When it happens, when Kavanaugh is confirmed, I will have a deadline for death
Sodomy laws are coming back
In Justice Scalia’s dissent in the case of Lawrence v. Texas
(which struck down the sodomy laws) Scalia lamented that, “Today’s
opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a
law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called
homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some
homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that
has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct…. [T]he Court has taken
sides in the culture war, departing from its role of assuring, as
neutral observer, that the democratic rules of engagement are observed.”
In other words, Scalia was arguing that “moral opprobrium” is an
appropriate basis for law, and was angry at the court for deviating from
that standard. He also argued that these laws should only be struck
down by legislatures. Today, 14 years later, despite being ruled
unconstitutional, 12 states still have sodomy laws on the books.
Fast forward to 2018, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions was speaking at the Department of Justice Religious Liberty Summit. He deliberately echoed Scalia’s complaint in Lawrence, stating, “We have gotten to the point where courts have held that morality cannot be a basis for law;
where ministers are fearful to affirm, as they understand it, holy writ
from the pulpit; and where one group can actively target religious
groups by labeling them a “hate group” on the basis of their sincerely
held religious beliefs.”
This was not an accident. This was a message delivered to the
religious right; he will do everything in his power to make morality a
basis for law. He still wants sodomy laws on the books, and will work
with the ADF and other organizations to overturn Lawrence. This is not nearly as implausible as it sounds. In fact, with a 6-3 majority, it’s highly probable.
Keep in mind that Lawrence is based on the concept that there is a right to privacy, which was found in Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade. Court conservatives, including Roberts, loathe the concept
of a right to privacy. After years of a 5-4 majority, this right is
likely to be substantially weakened, along with the rights of LGBT
people. At the same time, the Roberts court will likely have
strengthened states’ rights. All of these will make getting to an
effective reversal of Lawrence that much easier.
Let it also not be forgotten that Jay Sekulow is the chief counsel
for the Center for American law and Justice, and on President Trump’s
legal team. He submitted an amicus brief in support of sodomy laws in
Lawrence v. Texas. One of his signature quotes is, “If anyone tells you
that you cannot legislate morality, remember that legislation IS
morality.” I have no doubt that the ADF, the Attorney General, the White
House, and the conservative members of SCOTUS would all like to find a
way to effectively overturn Lawrence.
And neither should you.
Given that all the people involved getting to this outcome want the
same thing, assuming that it will not happen is what Alan Greenspan
referred to as “irrational exuberance.”
like seriously their brain-to-body size ratio is equal to that of a chimpanzee
They vocalize anger, sadness, or happiness in response to things
they are scary smart at solving puzzles
some crows stay with their mates until one of them dies
they can remember faces
SIDENOTE HERE BECAUSE HOLY SHIT. They did an experiment where these guys wore masks and some of them fucked with crows. Pretty soon the crows recognized the masks = douchebag. But the nice guys with masks they left alone. THEN, OH WE’RE NOT DONE, NO SIR crows that WEREN’T EVEN IN THE EXPERIMENT AND NEVER SAW THE MASK BEFORE knew about mask-dudes and attacked them on sight. THEY PASSED ON THE FUCKING INFORMATION TO THEIR CROW BUDDIES.
They remember places where crows were killed by farmers and change their migration patterns.
A colleague of my dad’s lives next to a lake, and looked out the window one morning to see a duck trapped in the ice. A crow swooped down. “Oh hell,” she thought, expecting carnage, because crows are opportunists. But the crow chipped at the ice with its beak until the duck was free.
Idk of this counts but a few crows saved me from a magpie swooping attack once ,they’re bros who can tell when magpies are being unreasonable and need to chill
I love crows so damn much. When I was fifteen, I hit a pretty serious bout of depression, to the point I was in my room for months. Well, a family of crows made a nest in a tree outside my window. There were two parents and two chicks. One chick was healthy and strong. One was weak, and had a caw like something being strained. It sounded more like a rooster crowing and so my parents jokingly named him ‘Buck’.Well… months passed and Buck’s sibling was taught to fly. His parents focused on the sibling because the sibling was strong. The father stayed behind to try and teach Buck, but I saw him try to fly, fail, and crash to the floor. His father helped him back up into the tree.
Every day, I would watch Buck from my window until one day I opened it and started talking to him. He was small and gangly and he couldn’t caw right. His feathers were all over the place and I felt a kinship. So I made a deal with him. I told him that if he could do it, if he could fly, then I could find the strength to get up. Well… near the end of the season, after talking with him every day, I finally saw him get out of the nest. He went to the edge of his branch, braced himself, and jumped… and just before he hit the ground, he soared back up into the sky. I cheered harder than I ever had before.
That winter, Buck left the area. I was crestfallen. I felt like I’d lost a friend. But I was so damn proud of him.
Cut to the next spring? I’m walking up the driveway one day when suddenly I hear a sound… a broken caw. I look up, and Buck is sitting in a tree above my head. He stared at me and puffed his feathers, then hopped down in front of me and cawed again. I was so damn thrilled, and I told him how proud I was of him. He ruffled his feathers and then soared off into his old tree.
That summer? I heard two broken caws. One from Buck… and one from his chick.
Cut to ten years later? We have a family of crows who all have a very distinct caw and they come here and spend every spring, summer, and fall on our property. Buck still greets me every spring.
that last reply made me wanna cry. that’s so beautiful.
this one morning i kept hearing really loud caws, i remember it was like 5am, LIKE REALLY LOUD AND ANNOYING AND AGGRESSIVE, so loud that i could hear it through a closed window, and i eventually went outside to check it out. there was a crow on my front lawn, it had an injury on its head and couldn’t fly and there were two other crows circling right above it, and they were cawing like mad.
i tried to get close and take a better look and one of them dived super low and tried to attack me. so i went back in the house and chopped some sliced raw meat and tossed it at him from a distance.
a few more times later, very soon after, they could tell i was trying to help, and did not attack me. i was “allowed” to walk up close and pick him up, he couldn’t drink water properly so i had to dip my finger in a bowl and stick it in his mouth.
i did this few times a day and it went on for about a week before he disappeared, i thought he recovered and left, but he came back the next day and lands on me, and i see him around the block quite often, and he would come sit on my shoulder for a few minutes and then fly away again. i feel like i’ve adopted a son.
Best birbs !!
your son is Beautiful and Strong
every time I see this post it has different crow stories and every time I reblog it again because all crow stories are good stories
Like, I wouldn’t want to be on bad terms with a crow, but they are a really smart animal, they aren’t scary You just want to be nice to them because they will know and they will remember, and they will pay you back if you treat them a certain way.
As a side note, I volunteered at a rehab (Hope for Wildlife), where they were rehabbing a crow with a broken wing–who was named Russell Crow. He kept pulling his bandage off so a sleeve was cut off some old clothing and put on him like a little sweater.
!!!!
I don’t think I’ll ever not reblog this. This posts makes me cry and smile at the same time.
I’m fucking pissing myself.
You know how all of Jupiter’s moons are named after his lovers and affairs?
Yeah. NASA is sending a craft to check up on Jupiter.
You know what the craft is called?
JUNO.
Who’s Juno?
JUPITER’S WIFE.
NASA IS SENDING JUPITER’S WIFE TO CHECK ON JUPITER AND HIS AFFAIRS AND LOVERS.
FUCKING NASA
Protip: Since it’s inception NASA has been comprised of 75% magnificent bastards and 25% tricky dicks
This is a song ground control used to wake the astronauts with. It is the earliest form of Micspam i can think of. It’s also the only song to ever be banned by NASA.
NASA invented Micspam.
IS THAT EVEN A FUCKING SONG!?!?!?!?!?!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
During the apollo missions, They were fairly sure they were gonna die, so NASA gave them all corvettes
Which they proceeded to dragrace around the NASA complex, do burnouts and doughnuts and all kinds of tomfoolery
Then there was the time Al Shepard went to the moon, and it simply wasn’t enough.
So he brings a fucking golf club to the moon and plays golf on the moon.
The man had an engineer make him a custom golf club he could hide in his suit, just so he could goof off.
Then there was a time they drew a dick on mars
The boys at NASA sure knew how to have fun on the job.
I love space nerds
I hate the fact that many people think that scientists are dull people with no sense of humor or love for cultural things. I mean look at this. Please stop the prejudices.
I’m going to keep insisting that severely mentally ill and disabled people who can’t function independently in our society, who can’t live up to arbitrary standards for productivity and independence, who aren’t capable of working or studying or who can’t do so to the degree they’re expected to, I’m going to keep insisting that we are just as valuable and that we’re just as human and just as deserving of compassion and respect as your average ablebodied neurotypical, that it’s important that we’re here, that it’s a goddamn blessing that we’re here. I’m going to keep insisting that we’re good enough as we are, that we’re important as we are, that the resources we use couldn’t be used any better, that we’re irreplaceable, that our existence is inherently valuable regardless of whether we ever get a job. I’m going to keep fighting the capitalist separation of people into “contributors” and “burdens.” I’m going to keep arguing that we’re all valuable and that we all deserve to be here no matter what. I’m going to die on this hill and that means that the most radical thing I can do is refuse to die. If I let this society and its view of me kill me, what are all the young people who’ll grow up to be in my situation think? I want to show y’all that you deserve to be here and I can only do that if I keep resisting and keep surviving. So I’m going to do that. For the people who need to see someone like them survive and make it, against all odds, despite all the people who think I’m not worth it, despite all the people who’d rather people like me didn’t exist. I’m going to goddamn show y’all. Cause somebody out there in a situation similar to mine might need to see someone like them live and survive and refuse to feel bad about doing it.
My favorite hobby is describing socialism without using the word “socialism” and watching everyone in the room agree with me.
Guy at work: *bitches about work*
Me: “Yeah, well, that’s the way it goes. See, the company can only make money off of the work we do, so they’re never gonna pay us what we’re worth; you don’t get paid for eight hours’ work, you get paid for working eight hours. That’s how they make bank. So the relationship between us and management is always gonna be adversarial. Why you think [boss] is such a dickhead? He’s incentivized to be a dickhead.”
Guy: “That….that actually makes a lot of sense.”
Me: *stares into the camera like on The Office while ‘The Internationale’ plays in the background*
This post was ghost written by Obama
I wish I lived in this make-believe world of y’all’s where Obama is a socialist and Democrats cared about working people. Sadly I live in the real world where we gotta worry about real shit.
This is the world’s largest flying Engine of Murder marveling at the fact that it can actually have its tummy rubbed.
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.
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.
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.
reblogged for excellent info, I’m so glad that big gorgeous birb really is as happy as it looks!
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.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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