Mutterings of an ex-liveaboard

Just found out my facebook birding group is public because my cousin (a lawyer who is not into birds) casually said to me “saw you couldn’t identify a willet the other day… pretty embarrassing”

I understand the stereotype of rich horse people but it's kind of gotten insane that anyone with a horse is now automatically seen as a landed gentry bourgeois so much so that people are straight up calling horses bourgeois creatures and calling for their ABOLISHMENT and even extinction like wtf is wrong with you. Don't let the era of the automobile erase the horses history as a beast of burden for the working class and farmers. Horses belong to the proletariat just as much if not more than the role of rich person's plaything.

People calling my bluff, I've seen it on twitter in the wild and it is quite weird

Most of the pro-extinction people are PETA aligned ARAs against horseracing but there's also people who are simply horse haters because of the rich person connotations

Have you guys never actually driven through rural America? 'Cus growing up in the South, there's places where people just have their horses and chickens in their yard with a tiny house back in the corner. And from my experience, those people love their horses and make sure their horse is cared for even if they themselves have to go without.

People use horses for things that they're the best at, there's just nothing quite as good to replace them with. They use them to round up livestock, they're used in agriculture, used to travel in places that were originally designed to be navigated by horse, not car.

There's horse racing, but I'm not talking about the "fancy" kind, I'm talking about kids barrel racing and competing against their friends, building community across small towns. Better than that, horses can be great therapy animals and working with them can be nice for kids and adults with a variety of disabilities. I remember my little brother riding horses as a kid to help build muscle and balance he didn't have because of a metabolic disorder.

Some people will really see something adopted or made to look more exclusive by the rich and label it evil without having the slightest clue what impact it has on "regular" people. They'll see a working dog or horse do anything other than be pet by a human and think it's animal abuse.

Yep. The same people will think a husky living in the texan suburbs left alone for 6 hours a day is living the dream life while denouncing working sled dogs as abused and neglected.

Ffs these people are so alienated from working DOGS that they see a lean one and immediately yell neglect just because it isn't obese. That's how disconnected they are from working animals.

There will always be bad people who work their animals to the point of abuse, or exploit them purely for profit in inhumane conditions (there are horror stories of tourist dogsledding companies, and of course the gambling empire built around horseracing where the animals are viewed as nonliving assets), but working animals actually enjoy working! It's what they were bred for, we selected those traits, and soo many pets go stir crazy when denied fulfillment of said instincts. But imo the first world has internalized the concept of work as miserable drudgery thanks to capitalism, and I think we project those feelings onto the animals we keep. that they must love this easy life in our living rooms and would actually find misery in work.

There's been studies measuring blood cortisol levels in horses before and after working and guess what, when done correctly they aren't distressed by pulling carriages, even in NYC!!

At worst this attitude can be downright harmful to vulnerable populations. For example, animal rights groups successfully petitioned to have horse carts banned from cities under the banner of welfare.

But these animal drawn carts are vital to Palestinians who have EXTREMELY restricted access to cars and certain roads by the apartheid government. This guise of humane animal rights can so often be weaponized against minorities. From the demeaning paternalistic attitude that these folk must not know what's best for them to actively sabotaging their culture by uprooting and destabilizing their way of life in an effort to assimilate them.

These people who say "just left machines do it" think it is by default the more humane option. Would you also goad on the systemic culling of Inuit sled dogs and replacement with snowmobiles that was pushed by the Canadian government in the mid 20th century? Do we really need more gas guzzling machines to replace something an animal can do better and also brings a sense of cultural fulfillment and connection to the world around us?

I'm sick of leftists who haven't left sheltered urban or suburban areas speaking on animal welfare and the relationships humans have with their animals when it's anything beyond a pet cat or dog. Wtf constitutes a useless animal!?? Shouldn't you be in Yellowstone larping as a Disney princess and harassing the bison? They are so disconnected from the rich history and culture humans share with our domestic animals.

combine magical girls and body horror for the ultimate transformation sequence

Happy easter

so shocked was I that I could not find an existing side-by-side that the lord compelled me

this is my favorite reddit thread of the day and i want to share it with you all

ITS MARCH YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

[ID: two denim patches with raised red fabric paint pinned onto a jacket. The first is in uncontracted Braille and reads, "I can't see shit". The second is in contracted UEB and reads, "if you can read this stop touching me". End ID.]

Shout out to my friends for inspiring some of the funniest patches I could possibly put on my jacket

Remember: If you make less than $73,000 a year, you are eligible to file your federal* taxes for free through the Free File program. Don't get sucked into paying money for it when you don't have to.

Here's the IRS website that shows you how. YOU MUST CLICK THROUGH IRS.GOV. If you don't, you won't qualify!

*some partner sites offer free state taxes too

Turbo tax also charges out the ass for state taxes *and* told me I couldn't file my federal return for free because I had an HSA!

How it started:

How it’s going:

Just a lil reminder that even if it doesn’t feel like it, even if it feels so fucking slow and you can’t see it at all, you do improve when you keep doing the thing. I love you. Hang in there.

The Neighbors Are Getting Drunk and Singing in the Wheat Fields Again

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WASH YOUR WATER BOTTLE IF YOU HAVEN’T IN A WHILE