Monday, September 17, 2012

Big Stick


When I was a kid our neighbors at a vacation place had a standard poodle. Brandy was his name, and he was elegant, tall, trimly muscled. Confidently he loped around his land, friendly (but not cloying) and calm -- the opposite of those over-manicured, fey, miniature abominations. Or, for that matter, other big ones that had been made to look like this. His was manly fur: curly, black as clean coal, nature made.

On the other side of Brandy's place lived a yip-yip dog, one of those silly small kind that pretend to own the joint while knowing they don't. Every day he'd come down a hill to our neck of the woods (our two houses shared the same flatland) and buzz around Brandy non-stop, yipping and nipping; and Brandy, dignified and confident as he was, just ignored him. Day after day, yip after nip, Brandy moved through it like a ship at sea.

Until one day, and I witnessed it: finally tiring of the little son of a bitch, Brandy had had it up to here. Came a flurry of furry, a couple of throaty growls, a blur of fur, lasting all of about three seconds, at the end of which the yipper was on his back looking up at Brandy looking down as he calmly straddled the shivering little shit. After glaring down long enough to say, okay, squirt, that's enough, he casually walked away. Without any more aggression than that, not breaking skin or even coming close to it, teeth barely bared, Brandy had made it clear what he could do if he wanted to, and the little one ran off, never looking back. Never coming back.

I see a lesson there, for those who'd like you to believe that Barack Obama broadcasts weakness to the world. State to state there's a lot of bluster; but no one's made a move. Not like they did on 9/11 under Bush, or Lebanon under Reagan, or Kuwait under the other Bush. I can't make an analogy to those rioters in theocratic rage, because no policy of ours will ever suppress that kind of thing; their own country's maybe, but not ours. But Palinbaggers are dead wrong when they claim the US is weak because we haven't invaded anyone lately. There's more than one way to assert authority. And we already know how bluster and what passes for balls failed to prevent embassy attacks during our most recent period of darkness.

Pour a little Brandy into your tea, Sarahbaggers, calm down, and watch how adults, the real big dogs, deal with complicated issues.


8 comments:

  1. Hey, finally some common ground, and before you know it, you'll be wearing a "43" cap and heckling that pretender, Dale Earnhart Jr....
    and yes, I do share the house with Mrs. Drackmans Pommeranian, a 15lb(not fat) Tabby, and a Ferret.
    Used to have some fish too, but they mysteriously dissapeared, strange, water on the floor, and Buster the Tabby with a smile on his whiskered face...
    And go ahead, laugh, but it's my job to take Mitzy to get her anal glands "expressed" every 2 months...
    and it's an upscale Atlanta Vet, but I still have to sit, with Mitzy in her box, among the German Shepherds, Dobies, Labs, until the tech comes out,
    "MITZY?? Anal Glands?"
    I brought up HIPPA one time, but it doesn't apply to Non-Human patients...

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great story! Posted this link on Facebook. Have a splendid week, Sid. Our Unitarian Universalist blessings if you celebrate Rosh Hashanah. "L'shanah tovah..." and all that Judaic jazz.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This morning, one progressive radio commentator, subbing for Bill Press, passed along this observation.

    What do you get when you take the vowels out of Reince Priebus?

    RNC PR BS !!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've been away. Loved coming back to this post. Perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "we Haven't invaded anyone lately"????
    Umm Sid, where were 15 Marines killed last month? Tim-buck-two?
    or the 1,217 dead Marines/Army/Navy/Air Force since EICOTUS started his Caliphate?
    OK, I know 10 or 11 were killed in Fort Bliss, cause some A-rab Army Psychiatrist was pissed off about his crummy choice of specialty..
    and what do you call flying a Seal Team into a Sovereign Nation, hell, an ALLY, without filing the proper paperwork?
    I mean one of those SEAL attack dogs could have brought some disease into Pakistan...

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  6. late·ly/ˈlātlē/
    Adverb:
    Recently; not long ago.


    In the current context (con·text/ˈkäntekst/
    Noun:
    The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed
    ) it refers to the time since the preceding (preceding: present participle of pre·cede (Verb) Come before (something) in time) teabagger-approved (not going there) president.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here is a link to a somewhat related article.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/opinion/sunday/dowd-neocons-slither-back.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general&gwh=8333E3E59D53C3C68384682642D26512

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ellen, thank you for that, pretty funny. I've often wondered where that little foo foo dog Priebus came from.

    We're still not far evolved from our basest beginnings. But some of us strive to be more than just alpha dog.

    The telling is the way we do it. bl

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