Saturday, January 28, 2017

Call Him Lord Coward

I used to read a lot of science fiction between the ages of 12 and 14. One very famous story I read at the age of 12 was "Call Him Lord" by the now-late Gordon R. Dickson.

Before I go any further I will also point out I was raised on the wrong side of the tracks and saw quite a few bad things.

Dickson's story was about a young man who was destined to be Emperor of the Galaxy but had to undergo a test to determine his suitability. He had to go on a trip on horseback with a man whose family had always administered these tests - which were about the tester just observing the boy's behavior in whatever situations he happened to encounter.

The boy in question, who might have been maybe 20, fails these tests. He starts a fight then runs. But that wasn't the problem, not really. There were other things he did. It turns out he was a bully. At the end he tries, while drunk, to pull a pistol on the man testing him and the man sticks a knife in his heart. He tells the boy's instructor what the boy's failing was: "Lord, he was a coward."

It wasn't so much his cowardly behavior but the fact he was a bully. And all bullies are cowards. And in the mind of a bully and a coward it’s always someone else’s fault – never theirs.

Probably not two weeks after I read this story I was at school in the gym locker room. There was a bully in there named Don. Don had no sense at all. He had been picking on a wrester named Phil, who at the age of 12 was about 5'4". But being a wrester he was fit and in shape.

Phil finally got tired of this idiot Don giving him a hard time - so he beat him up in the locker room. I saw it. Wham, wham, wham, wham with his fists - and Don collapsed completely in about five seconds. "Stop hitting me! You kicked my ass!" His voice was trembling in terror.

Don was a bully and a coward.

Not more than another two weeks after that I was in the boy's restroom was when about four boys came in. One of them was a boy named Greg, and he was a catastrophe. Very thick glasses that made his eyes fuzzy, mousy hair, walked with his mouth open, scrawny, bad posture.

Another kid followed him in there with a big cocky grin on his face. Apparently he had been picking on this genetic catastrophe Greg and thought he was going to easily beat him up. Hence the big cocky grin.

The fight didn't even last ten seconds. Greg got this clown in a headlock and tried to pull his face over the top of his head with one hand made into a claw. The bully collapsed completely. "You kicked my ass! I give up! Stop hitting me!"

He was a bully and a coward.

I've seen a lot of fights since then and have never seen an exception to the observation that bullies are cowards. As Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) told Wilmer the Gunsel (a tiny man who carried two huge .45s to make up for his tininess) in The Maltese Falcon: "the cheaper the punk the gaudier the patter."

So when I saw Shrub howling on TV, "Bring it on!" and collapsing in insecurity when a reporter spoke French in front of him I knew about all doubt he was a bully and a coward. Especially since he avoided volunteering for Vietnam, as did another coward, Donald Rumsfeld, who told the troops (who were complaining about their poor armor), "You go to war not with the army you want but the army you have." (So much for the Chickenhawks who used to tell me we had the "best-equipped, best-trained military").

Shub's entire administration was full of cowards - Cheney, Rumsfeld, him, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith. I thought, "My God, an administration full of bullies and cowards! They have no sense at all! These wars are going to be complete catastrophes!" (For example, the Wahabis who flew the planes on 9-11 were almost all Saudi Arabians – and Wahabism is from Saudi Arabia and funded by the government. So Shrub and his administrations attack Iraq instead of Saudi Arabia?)

Guess what - I was right. Because I'm an expert on bullies and cowards and can identify them pretty damn fast.

Amazing what you can learn from someone else’s experience, isn't that? Thank you, Gordon R. Dickson. After all, art imitates life!

21 comments:

Unknown said...

'Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.'

Proverbs 16:18

I think a lot of us know the first part of that statement...the second part though is just as important.

Glen Filthie said...

Bob what should, in your opinion, been the proper response to Saddam's threats to Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and pretty much the entire Persian Gulf? What about his threats to America and Britain?

What should have been the response to 911? Keeping in mind of course, that you don't have the benefit of hindsight in your answer?

It seems that you advocate bowing down to moslem bullies.

Glen Filthie said...

Hmmmm. Further thoughts: Bush is no coward, nor is he an imbecile. He's actually smarter than most of his detractors, else he never would have made it into flight training - rich daddy or no.

Fighter pilots don't 'volunteer' for duty in hazardous locations. They have to compete for it. Only America's top guns will ever see combat - the second stringers - like Dubya - are kept in reserve. There is no sin in that - Americans have the finest fighter pilots on the globe with the possible exception of the Israelis and now the Chinese.

The man had flaws but cowardice and stupidity aren't among them.

Anonymous said...

Well said. Bullies are always cowards, weak, insecure, and they tend to go down quickly.

Unknown said...

'What should have been the response to 911? Keeping in mind of course, that you don't have the benefit of hindsight in your answer?'

I'll answer...go after Saudi Arabia where most of the hijackers came from.

Saddam had threats...Saudi Arabians actually did something to America.

A Texan said...

At best Bush II became a pilot with daddie's connections. Most pilots are chosen from those with a degree in a science or technical background. A libtard arts major from a just any university would probably not be selected. Bush II has a Bachelors in history from Yale and he was still stupid.

Glenn needs to write us an essay how the Iraq invasion was worth the lives and money wasted and how benefited the average American citizen living paycheck to paycheck.

Farm Boy said...

Taxpayer money and lost soldiers' lives and wounded and maimed soldiers mean nothing to rabid neocons like G Filth. Those are just eggs to broken in their total psycho quest for global domination. With them in the lead, of course, as the ultimate deciders, with your tax dollars, and with someone else's fathers brothers and sons taking the bullets. The fact that Iraq blew up in their faces means nothing to these crazed lunatics. They never are bothered with facts and to the extent they are, they dismiss them as anomalies, or little bumps in the road, that don't fit their grand theory of world takeover and domination.

Farm Boy said...

and here is an uplifting heartwarming story of one of the 'good guys' from Iraq:

http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2753/The-Aftermath-of-Iraq-in-Colorado.aspx


We have no business monkeying around in that part of the world. We know very little about the place, and as I see it our military involvement over there is *nothing but trouble.*

But the Rumsfelds, Bushes, Wolfiwitzes, Clintons, Faeths of the world just cannot resist invading these places, blowing them to smithereens and indiscriminately killing thousands of civilians, in an effort to "make them better places."

Maybe we will see a shift away from this lunacy with Donald Trump at the helm. PM May said there would be no more stupid expensive destructive moronic military ventures like Iraq. I pray she is correct.

Glen Filthie said...

LOL. Guilty as charged. I've had this fight with morons like Tex an FB before and it's always the same: "No, we will not consider all the facts, only the ones we find convenient. No, we won't be truthful with our argument either. If you prove that we are being silly and irrational, we will insult you and tell you YOU'RE stupid!!!" Just like chicken headed women, you idiots can tell more lies in a single sentence than I can refute in a full blown essay.

Did I leave anything out, girls? I will add one more thing for you on the off-chance you want to grow up:

"...We have no business monkeying around in that part of the world. We know very little about the place, and as I see it our military involvement over there is *nothing but trouble....*"

That part of the world is flooding into yours and is more than happy to meddle with it. The ball is still in play girls, even if you have taken yours and gone home. This isn't over by a long shot - it's just starting. Winston Churchill had idiots like Neville Chamberlain sneering at him the same way you shreiking manginas are sneering at me. As long as dolts have a say in America's affairs, the looming war with islam is almost certainly assured.

Whatever. History doesn't repeat, but it certainly rhymes. Who was it, Bob? Marcus Aureleus? Machiavelli? "You may not be interested in politics - but politics is interested in YOU!"

;)

A Texan said...

Glenn is an example of the kind of human filth on the right that can't show me how the average American living check to check benefited from an Iraq invasion. Talk about a moron. Trash like Glenn and those on the right need to be physically removed from society as much as those on the left.

But Glenn still has all his body parts though he is a loud mouthed halfwit chicken (shit) hawk.

Farm Boy said...

Can anyone here help translate these rants from GF? Dude what is your native language? Get some glass cleaner for the spittle you surely are leaving on your computer screen.

So I'm a mangina b/c I don't want to send our military into these stupid military ventures that cost us trillions of dollars and the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, and with no benefit to us whatsoever. I don't want us to blow up Argentina, or drop nuclear bombs on China. Does that make me a pussy? Wow I am so hurt.

GF is a chicken hawk like Faeth, Pearl, and Wolfowitz who love to send others into harm's way to play out their insane theories of changing the world. Hey GF, how much do you think we have changed Iraq since we invaded them? We are down $2T -- what did we get? Are they now having elections and do they have Starbucks and free wi-fi and women's marches and everything? Even if they did, why is that our cross to bear?

Get your weapon, get on the plane, and go over there and kill people and pretend you are Conan the Barbarian, slaying "bad guys who are everywhere. But you won't b/c you are an armchair chicken hawk happy to watch from the comfort of your easy chair, and call people like me calling for sanity and reason big wimps.

"That part of the world is flooding into yours..." can be fixed easily by just stopping immigration. There is no reason Africans have to flood into my neighborhood. Thankfully it looks like we now have a leader who will bring some sanity to immigration policy. As in stopping it.

Fire away GF but you might want to get some medication and therapy for your anger issues.

Farm Boy said...

"I've had these losing arguments where I dig myself deeper and deeper into my own hole and make a fool of myself.."

There GF, fixed it for you

Glen Filthie said...

You're a mangina because you don't understand threat assessment and you refuse to educate yourself. Like a woman, you just keep yammering instead of educating yourself.

And - c'mon. Only a fuggin WOMAN can go from 'supporting the troops in Iraq' to 'you hate the military!!!!! Oh, you awful, awful chicken hawk!!!' HAR HAR HAR!!!! You two fart and estrogen vapours come out!

Ya see, a guy - that has actual testicles, not poseurs like yourselves - would look at the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then look at the cost of cleaning up after a dirty nuke going off in Tel Aviv, New York or London - and do the math. A real man would not advocate letting moslem mud flaps attacking centres of world trade and commerce and letting them get away with it. Yes - you two ARE pussies and wimps, and while we're being honest with each other - you're also a little ugly too!

Moslems see weakness and stupidity like that and they know how to manipulate the emotional castrati that can't or won't fight for themselves, their country or their women - never mind their foreign assets. Real men like Dubya and I are mature enough to understand that you can fight them over there ... or fight them here. Tactics matter to grown ups. Can either of you two pajama boys land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier? Dubya can!

Bob - I really must protest! You're allowing your star poster to be mobbed and mocked by a couple of obviously menstruating hags! With a clientele like that, one has to ask - is this a respectable Treehouse - or an internet gay bath house for effeminate fake Texans and homely farm girls? If you don't do something immediately I will have words with the management!!! I know the owner!!!!

Sheesh. The bloody NERVE!!! ;)

Farm Boy said...

Bob can you can keep an eye on GF? I am worried about her.

A Texan said...

Hey GF, again, the US CIA installed Saddam as leader of Iraq. Any alleged weapons he had were there because the US blessed their purchase so the European defense contractors could make a few bucks as well.

Afghanistan has been another cluster F'ck. Maybe the US went in because the Taliban were cutting into those juicy CIA profits for poppy. And us fools as taxpayers got to pay for it.

Yes, Muslims are not our friends because we go over there and jack places we don't need to be.

GF, your daddy should have pulled out just like Dumbyas.

Glen Filthie said...

Rag heads - the devout moslem ones - often have family blood feuds that go back 13 centuries. Not only do you not know how your own country works, Tex, you haven't got a friggin CLUE how the arab world works. Do you think those mudflaps will walk away if you start being nice to them?

Texas, you say? I woulda guessed California. Best part a you ran down yo momma's leg, HAR HAR HAR!

Being nice to your enemies, girls, does not make them your friends.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the manosphere awesome? It's like where all the human rubbish goes to die. You really have to be willing to go dumpster diving just to find the tiniest crumbs of humanity in the bottom of that cesspool.

Their constant obsession with lady bits always makes me think of their counter parts, the giant pink vagina tacos out protesting.

Farm Boy said...

GF, You have devolved into a whirling tasmanian devil-like dervish of dust, insults, brain farts, and insanity. Maybe you should start your own blog where you can be king and block any dissenters.

Maybe go down to AA ball for a while and get some experience and coaching and come back when you are ready to hit big league pitching. Tex and I were throwing some batting practice fastballs down the middle and you fill your Depends and go and off your meds and everything.

Who's next on the Great GF bombing hit parade? Pakistan? Tajikistan? How about Canada? I think they got ragheads up there too. Why be nice when you can bomb countries off the face of the earth? (from the comfort of GF's chicken hawk easy chair).

I'm sorry you got picked last for all the sports teams when you were a kid but you ain't gotta take it out on the rest of the world. Sheesh.

Glen Filthie said...

HAR HAR HAR! Oh my! Aren't YOU just the catty old bitch, Farm Girl? It's a hoot when stupid people put on airs of intellectualism and cultural sophistication!

Who's next on the bombing list?

Iran.

My guess is that Israel will be forced to take them out - which will set the pisslamic howler monkeys off and that in turn will draw the rest of the world into it. It's too early to tell yet, how that one will break. All I'm sure of is that there is war in the air. Possibly civil war.

Some good news outta Canada - from Queerbec of all places! Apparently a mosque got shot up and we aren't sure whether it was the good guys or some other variant of pisslamic monkey like the Sunnis.

When asked what he thought of the incident, Canada's swine minister, Turdo La Doo replied "Diversity is our strength!"

Have a good Monday, girls! Work beckons!

A Texan said...

Glenn Filthie, I"m well aware of the limits of Muslim thinking. What you the moron can't grasp is that if he would not have interfered in a number of those shitholes to begin with, we would be a lot better off. Little to do with anything about 'being nice'. Show me anywhere in the world with the CIA overthrowing some guy sort of like Trump wanting to help their countrymen and it turned out better for them or us? Again, nothing about nice, just stay the hell out of these places.

Ditto for Central America. If the damn corporations down there would have worked out a deal or just left if they did not like it, we would probably have a hell of a lot less illegal immigration from those places. That does not mean we should allow these people in because of the sins of our fathers so to speak.

Farm Boy said...

Oh geezus GF, maybe we are getting somewhere! I think "catty old bitch" means you are learning, so this may be a good step. Catty old bitch, that is pretty funny, maybe that isn't too far off the mark to be honest. I don't think I'm a cultural sophisticate--I hope not. Did I say that? Would drinking beer out of a can disqualify me?

BTW I am all for bombing ISIS to kingdom come, that Trudeau is a wanker, and agree that "diversity" is BS. Middle eastern / wahhabi muzzies never will like us, bombs or foreign aid or peace and love. I say keep them outta here but in the case of ISIS, that is an evil that someone should step up and demolish. I nominate USAF for the job.