Modern Eugenics

I see proponents of racial purity every day.  Examining eyes,  height, coloring, posture, head shape, even tongue color!  These sickos support enclaves of racial purity that operate for profit, perpetuating the lie that there is an ideal type that comes from proper lineage.  On national television I see the perverted displays of inbreeding to create the perfect specimen.  I say unto you that this is an outrage!

Look at the royals, people!  Health comes from natural reproduction, not reproduction amongst similar types with the hopes of creating perfected offspring!  Eugenics is a sick pseudo-science that ignores the need for genetic diversity.  It should be illegal, I say.  Illegal!  Particularly given the number of homeless mixed-race orphans wandering the streets, craving love and a home.

Caught on yet?  Dog-breeding is wrong.  WRONG!  I don't give a rat's ass about the predictability of the so-called "pure-breed." For some reason, the ideas that we have dismissed the whole idea of a closed genetic pool as evil (think Nazis), somewhat stupid (royals), or straight-up perverted (Arkansas).  Some of our most impressive athletes (Tiger Woods), politicians (Obama), musicians (Lenny Kravitz), and even bloggers (yours truly) come from some extremely mixed stock.  What does that make us?  Genetically diverse! Healthy! Attractive! (American!)

My own darling dawg gets compliments every day.  Every. Single. Day.  I shit you not.  People roll down their windows at stoplights to compliment him.  They pull over to the side of the road.  They turn around and run to catch up with us.  "Oh my God, your dog is so beautiful.  What breed is it?"  Sorry folks.  He's a bit of this and a bit of that.  Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what my little boy is made of.

Dog shows are sick, a parade of genetically "pure" freaks with over-exaggerated features and a short lifespan.  Ye Olde Dogge Pound is full of healthy, robust dogs that desperately need a forever home.  Why, oh why, would you go to a "breeder" when there are dogs out there that need you?

Don't shop.  Adopt.

Behind Agricultural Lines

It seems these days that you can't go online or turn on the news without seeing another example of how the corporatization of agriculture has resulted in new lows of animal cruelty on a mass scale.   Iowa has responded, not with animal rights reform or explanations that shed a different light on photos and film footage taken covertly by animal rights activists but rather with the so called "Ag-Gag law." This law criminalizes misrepresenting one's self in order to gain access to farms for the purposes of exposing their practices.
I grew up in farm country.  Most farmers are honest, decent, hardworking folks who treat their animals with dignity and decency and do what they can to avoid imposing undue discomfort.  These are not the people that animal rights activists are exposing and they are not, I repeat, NOT the people that this bill is protecting.  The exposed practices of undue cruelty come from industrial scale farming and ranching practices that are reminiscent of the industrial age in America.  The practices are shocking and cruel and would probably make most self-employed farmers and ranchers gag.  This is Iowa protecting big business, not local farmers.
What's next? Creating walled-off ghettos behind which the unspeakable practices can continue to stock our supermarket shelves with unprecedented quantities of meat, eggs, and milk?  In an age where "organic," "free range," and "cruelty free" have become indicators of quality (regardless of the fact that there is no standard required for those labels), this is an unwise move.  This is the information age, Iowa!  Even in Iowa, there are very few secrets in regard to real concrete practices - creative accounting and market speculation may yet flourish in this country, but the actual horrifying practices that are currently practiced and those that would no doubt develop without media scrutiny will get out.  It's a corporate farm, Iowa, not a military base.  Clean up or clean out.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/10/148363509/ag-gag-law-blows-animal-activists-cover