You’re sitting at a cafe with your friend when suddenly a woman walks in with a toy poodle in her purse. The manager at the counter informs her “I’m sorry, but we do not allow dogs”. She replies with a heavy sigh and a “She’s a service dog. She can come with me”. Not knowing much about service dog law, and worrying about getting sued for asking further questions, he sits this woman down at a booth. There, she promptly unzips her purse and places the dog on the booth seat next to her. When the woman’s food comes out, the little dog begs and she feeds her bits off her plate. This dog is not public access trained, and proceeds to bark at those who walk by. This dog is a nuisance and causes many in the restaurant to complain. The manager cannot do anything but inform the unhappy customers that this is a service dog, so he can’t ask her to leave. In the end, it’s the customers who end up leaving.
Now I walk in with my highly trained service dog pressed against my leg in a perfect heel position, and I’m quickly bombarded by the manager telling me “No dogs! No dogs! We ALL know what happened last time”. Confused, I tell him “This is my medical alert and medical response service dog. Her right to accompany me is protected under federal law.” With a sigh, he seats me at a table far away from others where my dog promptly tucks under my feet, out of sight. When my food arrives my dog is still tucked tightly under the table because she knows she’s not supposed to eat when she’s on duty. She stays there ignoring those who walk past for the remainder of my meal. When we leave, a woman by the door exclaims “Woah, I didn’t know there was a dog here!”
See the difference?
Scenario number two occurs at a local grocery store when a man decides to bring his certified emotional support animal into the store with him. Upon entering he flashes a fancy ID card and certification papers. This dog is not as unruly as the first, but he still forges ahead of his handler, sniffs the food on display, and may seek attention from those who walk past. You find this dog adorable, and when he and his owner walk past you ask to pet him. The owner says yes and explains how all he had to do was go online, register his dog, and a few weeks later they sent him a vest, ID card, and certification papers.
Now I pull into the same grocery store. I’m in a rush to get an ingredient for a dish I’m making so I hurry into the store with my service dog next to me. I’m quickly stopped by a manager who demands to see my service dog’s certification card. Remember, this is NOT required by law, and most real service dog teams don’t have them. After 15 minutes of trying to educate, pulling up the ADA website on my phone, back and forth bickering, and drawing more of a crowd than I want to describe… I’m finally allowed in. I grab my ingredient, stand in line (where my service dog obediently moves between my legs to make space for those around me), and I get bombarded by people asking to pet my dog. I explain that she’s working, she has a very important job to do, and she’s not allowed to be pet while on duty. People walk away grumbling and complaining about how rude I was when other handlers like the man they met earlier allow their dog to be pet.
Moral of the story? Fake service dogs create real problems. The ones who are impacted the most are the true service dog handlers who rely on their dogs every day to help mitigate their disability. How would you feel if everywhere you went, you couldn’t make it 10 feet in the door because people were asking you questions? Imagine how much time that would take out of your already hectic day. Businesses lose customers because word gets out that there are unruly dogs in their store, customers become misinformed and start thinking some of these behaviors are okay, some people even start to believe the lies that anyone can just register their dog online and make him a service dog. The result? MORE fake service dogs. MORE real problems.
I will reblob this until I die because it’s one of the few things that constantly genuinely infuriates me
Bob Marshall has been running anti-trans TV ads against her and sending out transphobic mailers (content warning: misgendering, transphobia.)
I know Danica Roem winning is a long shot but it would mean a great deal to me if she even came remotely close, as a bi/trans Virginian who’s dealt with Bob Marshall’s homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic shit for years.
She’s a seasoned investigative journalist for the local newspaper, who’s spent the last decade on the beat getting to know the problems of the district shes running for. Danica Roem is the most uniquely qualified person for Bob Marshall’s legislative seat because she knows, almost academically, exactly what’s wrong and how to fix it for the district.
During the last nine months, She’s focused her campaign on local issues: -fixing Route 28 by replacing traffic lights with overpasses throughout Centreville and replacing the traffic light at Orchard Bridge Drive with a flyover in Yorkshire; -bringing high-paying jobs to Innovation Park by finding a cost-effective way to extend the VRE westward from Broad Run to Gainesville with a stop at Innovation to make the area more marketable; -raising teacher pay in Prince William County and Manassas Park so it’s not the lowest in Northern Virginia; -expanding Medicaid to 3,700 uninsured residents of the 13th District who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line; and -making Virginia a more inclusive commonwealth, so welcome everyone no matter what they look like, where they come from, how they worship or who they love.
She was also born in the district, Bob Marshall is from maryland and made his way down to virginia to set up his demented operation.
But please please please if you are in manassas park or prince william county in Virginia do not forget to vote on November 7th, and bring a valid photo ID!
PS: she’s also in a metal band called Cab Ride Home
REMINDER: AGAINST SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE ODDS, DANICA ROEM WON!
Think of this next time someone tells you your vote ‘doesn’t matter’.
Reminder: The US midterm elections will will mostly be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Register here.
Another reminder, with the midterms only a few days away.
Check your registration and find your polling place here.
just wondering but why can’t something cute and childish exist without there being a subculture devoted to making it edgy or sexual. like? kirby doesn’t need to be drawn 3,000 times as an eldritch monster with a hyperrealistic mouth and demon eyes. there really isn’t a need for there to be any hentai of the animal crossing villagers, like at all. and alola vulpix definitely does NOT need a 3D butt mouse pad!!!!!!!!!
hey this post is getting taken over by gross people who think they own all children’s media and that drawing copious amounts of gore and porn of it is normal, could i get a few more good reblogs from good people?? it’d mean a lot to me
Like honestly the mlpfim owner specifically begged that bronies NOT sexualize one single specific brand new pony character that a child with make-a-wish had requested they make. And they still sexualized it. People like that are scum. Like I can sorta get wanting to make things edgy I guess? I mean edgelords are a thing. But like tag that shit at least so that kids and others don’t have to see it if they don’t want to. And if you think sexualizing characters designed for children is ever appropriate you need to sit down and look at your life choices. There are SOOO many characters for adults! Including cartoon characters! Let kids enjoy their shows and movies and look at their favorite characters online without stumbling on porn. It’s not hard
It’s World Mental Health Day! (October 10th.) So I thought it might be useful to compile mental health resources for the Jewish community into one post. If you know of any that aren’t listed, please feel free to add them.
RELIEF – connects/refers Jewish people to therapists and other
mental health resources (focuses mainly on the frum community)
Elijah’s Journey – suicide prevention for the Jewish community (Facebook page)
The Aleph Institute – provides spiritual support for Jews in
institutional environments such as prison, health facilities, and
rehab
No Shame On U – aims to de-stigmatize mental illness by providing
comprehensive education
OHEL – comprehensive services for those facing mental health issues, with professionals fluent in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew
Yad Rachel – for mothers facing postpartum depression, also helps educate family and health providers
Hey so fun fact, my dad is good friends the woman who currently has this job and she told him that Trump’s admin is trying to force her out. They started advertising the job before they actually told her they were transferring her so she’d have to reapply.
Her name is Catherine (Cassie) Conley, and she’s a badass MIT grad that works as NASA’s planetary protection officer, which sounds super cool (though she says not as cool as the galactic administrator). The job is basically the only one in xenobiology (space life) and it’s her life’s work. She’s been doing this job for over 10 years and now Trump wants her out.
I’m beyond pissed that this keeps going around. I know it sounds like a joke job, but it’s a legitimate career that’s being taken away from literally one of the most intelligent women in the country by this asscactus of a presidency.
If ya’ll could signal boost this that’d be much appreciated. They need to know that this kind of bullshit isn’t acceptable
I was actually reading about this job in an NPR article and it sounds REALLY important. the job basically means you make sure we don’t contaminate any planets and anything we bring back like rocks or soil, etc doesn’t do the same here.
i am shaking a lot right now and my heart is in my mouth and i’ve been crying on and off and on and off for the past two weeks, and i know that none of you give a fuck about brazil, and that none of you care about politics outside of the ones that directly affect you, but i am terrified. as a bissexual, socialist, umbandista, brazilian woman, i am terrified. and i am begging you to care.
in this year, we hold presidential elections. these elections are the most important in the history of brazil, for a very simple reason: now, that we are on the second round, we either elect a far-right candidate with authoritarian tendencies who flirts with fascism, or we elect a center-left candidate who belongs to the party that was in power for from 2002-2016, before a coup occurred mid 2016.
one of the candidates is fernando haddad, the man seen on this gif:
he was the mayor of são paulo, has been called by the new york times a ‘visionary’, was considered the greatest mayor of latin america, as his time as minister of education made over 100 federal, free institutes, ensured that the history of africa was taught in schools. he has a bacharel degree in law, a masters in economy and a phd in philosophy. he is currently a professor at an university. he gave free buses to children in public education, who could not afford it otherwise, lowered the corruption in the state of são paulo, created a better system for women to denounce harrassment and assault, and overall did a lot of good. i’m not going to spend 3 hours finding different sources for this, because you all don’t actually care.
the other candidate, is jair bolsonaro, and he is not the “tropical trump”, he is not our version of berlusconi. he is worse.
he has praised general carlos alberto brilhante ustra, who is known as the mastermind behind the tortures that occurred during the dictatorship. when he praised him, he did so when voting to impeach our former president dilma rouseff, who was tortured during the dictatorship, and fought for freedom. he has said that “if the crisis gets worse, we’ll shut down the congress” and install a dictatorship. he has said that the dictatorship should have killed more people, and tortured less. that it should have killed 30.000 people. that it should have killed our then president fernando henrique cardoso. he has said that his son would never marry a black woman because he gave him education. he has said that gay people are only gay because they were not beaten as children. he has said that indigenous people are lazy and greedy, that immigrants are the scum of the earth. he has said that women should earn less because they get pregnant. he has said that he would not rape a congresswoman, maria do rosário, because she is not worthy of it. he has said that his daughter is a woman because he got weak and could not produce another man. are you horrified yet? do you understand the problem yet? do you care yet?
in the beginning of the year, marielle franco, a poor, black, bissexual politician was executed. a street was named after her. here’s what people in his party did:
he is leading the polls currently, around 54-58% against 42-46%. ever since the first round of elections, last sunday (07/10), over 50 cases of assaults to people against bolsonaro have been reported.
here are some of them:
a black man was stabbed to death 12 times for saying he voted for haddad.
a woman had a swastika carved onto her belly for walking around with a shirt that said “ele não”, not him, the name of a campaign against bolsonaro.
a swastika was painted in front of a university, alongside the saying “get out blacks”
in different stadiums, football crowds sing “hey, fruit, beware, bolsonaro is going to kill f*gs”
to make things more worrying, the united states, who has knowingly backed up a military coup in 1964, has donated 96 BULLETPROOF MOBILS TO THE BRAZILIAN ARMY.
here are some cartoons on american newspapers:
if you want to get informed, if you care enough to do so, here are some sources in english:
A lot of people are really scared and angry because of the results of the newest climate change reports — as they should be. But I’m already seeing a lot of posts and news reports like “HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING” and bizarrely enough, the answers are never like “weed out climate change deniers from your government, impose strict new rules for the corporations that are creating most of the emissions, pour government resources into alternate forms of fuel, etc.” It’s always like “carpool to work!”
Look. Of course you should be working to reduce waste in your own life. But let’s not fucking pretend that consumers are the ones who made this mess. You know what another recent study found? Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. If the rest of us stopped ALL WASTE and fucking ascended to a higher plane of existence that no longer requires consumption of any kind, the world would still be absolutely fucked if those 100 companies keep on as they do.
I hate this personal responsibility model when it comes to conservation. By ignoring the actual source of the problem and focusing on individuals instead, guess who gets targeted? The absolute most vulnerable individuals on the planet. When people advocate personal responsibility, somehow they’re never talking about billionaires and their private jets. They’re creating straw bans that will make life more dangerous for people with disabilities. They’re shaming women for using disposable menstrual products. They’re criticizing the poor and destitute for using “wasteful” products because they’re all they can afford. They’re making vaguely eugenic statements about getting people in “third world countries” to stop ~breeding~ so much. It’s monstrous.
Stop shaming consumers for the sins of corporations and their powerful investors. Stop placing the blame at the feet of the people who already have the hardest time getting through life. Do something, and by “do something” I mean buy a reusable coffee cup on the way to fucking vote. Go to a protest. Call a representative. Demand accountability from the people who got us into this mess.
this is a good time to remind people that susan g komen is an awful breast cancer research foundation and you’d be better off donating to places like the breast cancer research foundation instead
It’s almost October, which these monsters have deemed their month, so please keep this in mind, too. Thanks.
Disheveled Mess 