So, he doesn't know if the pregnancy ended through miscarriage or abortion but he still refers to it as "decided [to kill.]" Wow. Is anatomy that poorly taught in his area that he thinks a miscarriage is a voluntary decision? That an application of willpower would be sufficent to maintain a pregnancy that her body…

@resplendent.bitch: Isn't that buying into his "logic" sort of? He seems to think that the inability to use willpower to keep a pregnancy despite the disability of the body to do so is the same thing as "deciding to kill." I'm sure he belives that people can hmm... change their eye colour by sheer willpower too.

there's melting stones that came after will of the empress. She's been working on the Beka Copper series the last couple of years. Her forthcoming books list is here: [www.tamora-pierce.com]

*Laughs* they were like my security blanket! I took my full collection with me to Taiwan, then home, kept it with me at university, then to Japan and home again and they will certainly be coming to grad school with me this fall.

@VisforVanity: Hearted for your excellent taste, though I have to disagree on trickster's choice - I loved both the books and you do have to read them together.

sigh... see what I mean about drugs? Parents, if you plan to give your kids ridiculous, embarasing names at least stay clean enough to get them right!

@Firesticks: I'm moving to the states for grad school and if my insurance doesn't cover my nuvaring I will throw the biggest sh*tfit known to human kind. I switched to it in 2007 and will never use anything else. No more yeast infections (the pill) and hallelujah I'm not allergic to the delivery system (patch)!

@Chris Braak: Well at least you'd be living with your own short sighted choice. I know a poor soul who was saddled with "James T(imothy) Kirk" as his legal name for his first 18 years before he could go change it.

I thought tucking your skirt into your pantyhose was the worst pantyhose sin. Her hemline looks just fine.

This brings to mind the Vagina Monolouges where she recounts being shocked that rape as a tool of war was being used in modern day Europe - she was speaking of Bosnia. Nearly 20 years later and we're still hearing about atrocities like this.

Ouch, that must have hurt. Part of me is releived that it was a somewhat older child and not a preschooler/toddler but still ouch! Poorly done, father-type person!

Skype is amazing. I love how it can be used to keep familes together for milestones! When I was studying in Japan I got to attend my godson's birthday party, see my whole extended family at christmas etc.

Sorry again. I do find it difficult to try and maintain some privacy for my godkids while still keeping some context.

My understanding is that learning disabilities and intellectual disability are very different and are caused by very different things. Hence the differences in gestation time didn't affect the learning disability from your side nor would have natural labour have prevented my godson from having ADHD and a speech…

The way I wrote it did seem harsh, my appologies. I was trying to imply that my godson inherited many problems from his father (a contemptable person on top of his many genetic problems hence the rude term) with the speech impediment as only one. It's one that has caused issues in getting him assessed. I was also…

I realize I'm about to share an anecdote rather than data but for the past couple of years I've wondered if the doctors should have let my godson bake a while longer even though he was "overdue" rather than inducing my friend. They now think that his significant intellectual disabilites stemmed from birth trauma. The…

I'm glad. Sometimes you never know when things you think are pretty straightforward will get the 'quit using academic jargon!' response.

@Tirannie: If they get to use that excuse so does the person who takes a crowbar to them and bruises their kidneys.