Ya y .. Ay y Yay Y ay !

so .. watched a program recently on gays in Russia today (don't recall what channel/where) and omg.. it's really bad to be gay in Russia today. Especially if you are under age and are just figuring this out. Really f4king bad. I also read Russian wiki page (in Russian), and just typing "gay in Russia" into search gives some horrible horrible results.

English wiki version goes into less detail than Russian one, but if you follow links enough you'll get fuller story. Not that you want to really.

Aside from all the cr-p that goes in Russia with gays there are local "vigilante" neonazi groups that lure gay kids and dehumanize and destabilize them for fun and profit. And despite totally criminal behavior, which is widely publicized by these groups, law enforcement does *nothing*. If you want to feel bad for humanity, knowing this is one of the ways to do so.

Anyway. I want to try to understand this human behavior from socio/behavior/cognitive type stand point.

There are some points that I gleamed from all this (and from knowing Russia)
* Russian people for some reason are becoming more and more increasingly xenophobic and nationalistic.
* Homosexuality is viewed as an "outsider" value. Add misdirected xenophobia and you have insider gay people being viewed as "outsiders", and the persecution starts...
* Russian church that is much stronger now than during USSR is starting to preach anti-gay values
* After Putin's law prohibiting gay propaganda, some neonazi groups saw it as a ticket to view gays as free-for-all victims and get away scot-free for whatever crimes they want to do with them.

So now you may see these types of events in Russia:
* neonazi groups can freely lure & torture a kid (using baits like "I am another gay kid and I want to meet you"), take a video, post it on social media site (like FB here) and nothing will be done to them. Gay kids don't have the guts, don't have the support of the law, society, parents, peers, local organizations to complain or do anything about it. And if they did report it, law enforcement will basically say "well what were you thinking replying to the bait. Your own damn fault, go cry to mama"
* gay related parades, protests and actions are basically a cycle of "gays come out, neonazi/church/nationalist people come out and beat on them in one way or another, while law enforcement lets this go on for a bit before subsequently arresting/detaining gay people".

* Russians think that the law "protects family values" and in no way "infringes" on gay rights, but f-king dam, how destructive the situation really is for the gays out there in Russia, like F-ing f-ng DAMN. Criminals are shooting at gay people, make fun of them, etc, etc. all scot-free.
* There are local groups who are thought of and are portrayed as "good-doers" who are in fact are adding more harm to the whole situation. like them taking photos of and video-monitor anyone who goes into and out of gay clubs or venues and call themselves "moral patrol".
* Cranks who hit and punch gay people at parades are are viewed as local heroes

There was an article in GQ magazine about this, and the reporter says talks about a guy whom here (in US) he would dismiss as a crank. But in Russia this crank is getting 1) full support of the government, 2) church, 3) public opinion, and 4) blind eye of law enforcement and the crank can do whatever they want.

and homosexuality is basically viewed as perversion. And "influence of the West and Europe".

Anyway. Gays in Russia became a scapegoat for outsider values. But why? I am interested in the root causes of why, and a little bit of How from socio/cognitive/behavioral standpoint viewpoint. Maybe I already got to it?

To me Russia is like a group of tribes. The tribes need to be able to cooperate for there to be peace on Earth. And what unites tribes more than anything? A common enemy! How about gays? They are the most visible, most fragrant, most "outsider" element that each tribe has, but it's hidden away. So let's exploit that element and unite the tribes, is that how it works? Okay.. I guess I see it now, maybe.

I was thinking it was more:
* gay is outsider (caveman's "me not like your tribe, me get rid of you")
* gay is nasty (engage into unusual sex practices from heterosexual point of view, hence gay is "perversion")

So the rest (like the church says it's not okay, xenophobia, etc) probably came from these two. And some crank wrote their views on paper (Ya, talking about the bible here for a second) without specifying the details and certain other cranks read it, interpret it in their own homophobic viewpoint and now the whole world is still dealing with this massive idiocy when it comes to gays, and homosexual relations.

Ok, the end now..

So ... someone asks me"what is all this" type question about my ears and tail. And we talk, and then they want to know more, and I say ... blah blah, it's called furry, blah, furry fandom, blah blah and then I say "it's people who dress like animals".

And after I say this I am thinking.. What the hell did I just say. That was bad. Try better next time, Dennis.

are .......... .. ...

are
.......


are ..

they . are.

I SOILED I SOILED THEM I TELL YOU!

Now, how do I clean them?

By the way you are too late. I already used cold water + Woolite on them and rinsed them and dried them immediately. And brushed them. For fur it is okay, but for leather probably not.

The leather on the cuffs is alright, but the second leather (or maybe not-so-leather) strip that has the rings now shows a little roughness on some spots. I do not recall if they were there before or not. I tend to think they were a bit smoother. I probably caused some damage to it, but I can't imagine it was so fast... I think since it is leather though maybe I can rejuvenate it.

Say what now? Shouldn't you be doing something else?

You wanna read my journal? You wanna?

Well here it is, come and get it.

I went to see some pups in a Detroit Kennel club meeting this Friday. And tried to leash up a pup who got very uncomfortable and removed himself from the social group he was in and went to drink up more alcohol.

Sometimes people take it a tad too seriously. Or, I suppose, for some, leashing is quite a serious matter.
I just wanna say - just don't forget to have fun. I say, try it on. That pup, by the way, later gave me his number and demanded me that I text him. He told me I came on too strong.

This makes me think of some of my leashing experiences.

I met a pup at Cedar Point this last Summer, and wanted to leash him up. He said he does not know me well enough for that, and that he is a stray. And I was like wtf?? I just wanna leash you up. Why are you a stray? What the hell..

On a similar note, another pup at Kennel Club meeting said he was owned. And I was like.. wow.. what...? He is a real pup. And it was like a reality check for me again, like what?

Another time I was at MFF, and, apparently, the con has a policy of no leashing. And I was like WTF? You can allow hundreds of weird animal-like characters in full suits into the con, who do all kinds of stuff that made my hair stand on end, but leashing someone up is off-limits. To be honest, it is not the con, but the city that requested the no leashing policy at MFF, reportedly because the city cannot tell the difference between having fun and serious BDSM? Or something like that. I am not sure what that was all about.

Well, there is that. All I gotta say is .. I will leash again!