[mojo]

What are the rules for pets there?

Depends on where you live. You live in a city then there are laws about vaccinations for rabies for dogs. If you live out of the city, no such law because you are beyond their jurisdiction. There are laws over animal cruelty, that are I believe national.

Here we have two dogs and a cat. The dogs were let out on the road as someone just dumped them. There were three at the time. A rattlesnake got one and he died. The remaining two brothers are doing fine.

There are various animal organizations here who attempt to find new homes for those abandoned, lost, or their owners  for some reason can no longer take care of them. We got a cat through this method, only we didn't have to go to the organization to do so. Through Reddit, we found someone who was moving and their new landlord would not allow pets. So we took the cat so it didn't have to go to the shelter. There's always the chance no one wants your pet. After a certain amount of time if no one takes them, they are put to sleep.

[mojo]

One of our responsibilities around is to choose English/American names for the kids, who learn English.

I would imagine this is exactly what you are looking for.

[MSL]

 Thanks. I saw some similar online, but this list was really helpful. We choose 'Ena'.
 Maybe it's not easy to take care of 3 pets at the same time. I had before different: fish, turtles and even a chameleon , but now I haven't, because sometimes we have to go to another towns and cities, and we can't leave irresponsibly the pet alone.
 I have no more questions now, but wanted to express my thanks and to say something supportive about the animals.

[Alexa]

Aww, they're so cute! And it's so kind of you to take care of them!
Aren't there some government or local government measures against the rattlesnakes?

[mojo]

Aren't there some government or local government measures against the rattlesnakes?

Hmm, yes and no. We also have the copperhead snake, another poisonous snake.

But they are rarer to find around this drier area. And one more vile little spider the Brown Recluse that is particularly nasty.

This one too, is rare in this dry climate but they do exist.

These snakes are wild. They are not pets. Over such a large country there are not enough people to catch them all if they could find them. The snakes hibernate over the winter, usually in holes in the ground. During the heat of the day they will find some rock or something to hide under. It is mainly at night they come out when it is cooler to hunt for prey.

There are some places that do rattlesnake roundups but even here, there are only a few gotten and those catching these snakes stand a high chance of getting bitten in the process.

> In Texas, up to 125,000 snakes could have been removed annually from the wild during the 1990s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

And yet there is no appreciable dent in the rattlesnake population in the wild. Oklahoma is another state that is big on these rattlesnake roundups.

[SEO]

And the "captured wild rattlesnakes which are displayed and then returned to the wild." doesn't make any sense to me. (Except if they're very necessary for the ecological balance/balance of nature. Are they?)
I can't miss the chance to mention one kind of religious freaks (I don't mean to be rude, just can't find any better definition), who practice the snake handling (aka serpent handling) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling 
Do you have some strange religious sects around there? What is the predominant religion over there?
What happened with those activities that had the goal to remove the Darwin and the evolution from the schools in some states?

[mojo]

I can't miss the chance to mention one kind of religious freaks

Yep, that's my view too. Some people tend to take things too far and excess is not always a good thing. These religions that use the serpent in their worship are too far out there for me. They tend to keep to themselves about such. Just as well, I want no part of it. Most of these religions that use some sort of worship that is not accepted by the majority tend to keep to themselves and be secretive. Think terrorists as another example of the same reaction of extremism.

If they exist in my area, I am not aware of them and if I did know of them, trust that I would not be part of them and would hold my distance. This is not something I believe in nor support.

The predominate religion is Christianity. It breaks out into different sub branches depending on the area of the country and what differing individuals believe. I myself, am not religious.

Creationism, which is what you mention in the idea of removing the topic of evolution from schools, is one of those subjects I have a few things to say about.

• One of the difficulties with religion is showing real effects on life and why you should support this particular branch over another. Every branch wants you to believe their's is the one true way.
• When valid proof fails to support belief, often groups will attempt to jimmy the results (the equivalent of putting a thumb on the weight scale).
• Texas is one of the largest states in the US. So large that often other states use what it has approved of as text books as their state text book so they don't have to spend the money developing their own text books for students from their own budget.
• Despite all you hear, Creationism is not accepted by a wide majority and can not stand up to the main credo of science, that of test and repeatability of an experiment to show it is not accident nor a one time thing. So instead of being accepted by the science community as a valid hypothesis, the only way to get it into the school system was by political means.
• Texas has a state committee that determines what should or should not be included in student text books and this committee was stacked with creationism supporters which got the topic into the education system through text books.
• When you want to change a societies belief system, you start out with the young in school and in a generation or so, it becomes the accepted knowledge.
• Creationism is still around but it isn't fairing as well as the religious groups had hoped and is being rejected by both the science community as well as much of the student bodies around the nation.

[PageRank]

To be frank, I still didn't have the chance to read all the answers of @mojo. I'll try my best to read them all this morning, soon. I'll add 1 question only right now: Is it easy to meet some of the American celebrities in your cities by accident or they aren't very public people?

[MSL]

 Oh, I wanted to ask something similar, but I forgot: Who is the most popular singer now in the US? (Because of my father, I became a fan of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Ray Charles and many others; later on I liked one band from my generation -- BSB (Backstreet Boys) and some others. But currently I'm a sort of 'far far away' from MTV and the nowadays' US music, which is a kind of little shame -- the only popular currently I know is Lady Gaga! So, Mojo, please tell me somebody else /except Lady Gaga/, who is currently popular there. (By 'popular' I mean -- well-known to every generation like Whitney Houston years ago and Tina Turner.))

[mojo]

Is it easy to meet some of the American celebrities in your cities by accident or they aren't very public people?

Except for publicy sponsored 'Meet and Greets', it would be extremely rare to meet any celebrity. Experience has taught them to be wary of the public with good reason.

First there are the fantics. Either they want to somehow monopolize the celebrity's time or in some way be an intimate part of that celebrity's life. Very often unwelcome and unwholesome parts.

Then there are the Paparazzi, often independent photo takers who sell their photos to various magazines. Often for the independent there is little they will not do, including things illegal to get that or any private image. The children of the family are not out of bounds for them, even if it puts those children at risk.

To demonstrate another reason, I came upon an article today that speaks of this matter directly in what is considered another reason to be private. This article source is not mine but rather was posted at Skimur

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So, Mojo, please tell me somebody else /except Lady Gaga/, who is currently popular there.

You have probably asked one of the least knowledgeable about who might be favorite in the terms of current artists.

For one, I don't do TV. I long ago cut the cord (over a decade ago) and have little interest in what passes for entertainment over the air waves or through Pay For View. I no longer own a TV and to be quite frank about it, don't intend to let another in this household. I hate a commercial with what some would term a passion. I can not tell you how peaceful my household has become without them and it would totally shatter that peace to have them back.

For another, TV programming is aimed at the lowest common denominator. If you have to have canned laughter in a comedy to tell you where the punch line is, that's not much in the line of comedy. After looking at what I was paying then for cable and what I was looking forward to coming on in the next month, I found only one or two shows coming up that was interesting. The rest of the time it was being used as background noise. Why should I pay for background noise when a radio will do just as well for that purpose. If you chose wisely and selectivily you can find those stations without much in the line of commercials. Here the radio stays on 24/7 but only on stations that don't do much in the line of commercials.

I listen to an oldy channel coming out of a university where they are teaching the new DJs, electronic engineers, etc. So it's not really a commercial station in that sense. They are being paid to be on the air by their students. Tina is one of my favorites among the many. Keep in mind my tastes are not the more modern ones. I grew up with the likes of Woodstock being part of my music background and tastes. So I like folks like

Eric Clapton
America
Arlo Guthrie (who I saw live in New Orleans at a free concert)
Atlanta Rhythm Section
B.J. Thomas
The Association
B 52s
BTO
Bad Company
Bad Finger
Bangles
Beatles
Bee Gees
Black Oak Arkansas
Blackfoot
Blackmore's Night
Blondie
Blood Sweat & Tears
Blue Oyster Cult
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley
Bob Seger
Bon Jovi
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Tyler
Boston
Box Tops
Boz Scaggs
Bread
Brewer and Shipley
Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Springsteen
Bryan Adams
Buffalo Springfield
Camel
Canned Heat
Carly Simon
Cars
Carol King
Cheap Trick
Cheech and Chong
Chicago

Err... will that work or do I need to go through my music library to list them all? *chuckles*

[MSL]

Yeah,... Bon Jovi is a legend for 3 or 4 generations already.
How about the Country music? Are there still popular those Texas-style/Cowboy-style pubs, which are only country-music oriented? I never been in something like that, but I like that kind of traditional old-style atmosphere and light, relaxing music.

[mojo]

Are there still popular those Texas-style/Cowboy-style pubs, which are only country-music oriented? I never been in something like that, but I like that kind of traditional old-style atmosphere and light, relaxing music.

Not much into C&W (Country and Western). There are those who do like the music and it survives well out here. You can easily find such stations on the radio without much effort. About as close as I come to C&W bands would be The Charlie Daniels Band or The Pure Prairie League.

A song by The Charlie Daniels Band

A song by The Pure Prairie League

Other than crossovers (a cross over is a song so popular it makes it on to the top billboards for both C&W as well as the Rock & Roll or any other two genres) I've not a lot of interest in C&W. There are bars who specialize in any major genre of music so that's not an issue if that's what you like. As with any type of bar some get rather rowdy or just down right hostile to outsiders.

[SEO]

 
I watched it in some films -- someone enters into some bikers bar (or something else like this) and all of the men inside are ready to beat him! I wondered is it often over there? Here I can't see something like this (I'm not a bar expert anyway, so I'm not completely sure), because the owners doesn't like to lose costumers, because the police may (and most probably will) come and because the society isn't parted so much in so different fan (let's call them 'subculture') groups. Seems like everyone is welcome, no matter what's the theme of the bar. Of course it doesn't mean that they're completely safe. From the news we know some cases like fights, hurts, drugs (all of the illegal here), thefts...

[PTC]

Which American film shows your contemporary life in a most realistic way? If you must pick up one, which would you recommend me to watch?

[mojo]

someone enters into some bikers bar (or something else like this) and all of the men inside are ready to beat him! I wondered is it often over there?

This depends on a lot of things. Keep in mind that movies for the most part aren't really accurate for what happens in life or the way it happens. That said, there are some places that are clannish or favor the locals with a better approval than an outsider.

Where my home is, there are a lot of little coastal towns. Many of them with one bridge in and the same for getting out. You come and leave by the same way. One of my brothers knowing this and the rivalry between local areas, invited one of his military buddies to go on a planned excursion to rile the locals. They went into the local bars, drank, and bad mouthed the locals. Nothing happened to them in the bars.

On the way home, when they got to that one bridge, there was a welcoming committee waiting on them. I mean to say they were really glad to see my bother and his friend show up. But what they had planned was not so friendly. They had in mind a fight to teach the outsiders better manners.

What I haven't told you in this story is the military friend was a hand to hand combat expert. The meeting on the bridge was expected before they came to town. So they baited the locals into sending their best into a fight rather than a gang. Then the friend promptly beat the crap out of the guy.

After that, everyone decided to call it a night and leave well enough alone. This is an exception to the rule as far as how things are in most places and my brother went in to purposely stir up crap. They came looking to make trouble and it found them.

On the other side of the coin, I'm not much of a trouble maker really. I've been in some seedy places without ever having any problems at all. One bar I went in while I was in the military, as a friend and I walked in to get a beer, two others were headed out the door to have a fight outside. A  beer bottle sailed passed us to hit the door frame. Yet we had no problems at all as we were not looking for any trouble.

My point being it is what you make of it. If you are looking for trouble it will find you.

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Which American film shows your contemporary life in a most realistic way?

I don't know that there is one. Please keep in mind that they don't make movies about things that are just ordinary, everyday, life as those are rarely exciting enough to make a movie over.

Another is that I would be a very poor judge to pick such a film. I rarely watch movies and never watch TV. So my choices to give you aren't really much to pick from and those I know just don't seem to fit a laid back life style where exciting things rarely happen. I mean we talk about the dogs barked. That's not exciting. Mowing the grass isn't a deal to make something over. Sitting out grilling outside or setting up the smoker for a long smoke of meat instead of a grill is not really something that you'd normally talk about either.

Basically I live in a one horse town the horse got up and left. Not much excitement, not much unusual goes on. Certainly nothing like you see in the movies would remotely fit from those I know of.