My prayers, hopes, and sorrow for you and your losses.

Sometimes it feels like the world is spinning crazy.

Tags: violence
Current Location: home
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: "Libera Me," Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz

This sucks.

Big-time.

I don't understand. Why can't people vote like this is a free country? I don't tell anyone else how to marry, worship, or raise their children. Why can't other people extend that same right to other human beings? You don't force your way of life on me; I don't force your way of life on you. quid pro quo; everyone ends the same.

Tags: glbt, vote

And they're using officially sanctioned protests as cover to stage their own, "We're still here and we're still angry" protests, according to the BBC. The most recent round of protests, broken up by tear gas and batons, came during an officially sanctioned protest to mark the 30th anniversary of the Iranian seizure of the American embassy.

Jon Leyne, BBC Tehran correspondent, gives this analysis of the protest-counter-protest strategy:

With all opposition protests banned in Iran, members of the opposition are using official government demonstrations to get their message across.

Last month, they hijacked the annual Quds Day protests, organised by the government in support of the Palestinians. There have been reports of protests at other public gatherings, such football matches.

The demonstrations have been met by an increasingly strong turnout from the police and the pro-government Basij militia. That has prevented the opposition from gathering together in any one major rally, as they managed to do immediately after the election.

The fact that the protests are continuing at all despite intense government pressure shows the depth of anger over the disputed presidential election and against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If the protests continue, the government's next step may be to arrest key opposition leaders.

My admiration for the Iranian opposition movement is more intense than ever. They know what they risk, but they protest anyway. They known they defy the ruling theological government, which has acted mercilessly in the past, claiming to cut them off from God, and yet they insist on pursuing their idea of a secular state, and a fair one.

Tags: iran watch
Current Location: desk
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, J.S. Bach

Today's Election Day, and you have a big one on your plates: Question 1.

It would be very nice for the GLBT folks and those of us who care about them if Maine votes a resounding NO! on this one, but vote in any case. It's not just the every-four-year votes that decide the fate of Americans.

If you aren't registered: you can register at the polls in Maine.

Tags: election, vote
Current Location: home after voting
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Les Miserables Original Cast

Today's Election Day, and you have a big one on your plates: Question 1.

It would be very nice for the GLBT folks and those of us who care about them if Maine votes a resounding NO! on this one, but vote in any case. It's not just the every-four-year votes that decide the fate of Americans.

If you aren't registered: you can register at the polls in Maine.



cross-posed to fan lj

Tags: election, vote
Current Location: home, having voted in NY
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Les Miserables Original Cast

Grumps of the world, we are vindicated by an Australian study that says grumping is good for us! So there, all you "turn that frown upside down" people! ;-)

According to Professor Joe Forgas of the University of New South Wales, grumpy folk are better at decision making and are less gullible. (Weirdly, the study also found that wet, grey days seem to improve memory, while sunny days make us more forgetful. Hm.)

had an ultrasound today, and waaaaaaay too much bloodwork for my liking.
however, Baby X is due April 15th, and I'm 16 weeks and 4 days along.
So I think, if I'm doing math right that makes conception... in July?

It's out! It's out, THE DRAGON BOOK, with a Unicorn Chronicles story by Bruce Coville, and stories from Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple, Peter Beagle, Gregory McGuire, Diana Gabaldon, Garth Nix, and others! Mine is a Tortall story, centered around Daine's dragon Kitten/Skysong and Numair's horse Spots. Daine and Numair appear, as well as Emperor Kaddar (very briefly).

New Books! New books! Yay!

(Off to watch "So You Think You Can Dance"!)




edited to add: cross-posted to fan journal

Tags: dragon book, tortall
Current Location: home
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Legions," Zoe Keating

Okay, this was just too cool not to a cloth woven of spider silk. Not just any old spider silk, either, but a special kind of silk from the six varieties spun by a particular spider, the golden orb-weaving spider.

I don't think I'm going to try it. Apparently one way to get the strongest silk they produce is to reach to their spinnerets and pull it out, putting it on a drop spindle. These spiders bite. I will keep my distance!

Tags: cool world
Current Location: home
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: "Die Schwestern," Josephine Foster

Tell them, "That's funny, because the Nazis on the Russian front were scared of us!"



I do not lie. The female Soviet pilots called the "night witches" were the terror of the German army. Today more and more people are learning of these brave women, specialists of the night sky. How cool of the BBC to show these slides, and to air this broadcast, available the week of November 2.

Tags: feminism
Current Location: desk
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Tim on the treadmill