at least, that's what we say we are doing.

the night before last i dreamt that i was a superhero with a pretty cool power that involved the command of lightning (and a high school and a gazebo, but we won't go into that).  and last night i could fly and had to save perry from some angry deer.  it's always fun when you can remember dreams.

today's lecture in aktuell sociologisk forskning was really interesting--it was given by a woman who's writing her doctoral thesis on birthing fear, which is an actual medical diagnosis in finland.  finland is the only country in the world with a specific diagnosis for it; it's classified as a gynecological ailment rather than treated as psychological (as is normal in, say, sweden).  and it's considered a problem with the pregnant woman--the medical discourse on the subject is all "irrational fears" and "fear without cause" without the least bit of awareness of irony, according to the lecturer:  stuff like "unfortunately, many women who have had birth complications in the past become unreasonably nervous in subsequent pregnancies" with no acknowledgement that they might have a good reason for that or that there might be some cause in the system for this fear.  according to her, in america (and britain, to an increasing extent) women can opt to have c-sections pretty freely, without having to show a medical necessity.  in contrast, the finnish government pays for the birth regardless and c-section is more expensive, so the medical establishment has a vested interest in minimising the numbers of them, and their policy is to push for a regular birth as much as possible.  one of the quotes we saw said something about how it's harder to justify a c-section (which is called, in swedish, an "emperor incision") on a "psychological" basis. 

danish cartoons: essay link

this link, germanely provided by therightdress, leads to a messageboard associated with what claims to be "the world's most popular muslim online magazine".

It is a sad, unfortunate fact that the conservative and fundamentalist strains of Islam, more than any other religious force, are the single greatest antagonists towards free expression in the free world. It is the position of all four main schools of Islamic thought, not to mention Wahhabism, that apostates are to be put to death, and that blasphemy is punishable by death. [...] I contend that in the free world, publically criticizing or insulting Islam is the most dangerous form of free expression. [...]

Such a religious tradition must be defied openly and without apology. It would be cowardly not to do so. Yet it was this tradition that made the prospect of mocking Islam terrifying to most artists or writers in Europe, who were increasingly censoring themselves, not out of respect or sensitivity, but out of fear.

This was why those cartoons were published.

there's a discussion thread attached to it which is so far neither very long nor very controversial, but which i still found interesting.  there's also a repost of the "danish paper rejected jesus cartoons" article, which the op says doesn't change their argument.

dammit, the other half of his soul had taken the last cookie again!

cimness: omfg, this sentinel fic just had jim--a TOUGH AND MASCULINE POLICE OFFICER--call blair "the other half of his soul". are you kidding me?
hollsk: .....AHAHAHAHAHA

[wax_jism: that's totally normal for the sentinel, man.  that's why i wrote that brain-eating fic.]

cimness: it's totally CASUAL.  paraphrase: "he woke up, and was a little disappointed to find himself alone in bed.  he looked around for the other half of his soul, and found him in the shower."
cimness: WTF. i'm going to be mocking this for years.
cimness: "after he got done taking a shit, he went to wash his hands, calling through the door to the other half of his soul, 'you forgot to buy toilet paper AGAIN!'"
holls: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
cimness: "slamming the door behind him, he yelled into the kitchen at the other half of his soul, 'i got your fucking orange juice, are you happy now?'"

cim: if i were really good at keeping a straight face while being sarcastic i could call you "the other half of my soul" all the time.  [makes a bizarre face trying not to laugh]
wax: but you're not.  you're terrible at it.
cim: [cracks up]

holls: Post this on your LJ, I swear to god....
holls: "he was a little more than annoyed to see that the other half of his soul forgot to clean his stubble out of the sink."
holls: "he'd expected at least a quick fuck, but when the other half of his soul farted during the blowjob, he was quite frankly turned off"
cimness: "he would have slept better except for the other half of his soul's annoying tendency to hog the covers."
cimness: "he went to get the mail, absently noting that the other half of his soul had parked him in again."