So, anyone want to download and analyze some census data?

No?

I am stupidly angry at my one "regular" class this semester -- it meets every week, has a midterm, final, and paper, and I just can't take it!

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At least I know I shouldn't like it--that counts for something, right? It's just that when it's that short, the bubble doesn't look so bubbly. Or something.

Yeah, but that's on a manequin. If a woman has junk in her trunk and muscular thighs, that'll change.

A Scientologist on Celebrity Baby Blog explained the whole thing in a way that actually made sense, if you ignored the reasons behind it (which I still think are fairly kooky) and just focused on the process itself.

Plei, can you remember what it was? I read something about it in the last week, and it said something about not wanting the baby to associate the trauma of birth with mom's voice. And I can see that as an argument for a silent delivery (like you, I mostly turned inward during my deliveries, but with Ben's delivery, there were a few, "Oh God" and "I want my mother" comments). It wouldn't convince me, but I could see the rationale, at least. I cannot see it as an argument for the mother's silence for a week or two (or however long it is) after the birth. If I were Katie, I'd be talking to that baby every time I was alone with it. Actually, if I were Katie, it wouldn't be an issue, because I'd be out of there, so I'll shut up about other people's lives, right now. *sigh*

McClellan's resigning. He's going to take an easier job as a human target for a blind knife thrower.

*chokes*

The 100 unsexiest men in the world: >[link] At least one of the writers should have been a woman. Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld aren't going on my sexiest list any time soon, but they're funny enough that they wouldn't land on my 100 unsexiest list.

Also, the northeast (with the exception of Maine) seems to have more religious people than the southeast.

Well, there is a lot of religion, here. We're so long settled. Most towns are here, because they were founded around a church. My town was founded by settlers requesting permission to move here, and at the time, what you had to do to settle a town was to have 11 men. Ten would tithe. The 11th was the preacher, and the first order of business was to build a church. In New England when you see a First [something] Congregational Church (although some of them are either U.U. churches now, or have been sold off) it's likely that church is somehow tied to the founding of its town.

Also, there are a lot of Roman Catholic people and attending church is taught as an obligation, and the RC understanding of baptism means children born to RC parents, even those who aren't terrifically religious, will be baptized, which enrolls a person in the church body.

There are also a lot of religious choices here. In general, many of them are more liberal, but my little town has (this list is from memory of congregations I know about, so I may be missing some):

• 1 Conservative Jewish Synagogue
• 3 Roman Catholic Churches
• 1 Episcopal Church
• 1 U.U. Church
• 4 various flavors of Protestant Churches
• 2 Eastern Orthodox (one Romanian, one Serbian although I think they've just sold their building)
• 1 Buddhist Temple
• 1 Charismatic Congregation which rents space in a town-owned building for services
• 1 (I don't know what they are) Congregation that has just started to do the same

There is also an elementary/middle school parochial school run by one of the Catholic Churches in town, and then a Catholic Girls' High School, run by a community of nuns. This is in a town that isn't quite 8 square miles, with a population of about 25,000 people. The bordering in which I grew up, which has about the same population, in about five square miles is not much different.

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I'd gladly trade birds and squirrels for the UNBELIEVABLY LOUD construction going on on the floor below me.

Amend this to in my kitchen and I'm right there with you.

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I read something about it in the last week, and it said something about not wanting the baby to associate the trauma of birth with mom's voice. And I can see that as an argument for a silent delivery

The weird thing is, I was not a screamer either. I went very zen, and was mostly quiet and concentrating on getting through it. I think it's a) the idea that someone's going to tell me not to scream that would infuriate me, because I can be contrary like that, and b) the idea that the baby is going to process much of the ambient noise or atmosphere as s/he's emerging. I mean, I get that we don't know what exactly goes on in those tiny brains in the first moments ex-uterus, but I would imagine being squeezed through the birth canal and gasping air for the first time and being cold as hell is enough to make the process a little uncomfortable without worrying about who's saying (or screaming) what.

I like birds.

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Also, there are a lot of Roman Catholic people and attending church is taught as an obligation

My experience in Church has been that there are a lot of people who go to church every Sunday because that is what you do, but are only religious in a passive sort of way. Ironic in a way because the previous pastor would often give sermons on how if you weren't working for your faith, then you weren't doing it right.

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Plei, can you remember what it was? I read something about it in the last week, and it said something about not wanting the baby to associate the trauma of birth with mom's voice. And I can see that as an argument for a silent delivery (like you, I mostly turned inward during my deliveries, but with Ben's delivery, there were a few, "Oh God" and "I want my mother" comments). It wouldn't convince me, but I could see the rationale, at least. I cannot see it as an argument for the mother's silence for a week or two (or however long it is) after the birth.

I think she said something about how noises are fine, but not to be negative, and the people supporting you (doctors, spouses, etc) should be quiet and not barking orders to push and stuff for the reasons you gave. I think she may have also debunked the silence for a week thing, but I can't recall.

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I'd argue that there's been a cold civil war going on for a good 15 years or more. At minimum, since Buchanan's speech at the 1992 Republican convention.

How so? Not that I'd disagree, just curious.

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and the people supporting you (doctors, spouses, etc) should be quiet and not barking orders to push and stuf

Well, that I can get behind. I think people should be nice to women who are giving birth.

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I'm pretty certain Bush the Lesser is the worst president of the last 106 years. I'm shakier on the 19th century though.

I have family members who think he is a good president. Maybe even a great one, but that might have degraded. WMD? Well, all the intelligence said he had 'em. Economy, it's doing great. Deficit, doesn't matter. Health Care, things will be a lot better if congress would just cap malpractice awards. Environment, he makes sounds decisions instead of giving into hippie hype. And so on.

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Gud, it's based on the deep divisions in the country, Red vs. Blue in shorthand. I see two sides that don't speak the same language and don't appear to want to because they're operating under competely different views of the world. Plus -- and I've noticed this most from the Red side, but I won't argue whether my vision is accurate or skewed -- an unwillingness to see the other side as anything resembling human. The free tossing out of words like "traitor," for example.

Current example -- Michelle Malkin facilitating -- and defending her facilitation of -- death threats against college students who dare to oppose the war in Iraq by publishing the students' phone numbers on her blog. And, of course, the death threat-ers themselves.

I date it back to Buchanan's speech because of his use of the term "culture war." The situation may have begun earlier, but at that point it became obvious that war had been declared. And, since that speech was given at the convention of one of the two major political parties, it becomes hard to write that view off as the raving of a kook without a following.

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