conflating diaspora jews with the actions of the israeli government is not okay, yes, but have you considered it's not okay to conflate israeli jews with them either

A lot of people are always looking for a type of jew they're allowed to be antisemitic agaisnt. Just like how a lot of people seem to be searching for a type of trans person they can be transphobic agaisnt or a type of disabled person they can be disabled agasint.

I must remind my followers that nobody is evil by virtue of the country they live in.

The idea that some countries have evil bloodthirsty populations is an inherently right wing nationalist idea.

And that there is no type of jew, nomatter what they did or who they are, that you are allowed to be antisemitic agaisnt.

Sephardi Jewish woman, from Morocco, Natalie Ohayon Toby. Dress by Suzanne Benchimol, photography by Eric Benchimol.

I've been seeing a lot of Discourse around outdoor cats that talks past one of the biggest problems addressing community cats/outdoor working cats so I thought I'd chime in with my two cents.

Many arguments I see just... don't think about the cats at all? Or don't consider the logistics of actually addressing the feral cat problem in a humane way. It's always about how outdoor cats shouldn't be outdoors, which is neither realistic nor helpful.

I used to volunteer at an municipal animal shelter in the USA that had a TNR program (Trap, Neuter, Return) and also adopted out community cats to local farms and businesses. Here's my side of the story.

"Your cat doesn't need to be outside" -- Yes, correct. Your domesticated (non-feral) house cat does not need to go outside at all. They can have a fully actualized life safely indoors. When I see this argument, proponents of indoor only cats are correct in most or all their arguments regarding this.

"Outdoor cats are the largest invasive species in the world, and decimate bird populations." -- This is also correct, and part of the reason why you can help by bringing your house cat indoors. Cats are the largest invasive species. Spay and Neuter your cats, bring them inside, and socialize them so they don't become feral.

"TNR doesn't work." -- False. Whether we like it or not, feral cats exist. We have two methods by which we can address the feral cat population -- decimating them (humanely euthanizing the whole colony) or TNR. For a long time, euthanasia was the preferred way to address the feral cat problem. Afterall, if the cats aren't there, doesn't that save the local wildlife population?

Except that we found, studying these colonies, that when a colony is wiped out, the cats of another colony will spread into their territory and continue to have kittens and the population of feral cats is neither controlled nor diminished.

Hence, TNR. What we found performing TNR on cat colonies was that this controlled the population of the colonies, allowing them to stay in their territory, which kept other colonies from spreading (especially colonies we hadn't performed TNR on yet). We at the shelter felt this was the most humane way to control the feral cat population and safely deflate their existence without dealing with the population blooms that euthanasia caused.

"What about kittens?" -- Kittens from these colonies were brought into the shelter, socialized, and fostered out until they could be adopted. Some of these semi-feral kittens needed special homes to be adopted into, but this was the best quality of life for these cats.

"What about cats that get missed during TNR?" -- We would return to the colony several times over a period of several years to perform TNR on the same colony. We mark cats that have been neutered by clipping their ear (this is done humanely, but is the most reliable way to tell if a cat has been neutered so the poor thing doesn't have to have surgery 3-4 times in their life). Also, during the TNR process the cats would be vaccinated to ensure disease did not spread from the colony (i.e. rabies). Still, even getting 60% of the colony TNR'd would dramatically reduce the number of kittens being added to the colony each year. This controlled the population by allowing the territory to naturally deflate in size over time, buying us time to address the larger feral cat problem.

"What if the colony was in an unsafe location?" -- There were two ways we addressed unsafe colony locations -- remember, we know that when the colony is removed, a new colony will move into its place, so we tried not to move the colony unless we really felt the cats or the public was unsafe -- one was to move the whole colony to a new location. Preferably someplace like a warehouse where we have an agreement with the owners of the warehouse. Some of the cats were even relocated to shelter grounds as our community cats. If the colony was small enough we would bring them into our Feral Cats room and adopt them out as community cats.

"What is a community cat?" -- The way the program worked, was that anyone who needed a working cat could apply to the program. These were often rural farmers or businesses with warehouses that needed rodent protection. We trained the farmers and businesses on how to acclimatize the cats to their new home, and as part of the agreement, they had to care for the cats (veterinary care, vaccinations, food and water). This gave businesses and farms an alternative to expensive and environmentally unfriendly rodent control, and also gave these feral cats good places to live out their natural lives.

"Can't you just adopt out feral cats?" -- No. Cats that have not been socialized around humans as kittens, or who have several generations of feral cat in them could not interact with humans in a way that did not cause them undue stress. This was not a humane way to handle feral cats. However, when a cat was brought into the feral cat room, they would be monitored for up to a week. If the cat displayed signs of being semi-social or fully social (hanging out outside of their den, allowing staff to pet them, showing interest in staff in the room), then we would either move the cat into the adoption room or place them in foster to be socialized before adoption. Feral cats who displayed signs of being able to live full and healthy lives with human companions were NOT adopted out as community cats. We also observed this behavior during TNRs and would do the same for those cats too.

"But aren't cats bad hunters?" -- Compared to other species, cats are not the most effective form of rodent control. This is true. However, you have to understand that feral cats exist. There is no "undo" button we can push to stop them from existing. We have to deal with the problem we have right now, which is to safely and humanely decrease the number of feral cats in our communities. And yes, we do that by using cats as rodent control in the community.

"What can I do?" -- Stop saying community cats shouldn't exist. That's not helpful and doesn't solve the problem we have. Bring your cat indoors. Spay and neuter your cats. Adopt from shelters. Volunteer with a TNR team. Support TNR efforts in your community. Recognize that those of us actively dealing with the community/feral problem are trying to do what is in the best interest of our communities and the animals we love. We aren't sitting over here saying these cats should exist -- a feral cat will not have the same quality of life as one that is indoors with a family -- but we have to address the problem in practical terms. We don't have the moral high ground to just do nothing while pontificating solutions that have no basis in actuality.

And yes, it's okay to celebrate community cats. If your local farm has a couple of working cats, that means that farm is helping participate in the safe deflation of the feral cat population. Don't shame a farm or business for using community cats. We're all doing the best we can to solve the problem that we have.

some good tags, putting human moral sensibilities onto an animal just doesn't work.

omg

This has been in my queue for months.

I missed it last year and I vowed that would NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

platforming palestinian joy is just as important as sharing the suffering they're enduring during this genocide. despite continued displacement and bombardment, you cannot steal their joy and spirit. happy birthday to this sweet baby 🖤🇵🇸 may they grow up to see a free palestine

this beautiful baby is the son of ibrahim abu raida, the 25 y/o executive director of the al nasser charity in gaza, an organization working to distribute food to the displaced. they have many different ways to donate linked on their instagram (linked above) and also have a personal gfm to help with their own rebuilding efforts that is over 80% of the way to its goal.

this is by far my favorite safety/warning sign btw. they really went off with this one

No cuz I fucking love this sign. It’s not an actual barrier so it’s not like some sort of challenge it simply says “fuck around and you will find out”

Ohohoho I LOVE “fuck around and find out” signs, especially the really dramatic and ominous (but true) ones

(Context for the last one: it’s a WWII era sign posted around the soldiers’ washroom mirror, warning them to never discuss military plans in places where civilians could hear them and report back to the enemy, e.g. in restaurants and pubs in the country. “Loose lips sink ships”.)

I also love these two, which I would place in the category of “You already fucked around, now you’re about to find out.”

Aerated water is fucking scary. It's water that has a fuckton of gas in it, which reduces the buoyancy to the point where you will immediately start to sink if you fall in.

ive been collecting these recently and wanted to add some of my favorites

Official ominous signs

Passover meal at a Kurdish-Jewish family's home, Jerusalem, 1979

being jewish in the rural USA is surprisingly fun when you get past all of the things that are not fun. its nice to have a quiet little jewish life in the middle of nowhere in a country too big to ever care about you but fuck it youve got your dog and your car and a lot of roads to choose so you'll be ok.

youre at a gas station at 3am in a town you never knew existed. you're trying to find kosher snacks, but everything has some sort of pork product in it. you leave without getting anything and you can't remember if there was even a cashier. the wind is blowing in a way that makes it seem like G-d is trying to speak to you. you listen for a second, yet you can't make out what He's saying. It's late, and you're tired and cold, and it's time to go home.

youre saying the nighttime shema near an open window. you hear a haunting scream that's just a little too close to you, so you pause your prayers to shut the window and close the blinds. all of G-d's creations are worthwhile, there's just some you're not meant to know so closely.

youre studying torah on a porch swing in front of a field and a forest older than anyone can remember. a herd of deer is nibbling on the foliage, and one of them looks at you with too much understanding in it's eyes. you smile at it and give it a polite nod. its important to respect all creatures, and this one doesnt seem particularly dangerous, just a bit too intelligent for the form it was given.

you've been working all day taking care of the horses. you spend a few minutes relaxing in a patch of buttercups on the tallest hill in the pasture and accidentally fall asleep for an hour or so. you make your way to the nearest water trough and use it to rinse your hands. your favorite horse is there, and he's a little confused about what you're doing with his water but he's happy to get treats and ear scratches.

you're driving home from a new synagogue 4 hours away after evening services. you haven't seen another car in over 100 miles, and the mountains look the same as they did hours ago. you're hit with the most intense feeling of deja vu, and as soon as it subsides you see the lights of a nearby town and breathe a sigh of relief. its amazing that we live in a such a big world but right now you just wanna go home and sleep.

repeat after me:

crying is a HEALTHY release of emotion AND a great way to complete the stress cycle

it also grants you a tiger

Modern art

something i love about us jews: if you put a bunch of us in a room, no matter how many different countries we're from, no matter what languages we speak - we'll be able to sing together

I moved to a different country, and even though we don't speak the same language in the street we sing the same songs and pray the same prayers in Shul

ehad mi yode'ah

this is one of the most well-known songs sung at the end of the seder, translated into numerous languages, including numerous jewish languages, and even more melodies.

jewishlanguages.org has an entire page dedicated to this song, its translations into various jewish languages, and different melodies. check it out here! below are just a few i want to highlight:

ladino - kien supiense i entendiense?

turkey

salonica (another version)

one turkish version:

judeo-italian - chi sa qual è il tredici?

florence

syrian judeo-arabic - min ya'elam wumin yidri

aleppo

Art by Denis Melnychenko

Dear every person calling Israel "colonizers":

What is the shelf life of indigenousness? How long does it take for a people to lose the right to claim their homeland as their homeland? How long until Indigenous Americans no longer have a claim to the land the US exists on?

You are required to answer this question if you want to truly claim Jews are colonizers. Because I guarantee no definition you come up with to make Jews colonizers won't also erase the indigenousness of other groups you claim to support. So either you don't believe in those groups' indigenousness, or you're just denying Jewish indigenousness arbitrarily because you want an "acceptable" reason to hate them.

Or you could just stop saying that. The Israeli gov't can still be doing shitty things and Palestinians can be indigenous without you denying Jewish indigenousness. Multiple things can be true.

I'll never get over how depressing it is how most young girls are told their first time is supposed to hurt, how most teenage girls have a painful 'first time' and are just, expected to tolerate it and told it's completely normal and healthy and good. How callous the teenage boys they sleep with and give them bad painful sex are about causing these teenage girls pain and discomfort and even making her bleed from a chaffed or torn vagina. How many girls and young women push themselves into bad painful sex and tolerate it just because they're told that's normal and they need to. How fucking callous cis boys and men are to this, how cis boys and men just go "haha yeah sex is like pizza, even when it's bad it's pretty good!" because they didn't grow up being told they needed to tolerate pain and bleeding from sex, they didn't have to choke back tears of pain during their first time or first several times or during any unpleasant sexual encounter. I'll never stop being furious over how one sided sex is supposed to be in a patriarchal society.

I'll never get over how normalized coercion is. I'll never stop being furious how much I heard boys joking "50 no's and 1 yes is still a yes!" during my formative years, and hearing my friends talk about how they only had sex (that they hated and was painful) because their boyfriend wouldn't stop nagging them. I'll never stop being furious about all the coercion and pain teenage girls are expected to endure in their sex lives.

I agree that being told to expect pain during your first time is traumatising, and being expected to endure pain during sex is horrible. Sexual education should include information about everything that might cause discomfort to the person who is on the receiving end of sexual penetration, and advice on how to prevent it.

Tons of articles and also many people in the comments on this post say that foreplay can prevent pain during penetration - and of course it's true that people with vaginas require sufficient arousal, which leads to lubrication and relaxation of the vagina, in order to have comfortable sex.

However, one of the factors that affect whether the person is able to have comfortable vaginal penetration is the character of their hymenal tissue, which is rarely talked about nowadays because it seems like sometimes even mentioning this anatomical structure is seen as perpetuation of the inaccurate and heteronormative social construct of virginity. So I want to assure you that I do NOT believe in the concept of virginity and I am only talking about human anatomy here.

The hymen, also called the hymenal ring or the vaginal corona, is skin-like tissue that frames the vaginal opening - typically it is a few millimetres behind the vaginal opening itself. The thickness and elasticity of the tissue, and the size and shape of the opening (sometimes multiple openings) are extremely diverse: some hymens are fragile enough to tear during completely non-sexual activities such as exercise, some are stretchy enough to accommodate even penile penetration without tearing. Some people with vaginas are born without any hymenal tissue at all, and on the other end of the spectrum there are hymens that prevent menstrual fluid from leaving the vagina so a surgery is necessary to create a sufficient opening.

Just like tearing any other innervated tissue in our bodies, tearing the hymen might cause significant pain in some people. Thankfully, many people have the kind of hymenal tissue that doesn't hurt when stretched slowly and gradually, for example with tampon use or masturbation. Therefore people with vaginas who want to start having penetrative sex should be encouraged to get used to penetration with one or more fingers before trying to put anything thicker inside their vagina.

I think it's a little problematic that the diversity of genital anatomy and its effects on sex are so often forgotten. People who have comfortable and painless first times tend to say that foreplay and being turned on helped them but the truth is that they also very likely had sufficiently elastic or sufficiently stretched out hymenal tissue as well. And people who experience pain are usually told that they weren't turned on enough or their partner wasn't careful enough (that often is the case I'm not denying that at all), but in some cases, the reason for the pain might have been actual physical tissue stretching or tearing regardless of how much they wanted to have sex or how gentle their partner was, and the pain could have been avoided If only they had been told that the hymen was a thing and there were ways to prepare it for penetration in advance.

That's why we shouldn't just say "your first time shouldn't hurt and if it does, your partner is doing something wrong". We should say "there are several things to ensure that your first time is comfortable, and getting used to penetration beforehand is one of them." This attitude also increases the probability that people notice if they have an atypical hymen (such as the microperforate, septate or cribriform type) before attempting penile penetration, and instead of suffering pain and possibly significant bleeding from tearing the tissue, they can go talk to a doctor instead (sometimes a quick surgery in local anesthesia is enough to solve the problem).

*waves* I would also love it if medical professionals could consider examining hymen tissue for atypical development as part of their jobs because I went through nine motherfucking years of attempted Pap smears including a transvaginal fucking ultrasound before anyone noticed that I had an imperforate hymen. I could have done without that source of medical trauma please and fucking thank you.