Oh Lordy

Still pregnant. Oh my lord am I pregnant. Right now it feels like I'm carrying a watermelon between my thighs. The pain in my hips and pelvis is still there, although I can't quite tell whether or not it's getting better or if I'm just getting used to it.

I haven't felt much like blogging. It's too hot (101 degrees yesterday!) to do much more than lie on the couch and watch Law & Order reruns with a sort of dazed look on your face.

Still not sleeping much, which given the current hour seems obvious. I've gotten on a weird cycle where I sleep for two or three hours, wake up for five or six, then sleep for two or three again. I'm assuming it's my body preparing for the sleep cycles of a newborn, although it could be anxiety.

It's not like there's not plenty to blog about, though. Let's see...

The situation about the Marines in the Iraqi town of Haditha murdering a bunch of civilians for no good reason continues to get less press than I think it should. It seems clear to me that outright murder is the logical conclusion of the mindset evidenced by our troops after the Abu Ghraib scandal. This is the sort of thing that happens in a ground war, which is why you shouldn't engage in one unless it's a last resort. Which it pretty much never is.

There was a really good special on the Sundance Channel, if you have cable or satellite, that goes into this a bit. It's called The Human Behavior Experiments, and is reviewed at Slate here. The review is right that it's a little pulpy in its presentation, but it's worth watching to see how things like Abu Ghraib can happen so easily when people are put in certain, unrestricted authority type situations.

To paraphrase one of the psychologists interviewed, "These weren't bad apples, it was the barrel that was bad."

This is, again, the sort of thing that seems obvious. It's highly irresponsible to take people, stress them out incredibly, put them in positions of pretty much unlimited authority, push the idea that the enemy is inhuman, and expect them to act normal. Sure, these 'apples' were bad and should be punished for their behavior, but until the 'barrel' is changed then it will just happen again and again.

Ugh, it's all very emotionally draining for me to contemplate right now. I think my pregnancy hormones are doing a last minute catapult into the stratosphere. I'm finding myself in a constant state of slight panic, which I'm sure is pretty bad for the baby.

I've started my maternity leave early as my doctor says my blood pressure is slightly too high and I should be taking it easy. That, and the pelvis pain makes it impossible to do pretty much anything besides the forementioned Law & Order rerun watching (seriously, it's on one particular channel or another 24 hours a day).

But I'm bored out of my skull stuck at home all day, and I think Brian and I are starting to wear thin on each other. He's quitting smoking at the same time as all of this (poor guy), and his edginess combined with my hormones (and the frigging heat) make for some lively fireworks.

But he's also been so sweet, rubbing my back and fetching me things and making sure I stay rested. And plus he's a genius. He McGuyver'd up a swamp cooler out of a box fan and a damp bath towel.

I'm positive that if it weren't for him being around I would have collapsed into a gibbering mess several months ago. I guess that's marriage, when you're thinking to yourself, "You're so irritating, and I love you so much."

I'll have to get him a father's day present, but I'm not sure what.

Anyway, enough personal blathering. Is it wrong of me to laugh at this story?

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

I know I'm doing nothing but reinforcing the atheist-as-heartless-babyeater stereotype here, but I'm sorry, that's hilarious.

Sigh. Only a few more weeks to go. Maybe I'll go into labor today and have a devil baby (link on that via Pandagon).