This is true, but the canine fitness obsessive in me has to point out that actually very few dogs "graze" well. IME most dogs that are free fed are overweight; they just don't gorge themselves or get sufficient exercise so they don't reach extreme levels of obesity or suffer from conditions like bloat that overeating…

Back problems were my first thought too, though my mind went to intervetrebral disc disease. Dachshunds are already prone to IVDD and obesity is a contributing factor to developing it, and also exacerbates the condition and makes recovery difficult. Dennis was really lucky.

I do follow tennis and know about their friendship and still thought it deserved to be called out. Maybe Serena was 100% okay with it (although given the amount of racist bullshit she's had to face in her career, it could also have been a case of picking her battles with a clueless friend), but it was done in the…

Agreed. It also got a lot of criticism before it was even deployed because it basically just used algorithms to flag suicidal language...but "suicidal language" is so common that's basically useless. I mean, one of the sample phrases they used was "need someone to talk to." I posted a Facebook status last week that…

It doesn't help everyone, but it can and does absolutely help (and as cheerful_exgirlfriend said, even other negative emotions can prevent the immediate suicide). It seems counterintuitive to many of us, but most suicides are a very impulsive act. There are warning signs leading up (plans, suicidal ideation) but…

I also sing my dogs '60s folk songs to calm them down. We have a walking song that I sing when I take them out that goes along to the tune of "Blowin' in the Wind." Except now they know that tune means it's walking time so it doesn't really work anymore.

This is true, and (and before anyone defending this couple attacks me, I say this as a Christian myself) is especially likely among Christian adoptive families. Some are great, of course, but many have this savior complex. They see adoption as a calling from God and believe that if they take these children into their…

I mean to be fair, they're probably still safer than driving a car when you look at the statistics, but yeah...a lot of the crashes I've searched for don't even make the news. :/

He's been doing it for a long time too, or at least had an interest in it. I know someone who flew helicopters with him at least 20 years ago. The story I heard had Ford as a passenger so I'm not sure if he had his license or not, but the story at least had him as a very knowledgeable and interested person (sorry for…

Right, which is why I pointed out that my comment was a generalization. ;) I come into contact with many anti-choicers, being Christian myself (although a vehemently pro-choice one) and IME those that don't support that particular exemption are a tiny minority, even among the actual activists. It's certainly an…

To be fair (ugh), the exemption to save the life of the mother is pretty consistent with most of their beliefs (obviously going be to generalizing here, but this is the stance I see most often in anti-choice Christians). Most of them are fine with killing someone in self-defense or in war (Catholics in particular make…

I'm usually the last person to defend Santa Fe, but I think the common perfume bans also make sense considering the buildings a lot of those restaurants are in. At least the last time I visited the area, all the restaurants we went to that had that rule were in those little old adobes that are packed full of tables…

I'm well aware of the connection between anti-choicers and coercive adoptions, but this is why I think it's a stretch: Women already have the option in most states (including Indiana) to surrender newborns without counsel or investigation due to safe haven laws. It's literally already possible. This just removes a…

I don't really see the problem with that first one. If your friend's boyfriend had anonymously left the baby in one of these boxes, presumably she'd file a police report and they'd make the connection. She might have to do something to prove the baby was hers (a DNA test or whatever) but it's not like it would be that…

Yep. I also do it at outdoor festivals and things when I want to look nice, because any sunscreen I can find that a)doesn't make me break out while also b)actually working to protect against our terrible high-elevation desert sun basically attracts dirt and grease like crazy. Sometimes I'll wear a big wide-brimmed hat…

I'm really curious about that too. I was surprised to see NM in the top quintile because of those factors—many people love it (I grew up there and I love it, honestly, although I don't live there anymore so...) but it's very poor and has pretty significant problems with a lot of things like healthcare access and…

And sorry, I left this out of my other reply to you but no, it doesn't matter what kind of service they're doing. Anytime you see a dog working (which includes non-assistance service dogs like SAR or police dogs) you should assume it isn't okay to pet.

It's mostly a distraction factor. Dogs don't compartmentalize well and distracting the dog can get it out of "work mode" so then you then have to refocus them. It also may prevent them from picking up on their handlers' needs—to use a PTSD dog as an example, if someone is stroking the dog, it may not notice that its…

I'm pretty sure the VA doesn't provide service dogs for PTSD, nor does it support them by paying for necessary vet care and such like it does for service dogs that support physically disabled vets (this link seems to back me up: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/treatme…). So yeah, vets with PTSD have to go through…

That's how I read it too. "Child" is about the only gender-neutral term we have to make the relationship clear. You see it a lot in support groups and stuff that are open to all genders—"adult children of alcoholics" is a common term, as an example.