Pretty accurate :)

Delphi's Dewey Decimal Section:

141 Idealism & related systems

Delphi = 452689 = 452+689 = 1141


Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology


Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.



What it says about you:
You're a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times. You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

That ridiculous anti-gay bill in Russia -- the one that would criminalize any book, song, film or organization that mentions the word "gay" -- has been revived. It has actually passed the legislature (the mind boggles) and is awaiting the signature of the mayor of St. Petersburg.

Read more here and here and then sign the petition.

So I suppose most of you in the US, and possibly some of you across the pond, have heard by now about the appalling Congressional hearing on contraception -- oh sorry, on freedom of religion -- and how the panel was packed with men. One young woman who wanted to testify was told she didn't have the right credentials (National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill [go Terry!] responded by saying, 'She didn’t have the right credentials? I’m thinking to myself, "Buddy, you and your little panel over there don’t have the right anatomy..."')

This whole cluster-f**k makes me so angry I can hardly talk about it without shouting. Put this on top of GOP front-runner -- Merlin save us -- Rick Santorum's medieval views on women (don't read what one of his biggest donors said unless you've got a firm grip on your temper) and you get a situation that makes me, for one, completely disgusted and more than a little uneasy.

I know, I know: if Santorum gets the nomination, Obama is probably a shoo-in in November. Still, it's hard to tamp down my sense of nausea at the fact that in the 21st century we still have regressive cavemen who hew to the "barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen" view. I really, really thought we were beyond that. *sigh*

I can't not like Mary Russell and this was an entertaining read, but in terms of detection and sophistication, not up to her usual high level. The convoluted layers of fiction and reality were an interesting device but the plot was fairly thin and there was disappointingly little -- as in pretty much zero -- detecting involved. The plot loosely relates to Pirates of Penzance and was about as fluffy, apart from one bit which could have come straight from Acme Plots Inc. (they of the sixteen-ton-weights that feature in so many Wile E. Coyote cartoons). We were introduced to an intriguing secondary character, one of Mycroft's "men", whom I hope reappears in later works as she seem to have potential. Still, "it is, it is a glorious thing / to be a Pirate King!"

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Another post-apocalypse novel where women get the short end of the (burnt, radioactive, diseased, whatever) stick. Why is this so often the case?? I'm familiar with the theory that equal rights for women is a luxury of civilized society, possible only because we live in a nice safe world with laws and cops in which it doesn't matter that we're physically weaker. Conversely, therefore, in an uncivilized world where physical power matters, women would once again -- so the theory goes -- become second-class citizens.

There is a certain plausibility to this, in cases where society has in fact collapsed. In the world of Wither, however, society's still functioning pretty well despite the toxic stew which apparently covers most of it (hence the subtitle, "the chemical garden trilogy"). There are limousines, servants, parties, mansions, and research scientists. Heck, there are even dressmakers, architects, trampolines and soap operas.

The apocalypse in this case -- similar to The Testament Of Jessie Lamb -- is a virus that kills women promptly at age 20 and men at age 25, and this apparently is enough to change women's status completely. One would think that this would make women more valuable. One would be wrong. Roving gangs of Gatherers roam about kidnapping young women for wealthy young men so they can get married and have babies before they die, yes. But the kidnapped girls that aren't selected as brides are either sold into prostitution or simply murdered outright. Now that just flies in the face of logic.

In fact there are quite a few things in this book that fly in the face of logic, among them raging blizzards in Florida, some sort of war that blew all the other continents to bits (not countries, mind you, continents), and a disease that has a built-in timer (I kept thinking of that plastic popup thing you get in turkeys -- *ping* you're dead!). If I were grading solely on logic, alas, this would get zero stars. Character development is pretty thin too; it feels like a fairy tale. Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Rhine who was kidnapped and locked in a tower by the evil magician Housemaster Vaughn; the clueless prince Linden fell in love with her but the valiant servant boy (Gabriel) rescues her.

However, I have to admit that the events of the story are engrossing; it kept me up turning pages until 1am to see what happened, so that boosted it from 2 stars to 3. The trick is to treat it like riding a unicycle: keep moving fast enough that you don't fall over. Or in this case, fast enough that you don't notice the inconsistencies, the paper-thin world-building, and the one-dimensional characters.

That's all I can say, just "Grrr...."

Susan G. Komen foundation ends Planned Parenthood grants

I've written them. Hope others will too.

Re-read Atlas Shrugged (warning: link has spoilers!) over the past couple of weeks. The first time I read it was during Christmas break of my senior year in college and I still remember feeling like an enormous explosion had gone off in my head, a "Wow, so that's how it works!" Now every time winter sets in I get the urge to revisit it. It's better every time I go back to it which to me is the sign of a Really Good Book: only something with a lot of substance can stand up to repeated re-readings. (Though Glenn Beck also reportedly likes it, and I must admit to vast annoyance that Glenn Beck and I agree on ANYTHING.)

Ooh, and I read it on the Kindle, which means a) I didn't strain my wrist and b) I was able to mark ALL MY FAVORITE QUOTES as I went and then -- hold onto your hats -- view them ALL AT ONCE! Now that is cool. Most of them are too long for this venue (John Galt's speech LOL!), but here's a sampling of my favorite short ones:

"If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others, only their rational perception."

"There are no evil thoughts except one: the refusal to think."

"When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer."

"What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish."

"Whether it's a symphony or a coal mine, all work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one's own eyes–which means: the capacity to perform a rational identification–which means: the capacity to see, to connect and to make what had not been seen, connected and made before."

"People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, comdemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked."

"Love is the expression of one's values, the greatest reward you can earn for the moral qualities you have achieved in your character and person, the emotional price paid by one man for the joy he receives from the virtues of another."

It's a shame that the book's message has been so misunderstood; from her phrase "rational selfishness" everyone remembers the "selfishness" but forgets the "rational" part even though that's a critical component. I'm pretty sure Rand would have been horrified at the banking collapse and probably at much of modern finance, since it consists largely of merely shifting bits of paper around (and a lot of it is automated these days). After all, it's the value you add to something that entitles you to compensation for your effort, whether mental or physical; if you add nothing, you deserve nothing.

She'd have been Ron Paul supporter, no doubt :D

I'm sure this surprises no one who knows me...

A strange plague has emerged that strikes pregnant women. By the time it's identified, the virus (MDS, or Maternal Death Syndrome) has already spread around the globe and is latent in everyone on the planet, potentially spelling death to the human race. Triggered upon pregnancy, it causes rapid progressive brain degeneration and is invariably fatal to both mother and child. Research suggests it was genetically engineered deliberately, by combining Creutzfeldt-Jacob Syndrome with a virus, but no one knows why or by whom. A few scientists have come up with a theoretical solution but it's highly controversial and no one knows if it will work. Sixteen-year-old Jessie Lamb's father is involved with the research while Jessie herself struggles to deal with the strange new world she lives in, and to find a way that she can make a difference.

This is a highly unusual take on apocalypse fiction. Jessie's ethical and personal internal struggles, and the way they affect and are affected by her relationships with her friends and parents, are believable and detailed. While it's true that a lot of otherwise important issues -- women's rights, environmentalism, the role of science, etc. -- are glossed over, to me that seems appropriate since Jessie's battle is an internal, purely personal one. The other issues are backdrops for what she's going through; they give texture to but don't define Jessie's choices.

The book doesn't offer easy answers and although in one sense the ending is clear and definite, in another sense it's left very open to interpretation. It left me disturbed and uneasy on several levels which, I suppose, is a mark of its power and thoughtfulness. I recommend it, but with the caveat that it's not by any means an easy or comfortable book. Jessie's choice is one that isn't easily absorbed or comprehended. Is she a heroine or a victim? If anyone else has read it I'd love to hear what you think.

Trying to maintain my goal of writing SOMEthing every single day but late night + awesome food + good wine = lazy meme theft copout. So: the nearest book to you, open to p.45, first line = your 2012 forecast:

"Things got worse."

Oh dear. This does not bode well.