I disagree. I’m old enough to remember when she was attacked for being too much of a radical leftist to be an acceptable First Lady, and I’ve followed her career since. I think she has to be on guard quite a bit so her charm isn’t as evident as Obama’s, but I’ve seen plenty of interviews with her where she’s warm and…

I’m sorry you had those experiences. :/ It does depend so much on where you live. My sister and BIL lived in a small town when their kids were born and raised them there until the oldest was 9, then they moved to a big city and not the best part of town. You should have heard my niblings whine about their restricted…

Absolutely. Hillary just cannot win.* If she’s strictly professional, she’s cold and robotic. If she loosens up, she’s pandering and faking, or, as you said, she runs the risk of being seen as exploiting her gender and being flirty or ditzy (‘ditzy’ is a charge I have actually seen leveled at her, which is absolutely…

For sure, and I’m not advocating a complete lack of supervision. What’s normal here is to have an adult at the barn (or at home, since most people just keep their horses in their yard), but the kids go out in the desert and do their own thing. If there’s an accident, one rides back quick to tell an adult. It’s just…

Haha, I think this is another one of those cultural differences. While my professional career was more English-focused, I grew up showing stock horses myself and most of my career was in breed shows where we did both English and western. :) But in the more rural areas where I’ve lived and worked, hacking/trail riding…

I’ve always liked Hillary, so I guess it’s not surprising that I think this, but I do think she’s held to such an unfair standard. I first saw this when a friend shared it complaining about her “pandering,” but the same person gushes over Obama’s cutesy and funny videos. It seems like quite a double standard (for the…

I’d never let kids ride totally alone (hell, I don’t think it’s smart for adults to ride totally alone, though I’ve done it when necessary), but even when I was working professionally as a trainer I didn’t really worry about slightly older kids riding without direct adult supervision. We did Pony Club and safety…

I just want to slap these people upside the head with a copy of “The Stranger Beside Me,” which is kind of the classic book in this vein. Ann Rule knew Ted Bundy and initially started out from a “the kind, friendly guy I know could never be a serial killer!” perspective and then, over the course of her research,…

I think it’s a pretty regional thing in the US. Where I live, it’s pretty common to see kids that young doing a lot by themselves. They can’t travel much alone because we don’t have public transportation, but they’ll walk a few miles to their friends’ houses or school, or go out hiking or horseback riding alone (or,…

I’m glad he wound up with you. Even actual teacup-bred dogs are generally unethically produced. It’s not recognized by any breed organization I’m familiar with, and selecting for extreme small size the way that teacup breeders do causes tons of health problems.

Suppressive person. It’s a Scientology term used to describe “antisocial” people (which usually means people who dislike Scientology).

A pro-life group tried to pass a ban like this in Albuquerque, NM (which is a rarity in that it has two clinics that provide late-term abortions), and the bill was pretty soundly defeated. Emphasizing why women get late-term abortions was a big part of the pro-choice campaigners’ strategy and I think it really paid…

I always found the flat-out refusal by so many people to believe that a wild canid could steal and eat a baby baffling. Sure, they’re not generally dangerous to people, but an unattended sleeping toddler is a different story. I live in an area with a ton of coyotes and I love them and have never felt threatened by…

Lindy Chamberlain (who most people probably know as the “a dingo ate my baby!” lady) is one of the clearest examples of this. Her stoic behavior after the disappearance of her baby, Azaria, played a big role in convicting her of killing the baby, at least in public opinion. There were certainly other factors, such as…

Exactly. I do think there is room to talk about the complex feelings that sometimes arise after a loved one with a severe mental illness commits suicide. A lot of people do feel some relief, and that is also often judged pretty harshly and really shouldn’t be. It’s not that different from nursing someone through a…

As someone who does SAR and has looked for a few planes, this is usually true. There’s a lot of information that typically doesn’t make it to the press because of the active investigation, or later just because reporters don’t understand it or don’t think it makes a good story or things like that.

If people aren’t willing to wait, I judge them really hard. The breeder I get my K9s from has a 2-3 *year* waiting list. In truth it often works out to a bit less than that because people back out and things like that, but that’s the time you should be prepared for. Top-notch breeders (the only ones we should be…

I wish people would stop talking about purebred dogs vs. shelter dogs as opposites (I know you’re not doing that, I’m just using your post as a jumping off point). About 25% of dogs in shelters are purebred; with millions of dogs being available for adoption every year, that’s a *lot* of dogs. They often don’t stay…

If you go through a breed rescue, it might even have papers. I used to be really involved with a border collie rescue and we had a *lot* of registered dogs come through with their papers. Papers are less common at municipal shelters but even then I’ve seen it with owner surrenders.

I always think the honey restriction is so weird because beekeeping actually helps bees. Apiarists are pretty important for preventing the spread of foulbrood and other diseases that can lead to colony collapse. They also save tons of bees by relocating swarms in populated areas, swarms that would run the risk of…