessarily my favorite TNG episodes exactly but some of the best demonstrations of the philosophy of Star Trek (among the ones that haven’t already been mentioned at this point):

• The Quality of Life
• Half a Life

I’ll second Darmok, The Measure of a Man, and Drumhead.

Five (seven counting instances that have gone down or will soon). I’ve got an account each on Glitch-Soc, Vanilla Mastodon, BookWyrm, Sharkey, and Lemmy (this one). I plan to add Friendica, GoToSocial, and Ibis to my flock of accounts. I may add a snac2 or Hollo if I decide to add some self-hosting to the mix. Not sure I’ll bother with PeerTube or Pixelfed.

What can I say? I’ve become a bit of a nerd about ActivityPub and I want to try (almost) everything out. 😱

I’m still pretty new and I’ve only tried one mobile client so far. I’m pretty fond of Mlem. It seems to do what I need it to and it’s pretty intuitive for me. Although it only works on iOS so that might not be useful for you depending on your mobile situation.

We are all KenM on this blessed day

I’m not sure whether I agree with the premise but, if I did, my list would include Tim Curry, Jeff Goldblum, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, Renée Zellweger, Bill Nighy, Jeffrey Wright, and Judi Dench.

Except for Jeff and Idris, I can think of movies for each of them that weren’t rescued by their presence. Still, I usually enjoy them anyway.

Didn’t have space with the *checks notes* Banea and calling the Klingons on Discovery another species. 😹

If I grow a second nose, will it also be stuffed up? If so, I choose teleportation. I know it’s only 7 inches but that’s enough to get around most doors so it’s still useful.

My time has come.

American suburbanism is truly wild. When you see how people live outside of the U.S., it’s startling what we’re putting up with here for the wonders of spending hours in a car every week.

It’s technically against the law in my state to make a new neighborhood that doesn’t have an HOA. I live in a neighborhood without an HOA because it was built before the law was passed. No one’s running a tavern but we’ve got one neighbor who grows vegetables in a patch of their front yard. Another neighbor has a bunch of chickens and also a rooster. We’re technically not allowed to have roosters but who’s going to tell on them? Not me, for sure.