Weaker Than The Old Man

[Gavin]

@Gerard

The United States along with the NATO nations seemingly has taken on the role of a crossing guard.

It is rather unfortunate that the one border where Our Betters have no desire to act as a crossing guard is the US’s own southern border … with the northern border as a runner-up.

I have sometimes wondered – if French Canadians in Quebec had launched a military operation against English-speaking Canadians close to the US border, would the US have waited for 8 years and thousands of deaths before intervening to stop the slaughter (dare we say … “genocide”)?

If the Euros want to take on the role of crossing guard for the Ukraine, that is their business. The US has no role in protecting the sanctity of borders established by Stalin and Krushchev. The only interest of the US should be in maintaining working relations with Russia & China – two nations on which we have become critically dependent for materials and manufactured products.

[Gavin]

@Gerard

Operation Unthinkable was a code name of two related plans of a conflict between the Western Allies And the Soviet Union. Both were ordered by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945

One of those mysteries of WWII is why the English immediately tossed Churchill out of office as soon as the war was over? Wasn’t he the great war leader, after all?

A gentleman who lived through those times told me the real reason was that UK citizens were tired of war – they wanted peace, and they recognized that Churchill would not give it to them. The common belief was that Churchill wanted to continue the war by turning on the Soviet Union.

[BlackPrince]

@Gavin

One of those mysteries of WWII is why the English immediately tossed Churchill out of office as soon as the war was over? Wasn’t he the great war leader, after all?

Growing up and for most of my adult life Churchill’s hero status had been sacrosanct. After being exposed to some “alternative” biographies, my opinion of Churchill has changed. To quote the man himself: “History is written by the Victors.”

[Mettelus]

@BlackPrince

I know this question was directed at Hypatia, but I’ll give you my answer anyway: No, I haven’t shed a single tear for Russia or Ukraine.

I read the news while flying to Las Vegas. Even though I was in a public place, I hung my head down and hoped my friend didn’t notice the tears.

I am not anti-war, but I cannot take people being sent to their deaths for no good reason.

I have lived an unbelievably blessed life. I cannot count the blessings for they are to many. I have a poor memory, but I still have tons of stories. Stories that nobody except the participants really would enjoy.

I think about all these mostly young men and all the stories that will never happen. There better be a damned good reason because the vast majority of these young men’s stories are just as important as mine or anyone’s. Yes, there are some turds that the world won’t miss. I don’t subscribe to every life is precious.

One of my life’s blessing is that I was able to travel around the world. Spending a good deal of time in Asia and Europe. The vast majority of people are just like me. They want to contribute to society and have a wonderful life. I wonder how it is that we would ever want to go to war against each other?

@Gerard

To move this down a different path, away from the original poster’s intent, is purely my mistake

I don’t necessarily think it is a different path. My post wasn’t really about dogs or how humans treat animals. It is about how we select our “leaders”.

I recently read a x tweet from George Papadopoulos with regard to his thought on Tulsi Gabbard as VP. His thought was “untested”. In what manner is George talking about? Is he talking about character? All these superficial talking points? Gravitas, untested, 3 am phone call, eloquent speaker or the potato’s recent I can make government work.

What about character? Has any one of these folks passed a character test? Will any of them ever take a personal sacrifice for doing the right thing? They aren’t untested, they have been tested and failed.

The character test is the only test that really matters to me. I want the 3 am phone call answered by someone with character. Sending young people to their death is the most important reason that we must demand character from our leaders.

If you hear some CEO or Senator say they made the tough decision and they are still in their job, they are probably a turd. It isn’t tough if it doesn’t cost you. That is the heart of virtue signaling.

Sending people to their deaths is the ultimate reason we need leaders with character.
Therefore, war isn’t really off topic.

The putting down of an animal is potentially a character test. Either Kristi did it as an emotional reaction such as anger or she did it for the right reason. In the prior she failed a character test and in the latter she passed a character test.

If it was the former and she admitted it was a mistake that would be a positive character attribution. Today nobody can admit a mistake. If it was the latter, given every pet owner should know how damned difficult it is to euthanize a pet, the reaction should be damn she was willing to take an emotional loss to do the right thing.

I wonder how it is that we would ever want to go to war against each other? The world is full of leaders that lack character. The leaders of the “free world” are certainly no exception.

[Hypatia]

I did cry for Ukraine, once. In 2018 we took a cruise on the Dneiper, retracing Catherine the Great’s progress from Kiev to Odessa. On the way back, we had to spend a night in Vienna. It was a lagniappe; some problem with the flights. But I liked Vienna that night, as I never really have before, maybe cuz I had never been there in Spring. It was a full moon , exactly the same luminous ivory as the floodlit white Habsburg-y buildings.
But that isn’t what I want to tell you.
we went to a concert at the Schoenbrun Place. Just a few musicians and two singers. When the music started, in that opulent venue, the contrast with what we’d seen in Ukraine was so great, the violins’ sharp keening pierced my heart like those arrows in Bernini’s St Theresa sculpture. I squeezed back tears.
I thought, Ukraine is like a drunken soldier reeling home from the front, singing and carefree in spite of his wounds. It will live! The people are young, beautiful, breeding. They don’t have much, nothing like the wanton luxury of the bejeweled old dowager Vienna. (We had been to operas in Kiev, too, and what stays with me is the lovely young women so happy in their finery, twittering like birds; I couldn’t Imagine how they could use the step toilets, with their slender stiletto heels! ) The streets were rough,the public toilets mephitic, the museums which housed artistic treasures, not air conditioned (AND you could still get up close and personal with the art! ) But the cities, Kiev and Odessa, were glorious. Odessa is—was—like, what if Atlantic City were in Paris?
And the people? Excited! Jubilant!
As the war progressed, I heard every few days of the destruction or a town we had visited: Dniepropetrovsk, Kherson, the Zaporozhne region; I had seen a world that now is no longer there.
I felt angry, incredulous.
But I didn’t cry again, not like I had that night when the violins played under the chandeliers in the palace in Vienna.

[Gerard]

Sorry I have not been commenting or participating, things are a little bit hectic here.
I’m fostering / adopting two American Eskimo 7-month old monsters. Every time I sit down on my computer chair one or the other will leap onto the bed and start clawing at my shoulder. I still have to walk and take care of my two aging little ones, a Bichon Frisé and a Shizu-Poodle mix. 15.5 and 14 respectively.
I’m also trying to get a fence contractor to rebuild my fenced in back yard.
I’ll be back soon.

Gerry

[Hypatia]

Awww, Gerry, what gorgeous girls!

[Citizen_bitcoin]

You should ask @Hypatia about stem cell therapy for your aging dogs

Remarkable life span

[Gerard]

Well it was 16 years and 7 days since my Bichon Daisy was born. We had her for all of that but the 6 weeks or so while she was weaned. She was on a decline over the past month. Miss Daisy Duke woke me up at 2 AM with a yelp. She had her front paw stuck under a table leg. Then it was a yelp every half hour. She was trembling with pain I presume between the yelps. She was never a barking dog so it was unusual to hear her yelp. A few weeks ago she fell off the bed and never yelped at all.
As attached to her as I was, I called my lady friend to come down and drive me to the vet. I knew I couldn’t drive as the tears were coming and it would not be safe.
I asked Daisy to wait for me at the Rainbow Bridge as my other Bichon, Sir Charles Murphy should be there as well.
It seems silly but I believe God in his goodness would have that bridge for those of us that want it.

It’s hard to loose a pet one has had for over 15 years.

[Roxie]

It’s hard. We know their lifespans are shorter than ours. Sure we do. And it’s still always a shock and always too soon when the time comes and we’re left with yet another gaping hole.

Bless all our companions on the way, I believe that they’re healers and angels. And if there’s an existence after this one and it doesn’t reunite me with mine as well as… you know who, I’m not interested and will give it a miss.

Sending you hugs hugs and corgi vibes.

[jdougan]

@Roxie

And if there’s an existence after this one and it doesn’t reunite me with mine as well as… you know who, I’m not interested and will give it a miss.

You might find this bit of fiction amusing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/tc7tkc/an_introduction_to_human_death/

[Hypatia]

Aww Gerry, so sorry. It’s an awful pain, a grief you know the animal doesn’t share. I don’t know whether that makes it better or worse, the fact that they don’t know what’s happening.

“Nor hope nor dread attend
A dying animal—
A man goes to his end
Dreading and hoping all.”
—WB Yeats

[Gerard]

As to an existence after this one…

Some time ago, a little bit after my wife passed, I believe I was privileged to be part of a small miracle.
(Or so I interpreted it as being)
I spoke of my “flag weight” in another post where I finally illuminated my flag.
There is a story about that weight or it’s twin.
It was working well for a while then all of a sudden it was not working.
The flag was flying freely.
I discovered that the double knot I had on the weight was untied and then been retied.
Either I have very talented squirrels or it was a sign.
As nothing was picked up by my security cameras, I believe it was a sign.
I interpreted it as my now gone wife saying; the weight has been released, I’m free to fly like the flag, but the knot to you is still tied.
There is no way that knot could have become undone by itself and then retied.
I cut the 100 pound test line off at the flag, saved the line, knot intact as it was, as well as the weight.

I dare not untie the knot.

I believe it is my link to her.

There is an existence after this one…