You may have missed it in your hungover post-NYE haze, but Sarah Palin took a social media poop that contained a picture of her kid standing on a dog. Palin’s kid looks to be about 50-60 pounds, and the lab he’s standing on looks like a 6-9 month old pup. Is it abuse? Well, the kid’s not fucking the dog, I’ll give her that much.
As in almost every case where she does something questionable and is criticized for it, this was a win for Palin, since she was able to display her victim status via more social media defecation. Turd 1: Obama ate a dog when he was a boy in Indonesia. Turd 2: PETA’s person of the year Ellen DeGeneres posted a picture of a (~20 lb) toddler standing on a (fully grown ~80-100 lb) dog, and nobody complained (even though some people did). I will spare you the links on both of those.
It’s almost as if posting a picture of her kid standing on a dog was planned to troll liberals.
I bring this up because Michelle Bachmann is now a free agent, having voluntarily retired from Congress. I wonder how old crazy eyes is going to monetize her social media excrement? She’s off to an interesting beginning by taking credit for $2/gallon gas, but I haven’t heard any rumors about “Michelle Bachmann’s Minnesota” or a “Bachmann Channel” membership-only site. I have zero interest in Michelle’s third-grade Sunday school blather, but I would pay good American money to see Marcus in action. For example, I’d love to see a Dr Drew-style celebrity rehab show where Marcus prays away the gay with C-listers like Andy Dick. Wouldn’t you?
BGinCHI
Marcus on his knees holding Dick?
I’d dvr that.
BGinCHI
There is also a rumor that Bachmann has a deal to launch a Bravo show called “Crazy Straight Eyes for the Queer Guy.”
I mean, come on, she already dresses one every morning.
Lee
No way that kid weighs 50-60 pounds. Maybe if he had 10 pounds of sand in a couple of his pockets.
But then again, I don’t give a shit either way.
Keith
A Pandering Pandora channel – Bachmann Turning Overdrive – featuring indie Xtian rock
Bystander
Pretty soon there will be enough retired Teabaggers for their own home shopping network, like Pat Robertson. Michael Grimm can have a series advising people on how to run a restaurant. Bernie Kerik seems to have found his groove at CNN. Who better than Willie Sutton to cover the crime beat?
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
I don’t think it’s that huge a scandal but, yeah, that kid is too old to be standing on dogs. It’s adorable to have a toddler riding around on a dog’s back, but a kindergartener? Only if it’s a Newfoundland or similar-sized dog.
Trabb's Boy
Much as I love to think badly of Palin, you’ve moved into hashtag thanks obama territory. Dogs are perfectly capable of moving their asses.
slag
New Year’s resolutions for other people:
1. Nobody stands on any dogs ever again.
2. Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann go find themselves a nice ice flow to drift away on.
Two simple and easy steps toward world peace.
Just Some Fuckhead
If the dog doesn’t care, why should we. I swear the whiny BalloonJuice-style liberal is the bane of progressivism.
boatboy_srq
@BGinCHI: I’d be far more afraid that such a show would spotlight how Ladybird dresses Michelle so she’ll pass (I still say he’s her beard: he’s far more noticeable than she is, and that seems to be the point).
I learned all about QEotP’s “show” from the graphic where she’s hitchhiking across Ahmurrca. Once again she’s getting a free ride from
the rubes she griftsher fans and calling it entrepreneurism.burnspbesq
Are you kidding me, DOJ? Are you really asking the Supreme Count to bless the removal of a lawful permanent resident for a conviction on a MISDEMEANOR charge of possession of drug paraphernalia? Where the paraphernalia in question is a SOCK (in which the devendant hid FOUR ADDERALL)?
http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/01/argument-preview-removal-for-a-misdemeanor-drug-paraphernalia-conviction/
Fcuk.
Just Some Fuckhead
And, really, PETA? Shouldn’t they just kidnap the dog and euthanize it? Isn’t that how they roll?
Mustang Bobby
The first rule I learned as a middle-school teacher is never argue with the bratty kid who is misbehaving because even when you win, you lose: you come off as a bully and they always get the last word. So there, nyah.
demit
And another blog rises to the Palin bait, yet again. She plays liberals like a violin.
Hal
I love that she brought Obama into this. Thanks Obama really isn’t a parody.
constitutional mistermix
Just to be clear – I think that kid’s a little big to be standing on that particular dog, but I don’t really give a shit – dogs can move. What’s interesting is the low-grade but successful trolling going on.
Steve from Antioch
@Trabb’s Boy: Labs are generally so eager to please that they will tolerate quite a bit of pain instead of risking disappointing their people.
Point being it’s up to adults to protect them, especially when the kid is, um, developmentally special.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Oh gee, you think? Gotta keep the “donations” rolling in with help from the “suckers”. Those suckers being you and everyone else who reported on this non-story.
ETA: If Sarah! didn’t pop her worthless shit kid one for using the pets as stepladders, she is an awful parent. Oh wait, we already knew that too. My nephews still occasionally try to ride their crippled 12 year old lab, but not around me as they know the consequences won’t be fun.
Their mother is an awful parent as well, minus the income from grifters.
@Steve from Antioch: What you said. The 12 year old lab I speak of above became my property after the vet threatened to call animal control and report my SIL for neglect. She didn’t understand there was a problem because “the dog wasn’t complaining”.
I’ve seen a lab with a broken shoulder drag itself across a yard to say hi to someone. They will never complain until it is too late for them, and usually not even then. Angels as dogs, but it’s up to us to safeguard them.
jibeaux
Marcus sent me to ask if he could pray away the gay with Channing Tatum. You just know he is.
Violet
Why hasn’t she supplied a step stool for her child? And what sort of terrible parent takes photos of her son stepping on his own service dog instead of stopping him, using it as a teachable moment or going to get him a proper stool? She also called the service dog “lazy.”
sharl
“Crazy eyes” – NEVER FORGET!*
*fyi/fwiw, a few former/current B-J folks in comments at that August 2011 link.
constitutional mistermix
@Violet:
Obviously it’s a moocher and a looter, just looking for a handout.
BGinCHI
@demit: We are not outraged. We are mocking what passes for leadership on the right.
Pay attention.
Peale
@Hal: Yep. It is kind of proof that our country is real and not a parody. No one would believe it if someone wrote it. It has to be real because it feels too strange to be fiction.
mai naem mobile
I’m more.interested in the name of the dog.Jill Hadassah. Yeah, really, Jill Hadassah. Is this some kind of dig at Jill Biden and Hadassah Lieberman? Bitches or Dogs? Would it not be unbecoming not to speculate? Ofcourse then she’ll make some comment about the Obamas making fun of the very dead
Sunny!Bo!No!
JPL
@Violet: This. If her son wants to help, where is the step stool? For someone to think that photo is cute, says more about the character of that person.
VOR
Bachmann says she is signing with a speakers bureau and will be writing weekly opinion columns.
Minn Post Article
Greg
@Steve from Antioch:
We found this out playing frisbee with our last Lab at an elementary school. She was running/stopping/jumping across some blacktop on the playground for an hour, giving no sign of wanting to quit the whole time, and not until she started limping on the walk home did we realize she’d torn up her pads on all four paws. Poor girl limped for the next week until they healed.
Labs have both a high pain tolerance and a huge desire to please.
SatanicPanic
@mai naem mobile: I wouldn’t put it past her
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Trabb’s Boy: The dog is trained (per Princess Dumbass of the Northwood’s response) as a service dog. As a result she’s likely to be extra tolerant.
And the child is too large to be standing on a dog; the (alleged) adult in the room should be looking after both of them. The problem of course being that the allegation is inaccurate.
Also, too, no kids should ride dogs of whatever age/size. However cute it may seem, it’s not safe – for a variety of reasons – and may greatly annoy the dog. I know this from experience. When we were in first grade, my classmate decided to sort of sit on her St. Bernard in preparation for a doggie ride. The dog was actually sitting, and so was not injured. She so did not enjoy the experience that when my friend got of out the hot zone at the growl, the dog grabbed me by the abdomen and dragged me about 35 feet before an adult intervened. I was fine, though a bit shook up.
Does anyone else find it odd that the poor dog in the story is named Jill Hadassah? ETA @mai naem mobile: I see I was not the only one.
MomSense
@Greg:
It’s so true about labs. One of my old labs once tried to fetch a boat. He lost sight of a tennis ball I threw into the ocean and saw a similarly colored mooring buoy (much, much further out than the tennis ball). He was exhausting himself trying to pull that boat in. I had to go in and pull him out of the water or I think he would have drowned trying to please me.
He loved playing fetch but we had to move to a different part of the bay.
constitutional mistermix
@VOR: What is this, 1979? Speaker’s Bureau? Bachmann really is a moron. Palin’s grift will net a hell of a lot more than a few speaking engagements.
jacy
What it brings to mind to me is that she’s not teaching the kid boundaries. If he thinks he can stand on the dog and nothing is going to happen, what happens when he is comes across another animal and does not treat it gently, and it snaps at him? When my oldest was little, we had a dog that loved being mauled and rolled around with, but when my son (he was like three at the time) was momentarily unsupervised (we were in the same room, but not on top of the situation) with my mom’s dog (who was a sweet dog too) he grabbed his tail and tried to yank him down and the dog turned and snapped at him, I think more because it was unexpected than anything else.) Just nicked his cheek, thankfully. But young children need to be taught to be empathetic and careful with animals to avoid as many situations like that as possible.
Patricia Kayden
@Peale: I don’t get the folks who are hurt that we are mocking Palin. Palin is to be mocked — and McCain also for introducing her to the American public and the world. When she stops running her mouth, we’ll stop pointing and laughing at her. Until then, I enjoy the mockery.
Mike in NC
Did Sarah Palin have a show on TLC at one point? Stands to reason.
My wife has developed a terrible habit of having that network on in the background. It’s a 24/7 freakshow, with programs about hoarders, gun nuts, plastic surgery addicts, polygamist dwarves, etc. They’re even bringing back “Kate Plus 8” (or did it never go away in the first place?).
Amir Khalid
@VOR:
I wonder about Michele Bachmann the columnist, though: will it really be she writing them? If so, how does she plan to differentiate herself from the mass of right-wing nutjobs out there? They all have pretty much the same thinkings, it seems to me.
Violet
This dog thing does seem to have horrified some of Palin’s followers. It does not say good things about her treatment of either her special needs child or the dog.
Violet
@jacy: Yep. It’s pretty telling about her character and poor parenting skills. Her insane word salad response shows the criticism hit a nerve.
elmo
This is what I love about malignant narcissists. They can hide their essential natures for a while, but eventually they will do something for attention that they think is perfectly normal and appropriate, and the rest of the world shrieks in horror and runs away.
Remember: The dog isn’t real. The kid isn’t real. They’re props, just like Snowmachine Husband is a prop, and Veteran Son is a prop, and Bimbo Daughter is a prop. Only Sarah! is real, and whatever Sarah! does to get her rightfully deserved full measure of attention is necessary, appropriate, honorable and good.
srv
Breaking: Jeb Swings Right and Discovers Courts!
Karen in GA
@Violet:
Well, it is black. At least she’s not accusing it of palling around with terrorists.
Christ, she’s a moron.
MattF
OT. Via LGM, FloridaMan strikes again:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/dead-grandmother-dream-causes-florida-man-to-snap-and-destroy-spiritual-girlfriends-car/
D58826
Welcome to the first day of the new GOOPER controlled Congress and the Dow is already down 270 points. Glad to see Wall Street greeting the GOP with a loud thud.
Amir Khalid
@Karen in GA:
I was just wondering about that. Don’t the lazy dogs get washed out of service training?
Karen in GA
@Amir Khalid: Affirmative action.
Actually, I have no experience with service dogs or their training, but I’d guess that yeah, any dog that shows an inclination not to follow commands would wash out, whether the reason is laziness, stubbornness, or any other -ness.
Gindy51
@mai naem mobile: Well she did name Trig after his DS diagnosis…
boatboy_srq
@jacy:
Like parent, like child.
@elmo: THIS.
Belafon
I’m pretty sure most of them chocked it up to being a rare mistake, but there were a number of conservatives that criticized her as well. Just because she was able to dismiss it as liberal or PETA criticizism does not mean it wasn’t effective. I bet we won’t see another picture of the dog, and hopefully that means she won’t allow him to do something long enough for someone to take a picture.
Trabb's Boy
Okay, thanks for the education, all. I had no idea that labs lacked this basic sense of self-preservation. I find it kind of disturbing, actually, like we’ve bred victimization into it. But now I know, I’ll treat them extra gently.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Noise machine indeed. I was just reading Charlie Pierce’s round up of the Sunday gobshites, where I see that former journalist Bob Schieffer turned to Newt Gingrich, he of the GOPAC memo and more recently the coiner of “Food Stamp President” and allowed him to scold Obama for being racially divisive, and to scold the media for using poor Steve Scalia as a dodge to avoid the real issue, which is Obama and Holder are the real racists.
I like to think Cronkite is spinning in his grave at what one ex-Fox executive has been able to do to his news operation.
elmo
@Amir Khalid: @Karen in GA:
I’ve trained a half-dozen service dogs, so I’m kinda-sorta qualified to answer. Short answer: No, laziness is not a disqualifier. A lazy dog isn’t unwilling to work when needed; it’s just that, when he’s not working, he’s lying down in the kitchen instead of bouncing around the house looking for a ball, or a toy, or a game, or a hole to dig, or what-have-you.
Also too and plus and besides which, there really aren’t any “standards” for service dogs to wash out against – at least not in the US. In the US, there is no central qualifying agency, or certifying authority. The Delta Society does good work, and there are private organizations like Canine Companions for Independence that train dogs, but my wife’s last three service dogs were handler-trained and self-certified. Under the ADA, anybody can call their dog a service dog and use it for that purpose, and unless the dog is actually disruptive, business owners have to permit the dog access.
Which I actually like very much, since there are so many different disabilities that are helped by dogs doing different things. I knew a lady in a wheelchair who used a Papillon. The dog would ride in her lap and fetch things she dropped.
Gindy51
The dog was very young when it was given to the Palins as a supposed service dog, I mean puppy age. This is NOT a service dog. They need years of training and also have to be bonded to their partner. No way is Trig bonded to this dog other than she lives in the house. The photos are staged, posed and we don’t know how many times Trig stood on or stepped on Jill to get the perfect shot for that fucked up c$%t who was behind the camera.
The person who provided the dog, Becky from PuppyJake, is a convicted felon (drug abuse) and has only placed ONE dog with a vet in the last two years of her “charity’s” operation. I call SCAM big time on this supposed charity and betcha (also too) that the internet has a lot more on this sleazy witch (Becky) than I have stated here. Becky’s mother was also a big GOP operative and she has connections to the GOP as well. Kind of fits n, drugs scams Sleaze.
Read it and be NOT surprised:
http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2015/01/exclusive-sarah-palin-is-paling-around.html
http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/2015/01/sarah-palins-friends-prominent.html
Punchy
Whether or not he’s too heavy to step on a dog….what kind of parent allows their kid to just step on their pets? They dont sell stepstools in AK, eh? Really, stepping on dogs is OK in some households?
Stunned at the lack of parenting direction (but not surprised by it).
catclub
@srv: That does indicate consistency. He wanted the Schiavo decision taken out of the courts as well.
Violet
@Belafon: Trig is also getting close to being too old to be an effective prop. She’ll find it harder to control him through bribes than the other kids.
Karen in GA
@elmo: Thanks for that. I didn’t know there was no central qualifying agency. Strange to think my Iggy could theoretically be called a service dog. Until he theoretically left the house, when he’d theoretically shriek and lunge at everything that moves because that’s how you make friends, amirite?
catclub
@MattF: But was girlfriend spiritual or the car?
elmo
@Karen in GA: So my Rat Terrier believes, absolutely.
catclub
@D58826: But..but… but.. the market went up in November and December because the GOP was in control.
yes, I know, they both have no causal connection, isn’t correlation fun, though?
Runt
This is one rare occasion where I actually have to say that the outrage against Palin is ridiculously overblown. As someone who grew up with dogs (lots of ’em), I can tell you that they are pretty rough when they play with each other. And while most dogs are very patient with small children, they are also perfectly capable of speaking out when things get out of hand. If the dog had been hurt by the kid standing on him, I’m confident he would have shaken him off long before Grizzly Mama had time to take a picture.
That dog is probably the most intelligent member of the Palin household, and as it didn’t seem to mind, neither should we.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Trabb’s Boy: All dogs see their humans as gods. With labs it’s really obvious. My first lab would have jumped into a wall of fire if I’d told her to. A harsh word from me could ruin her day; a good one would make it. If you are a sensitive and decent person you will find this response staggeringly humbling, and I did.
Treat them like teenagers; they’re as smart as you are, but have little impulse control and need you to be aware that they’ll put themselves in danger for you. So don’t put them in danger.
Even the one I have now, after 12 years of what I would call neglect and no training whatsoever, is at heart a good dog. I have to watch her around cats (we’re trying to break her of her habit of chasing them, that’s gotten her run over in the past, before we got her) but she wants to please and is happy to be a part of our family when we are home. All they want is to be loved. Great dogs.
rea
@jacy:What it brings to mind to me is that she’s not teaching the kid boundaries.
Before you know it, he’ll be starting drunken fistfights at parties.
Karen in GA
@Runt: But what is she teaching the kid by allowing this?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Gindy51: I did not know that the dog was so young. Clearly too young to have actual service dog training, which as you pointed out, is a long term process. The dogs in that house are indeed likely the most intelligent members of the household.
Given how tolerant – and stoic – dogs can be, I’m unwilling to say the dog didn’t mind.
WereBear
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): And if the dog did mind?
I have a feeling, based on previous experience, that such behavior could lead to the dog getting shot for “viciousness.”
Dogs have had worse done to them for less.
jacy
@rea:
I would not be surprised if the kid is not already starting drunken fistfights at parties. That seem to be what the Palins consider Family Game Night. (Bonus, there’s no small game tokens to lose and you don’t have to be able to read to learn the instructions!)
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
catclub
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Lotsa luck on that.
bemused
I read link at Wonkette on Bachmann and had to laugh to see a link to The Minnesota Long Goodbye segment of vhs video from the 90’s How to Talk Minnesotan. This old video is a classic, imo but I think you have to be native Minnesotan or a long time transplant to really appreciate it.
Bob In Portland
Glad to see some commentary on the New York Times’ story yesterday about Ukraine.
Jamey
Befitting the locale and her neighbors’ inclination/occupation, the Palinses should have named their Lab, “Meth.”
Jamey
@Karen in GA The only way to know if a Palin dog is a service animal is if it quits its post halfway through the job…
bemused
@jacy:
It’s pretty obvious Sarah and Todd didn’t set boundaries for their older kids either but then again, why would they? They don’t set any for themselves.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: That poor dog will still be abused, just the Nutwad of the North won’t have pictures of it happening anymore.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: Counterpoint.
Another Holocene Human
@elmo: What about that mall Santa who had the life threatening pet allergy?
It’s the sort of case that has always worried me.
Apparently dog allergies aren’t a disability and the workplace doesn’t have to accommodate that, even though treatment/cure is iffy at best, but comfort dogs can go anywhere (unless the military is involved, because they had the authority to crack down and they did).
I’ve seen distracted, out-of-handler’s control “service” dogs too many times to mention. They are not only a hazard to other people and animals they’ve even been known to menace or kill Seeing Eye dogs for the blind.
I’ve encountered highly trained Seeing Eye dogs and they are working dogs. They do not mess around, are extremely attentive to their ward, and ignore plenty of teasing, insults and pokes from dogs and children.
The Seeing Eye dog earned a reputation for service animals that convinced Congress to give such sweeping accommodation and frankly rights to service animals. But a Seeing Eye dog costs five figures and many disabled people are indigent.
The poor slob who works for a living in front of the public in America is the recipient of no pity, a proxy-slave who must smile and do the public’s bidding or be punished.
The law is an ass. It has created a conflict that cannot be resolved without causing harm to more people and to society as a whole.
The mall told the couple with the pit bull they claimed was their autistic daughter’s service animal (wha?????) that they could return in an hour and a half as evening Santa did not have a dog allergy. Instead, they threw a tantrum, insensitive to the distress of their child, threatened the mall and have now declared victory because the mall Santa contractor terminated the man with the allergy. Where is his reasonable accommodation for HIS disability? Is he not allowed to work?
(ps: I would be extremely hesitant to introduce any animal into the life of a severely autistic child. They have problems with non-verbal communication and social learning which means they’ll have all the same problems with a pet. and the pit is a pet, they are notoriously difficult to train at all, working dog my ass. pit working is “grip and shake”. that kid is going to get mauled and the NPD parents aren’t going to care. it reflects their ambivalence towards their not-perfect child)
Another Holocene Human
It seems like people with severe allergies have their activities and movements restricted more and more. Where are their rights? While anyone can take their comfort animal anywhere. Don’t call it “comfort animal” because they’ve caught onto that, but do wave around bogus certificates, doctor’s notes, and threats to sue. Service dog bibs help with the cosplay as well.
It’s not just pet allergies there are food allergies as well, people who deliberately put peanuts in places to hospitalize certain children because allergies are “fake”.
I don’t want to get into some strident bullshit here but it kind of kills me that the courts have just swept the tables with the service dogs, as if every dog brought into public housing, public accommodation, common carrier transportation is a Seeing Eye dog when common sense says the majority of them are not. This is not reasonable accommodation. This is some sort of almost unimpeachable right, modern SCOTUS-interpretation-of 2nd amendment style. (And like that gun, a dog can go off–450% increase in dog maulings since 2007.)
The lap Pom elmo describes sounds like a great dog. Sounds like a dog attentive to the owner who was providing a service for that individual. That’s what the law requires. DOT regulations state that the dog or pony (no other animals may be considered service animals) must perform a task for the disabled person and that transportation workers may as if it is a service animal and what service it provides.
Personally I think there is a place for the ‘comfort animal’. Just thinking of airplane rides, they may be anxiety inducing for the best of us. A vet with a post-service anxiety disorder might really need that comfort animal to get through a flight. (Though the animal will probably be pretty anxious too … but to be honest, comforting the comfort animal might be the therapy that person needs.)
What I have a fucking problem with are untrained animals that don’t heel, don’t attend to the person they’re supposed to be helping, totally distracted by children, people, dogs, bird noises, smells, etc.
Your stupid dog that jumped on me to sniff my crotch? Not a service dog unless the service it provides is “acting out” and your problem is “narcissistic personality disorder” or some combination of Axis B.
Some breeds of dog should be right off the table, high energy prey drive animals like Jack Russell terriers seem like a bad fit. Pit bulls? Fucking forget about it. They can’t or won’t take to even the most basic commands. There’s a reason a lot of German shepherds are trained as service dogs. They’re smart and trainable and focused. But I’m no expert on dog breed, all I know is if that supposed service dog comes in sniffing around every stranger that dog is not a working dog. That dog is a pet. And if pets are not allowed in that place your dog should not be either. Pets bark, poop, and bite, which is why they weren’t allowed. They shed, too, which is another hazard but one which officialdom has ruled out of bounds.
I feel bad for an indigent person who wants and needs a best friend to go out of doors but can’t acquire a service dog, but my feeling bad stops when they lie and call their dog a working dog as it’s running around, pulling leash, sniffing crotches, barking, unfocused, and out of control.
The law does finally allow a service animal to be banished if it becomes a hazard to others. However documenting this is difficult and the only good part of the law is that if you can show that the dog is not under the handler’s control, you’re golden. Out!
In many cases, I suspect the non-trained (or non-trainable) dog is thrust into an unwilling public up until the day it bites. And that is very sad.
Another Holocene Human
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Seems unlikely that a judge would rule to allow a grand juror to speak out in any circumstance. Am I wrong? Is this actually SOP?
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: The new normal is that dogs are supposed to tolerate crazy child behavior (until the day their prey drive kicks in and they kill the child) and the dog that growls, nips, and otherwise warns is the bad dog. (Just like how the parents of the child your child hurt at school, as well as the classroom teacher and the principal are all bullies and out of control and your precious Dalwimple was “just playing” or “just defending himself”.)
Many parents start this early thinking rude, anti-social behavior by a toddler is “cute”. Hell, I know some hippy crunchy types who are having to retrain their child to respect boundaries after giving license all through the toddler years, I guess not realizing that toddlers absorb everything in their environment like a sponge. Now the kid smirks every time he gets away with destroying anything. When he was smaller he was very eager to please. Oops. The mom’s psychological self-defense is to claim that this outgoing, affectionate, people-oriented, under-stimulated but unfortunately also aggressive child (thanks to her parenting) has autism. I know from autism. No.
(The worst part is she believed some blogs by demonstrably crazy people that correcting her child in any way would stifle his free spirit. No, it actually made him half-feral. Good going. She was a youngest child and didn’t know any better. Thanks, internet.)
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Runt:
It seems like the real story here is that Palin posted the picture assuming it would piss off liberals and was shocked to find our that animal-loving conservatives had a problem with it, too. Our only task as liberals in this situation is to point and laugh.
elmo
@Another Holocene Human: Not disagreeing one stitch with anything you say here. My wife has vertigo and a balance disorder, and canes and walkers would work great if she reliably fell *forwards*. But a cane will not help you if you fall *backwards*. A large, heavy dog, on the other hand, who has been trained to lean into the chest strap of the harness? Balance gold.
She describes it to me this way: You know that weird feeling you can sometimes get at the top of the stairs, that completely goes away if you even lay a hand on the bannister? She gets that *all the time*. The dog wears a harness with a rigid handle (not hinged like Seeing Eye dogs, but standing straight up), and that handle is her bannister to the world. She doesn’t need to lean her weight onto the dog’s back; she just needs that extra balance assistance.
I get furious with people who take their little Fluffy, put it in a harness or vest, and tell the world that their snarling, yapping, peeing, filthy, squirming little beast is a service dog. But at the same time, I’m reluctant to allow the Government to set universal standards that don’t take into account the many and varied needs of people for their dogs.
With respect to allergies: I am sympathetic to people with really crippling allergies, that don’t allow them to live full lives outside their own homes. But animal dander is controllable, doesn’t spread all that much in casual contact, and isn’t any more severe in general than the various allergies to grass, trees, mold, perfume, and the thousand other things that flesh is heir to. I don’t want to restrict the ability of people to use their dogs as needed in order to accommodate the allergic, any more than I would want to legally forbid people from going to the store after cutting the grass. It’s an exercise in rights-balancing and line-drawing, and like most things, would be ever so much better and easier if people would just be decent to one another.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@elmo:
This. In AHH’s Santa story, it sounds like the whole issue could have been resolved either by having the parents agree to come back (presumably at the head of the line) when a non-allergic Santa was on duty, or by having one parent stand outside with the dog while the other parent took the child in to see Santa. But, no, they had to be dicks about their “right” to have the dog with them at all times and got the guy fired for daring to be allergic.
Barbara
@Another Holocene Human: Actually, there *are* service dogs specially trained to work with people with autism — one of the other families in our neighborhood has one. Kept the non-verbal son from wandering off when he was younger and more rambunctious for one thing.
This is the outfit they got the dog from:
http://4pawsforability.org/autism-assistance-dog/
But that family with the pit bull and the daughter on the spectrum visiting the Santa at the mall? The daughter is clearly not the only family member for whom there is a dx listed somewhere in the pages of the DSM.
SWMBO
I have an autistic adult child at home. We have had many dogs over the years and he has learned (through repetition ad infinitum) that every animal has the right to defend itself or its young. You do not have the right to do something to an animal just because you thought of it. If you do something that the dog feels is threatening or harmful, even unintentionally, you could be bitten. Tough beans. His older sister got one of our original dachshunds overstimulated and he bit her (grabbing for the toy she was teasing him with). They both got in trouble for it. He bonded (in his own way) with the dogs and they quickly learned that he was “different” and cut him slack they wouldn’t do for anyone else. He helped with all the dogs in varying degrees (“Hey Mom do I let Sparky out? He’s by the door.”) Autistic kids can learn a great deal about human behavior by interacting with dogs. It takes time and patience with both of them to make it work. He has grieved over the passing of the old ones and still misses them today.
Regarding Palin’s dog and kid. The kid may have been taught better or not. You don’t just tell a DS kid one time and expect it to be remembered perfectly. I don’t know his mental capacity but he could be at a much more infantile level than expected. Given his family history, that wouldn’t be surprising. The dog may have moved multiple times before and just decided to let it slide while she took the pic. My guess, in other words, is that she is trolling so she can use the manufactured outrage machine later for grift sympathy.
And if Mittens runs in 2016, we can use his dog strapped to the roof of the car story again. He should have known better. Go with the classics.
Karen in GA
My sister is raising her granddaughter (kid’s mother isn’t very involved, and father — my sister’s son — died of cancer before the kid was born). She got the kid a $1,000 purebred dog when the kid was three or four. Sweet little dog, and one of the reasons I thought maybe I wouldn’t mind having a dog someday.
When my sister’s son-in-law got angry with the kid for pulling the dog’s tail, my sister got angry with her son-in-law. When it was pointed out that the dog might one day get tired of the abuse and bite the kid, my sister said that if the dog ever bit the kid, she’d have the dog put down.
So never mind teaching her granddaughter how to handle animals for her granddaughter’s own protection. And then if that hands-off approach backfires, just kill the dog for defending itself.
I swear there’s something missing in people like that.
anotherMIldred
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Nope, not even a Newfy (said the rare poster who has rescued a bunch of large fuzzy black sea dogs). It’s bad for their spines.
Pogonip
Animals do understand about people who are different. I wish people were the same way.
J R in WV
@Karen in GA:
That is so sad! Many breeds of dog will put up with a lot, for a long time. But eventually (just like people) the dog is very likely to defend itself, if it is really being hurt. Pulling a tail is very dangerous, as they are quire fragile, even on a bog strong dog.
Hope they work it our before anyone gets hurt! Esp the innocent dog!