I think I’m literally never gonna be sick of this masterpiece. I think watching it on a loop for eight hours could fix me. Dancing’s what clears my soul. Dancing’s what makes me whole.
*sends out email I’ve been putting off* ah finally :). ah that’s a weight off my shoulders :). ah I can relax an– *receives response to email* what the fuck. what the fuck. what the fuckkkk
[…] she was surprised to discover that child labor was still legal in the fields; the more she learned about the hazards of tobacco, the less those fields seemed like a place for kids. A 2001 study found that one in four tobacco workers suffers from acute nicotine poisoning, or “green tobacco sickness.” Symptoms range from dizziness and vomiting to difficulty breathing and heart rate fluctuations requiring hospitalization. The pain can be so excruciating that some workers call it the “green monster.” A tobacco farmer in Kentucky said the sickness “can make you feel like you’re going to die,” a phrase I’ll hear others repeat.
These hazards have led countries like Russia and Kazakhstan to ban anyone under 18 from harvesting tobacco. The United States has played a role in such global efforts, recently spending at least $2.75 million to eliminate child tobacco labor in Malawi. But no such prohibition exists here. “Why do we ban cigarettes to minors,” Bailey asks me, “but somehow it’s perfectly OK to have 12-year-olds getting nicotine poisoning in the fields?”
[…]
Child labor standards, too, are considerably weaker in agriculture, where children—then mostly black, now mostly brown—can begin work at the age of 12. Limits on work hours, put in place to ensure that jobs don’t interfere with study, are more permissive for field workers. A tobacco grower who hires a 12-year-old to work seventy-hour weeks in the summer is well within the letter of the law.
No one knows how many children work in America’s tobacco fields each summer, helping to bring in our nation’s deadliest crop. When I put the question to Larry Wooten, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau, he wasn’t willing to concede that such a workforce even exists. “It’s hocus-pocus,” he said. “I couldn’t drive you to a farm this afternoon in North Carolina where anyone under 16 is harvesting tobacco, unless it was the farmer’s children driving a tractor.”
[…]
The surest way to prevent nicotine poisoning is to keep workers out of wet fields. Wearing waterproof clothing and gloves can help, but such outfits can also be an invitation to heat stroke. Martha tells me that her contractor doesn’t let the crew wear gloves because he fears they’ll damage the plants. Other growers, according to a study led by Thomas Arcury of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, advise their crews to start smoking in order to build up a tolerance.
Though I don’t have a fear of dogs, I find it really sad and disgusting the way the phobia is treated at large. Cynophobia is one of the most common and debilitating phobias and it often forms in childhood, especially after a traumatic event. I grew up in the middle of nowhere with a lot of unleashed, untrained and/or stray dogs and I was bitten and knocked down by several dogs as a kid. Your dog might be your best friend, your dog might be a very good dog but that person may look at your dog and only remember being a helpless 6 year old child with a dog’s jaw around their neck. The fear seems irrational and hilarious to you, someone who has had mostly positive interactions with dogs but remember not everyone has lived the life you have.
So many dog owners are practically allergic to doing anything to alleviate human anxiety around their dog, even things that would greatly benefit the dog like keeping it leashed and not bringing it into high stress environments* without cause. If a friend told me they were afraid of cats, I’d tell them it is best we meet outside of my home because that is a completely reasonable accommodation. There are so many horror stories about someone being told another person is afraid of dogs and repeatedly putting them in situations where they have to be in close proximity to a dog without that person’s consent because they think it’s funny or because ‘My dog is such a good dog. It’ll definitely change their mind about dogs. This is like impromptu exposure therapy.’ and it makes everything worse.
Someone being frightened and on the verge of a panic attack at your little Shih Tzu mix may seem like an amusing overreaction to you but those bitches (pun absolutely intended) do bite and the safest thing to do for that person and your dog is to keep them separated. You don’t know what life they’ve lead.
*This post is not about service dog and handler teams. If your dog is a disability aid, it is the responsibility of others to Buck Up and Deal regardless of their opinions on dogs. This is about the epidemic of terrible dog owners taking their poorly trained dogs places and being completely inconsiderate towards others AND their own dog.
RIGHT! Someone saying “Dogs are not my thing. I’m a bit nervous around dogs. I’m not fond of them.” is so different than wishing harm on your dog. I’m a cat owner and I’m very used to people who hate cats saying vile things about them but there really is a stark difference between “I don’t really like cats.” and “I would love to sic my dog on your stupid fucking cat.” but many dog owners see anything other than totally loving dogs as a sign the person is inherently evil.
i find it v cute when rpgs offer me, someone whose sole strategy is “attacking enemies,” status changing effects. “this lowers your enemy’s speed” you know what else would lower their speed? being dead, from my fists
hate when mummy movies use Imhotep as the big bad. He was an architect. Imagine a mummy movie but the mummy is Frank Llyod Wright. And he was buried at the House On The Rock. Ok nevermind that would be a sick ass movie.
