Yet another argument in favor of elective C-section:

As many as one in 13 mothers experience full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the weeks after their child is delivered, the McGill University researchers concluded. Their symptoms can include sleeplessness, repeated flashbacks and nightmares and emotional avoidance of people and things that remind them of giving birth, including even their newborn infant. . . In all cases, the symptoms started after the childbirth and were linked by the women to the delivery experience. . . It seems to make sense that women who have been sexually assaulted, on the other hand, would be more at risk for post-traumatic stress, said Dr. Da Costa, given that delivery happens in and around the sexual organs.

I hope people manage to see the word “elective” in the title and in the 1st sentence of this post. The discussion of elective C-section often triggers selective blindness in crazed worshipers of all things that have been sold to them as “natural.”

Harper’s woman-hating conservatives are defeated in their most recent attempt to deprive the women of Canada of our reproductive rights.

“Most families in the Christian Patriarchy/Quiverfull movement don’t pay federal income taxes, and there is no way any one of them would consider voting for Obama in their wildest dreams (rather, they generally see him as pure evil) or consider themselves dependent on the government, for that matter.”

If your academic career is not as successful as you’d wish, the reason probably is very simple: you are not hiding enough!

American conservatism is NOT a type of autism. And stop saying it is because it’s a very stupid thing to say.

The myth of forgiveness.

“”We believe Jonathan Mayhew is among a very small number of elite Spanish Professors,” KU Provost David Vitter said, “and this ensures that we compensate him accordingly. We are proud of the way he represents the University of Kansas and the entire State of Kansas, and we are thrilled that he will remain a Spanish Professor for at least another decade” . . . Mayhew’s current contract, which runs through June 2018, pays him $3.376 million, including base salary and annual service payments, as well as retention payments that are payable in 2013 and 2018.”

Great tips on how to waste a sabbatical. I have tried every single one and they totally work!

The most bizarre and paranoid article on Israel and Iran I have ever encountered. At first, I thought the author was trying to be satirical. And then I realized he was dead serious and got kind of scared.

Non-comparative attitude. I love this post.

This article on mansplaining gives the perfect definition of these ultra-annoying people (of any gender) who come to my blog to explain to me things about my country in spite of having zero knowledge on the subject.

How to deal with annoying hipsters.

“The men who decided to destroy that embassy in Libya are not hornets; they are not mindless drones. They are Human Beings, presumably fully in charge of their own faculties, who have decided of their own free will to value their religious ideals above the lives of a bunch of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the offense given (other than coming from the same country as the offender). There is no way to excuse such conduct, no matter how much of an asshole the person who gave the original offense was–and frankly, any attempt to excuse their behaviour invariably comes across as infantilizing of people in other cultures.” This is exactly what I keep saying.

Do you agree with this prediction that the Communist Party in China will be taken down by a popular coup within the next 10 years? I think it is quite possible.

I don’t know if the Dalai Lama actually said this, but if he did, he is a condescending prick towards men and a nasty chauvinist towards women:

Don’t people get tired of posting these saccharine “messages from Dalai Lama”? I don’t use Facebook or Tumblr, I don’t keep in touch with idiots, yet every once in a while this boring and insipid pseudo-motivational poster makes it into my mailbox.

This time, it has been sent to me by a student whom I now suspect of despising my intellectual capacities.

 

In the 1990s, there were huge cash-flow issues in state-owned enterprises in the former-USSR countries. People couldn’t get their salaries for 6-9 months. After which the inflation would make the money worthless anyway.

This is why in the mining village where my relatives live the half-year’s salary was once paid out in the form of coffins. This made a lot of sense since a miner’s job is very dangerous and if you can’t get your salary, then why not take a coffin instead?

And this is the other side of the blasphemous make-up bag.

A Jewish woman sells these blasphemous make-up bags with Orthodox Christian symbols at the Missouri Oktoberfest. Of course, I had to buy one.

I also bought a matryoshka for my office. A Russian speaker without a matryoshka is a total joke. Besides, it’s time that I had a Russian corner in my office in addition to my Dominican, British and German corners.

Cowboy boots always entertain me. N likes them but I told him I’m not sure my love will be able to absorb something like this.

I adore this glass store! To the point where my posts begin to rhyme.

This is my favorite spice and tea shop in St. Charles, Missouri.