The Scorpion and the Frog

Like so many of my close friends, I shed a few tears of joy on Tuesday night, and I have been feeling great hope and happiness over the fact that for the first time in a very long time, we have President who will bring us peace, pride, and maybe even prosperity, though the latter is going to take some time and some help from the other side of the aisle. That last point is the one that worries me.

Republicans and Republican law-makers, (especially now that they are a waning force of white people), will not pitch in to help even though they know it is the right thing to do. In fact they will do everything in their power to make Obama and the forces of good fail. They remind me of one of my favorite fables: The Scorpion and the Frog. Here's a summary of the Wikipedia entry for those who have forgotten it:

The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable often mis-attributed to Aesop. The story is about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion reassures him that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown as well. The frog then agrees; nevertheless, in mid-river, the scorpion stings him, dooming the two of them. When asked why, the scorpion explains, "I'm a scorpion; it's my nature."

The story is sometimes told with a turtle or fox in place of the frog.

It is often quoted to illustrate the purportedly insuppressible nature of one's self at its base level.

The right wing talkers are the worst scorpions of all. I read on a friend's blog that Rush Limbaugh actually referred to our next President as a "Chicago thug!"

My advice to the next Prez: You can sit down and talk with the scorpions, and even tolerate their prattle, but never, never, never let them get on your back.

Be strong,

~ tom

Scorpion and Frog Redux

I hate to say "I told you so," but remember my post of November 8 concerning the Scorpion and the Frog fable? I am really developing an intense dislike for the Republican law-makers. The hypocrisy of these people is beyond belief. I guess that we, and the President, are going to have to come to the sad yet undeniable conclusion that "it's their nature." They simply are not going to put the interest of the country ahead of their petty, greedy, and immoral goals.

Obama needs to use his bully pulpit to call these scorpions out and show the country exactly who and what they are. Man, you could fry an egg on my head right now!

~ Tom

Still here...

I've been up at the Tahoe place and very busy on some work-related matters, so I have not posted recently. Two observations:

1. Obama press conference: I was very impressed. He exceeded even my high expectations. It was almost eerie to watch an intelligent, articulate, and honest soul actually answer the questions in a full and thoughtful manner. I laugh when I hear these pundits gabbing about the answers being to long, or how there was no "sound bite" quote coming out of the whole news conference. As I have said many times on this blog, I believe Obama, aside from all his other attributes, is a great teacher. Having taught law school for over 25 years, I recognize it. I was understanding everything he said, and learning a lot. And, I don't sell the American people short -- I think they were understanding him too, and were as appreciative and impressed as I was.

2. I was listening to Mike Malloy last night on my pillow speaker as I fell asleep, and he was quoting from an article which was basically a confirmation of my "Scorpion and the Frog" obsession. The article pointed out that what is going on now is exactly what happend when another young democrat won the presidency: Bill Clinton. From day one, the rightublicans went after Clinton. But what the article pointed out is that the main stream media bent over backwards rebut a claim that they were left-leaning by often being harder on Clinton than than the rightublicans. I see that going on all the time these days. Malloy's take was that Obama should just stay above it all and maybe he is right. But, it drives me nuts!