Republicans, objectively pro-puppy-torturing. From the ASPCA:
Missouri Legislature Guts Prop B, Rolls Back Puppy Mill Protections
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In an outrageous affront to the democratic process, on Wednesday, April 13, the Missouri House of Representatives voted 85-71 to reject the will of the state’s voters and eliminate all of the newly established humane improvements outlined in the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act (PMCPA). The PMCPA, which is scheduled to go into effect in November, was passed five months ago by popular vote as “Proposition B” to more tightly regulate conditions at the state’s thousands of commercial dog breeding facilities.
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Missouri is the number-one puppy-producing state in the county, supplying pet stores from coast to coast with hundreds of thousands of dogs annually, and is notorious for its lax animal-care standards and proliferation of unlicensed breeders. Unless it is vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon, the bill the House just passed (SB 113) will not only supersede the PMCPA—which includes such humane provisions as increased cage size, prohibition on the use of wire flooring and restrictions on breeding frequency—it will make parts of the state’s commercial breeding law even weaker than they are now…
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If the legislature succeeds in blocking implementation of the PMCPA, it could have consequences far beyond Missouri. States as close as Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska and as distant as Hawaii are currently considering puppy mill-related measures of their own. Unfortunately, lawmakers in these states are regarding these developments in the Puppy Mill Capital of America as a bellwether of reform. If the PMCPA is gutted in Missouri, your state’s puppy mill law might be next.
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The fate of millions of dogs now hangs on the decision of one man. The ASPCA implores all of our supporters to contact everyone you know in Missouri; ask them to call Governor Nixon to urge him to veto SB 113 (please do not call the governor if you live outside Missouri). You can also help by spreading the word about this injustice—please share this article via Facebook and Twitter.
Bidniz is bidniz, but I’m not sure how “Missouri, Determined to Keep Its Title as America’s Dog-Torturing Capital” can be construed as a tourism draw, except possibly for Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney. Anybody know where Governor Nixon is liable to stand on this issue?
(Thanks to commentor Duncan Donitz for the heads-up.)
The Dangerman
So they’re skull fucking puppies now?
Edit: Presumably, Republicans have decided that ANY regulation, even popular ones, are unacceptable. Only saying “no” is really easy governing, presumably.
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: All regulation hurts business fee-fees and causes our Galtian overlords to withold their productivity. So they r all ebil.
PS AL you’re missing the umlaut over the O in Duncan’s name.
mclaren
The way this economy’s going, they’d better add a rider to the bill making it legal to fricassee the pups and sell ’em with barbecue sauce.
Spaghetti Lee
@The Dangerman:
Only saying “no” is really easy governing, presumably.
I think that’s a part of it that may get covered up by all the ideological hoo-ha. I mean, why actually work at trying to understand issues and thinking creatively about how to fix them when you can just blurt out some canned excuse about big government and still have dim-eyed masses of teabaggers hanging on your every word? Man, talk about your easy gigs.
That Other Mike
Maybe they could get Michael Vick to be spokesman for the Missouri State tourism board.
Thoughtcrime
It’s just part of their negotiating strategy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scriptingnews/3116706556/#/photos/scriptingnews/3116706556/lightbox/
Martin
Woohoo! I am soooo gonna open up a puppy taco stand in St. Louis now. If Missouri is okay with puppy mills, they’re going to LOVE puppy burritos.
Yutsano
@Martin: IIRC there are Korean recipes for dog as well. Not that I would ever go there mind you, I doubt I could ever eat a dog.
Baud
Pure evil. But, hey, Obama issued a signing statement, so I guess we’re all even now. :)
Jay C
OK: I know this will probably draw the comment-ire of the “we/they aren’t ALL a gang of stupid vicious rednecks in [Insert Red State HERE]” crowd: but I really do not understand this. Can anyone – preferably from Missouri – explain why something like the PMCPA was so quick to be overturned by the Lege? I remember from online discussions last year, that dog-breeding is (for whatever reason) something of a pervasive cottage industry in Missouri: and that folks engaged in it might have to cut back on their “production” under the PMCPA’s provisions: but was the potential economic downside that severe that there was a major anti-Prop B lobby apparently ready to make a political push in favor of cruelty to puppies?
Are there that many bucks at stake? Is it just obsessive anti-regulatory ideology? Or is “stupid vicious redneckery” the answer after all?
Gina
Amazing what a lobbying arm in defense of the status quo can do. I see your Misery, and raise you one Alabama legislature beholden to the cockfighting lobby.
Amir_Khalid
@Yutsano: There are non-Muslim majority parts of rural Sumatra where dog is also served. And here’s a story I heard about the Vietnam War. Sometimes, a Vietnamese family would present a puppy to an American soldier, and the GI would have a pet for the length of his tour of duty. Then, when it was time to go back, he’d give back the dog, all grown and fattened up, and it would go right into the cooking pot.
I just don’t get it. What political principle could demand that cruelty to animals be allowed by law? How could it possibly be politically advantageous to repeal a popular law that forbids it?
Yutsano
@Jay C:
Yes. Plus it pisses off liberals, so it’s a golden opportunity for them.
Spaghetti Lee
@efgoldman:
Well yes, they love their dogs. Other dogs, however, are just grist for the mill. The ideology is called “I’ve got mine, fuck you” for a reason.
James E. Powell
I know nothing about Missouri other than that it tends to vote Confederate. So, tell me, is this a Republican v. Democrat thing, or is it a Big City Liberals v. Decent Country People thing?
Captain Howdy
@Jay C:
The gist of the argument against PMCPA was that Missourans were danged if they were going to let Beltway interlopers — namely the HSUS — tell them what to do. That’s what the Ag lobby, the state Veterinary Association, and even Joe the Plumberscrack said about the initiative.
piratedan
sure, we’ll restore the regulations as soon as you stop those dogs from organizing into a union!
Odie Hugh Manatee
Selling living beings who are kept in cramped, crowded conditions, in squalor and with minimal health care, just so you can profit from it? This is how Republicans fully embrace capitalism.
Wait until you see how they want the rest of us to live. They want us all to be their puppies.
Captain Howdy
By the way, if Governor Dixon doesn’t kibosh this, Missouri voters will be able to reverse the reversal, just by getting enough signatures to get the original bill back on the ballot.
Amir_Khalid
@Captain Howdy:
That’s their principle: simple petulance? OMFG.
Arclite
Hey Anne Laurie,
I really enjoy the stuff you post these days. Thanks.
Yutsano
@piratedan: POWAH 2 TEH PUPPEHS!!
MikeJ
@Jay C: The only thing I can find people saying on the record is that the regulations will cost breeders too much to implement. Which isn’t to say that the people saying it aren’t just evil rednecks that enjoy drinking puppy tears, but their statements that I’ve found[1] lean towards economics.
Of course they’re wrong on the economics too. Reputable breeders already allow adequate space per dog and don’t keep a hojillion of them.
[1] Not a comprehensive search. I’m sure somebody somewhere has said something far more evil that I didn’t stumble across in two minutes of googling.
The Dangerman
@Amir_Khalid:
We’re not talking the brightest bulbs on the tree; good grief, the major issue right now from the Right (perhaps after spending) is where Obama was born. Perhaps we need an amendment for weighting votes by IQ or similar…
BChang
As I recall, the law also limits a person to having no more than 50 breeding female dogs on your property. Opponents said this was an infringement on their rights and not good for business.
Hal
It would help enormously if people were far more aware of the effects of buying animals from stores, and weren’t so bread obsessed. If people knew their puppy mill dog might end up costing 100’s or 1000’s in medical costs, they might not be so eager to buy and go to a shelter instead.
gene108
Duh…puppies, like plastic cups, plastic toys, plastic flowers, etc. are just another mass produced quantity, which means they should be produced in the most cost efficient manner possible…(/sarcasm)
quaint irene
Never, ever, ever buy a puppy from a pet store. Even some ‘private breeders’ get their dogs from mills. You’re in the market for a dog? Your local animal shelters or breed rescue groups. Only! This has to be drilled into people’s heads.
It’s still an uphill battle. Hell, people still buy baby rabbits and live chicks for their kids as Easter presents.
J. Michael Neal
In general, I’m opposed to the referendum system. It leads to dysfunctional politics (though not necessarily to the extreme that it has in California) and undermines the basic premise of representative democracy. That said, if you do have a referendum system, it ought to mean something. Allowing the legislature to simply override referendum results seems to get basic sovereignty wrong.
maya
A marvelous opportunity for the Koch bros to start an Americans for Vivisection PAC as teabaggers wouldn’t know what that means, but they’ll sure like the money.
Snayke
One of the driving arguments behind rolling back Prop B was that of the 114 counties, it failed in over 100. St. Louis/Kansas City turned out so strong for Prop B that it negated the rural vote.
Legislators also said that voters didn’t understand what they were voting for.
piratedan
@J. Michael Neal: the referendum is needed when the asshats elected to the state lege don’t want to raise taxes even though its needed, so they go to the voters to impose it on themselves, or when there’s a bit of dumbfuckery (see Montana: cyanide leaching with mining) that needs to be undone because the wallets of those elected can’t be filled fast enough by those that want to bypass common sense.
ppcli
@Snayke: Perhaps if they passed an amendment to the state constitution mandating that “urban” votes count 3/5 of rural votes, they would get the results they want.
MikeJ
@piratedan: Sadly it more often happens the other way, like when the dumbfucks here in Washington, or California, or Colorado insist on tying the lege’s hands when it comes to taxes.
piratedan
@MikeJ: granted, but without the recourse, what options would Ohio have to overturn SB 5?
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Yeah, don’t get me started on Eyman’s latest little victory there. My only hope is the state Supreme Court chucks it out for some reason. But after the great gay marriage wuss-out I’m not holding much hope.
MikeJ
@piratedan: Elect better representatives.
Sko Hayes
@J. Michael Neal: I will be surprised if this doesn’t piss off some voters that weren’t even interested in the subject prior to this move by the legislature.
I’m on the mailing list of the Missouri Humane Society (not in any way connected to HSUS) and their outrage focused mainly on overturning the will of the voters.
@Snayke:Interesting statistics.
J. Michael Neal
@piratedan: I disagree. For one, I don’t think that referendums are very good at doing what you want. When was the last time a statewide referendum actually passed a tax increase? They are also gameable by moneyed interests, and sometimes allow for something horrible to pass that would never have made it through the legislature.
Beyond that, though, it undermines accountability, of both the legislators and the voters. If the legislature passes bad bills, the proper response is to elect better legislators. If you elect Republicans, they are going to fuck you in lots of ways, many of which won’t be dealt with by referendum. If you don’t like what they do, DON’T ELECT REPUBLICANS. That’s the responsibility of the voters. You don’t get a free pass on that.
piratedan
@MikeJ: am on it but the referendum is nothing more than a tool and its not much better or worse than watching laws proposed and enacted by the clueless, to wit: Arizona.
The Dangerman
@quaint irene:
So, pardon my ignorance, but when it comes time to finally get my chocolate lab puppy, how does one go about it the right way? AKC registration or similar?
MikeJ
@piratedan: Agreed. The biggest thing I would do to fix referenda is requiring a minimum turnout.
The argument against minimum turnout is, “if they didn’t care enough to vote, they get what they deserve.” Which is fine when it comes to picking reps. When it comes to laws that are passed by “popular” vote, you can’t really call it the voice of the people if more people didn’t turn out to vote yes.
Ideally I’d say no referendum could pass without the vote of 50%+1 of registered voters(possibly even of eligible voters), not people who did vote. Not voting would be voting “no”.
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: Look into a rescue organization, I’m sure there’s lots of them in SoCal. Or get in with the local shelter, they do take in stray mutts but often they do purebreds as well. If all else fails and you want a purebred, inspect the living shit out of the breeder. Check their records, talk to their vet, their neighbors, look for any major red flags. Basically if you do your homework you won’t be abusing the system.
stuckinred
@Hal: The cocker we rescued is a money pit. . .and worth every penny!
piratedan
@J. Michael Neal: ummm 2010, AZ passed a 1% tax hike designed to fund education and health care…
Butler
Hold on just a fucking minute here! In that same election back in November the people of MO passed another initiative which was supposed to block the individual mandate of the health care law. That stupid vote has been held up as “proof” by Republicans that “real Americans” reject Obamacare. And now those same fucking Republicans are overturning the will of that exact same electorate in order to allow the torture of puppies!
These campaign ads should right themselves, and if we had any sort of legitimate media or if the Democrats had any kind of brains or balls they would see this as a huge gift.
dlnelson
I honestly believe there has to be something wrong with the voting process, news entertainment, low IQ, there is obviously something seriously wrong in the us of a. What is wrong with people. This country is being r a p e d by corporate america. Why do people want puppy mills, why does the south continue to disappoint. Why do old folks vote against their own best interests. It is disgusting. The folks that run these mills are heartless, I have a neighbor with two dogs that are penned outside every day, no human contact unless the owner is disappointed. If you own a dog, it has to be part of the family. No excuses. Naturally, he sires his dog and makes money. A hole. (does not do it (breeding) right).
apocalipstick
@James E. Powell:
It’s the latter. Missouri has three metropolitan areas–St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield. Everyplace else is ruuuuuuurrrral. Lots of Ozark folk don’t like people from St. Louis and KC telling them what to do. Add in the fact that Branson is Missouri’s biggest tourist attraction, and that crowd’s not going anywhere else (except maybe Pigeon Forge, TN), and you’ve got a real urban/rural divide.
Gina
@The Dangerman: What Yutsano says, if you are partial to a specific breed you can find a breed rescue. If you do use a breeder, look for a Code of Ethics breeder. I also strongly recommend not patronizing any breeder of anything that doesn’t do rescue, whether they are Code of Ethics or not. It’s an excellent litmus test. FWIW, if you are looking for a pet, not planning to show for conformation, you don’t need to go to a breeder to get a great dog.
AKC registration is not a sign of good breeding – puppy mills and pet stores are their bread and butter.
I’m in the northeast, a lot of breed rescues up here pull from shelters down south, there are humane transport companies and volunteers who will bring the dogs up. FWIW, our Rottie rescue just had a *fantastic*, gorgeous chocolate lab, he had been turned in to a local shelter for such really solid reasons as “didn’t know he’d be so active” and “was too big”. He was young too, just over a year. He found a great home right away.
I recommend that if you decide to do go the rescue route, take some time to check out the ones that serve your area. There can be crappy rescues as well. Visit their adoption fairs, meet the people involved, see how transparent their operation is.
I advise you to avoid rescues that don’t foster their dogs – some rescues will pull from high kill shelters, but send the dogs directly to boarding. While it saves lives, it can end up making for a deteriorating health and mental health status for the dog. I personally recommend that people adopt from rescues that have the dogs in foster for at least a couple of weeks first.
Also, please consider a non-puppy. Contrary to popular lore, “old” dogs can definitely learn new tricks. I speak from firsthand experience as well as from observing other adopters’ and rescuers’ experiences. Often you’ll find large breed dogs up for adoption that are young, like a year or two old, because people liked the cute puppy, but found themselves unprepared for the bigger version.
Martin
@Yutsano: Yeah, we’ve got a taco truck out here called Kogi taco. It’s Korean taco and it’s phenomenal. So I’m thinking korean puppy short rip tacos.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
It’s honestly fucking amazing. Does Missouri’s economy really rest that much on Puppy Mills, that bowing to the runners of these fucking torture farms was THE tantamount thing for the state legs? And ‘the voters really didn’t understand what they were voting for’. And yet, they trumpet to high heavens that the voters knew enough about the PPACA to reject it wholesale.
God, it really simply is about fucking contrarianism and making sure the hippies are well and punched, no matter who gets punched along with them. Even making sure puppies are actually, you know, healthy and not mass produced like a fucking christmas card is too fucking much if even one hippie supports it. Oh, and can’t ever ever ever harm a ‘business’, even when the business is fucking immoral as shit.
sal
How can the legislature overturn a referendum? That just doesn’t sound legal. What would the point of a referendum be in that case.
Anne Laurie
@The Dangerman:
Unfortunately, AKC ‘registrations’, or any other ‘papers’ offered by a petshop, are worth less than the paper it’s printed on. When you’re ready to bring home your puppy, first do your research (it’s a 10- to 20-year commitment, give it as much effort as you would the purchase of this year’s ipad). Go to the national Lab Breed Club, find some breeders in your area, and make a point of visiting the kennels & meeting not just your puppy but its mother, siblings, and whatever other dogs are on the premises. (If the seller won’t let you visit, or if they have only one or a few motherless puppies, they’re ripoff artists re-selling puppy mill products. Craigslist, unfortunately, has made this a growth area.) If you can find it in your heart, look into your local breed rescue groups as well, and see if your ‘perfect pet’ might not be a recycle! Labs have been the ‘most popular’ breed in America for some years now, so you’ll be spoilt for choice!
cbear
@The Dangerman:
If you’re set on a purebred lab go to the Labrador Retriever Club of America website and find your state or local club. Call em up and you’ll find someone more than willing to help direct you to reputable breeders in your area.
MAKE 100% sure that the parents of your pup have OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) certification for their hips.
Good luck, they’re great dogs.
Martin
Oh, and wait until the GOP decides that the current disposable puppies isn’t ideological enough and demands non-compostable puppies. That’s going to be an ugly, ugly day:
“This 6 week old Jack Russell Terrier is cute, but it’s useless. It can’t even penetrate lettuce. Proud Americans deserve puppies made from sturdier stuff.”
PIGL
They are Republicans; look no further.
In all seriousiosness: modern Conservativism is a death cult. Cruelty, pain, torture and death are their goals.
Look at the positive quivering eaqerness with which torture was adopted as national policy.
Look at the economic policies favouring the “discipline” of the market, a daemonic sadist’s dungeon into which we are one and all to be bound. It’s not enough that we be robbed, we must have our entrails removed and fed to the rats as these Pirates watch.
Consider their chauvanism. Their mysogyny—but the word is too mild. Look rather at their blistering hatred for women, and of most men who aren’t white and rich. At their contempt for the natural world and for their fellow creatures who inhabit it.
There is nothing so horrific, so offensive to the sensibilities of decent human beings, that these motherfuckers will not support it, provided it put some money into the right pockets.
Stand by for the contrarian think tanks to fabricate evidence that we are the real puppy killers.
I feel like I am living in the time just before the fall of Numenor, when Sauron had been “captured” by the King….and a few years later, the victims were being carried to the new new black temples to be burned. Few then would say that evil was loose in the world. Who will say it now?
Kirk Spencer
I hate that they did it, but the reason is simple: the legislators mostly voted as their constituents wanted.
Here’s a link to the results showing yea/nay by county. Notice how almost every county result was no. Now consider – you’re representative X of the counties in the northwest corner who all voted “no” on this. Do you vote based on the state average, or on how the constituents of your area voted?
cbear
@PIGL: Not to mention their strange sexual predilections:
No way that guy ain’t a gooper.
Anne Laurie
@apocalipstick:
I wonder if Dolly Parton could be convinced to do a ‘don’t buy from factory breeders‘ PSA?
(Don’t mind me, I just love Ms. Parton. Not enough to travel to Pigeon Forge, tho.)
PIGL
@cbear: I wonder that he is only restrained from contact with that one particular horse….my probation orders would have referred to barnyards in general.
PhoenixRising
“This 6 week old Jack Russell Terrier is cute, but it’s useless. It can’t even penetrate lettuce. Proud Americans deserve puppies made from sturdier stuff.”
Ahem…having been bitten by a JRT pup last month I’d like to mention that the oetturce doesn’t have a shot.
As to getting a puppy: think twice. Then again. Adult dogs are SO much less work.
Kathy in St. Louis
We also had a vote several years ago on “conceal and carry”, which voted down carrying concealed weapons. The legislature did the same thing. Lots of poor city people here in Missouri are held hostage by the no nothings from rural Missouri. They love guns and all right-wing theories. They hate, Kansas City, St. Louis, all those smarty-ass liberals who live there, Democrats, black people, legalized abortion and unions. They love the Chamber of Commerce, guns, huntin’ and the bible, word for word. I’m sure there are worse legislatures in this country…I have to keep telling myself that or go into full despair.
It’s embarrassing to tell people I’m from Missouri.
MikeJ
@Kathy in St. Louis: They also hate Hohumbia, since it’s full of those no good kids from KC and STL.
Ecks
@James E. Powell:
St. Louis votes dem, the rest of the state votes confederate, and the upshot is it’s a swing state that has voted for hte winner of every federal election except 3… One of which was 2008 where we went for McCain by a tiny sliver (after a couple of recounts – it was close). I think recently the tea tard has been getting stronger in the place.
@BChang:
Well if that’s the problem, that’s why god invented ammendments. I don’t think you’d any major outrage in reaction if you just altered the bill slightly to ease that particular provision.
Ecks
@MikeJ: Went furniture shopping a year or two back at a place 20 minutes outside Columbia and forgot I was wearing my Obama t-shirt… guy nearly didn’t let me in the store (and funnily enough we bought nothing there).
Talked to a shuttle driver here a while ago who was from E. Europe somewhere, and he thought the people N. of highway 70 were ok, but anywhere south of there he would get a lot of biggoted crap.
On the upside me and a buddy hitchhiked around MO a while ago, and everyone was really nice to us. But then we were white and middle class-looking.
piratedan
@Ecks: c’mon now, dogs are just like bullets for your semi-automatic, you can never have enough
MikeJ
@Ecks: I never did learn the fascination with walnut bowls, but I do remember the billboards up and down 70.
I just concentrated on preventing new columns being erected.
apocalipstick
@Anne Laurie:
Ms. Parton has a Dixie Stampede in Branson, a lovely eatery featuring a “history” of America that casts the Civil War as “a disagreement among family.”
Ecks
@MikeJ: The local walnut trees have good wood apparently.
Also I’m told the story with the billboards is that they were going to pass a law banning any more of them being built, so the billboard firms went crazy trying to put up as many as possible before it came into effect. Then the law never happened and now we have a bajillion. Someone told that to me, so it must be true.
Ecks
@apocalipstick: It WAS a disagreement among family. Brother Bubba said he should be able to own the family next door and beat them and use violence to make them work for him in return for minimal subsistence, and Brother Abraham said that no, he wasn’t allowed to do that. One thing lead to another, and eventually there was a bit of a dust up, in which a few knuckles were scraped, the odd chin bruised, maybe an eye or two blackened, and a few hundred thousand people died. Abe won, and Bubba has been muttering about it and acting out ever since.
stannate
@Ecks: I never knew that about the billboards, as Missouri is quite conspicuous with the quantity lining its interstates when compared to its neighboring states (and don’t get me started on the confusing frontage roads along I-70). The billboard forest is especially bad around Columbia/Jefferson City, and when you’re within 50 miles of Meramec Caverns. I think the only interstate that doesn’t have a forest of billboards is a section of I-29 that’s north of St. Joseph.
Anne Laurie
@apocalipstick:
For “Scotch-Irish” families like mine, that’s a polite description but not an inaccurate one, sadly.
Jim
It’s Missouri, hell they only outlawed bestiality a few years ago and even then only after a pair of women legislators, a liberal Dem from StL and a Christianist Repug from somewhere that resembles Arkansas, teamed up to embarrass the old boys.
J. Michael Neal
@stannate:
The stretch of I-94 in Indiana, running from Chicago to southwest Michigan, is very impressive, too. Did you know that you can get 6 fireworks for the price of 1 at Crazy Kaplan’s?
MikeJ
@Anne Laurie: One of the legends about the columns in Columbia, MO I alluded to earlier is that brothers fighting for opposite sides in the civil war killed each other (sorry, my memory of it is foggy) at the base of one that doesn’t grow ivy.
Of course the more popular story about them is that there is one column on the quad for every virgin that has ever graduated.
caune
Thing is if you get your dog from a breed rescue there is a big chance that he was born in a puppy mill. Popular pure bred dogs are cranked out at the speed of sound and often end up in rescue. I got my first Jack Russell (from rescue) when the craze for them began and she had tons of health issues and at the age of 8 just went to sleep and never woke up.
If you are going pure bred of any kind just have a “dog bank account” in case you have medical bills.
Ecks
@MikeJ: I don’t think any of htem have Ivy anymore. It’s hell on stonework I believe.
I like the story about the columns representing graduated virgins, and now I want to start a matching one that the quad in Kansas has one blade of grass for every virgin graduated.
Matt
No worries, I’m CERTAIN the teabaggers will turn out in force to make sure the will of the people is respected… ;)
tom p
@apocalipstick:
That is it in a nut shell. Which is really funny because they have no problem at all in sharing the tax revenues from KC and STL.
@Kathy in St. Louis:
Kathy, right on the first point, wrong on the second. I live in Washington co. and most of the people around here don’t even know what the Chamber of Commerce is.
Bulworth
I can’t believe we’re losing to these people.
Mark D
As a nearly-lifelong Missouri resident, here’s my take, in
fivesix easy pieces:1. It’s a fucking embarrassment that these assholes overturned a law that passed with more than 60% voter approval. Hopefully, Nixon will veto it — and I think he will, given a lot of the outcry over it.
2. There are actually only two large cities in Mo. — KC and StL. Springfield is a 98% white, conservative-dominated university town . Sadly, the large state university at its center doesn’t come close to balancing out the crazy everywhere else. Trust me — I spent **cough**six**cough** years there and couldn’t wait to leave.
3. IIRC, the big reason this was nixed by the legislature had to do with the massive agricultural-based $$ that dominates huge parts of the state. After all, not all puppy mills are ran by mom-and-pop. Quite a few are HUGE businesses.
4. Also, too, IIRC, there was some lie floating around about how this was going to affect cattle breeders and the like, which also didn’t help things. Once that got out, a few big ag players lost their minds and pressured their legislator.
5. Conservative pet owners don’t give a shit since a.) they see any regulations as bad; b.) they’re convinced the Bible gives us the right to do whatever we want to the Earth and its animals. So no skin off their backs (so to speak).
6. It pisses off those liberal PETA types, so bonus points for that.
The sad part is that everyone I have talked to is mad as hell about them overturning the law. I’m just not sure conservatives in Jefferson City give a shit.
Mark D
@Ecks: “St. Louis votes dem … ”
As does most of KC.
And to anyone driving through the state: SORRY ABOUT THE BILLBOARDS.
Seriously. We have the ugliest highways in the history of all mankind. Though they can help keep you awake by playing the “Alphabet Game” — just go through the alphabet by finding words that start with each letter.
Helped me during a drive home from St. Louis one time — probably would’ve wrecked otherwise.
Phoebe
2538167″>Kathy in St. Louis:
St. Louis. We live in St. Louis. One of the most beautiful cities in the country, especially today, especially if you ignore everything past 170. I don’t fucking live in MISSOURI. That place is a shithole.
WereBear
@The Dangerman: It all depends: why do YOU want a chocolate lab?
Because you certainly don’t want a puppy mill dog; they are pathetic genetic nightmares that would scare Dr. Frankenstein. If this is your “dream breed” find a good breeder, who raises the dogs underfoot and you can meet their relatives.
Don’t be scared of rescue; with some good fostering behind them, you have as good an idea of what you are getting as you would with a breeder.
And I would urge you to consider lab mixes, even so; you get the delightful hybrid vigor, and the lab temperament, like vodka, makes them a delightful mixer. Considering their popularity, you have dozens of potential ways to go. Puppies, too, sadly.
I’ve found that “pedigreed” dogs are considered better, but are usually far worse; breeding for the show ring emphasizes all the wrong things, and the inbreeding is a dirty little secret that creates bone-deep crazy minds. The last thing you want.
Phoebe
@quaint irene: The Petco and Petsmart here have shelter days where shelters bring their dogs in and one can adopt them. I adopted a mutt from the Dent County Animal Shelter on April 2. She’d been there for a year. She’s clingy as hell, but relaxing more every day.
OK Missourians:
http://my.missourifordogs.com/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=21