Sweden Gives Fred Phelps the Finger, Cam Joins

[misscam]

Swedish Church Allows Blessing of Gay Marriage

And stand by for Fred Phelps coronary in five... four... three...

I'm almost wondering if they did it just to spite him. Hee. Ah, there are days when it's good to be Scandinavian.

*keeps an eye on GodHatesSweden*

Take that, you hateful little unsignificant ignoramus. I wave this finger in your general direction.
A meme:
Read anything good lately? Pick 5-10 books/fics/essays/etc that you're reading or finished recently and tell me why they should be squeed about, discussed, iconized, or sporked, as the case may be. (Feel free to do it in the comments here, if you don't want to do it in your own LJ.)

Here's mine (already done so much Doctor Who fic rec'ing here, there'll be other stuff now).
5. At Play in the Fields of the Lord, CSI fanfic by spikespeigel. Offers interesting possibilities and a swan song.
4. War on porn, a viewpoint by evilgmbethy. This potentially affects a lot of you.
3. How to Make Your Beta Reader / Copy Editor / Friendly Neighbourhood Archivist Happier. Punctuation. Learn to love it. Easy and instructive guide.
2. Fars Hus, Adelheid Seyfarth. About missing a father, life between two worlds and a changing Norway. (Book)
1. The Zahir, Paulo Coelho. Just... Lovely. About humanity, love and a long search across nations for what really is within. (Book)

In other news:
Unique Maria Quisling interview released
European study shows climate risk
UN invited to Guantanamo Bay (!!! Wow, and only three years after the UN first asked, too. /sarcasm)
Maradona interviews Castro
Americas hold indigenous summit
Indictment bad news for Bush
Mier stepping down bad news for Bush
Tsunami reveal ancient temple
Star Trek actor comes out

Comments

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

And just to spite him some more, here's a biblical reference.

When the Israelites were wandering in the dessert, they had many battles with their enemies. During one of these battles, they only won as long as Moses had his arms uplifted in the air. But being mortal, Moses could only hold them up for so long. So his friends and family helped him by holding his arms up, so that the battle was won.

::lifts Miss Cam's finger::

[falena]

Cool meme!

My picks:

1. The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante -- I read this novel first in Italian (OV) then bought the English translation too...just to give you an idea of how much I loved it!;P About love, obsession, betrayal and solitude. A dark journey in the soul of an abnodoned woman.

2. The Hanging Garden , Ian Rankin. A great crime novel from a master in this field. (Plus it's entirely set in lovely Edinburgh!!)

3. The Explosion of the Nations, Nicole Janigro. A v. interesting and well-written book on the Balkanic wars. I'm afraid it hasn't been translated into English yet, though.

4. The American Lessons, Italo Calvino. A series of lectures written by the Italian Nobel prize when he was invited to the Charles Elito Norton Poetry Lessons at Harvard in 1984. Some deep and extremely well-written reflections on the nature of poetry and literature, but also on human emotions...

Can't think of #5 right now, sorry!
I did note your recc, thanks!

[sliven.livejournal.com]

It feels rather good to be a Swede these days... *joins in on the Phelps-directed finger-waving*

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Luckily, in this modern day and age we also have wonderous technology that can help. I'm thinking an artificial finger is long due.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Interesting recs. Shall have to look for them, thanks!

[misscam.livejournal.com]

You do well of late, oh yes.

[chunkylimes.livejournal.com]

Sweden: The country with more religious-idiot-bird-flipping than even China!

[the-grokster.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for Sweden!
The whole Guantanamo thing...don't make me cry about US policies any more today, please!

The meme:
A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century, by Luis Alberto Romero: nice general history, pretty unbiased, and designed for people who don't know much about Argentina but would rather not be talked down to.

Meditations: Marcus Aurelius: Dude. Just read it.

Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney: Puh-leez. I'm rereading it for something like the zillionth time and still am completely entranced. Adventure! Derring-do! Mighty deeds done by legendary heros! Endlessly amuse self with comparisons to Tolkien! Then just wibble in the germanic greatness.

Occidental Mythology, by Joseph Campbell. I admit it: I'm a Campbell freak. We're reading a few snippets of eastern philosophy for one of my courses now, so I went back for a refresher. Essential to understanding the fundamental differences between eastern and western thinking.

The Three Musketeers: Alexandre Dumas. I'm such a sucker for the swashbucklers. Also a reread, but OMG!

[highwindpav.livejournal.com]

Spike is leaving CSI writing? ::eyes well up::

Hmm, meme.

I've been recently rereading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It gets weird and wobbly toward the last few books, but the pay off is so worth it when Roland reaches the Tower and the field of roses. Worth reading if one likes a real epic quest sort of story, except with gunslingers and demons instead of Hobbits and Wizards. That currently counts as three books, since I'm in the midst of book three.

After the Fall by athenaprime. Mind bogglingly long Star Wars: KotOR fic, but enjoyable.

The Wall by theohara. Canon Grissom makes sense.

Can't think of anything else off hand. I'm dumb and reread my own fics sometimes, actually have been doing that lately, but I'd feel like a heel posting links to them.

(I'd heard Takei was gay...I guess some rumors are true, after all.)

[justspies.livejournal.com]

5. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. A touching, but very raw novel about first-hand experiences in Vietnam.

4. Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman. This book is a monster (close to 800 pgs. long), but it's the best biography on John Lennon. It's very honest, giving exposure to the good and the bad.

3. Harrison by Rolling Stone. The best biography on George Harrison. Touching accounts of his life, lots of things I didn't know, as well. And some nice tributes from friends at the end.

2. A Liar's Autobiography by Graham Chapman. A Python writes his autobiography, so what can you expect, but inspired lunacy? A mad, unhinged, but honest and touching portrait of a unique life.

1. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A really funny, original take on the end of the world.

Meh?

[highwindpav.livejournal.com]

Where'd my link go?

The Wall. If that doesn't work, the fic is in my memories :P