cat 49 is pretty awesome...I love the lettuce hat fluttering in the wind and the music choice is inspired!

That is awesome. Hearted!

I also feel sorry for Tara, which is why I read the platforms before voting. However, her position in the race was screwed up the moment the anti-choice group sent that email so I don't blame Jezebel for covering that. I'm a western Canadian so I wouldn't have heard about this cool competition without the coverage.…

My initial thought would be to ask mr. "women Do regret abortion" about his transition to male, but that would be insensitive to the trans community, I think.

I keep trying to tell that to my professors but they will insist on assigning hundreds of pages of reading every week. Maybe I'll catch up before I defend my thesis, please?

Yikes! That doctor is scary ignorant. At least if he was trying to prescribe an anti-anxiety drug, he could have chosen one that makes you sleepy! *rolls eyes* Glad the ambien worked for you!

I was thinking the same thing - that was an adorable little baby! Maybe her grandchild or great grandchild?

I'm glad it didn't hurt you but it certainly hurt me. Just one more reason why medical decisions should be up to individuals in consultation with their doctors and not some blanket state law!

Wow, maybe we need to start structuring our grad programs/medical internships and residencies differently. That's pretty disturbing to think that the sort of work most associated with lack of sleep is supposed to be our most mentally challenging...

This really gets my goat. I love skirts and wear them often. They're comfortable and fit my body shape better than most off the rack clothes. The one and only time I wore a skirt to a club though? I was averaging slaping men's hands out from under my skirt every 7 steps or so. I really hate this idea that the moment a…

Fun game! By that logic, I am a coal miner and was for much of WWII since I was still a teenager. By the time I turned 18, coal mining was a protected category so the army couldn't take me. Six months later I broke my neck mining and was 8 months in hospital in the head cage. Once I was out in spring of 45 I couldn't…

People who ski the Rockies in general (as in the massive range down the western side of North America... not sure where this other side of the world is coming from) know that there is always avalanche danger. My uncle got caught in one and thought he was going to die but was dug out in time. Avalanche control in…

Sorry I knew it was a joke, it just struck me as particularily sharp given the back story of the pill in Japan! Or did you know it already?

The bulling of bi-racial children doesn't surprise me. When I was studing in Japan, I remember reading about a child who fit in completely until (born and raised in Japan) until their *teacher* found out the child had an american grandparent and began a bulling campaign against the child.

Umm... the birth control pill was only legalised in Japan in 99 (I think.) Women's groups had been trying to get it for years but were constantly put off by the argument that they hadn't been tested on Japanese populations so they didn't know they were safe (yes, there is the notion that Japanese physiology is so…

That's not the easiest question to answer - I just wrote a final paper last term in my grad program on that issue and could have doubled the amount I wrote easily. School is a huge issue but cultural constraints, especially taboos surrounding mental illness, make the stress exponentially worse. There's no guidance…

Not only would their be time to fuck but their wives might not feel like she'd be raising any resulting progeny as essentially a single mother.

Ah Roppongi, or as I refered to it as the Gaijin Meat Market. I would be really interested to read your research. I can only speak from my experience as a white woman but you're pretty on the mark about deep consideration of physical apperance without active follow up in a respectful way. Even women went to some…

No, in fact the issue of the "returnees" is not positive in most cases. Young people are encouraged to assimilate back into Japanese culture immediately or face bullying and isolation. Their unique intercultural skills are generally not valued or used to good purpose in the labour market.

Soo... I guess the mere presence of my self and my two younger brothers makes my mother unemployable as a teacher then? Or my father if he taught? (Or would they just assume he was a cuckhold?)