Brain Wiring Run Amok!

"Camille Paglia on Acid"

[ackee]

today i learned twitter artists are posting their own art but captioning it as if they're reposting someone else's work, bc it gives them waaay more engagement. and its worked every time. the state of social media is truly so over 😭

[ackee]

like what is going on...

[the-real-seebs]

what the fuck

[osberend]

The obvious (although not necessarily correct) explanation would seem to be that a post with a question drives more engagement than a questionless "here's a thing" post, because people feel the urge to answer (even when that answer is "I don't know," which baffles the hell out of me).

It's also possible for the first example that the one image that is different actually drove most of the engagement, especially given that it's the one only of the five that has something that looks like a tentacle in it.

[multiheaded1793]

Arestovych yesterday reasoned that Putin’s *maximum* aims at this point are basically to reach Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson oblast borders (in that order of priority) + the southeast half of Zaporozhia, long-term entrench there, exhaust Ukraine and allies with static warfare for several months (counting on the flow of aid to wither), and from there push for some sort of Minsk 3 rotten peace deal that’d let them secure those territories while leaving Ukraine maximally crippled

Hence no declaration of war, no formal mobilization and no more open nuclear blackmail in the cards.

If those aims prove elusive, then keep sending a trickle of reserves into the grinder to wear out Ukraine and prevent it from amassing combat power for a counteroffensive, hold and fortify current lines, and likewise hope not to lose the war of attrition before Ukraine can be pressured into a ceasefire.

Arestovych and other officials, including Zelensky, have been adamant that Ukraine will never consider a ceasefire that’d leave any recently occupied territories out of Ukrainian control. Ukraine will seek to retake those by force as soon as militarily possible, but would be extremely reluctant to launch a ground offensive beyond 2014 lines.

[osberend]

> Ukraine will seek to retake those by force as soon as militarily possible, but would be extremely reluctant to launch a ground offensive beyond 2014 lines.

This seems perverse. In terms of red lines for a peace deal, perhaps being prepared to accept (for the time being) the continued existence of the so-called “people’s republics” makes sense, but why on Earth would Ukraine refrain from excising those mafia-state cancers if it finds itself in a position to do so?

[osberend]

Kys homophobe

Wat.

I mean, seriously, if you want me to have any real reaction to your ask at all, beyond amused contempt, you're going to need to have to be more specific than that about what it is that's pissing you off, especially given that, as far as I can tell, my most recent post that had anything to do with homosexuality was back in 2019, and that was very much taking a "fuck Mormonism" line, not a "fuck homosexuality" line.

My best guess is that you have somehow stumbled on one of my reblogs of one of @theunitofcaring's posts about how "yes, it's okay to be attracted to women" memes must apply to straight men as well as to lesbians. But you could also be a TERF who is angry about my views on how can reasonably identify as a lesbian. Or someone who disagrees with my take on @multiheaded1793's post about the implications of there being alternatives to "being a man," and who doesn't quite grasp the difference between being heterosexual and being cisgender. Or someone who is mad about something completely unrelated to homosexuality, but picked "homophobe" out of a hat full of Terms for Badthinkers.

Or, and, honestly, this is probably the second most likely explanation, after the "not just lesbians" thing, you're MFC and something has reminded you of me, and you've decided to go with "homophobe," rather than "ableist," as your explanation for why I'm evil and deserve to die for my contempt for "greater goddess powers," that somehow still haven't killed me yet.

[thebestoftumbling]

golden eagle having a relaxing time

[youwantmuchmore-deactivated2018]

This is the world’s largest flying Engine of Murder marveling at the fact that it can actually have its tummy rubbed.

[optimysticals]

I feel like this is the next step up on “loose your fingers” roulette from petting a kittie’s tummy, but just below belly rubs for say a lion.

[naamahdarling]

Can someone who knows birds better than I do tell me whether this eagle is as happy as it looks?  Because I want it to be happy.  It looks so happy.  Bewildered by having a friend, but so happy.

[suspendnodisbelief]

Just popping on this thread to confirm: yes, the eagle is happy about the belly rubs. Golden eagles make this sound when receiving allopreening and similar affectionate and soothing treatment from their parents and mates. It’s the “I am safe and well fed, and somebody familiar is taking good care of me” sound. Angry raptors and wounded raptors make some pretty dramatic hisses and shrieks; frightened raptors go dead silent and try to hide if they can, or fluff up big and get loud and in-your-face if hiding isn’t an option. They can easily sever a finger or break the bones of a human hand or wrist, and even with a very thick leather falconer’s gauntlet, I’ve known falconers to leave a mews (hawk house) with graphic punctures THROUGH the gauntlet into the meat of their hands and arms, just from buteos and kestrels way smaller than this eagle. A pissed off hawk will make damn sure you don’t try twice whatever you pulled that pissed her off, even if she’s been human-imprinted.

If you’re ever unsure about an animal’s level of okayness with something that’s happening, there are three spot-check questions you can ask, to common-sense your way through it:

1. Is the animal capable of defending itself or making a threatening or fearful display, or otherwise giving protest, and if so, is it using this ability? (e.g. dog snarling or biting, swan hissing, horse kicking or biting)  2. Does the animal experience an incentive-based relationship with the human? (i.e. does the animal have a reason, in the animal’s frame of reference, for being near this human? e.g. dog sharing companionship / food / shelter, hawk receiving good quality abundant food and shelter and medical care from a falconer)

3. Is the animal a domesticated species, with at least a full century of consistent species cohabitation with humans? (Domesticated animals frequently are conditioned from birth or by selective breeding to be unbothered by human actions that upset their feral nearest relatives.)

In this situation, YES the eagle can self-defend, YES the eagle has incentive to cooperate with and trust the human handler, and NO the eagle is not a domesticated species, meaning we can expect a high level of reactivity to distress, compared to domestic animals: if the eagle was distressed, it would be pretty visible and apparent to the viewer. These aren’t a universally applicable metric, but they’re a good start for mammal and bird interactions.

Pair that with the knowledge that eagles reserve those chirps for calm environments, and you can be pretty secure and comfy in the knowledge that the big honkin’ birb is happy and cozy.

Also, to anybody wondering, falconers are almost single-handedly responsible for the recovery from near-extinction of several raptor species, including and especially peregrine falcons. Most hawks only live with the falconer for a year, and most of that year is spent getting the bird in ideal condition for survival and success as a wild breeding adult. Falconers are extensively trained and dedicated wildlife conservationists, pretty much by definition, especially in the continental USA, and they make up an unspeakably important part of the overall conservation of predatory bird species. Predatory birds are an important part of every ecosystem they inhabit. Just like apiarists and their bees, the relationship between falconer and hawk is one of great benefit to the animal and the ecosystem, in exchange for a huge amount of time, effort, expense, and education on the part of the human, for very little personal benefit to that one human. It’s definitely not exploitation of the bird, and most hawks working with falconers are hawks who absolutely would not have reached adulthood without human help: the sick, the injured, and the “runts” of the nest who don’t receive adequate resources from their own parents. These are, by and large, wonderful people who are in love with the natural world and putting a lifetime of knowledge and sheer exhausting work into conserving it and its winged wonders.

[iopele]

reblogged for excellent info, I’m so glad that big gorgeous birb really is as happy as it looks!

[osberend]

Today’s bit of positive activism: A reminder that, although the world may contain many bad and awful things, it also contains an enormous winged predator clucking happily as a human gives it a belly rub.

[osberend]

There may come a day that I will re-encounter this — whether because someone reblogged it from me, or for any other reason — and will not once again reblog it, but today is not that day!

[sonicconnect]

Tails is the best friend in the world.

[k-chan-personal-blog]

think again

[imboredofthisurl]

What the fuck I never wanted to know that

[animar-seal-of-elephants]

Sonic is into Watersports AND Vore?!?!?

[spiroandthelacktones]

awful

[homopower]

If I had to read this plot twist with my own two eyeballs… So. The fuck. Do y'all.

[nezzuko]

this is literally the worst thing

[rip-in-parp-deactivated20181123]

The random was just drawing depictions of nature all along

[osberend]

Stumbled upon this, and felt like sharing.

[multiheaded1793]

Wilhelm Reich was so right about fascism being psychosexual.

In a way they’re kind of rational to want to annihilate us as an existential category, although not in their choice of means, y'know!  If men emphatically and affirmatively don’t have to “be men” and can thoroughgoingly become something entirely different… then the entire psychosexual machine of making young men kill and die at old men’s direction is manifestly non-functioning and unsalvageable. And that glaring reminder needs to be stamped out in a narcissistic rage, never mind contending with the actual causes of that system’s decay.

(what the system is, or was… isn’t even the patriarchy as commonly understood, it’s the fundamental power politics underlying the patriarchy. stuff like the Roman virtus et al, the practices of population control, violent acquisition, culling and upward redistribution via constructing and enforcing masculinity; control over women being in some ways auxiliary to that)

[osberend]

If men emphatically and affirmatively don’t have to “be men” and can thoroughgoingly become something entirely different… then the entire psychosexual machine of making young men kill and die at old men’s direction is manifestly non-functioning and unsalvageable.

This has some truth, but seems overstated, and somewhat typical-minding.

Most young males want to be men, and not solely because they don’t see any alternative other than being a failed man. The latter is certainly an additional spur, and therefore probably increases how aversive the requirements that one has to meet in order to be a man can be without having an unworkably large fraction of young males decide that even being a failed man is better than that. So presenting a model of gender in which being an AMAB adult doesn’t limit your options to just those two certainly reduces how much the war machine can safely brutalize the rank-and-file, but I don’t think it’s sufficient to make it impossible to have a war machine in the first place.

This is even more true given that a lot of the relevant characteristics that go into “being a man” -- courage, toughness, aggression against enemies, etc. -- are things that at least a sizeable fraction of those young males will want to have and/or will have and want to express anyway, even apart from the fact that they’re part of “being a man,” because testosterone itself tends to promote risk-taking, status/dominance ambition, aggression, etc.

[desert-palm]

[catgirlforeskin]

Holy shit

[osberend]

I DON’T LIKE THEM PUTTING CODE ON THE SERVER THAT TURNS THE FREAKIN’ FROGS ALL-DEVOURING!

[dreamy-simmer]

[osberend]

It’s also worth noting: Mariupol is overwhelmingly Russian-speaking, and quite heavily (for a city in Ukraine) Russian-identified. As in, in a survey on language, identity, and political attitudes conducted there a couple years ago, respondents were given a choice of what language to be interviewed in, and less than 1% chose Ukrainian. 88% supported making Russian a second national language. 83% agreed with the statement “Russians and Ukrainians are one people.” And so forth.

All the horrors and atrocities shown in the pictures above, and all the ones that are not shown here, but have been extensively covered elsewhere? This is how the Russian government and the Russian armed forces have chosen to respond to a refusal to surrender from what was, prior to the current invasion, one of the most pro-Russian cities in Ukraine. This is how Vladimir Putin “protects Russian speakers” in Ukraine.

[theoutcastrogue]

America’s over-reliance on plea bargaining is a travesty

"There hasn't been a serious public conversation about plea bargaining and what it's doing to the criminal justice system.”

Like many former lawyers, I remember representing a client whose case embodied such a gross miscarriage of justice that I now use it as an example to explain the unfairness of the law to others. My client, whom I’ll call Bobby, was an elderly man with a recent traumatic brain injury that had left him disabled and unable to find stable housing. I was working with him to secure a place in assisted housing and was in contact with him on an almost daily basis. At some point, though, for about a week, he vanished—no notice, no clue regarding his whereabouts. He just disappeared.

When Bobby finally arrived back in my office, he told me that he had been arrested. He had been robbed, and during the robbery his prescription heart medication was taken. The robbers, presumably after discovering it was not a drug with street value, threw his prescription onto the street in front of him. A witness to the attack had called the police, but when they arrived the robbers were long gone. Bobby, however, was still at the scene trying to pick up his medicine from the ground. Bobby was arrested by the officers for possession of prescription medicine outside of a proper container.

Since the non-profit organization that I worked for couldn’t handle criminal cases, Bobby was assigned a public defender. He sat in jail for a few days before meeting with his lawyer, who explained that if Bobby pled guilty, he would be placed on probation for a year and the charge would be dropped at the end of that time. Bobby, who wanted to leave jail as soon as possible, agreed to this and thought that the matter was resolved.

As Bobby told me this story, I immediately began to worry about his housing situation. The assisted housing facility would not allow people who were on probation to reside there. After several calls with his public defender, I realized that there was not much that could be done. Bobby, after all, had admitted his guilt in front of a judge and had waived any rights he had to appeal. So he had to wait a year, living in substandard housing, before he would be eligible for the assistance he desperately needed, all because he had made his guilty plea without understanding the full consequences.

“Defendants don’t know what’s what,” said Dan Canon, author of the new book Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class, when discussing Bobby’s situation with me. “You take a poor or working-class person that gets swept into the criminal justice system and is accused of a felony or something like that and the defense attorney is like, ‘You need to plea…’ and they can’t weigh the strengths and weaknesses of their case—they can’t tell what’s a good deal and what’s a bad deal.”

[loki-zen]

Sorry, the point this article is making is valid but I’m really distracted by all the WHAT THE FUCK?

[osberend]

There’s a broad, appalling, and fundamentally anti-libertarian phenomenon that goes something like this:

1. There are “good reasons” to criminalize doing X (whether this is actually true or not varies).

2. But one or both of the following is true:

2.a It can sometimes be hard to prove in court -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- that someone was actually doing X (when they actually were), and/or

2.b A cop on the street can’t always be certain whether someone is doing X (when they actually are), and therefore can’t know whether to arrest them for it.

3. But, conveniently enough, doing X requires doing Y, and proving Y -- whether in court or in the mind of the cop deciding whether or not to make an arrest -- is perfectly straightforward.

4. Now, unlike doing X, doing Y is not itself worthy of punishment, and while doing X requires doing Y, doing Y does not require doing X.

5. But there’s “no good reason” to do Y if you’re not doing X; requiring that people not do Y is “perfectably reasonable” and “a minor inconvenience.”

6. So the government criminalizes Y itself, and not just as evidence of doing X.

7. Therefore, if you’re caught doing Y, it doesn’t matter whether you were provably not doing X, because you *were* doing Y, and doing Y is a crime.

Or in this particular case: There are “good reasons” to criminalize possession of prescription medication that you were not prescribed. But if someone who’s been in and out of various hospitals and free clinics says they were prescribed those pills a couple weeks ago, and they don’t remember where exactly, it can be (realistically) impossible to prove otherwise. But (unless you’re great at prescription label forgeries) you’re not going to have a bottle for prescription medication with an appropriate label with your name on it unless you were actually prescribed that medication. And, conversely, you should always receive such a bottle together with your medication if you were prescribed it, so there’s “no good reason” to possess prescription medication outside of an appropriate container.

So the government criminalizes possession of prescription medication outside of an appropriate container, because this makes it easier for the cops and the courts to enforce the law against having prescription medication without having been prescribed it. But being able to show that you *were* prescribed it is no defense, because possessing it outside of an appropriate container is itself a crime.

In this particular scenario, there’s probably a defense available related to clear legislative intent (even apart from muggings, the legislature surely did not intend to criminalize having a muscle spasm and spilling some pills on the ground while extracting and consuming one pill in accordance with your prescription instructions). For that matter, one could argue lack of *mens rea*, not only in the spilling of the medication, but also in gathering it up afterward (at least if he still possessed the bottle and intended to place it in the bottle). But neither of those helps if you’ve already confessed.

[tanadrin]

Earlier Russophobia anon here, oh no I didn’t mean to make it sound like NATO or the EU want to aggressively expand by letting in Ukraine or Georgia, lol why would they want more mouths to feed? All these dead weight countries mean is their utility - pipelines, military footholds. The gauntlet small states are in isn’t that they will either be forcefully absorbed by Russia or The West, it’s that their heart-wrenching attempts at asserting their dignity and their sehnsucht for freedom are always doomed. Either they put up with puppet regimes or leaders who are good at placating Russia and live in resigned indignity, or they rise and Russia fucks them up for their defiance because it can’t lose them to The West. And there is nowhere they can turn for protection other than the outwardly compassionate but double standard-ridden, ruthlessly calculating and self-interest driven, at best indifferent West. The gauntlet doesn’t give a fuck either way.

I guess I don't see how NATO or the EU are necessarily so awful. Like, what are the material drawbacks of being part of the EU, from the standpoint of a country that might want to join it? AFAICT most of the effort that goes into depicting either as part of an evil empire simply takes it for granted that the moral contagion of America pollutes anyone who falls under the sway of either organization, and I just don't see it.

[multiheaded1793]

anon, have you considered a third option? No. More. Unified. Russian. State.

[osberend]

Are there obvious joints to carve it apart at? (Genuine question; I have relatively little knowledge about Russian internal divisions.) Bits can be lopped off at the edges easily enough. Speaking for myself, I think it would be a truly delightful historical revenge to see Stalin’s White Sea Canal used as a specific physical realization of the Three-Isthmus Border. I’m sure there are analogous opportunities on various other borders. Königsberg probably makes the most sense as an independent state, bar massive demographic changes.

But lopping off all of Russia’s disputable peripheral bits would still leave a pretty damn big rump to be divided up. Is there an obvious good way of doing that, in terms of existing identities, natural borders, or (ideally) both? (One that leaves something that can reasonably be identified as a resurrection of the Novgorod Republic would be really nice. Although maybe that criterion just boils down to “don’t put Novgorod and Moscow in the same succesor state?”)

[osberend]

sylvia plath masturbating with her head in the oven

. . . apart from being a striking mental image, is a search time that @slatestarscratchpad​ discovered, approximately 8 years ago, had led someone to his blog, and about which he commented at the time “I am almost certain this is not anywhere on my blog.”

This post is meant to note (since comments on that post have been closed for, you know, about 8 years, and he appears to have tumblr asks turned off, and I wanted to share this discovery with someone) that he was kinda right and kinda wrong: In his review of Infinite Jest (posted about a month before his list of search terms) he talks about both masturbation:

Infinite Jest is about wireheading. More specifically, it’s about not wireheading. It’s about the difference between masturbation and sex. It’s about the dangers of self-reference and the need to connect to something outside yourself.

So how’s this for symbolism: the book is set in a future USA-Canada-Mexico merger called the Organization of North American Nations. I originally thought O.N.A.N. was just a cheap gag, in the same way Robert Anton Wilson called his supercomputer F.U.C.K.U.P. But David Foster Wallace does not do cheap gags. The book was taking place in a society literally named for masturbation, and its entire structure was based on pleasure without purpose.

and (tangentially) the death of Sylvia Plath:

There are other, weirder referential loops. James Incandenza commits suicide by sticking his head in a microwave (possibly meant as a quick-consumerist-culture equivalent of Sylvia Plath sticking her head in an oven) after trying to give up alcohol. David Foster Wallace ended up committing suicide after trying to give up antidepressants.

I don’t know whether the masturbating-Plath–searcher had read that post before and was trying to find it again, or if they just had a weird fetish and stumbled upon that post as a result. Either way, I’m amused.

Oh, I almost forgot: The reason I’m aware of this at all is that the list of search terms is what comes up if you go to https://slatestarcodex.com/search.

[gifsofprocesses]

Cat Claw retraction 

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

This is such a beautifully done graphic! It shows, really well, why declawing your cat can be so excruciating and disabling for the rest of their life. Notice how the bottom of the 3rd toe bone is mostly what’s weight bearing? If you amputate that bone (which is the most common surgery) the end of that 2nd toe that’s never meant to bear weight will be what your cat puts weight on when it steps. Also, notice how the tendon runs the whole length of the toe? That means when you cut the tendons to that final, amputated digit, you’re going to mess up tendon function in the entire toe. 

[zigzaguar]

This was reposted from @alithographica who does a lot of similarly incredible informational posts about animals.

Here’s the original: http://alithographica.tumblr.com/post/162998760526/as-much-as-it-pains-me-i-must-admit-the-animation

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Thank you for posting the full link! I saw the attribution on the image and thought it was the original post - I try not to share reposts. Reblogging so the appropriate blog gets credit. 

[osberend]

Sharing partly for valuable information, and partly to ask about something that’s been nagging at me (and without endorsing medically unnecessary use of the hypothetical approach described below, even if it is feasible, just trying to understand):

With humans, it is occasionally the least bad option, medically speaking, to permanently remove a fingernail or (more commonly) toenail. Not at all often, but it does happen (e.g., as a solution to ingrown toenails that have continued to recur despite more conservative surgical treatment). But even in that case, the standard procedure (as I understand it -- I’m not a physician, much less one with a relevant specialty, but I’ve done a bit of reading) is not to remove the terminal phalanx; rather, it’s to first remove the nail, and then destroy the underlying germinal matrix with phenol, so that the nail doesn’t grow back. The end result is a finger or toe that is missing its nail, but is otherwise basically normal.

While this would still not be a great thing to do to a cat -- it hurts, albeit quite a bit less than amputating a full joint would (even for a plantigrade species like ours, let alone a digitigrade one), there’s a risk of infection, it inhibits a major natural behavior, it reduces their ability to defend themselves, etc. -- it seems like it would be much better than lopping off part or all of the distal phalanx itself, both in terms of pain and in terms of functionality. If I understand the above diagram correctly, it should (at least in theory) even allow the cat to “extend” its no-longer-present claws normally when stretching, since it shouldn’t affect the attachment points for any of the tendons or ligaments (i.e., the cat could still move its bones in the same fashion that would, if it still had claws, extend them).

But I’ve never seen this discussed as an actual or potential practice; even discussions of (rare) medically necessary “declawing” by well-informed people who are opposed to unnecessary surgeries seem (assuming I’m understanding them correctly) to still be discussing partial or complete phalangectomy.

What am I not understanding?

[awwww-cute]

Meet Phoebe, the polydactyl Highland Lynx complete with curled ears and a bobtail (Source: http://ift.tt/1WV7Q9M)

[being-me-for-no-one-deactivated]

@why-animals-do-the-thing whats up with it’s paws? They look painful, like when big cats are declawed? Or is this something different.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

This is different! Polydactyly is the term for having too many fingers or toes. It’s a genetic anomaly for cats and can lead to anywhere between four to seen toes on each paw of a cat. It can happen in any cat, but certain strains are predisposed to it - there’s a line from Ithica, NY that’s famous, as well as one population from Wales. American Polydactyl cats are actually a specific breed. It’s a common genetic anomaly in Maine Coons, although it’s not normally purposefully bred for. 

It doesn’t appear to be painful or impact welfare at all except in cased of radial hyperplasia (which looks similar to polydactyly but has a different genetic cause and should not be bred for, due to the production of incresasingly disabled kittens). 

Hemingway as extremely fond of polydactyl cats and collected quite a number during his lifetime. When his house was later turned into a museum, his cats continued to live there and there are now about 50 inhabiting the grounds. (Only about half are polydactyl). 

[osberend]

This is completely tangential, but just FYI: The name of the city that sits at the Southern end of Cayuga Lake in upstate NY, and is home to both Ithaca College and Cornell University, is spelled “Ithaca.”

There are a number of other municipalities in the US (and at least one (former) municipality in Australia) named after the Greek Ιθάκη, and all the ones that I’m aware of share the same spelling -- although there are some non-municipalities (songs, schools, housing developments, people) that use a spelling of “Ithaka” or “Ithica.”

[tototavros]

all i have cached for delaware in my head is “like maryland, but without the treason”

[osberend]

What treason are you talking about? You are aware that Maryland was a Union state during the Civil War, right?

[multiheaded1793]

I won’t sugarcoat it, you guys are completely fucking fucked now. Fucked. You can’t yet imagine how fucked you are, and how little you can do about it.

There’s going to be a tremendous bipartisan hard right, austerity + law-and-order crackdown in your country, early 1990s style, and much like then it’ll go completely unnoticed by anyone but the victims. Silent, ruthless and persistent, not loudmouthed, embarrassing and patchwork. The media will cryptically allude to its wisdom and necessity from time to time, and amplifying it will be automatically suspect and divisive. The commentator class will treat the mildest criticism of what’s going on… approximately how the new vice president’s supporters have been treating the mildest criticism of her. It’s going to get so fucking ugly.

(if only those edgy accelerationist anti-anti-Trump takes had emphasized the immediacy of that prospect upon a Biden win - not just what comes in 2024 - they’d be getting taken a lot more seriously. maybe.)

[multiheaded1793]

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/524503-centrist-democrats-talk-leadership-changes-after-negative-election-results

With frustrations bubbling up, Pelosi has become an early target for moderates representing suburban districts worried that their leadership’s strategy hurt such members heading into the polls. “It’s time for Democrats to elevate a new generation of leadership in both the House and the Senate,” one of the Democrats told The Hill. “Americans are clearly afraid of ‘socialism,’ want safe streets and neighborhoods and to vote for people who they believe will help put more money in their pockets. “While Democratic policies can adequately address those issues,” the lawmaker added, “our messaging mechanism clearly cannot.” The pair of Democratic lawmakers said they were in the process of reaching out to all of the “suburban survivors” of Tuesday night’s elections and had already spoken to two dozen members from various factions of the caucus, including the Congressional Black Caucus, Progressive Caucus, New Democrat Coalition and bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. 

Safe streets! Yep. You’ve got bad times of a whole new (old) kind ahead.

[osberend]

I've got no love for cops, but rioters who loot and burn the property of those who have nothing to do with those rioters' pretextual "grievances" should all be bayonetted! Everybody looty till the roof starts to shooty!

[thebestoftumbling]

golden eagle having a relaxing time

[youwantmuchmore-deactivated2018]

This is the world’s largest flying Engine of Murder marveling at the fact that it can actually have its tummy rubbed.

[optimysticals]

I feel like this is the next step up on “loose your fingers” roulette from petting a kittie’s tummy, but just below belly rubs for say a lion.

[naamahdarling]

Can someone who knows birds better than I do tell me whether this eagle is as happy as it looks?  Because I want it to be happy.  It looks so happy.  Bewildered by having a friend, but so happy.

[suspendnodisbelief]

Just popping on this thread to confirm: yes, the eagle is happy about the belly rubs. Golden eagles make this sound when receiving allopreening and similar affectionate and soothing treatment from their parents and mates. It’s the “I am safe and well fed, and somebody familiar is taking good care of me” sound. Angry raptors and wounded raptors make some pretty dramatic hisses and shrieks; frightened raptors go dead silent and try to hide if they can, or fluff up big and get loud and in-your-face if hiding isn’t an option. They can easily sever a finger or break the bones of a human hand or wrist, and even with a very thick leather falconer’s gauntlet, I’ve known falconers to leave a mews (hawk house) with graphic punctures THROUGH the gauntlet into the meat of their hands and arms, just from buteos and kestrels way smaller than this eagle. A pissed off hawk will make damn sure you don’t try twice whatever you pulled that pissed her off, even if she’s been human-imprinted.

If you’re ever unsure about an animal’s level of okayness with something that’s happening, there are three spot-check questions you can ask, to common-sense your way through it:

1. Is the animal capable of defending itself or making a threatening or fearful display, or otherwise giving protest, and if so, is it using this ability? (e.g. dog snarling or biting, swan hissing, horse kicking or biting)  2. Does the animal experience an incentive-based relationship with the human? (i.e. does the animal have a reason, in the animal’s frame of reference, for being near this human? e.g. dog sharing companionship / food / shelter, hawk receiving good quality abundant food and shelter and medical care from a falconer)

3. Is the animal a domesticated species, with at least a full century of consistent species cohabitation with humans? (Domesticated animals frequently are conditioned from birth or by selective breeding to be unbothered by human actions that upset their feral nearest relatives.)

In this situation, YES the eagle can self-defend, YES the eagle has incentive to cooperate with and trust the human handler, and NO the eagle is not a domesticated species, meaning we can expect a high level of reactivity to distress, compared to domestic animals: if the eagle was distressed, it would be pretty visible and apparent to the viewer. These aren’t a universally applicable metric, but they’re a good start for mammal and bird interactions.

Pair that with the knowledge that eagles reserve those chirps for calm environments, and you can be pretty secure and comfy in the knowledge that the big honkin’ birb is happy and cozy.

Also, to anybody wondering, falconers are almost single-handedly responsible for the recovery from near-extinction of several raptor species, including and especially peregrine falcons. Most hawks only live with the falconer for a year, and most of that year is spent getting the bird in ideal condition for survival and success as a wild breeding adult. Falconers are extensively trained and dedicated wildlife conservationists, pretty much by definition, especially in the continental USA, and they make up an unspeakably important part of the overall conservation of predatory bird species. Predatory birds are an important part of every ecosystem they inhabit. Just like apiarists and their bees, the relationship between falconer and hawk is one of great benefit to the animal and the ecosystem, in exchange for a huge amount of time, effort, expense, and education on the part of the human, for very little personal benefit to that one human. It’s definitely not exploitation of the bird, and most hawks working with falconers are hawks who absolutely would not have reached adulthood without human help: the sick, the injured, and the “runts” of the nest who don’t receive adequate resources from their own parents. These are, by and large, wonderful people who are in love with the natural world and putting a lifetime of knowledge and sheer exhausting work into conserving it and its winged wonders.

[iopele]

reblogged for excellent info, I’m so glad that big gorgeous birb really is as happy as it looks!

[osberend]

Today’s bit of positive activism: A reminder that, although the world may contain many bad and awful things, it also contains an enormous winged predator clucking happily as a human gives it a belly rub.

[osberend]

I think it says something good about humanity — even on this hellsite — that this is one of the two posts that I consistently get the most reblog and like notifications on, despite it not even being my OP, so I’m only seeing people reblogging or liking it directly from me.

(The other is my “take a picture” lifehack post, which also would seem to say something good about humanity.)

Also, I really needed to be reminded this today.

[osberend]

Very relevant right now.

[osberend]

I am striving, really hard, not to read or watch political shit that will not help me vote (or do anything else) but will just infuriate me. I am not doing some work online that would be useful for me to do, because when I set out to do it, I end up reading ot watching infuriating political shit instead.

I am reading a book. Perhaps in a bit, I will watch a specific YouTube video from a specific channel, that is not about politics, without looking at my "recommended" videos. Perhaps not

If *you* are tormenting yourself with political news, or commentary, or opinion pieces, or anything else, that does not help you to do anything of value, but just makes you sad, or angry, or upset, or anxious . . . STOP. Read a book. Have a drink, if that's something that will actually give you pleasure and not just a different form of self-abuse. Masturbate. Go for a walk. Work out. Weave (or knit, or crochet, or spin). Play a game. Do any of ten thousand things that will make you happy instead of working yourself up, to no good end.

I'm not a consequentialist. I believe that there are plenty of circumstances in which fighting, without a hope of victory, is just and honorable. But fighting is one thing, and getting angry (or sad, or anxious, or . . .) alone in your apartment is another.