reckoned in bloodshed

. . . by the bye, this graphic can be enlarged for greater legibility by merely clicking on it . . .





Call me cynical. One may as well. So far as I'm concerned, there's no reason for any visitor to this blogsite to be an exception. From what I can discern, people, who profess to know me, claim I know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

Alas, there's quite a bit of truth in the claim. The "price of everything" is a tad beyond me. I think it's more like, and I'm avouching here and now, "the price of one hell'uva lot".

In my defense, I'm sure I know the value of a few things, at least. For example, I do know the value of the right to know better today than I did yesterday. With me, it's a point of honor to insist on that right. Pridefully, I exercise that right.

All the foregoing having been read by you, dear visitor and reader, I should now like to animadvert to the price of charity. Yes and yes again, there is a type of charity that does indeed come with a price. True enough, charity, in the best sense of the word, does indeed cover a multitude of sins . . . truth be told, it's a crying shame that so many trusting souls have been and are being ensnared by bait in the guise of charity.

So, I've been told. Among the peasants of Italy's Lazio region, there's a maxim. And I'm quoting by way of "honed" translation,

"Beware the charity dispensed by the bloodthirsty. The price they mean to exact is reckoned in bloodshed."

Yes, I do mean to refer to politics.

Now, I should like to animadvert to politics in my own country, the United States of America. Every so often, I hear certain members of our nattering nabobs of punditry employ the term "red meat". In this case, the term refers to galvanizing this or that rightwing constituency with promises to realize certain political ambitions.

Refining it just a little more, those nattering nabobs mention such political ambitions as "restoring prayer in public school" or "outlawing flag desecration", or even "defending the Pledge of Allegiance".

Funniest thing about those political ambitions, their realization would do nothing to hire more qualified teachers to instruct America's children, would do nothing to enable the unemployed to find sustentative work, would do nothing to improve the country's deteriorating infrastructure, would do nothing to reduce the national debt by even so much as a dollar . . . and the list of "would do nothing to" goes on and on.

So far as I'm concerned, a far better term for those political ambitions is "RUBE ROAST". I admit to a certain affection for the word "rube". Supposedly, it's in the jargon of carny folk to refer to anyone, who is accorded the status of either bumpkin or clodhopper or yokel or boor or lout or oaf or gawk, or even gorpe. And "roast" does refer to meat that's been cooked, and is ready to serve.

. . . okay, dear visitor and Reader, or better yet devoted fan, ever so carefully scan your immediate environment . . . make sure nobody's looking over your shoulder . . . I shall confirm what you must be conjecturing . . .

. . . yes and yes again, this piece is meant to allude to those, who should be held accountable for upheaval in that portion of the world, holy to the three major Abrahamic ways of faith.

. . . stick with me, until the very end, and I'll disclose a "dirty little secret" . . . aaaay, c'mon, fess up, don'cha just love "dish" . . .

toodles
....../
.he who is known as sefton

EPIMETHEAN COMMENT ==>

When it rains, so says Holy Writ, it rains on good and bad alike . . . ya'know, something similar can be said about Murphy's Law: whatever can go wrong shall go wrong. Good or bad, none can evade Murphy's Law.

For my part, I suspect there's an adjunct to that law. At the moment, I'm at a loss as to how formulate it. Well, however that adjunct gets formulated, it will involve the jeopardy of "unintended consequences". That much I'll cheerfully uphold with a wager of my five doughnuts to somebody's three. Just as neither the good nor the bad can evade Murphy's Law, nor can either evade the jeopardy of unintended consequences.

Whatever one's opinion of the people, who make up Hezbollah, they're human, and as such they are susceptible to the jeopardy of unintended consequences. Perhaps, they were clever enough to plan for the displacement of their civilians, from the areas now under bombardment.

As those displaced persons fled into Beirut to escape that bombardment, they were met with a bit of luck, While they were on the road, that city's wealthier residents vacated their digs to avoid bombardment.

Consequently, an abundance of opulent shelter became available to house those displaced people, for whose displacement plans had been made by Hezbollah . . . clever son'uva'guns, ain't they?!

The unintended consequences shall come about, after the guns go silent. Not long after that, the wealthier residents of Beirut will return, and reclaim their opulent digs. Naturally, they'll expect their "guests" to vacate quietly, and return to the latter's place of residence.

Here I'm going out on a limb. Still, I'm willing to wager my five doughnuts to somebody's three that those latter places of residence suffer mightily in comparison to those former opulent digs in Beirut. For the first time, those displaced persons will realize they've been living in hovels.

Here's the thing about opulence. Just one taste does wonders to fire the appetite for it. After experiencing how their colleague Lebanese live, the returning displaced persons will hardly be content to reside in hovels.

For my part, I doubt they'll be put off with promises of better living conditions AFTER the destruction of Israel . . . not when they know damn well ever so many of their colleague Lebanese aren't waiting for the destruction of Israel to live the way human beings should.

And to top it all off, those "impatient" Lebanese were obviously loathe to risk so much as a paper cut. By comparison, those aforementioned displaced persons suffered mightily for such a "noble" cause.

. . . oh, yeah, as those displaced persons go about vacating those opulent digs, quite a few among them will help themselves to "souvenirs". In more than a few instances, the people re-claiming their residences will discover their residences, stripped to bare walls and floors. Naturally enough, the people, who did the stripping will feel justified. After all, they suffered horribly, and so deserve some sort of relief. . . .

. . . ah, yes, my little chick-a-dees, there will be all kinds of rancor and recrimination, after the guns go silent . . .

In an attempt to demonize the Israelis, those public relations mavens for Hezbollah marvelously re-enforced that message the Israeli government would like the Arab masses to take to heart. So far as I can discern, conjecturing from the movie MUNICH, the message is, and I'm quoting, "killing Jews is serious business."

The message got re-enforced by Hezbollah's teevee broadcasters, as they reported on a speech by the Israeli legislator. With the aid of some sort of graphic software, those broadcasters appended a swastika on the man's right sleeve. And that was followed by an abbreviated mustache . . . think of Groucho Marx's mustache with its length shortened . . . shades of das dritte Reich . . .

That shenanigan gave me an insight into the "dyslore" of the Arab masses. In this instance, the originating personality for that dyslore is endowed with demonic capacity for death and destruction. It's not that big a leap of inference to posit that even trifling with anybody with such demonic capacity can easily lead to "serious business".

. . . Hezbollah's dirty little secret . . .

. . . dear visitor and, so I hope, devoted fan, I should like you to recall that maxim that's circulated like small change amongst the peasants of the Lazio region. In this instance, let's animadvert to the recipients of that charity.

Well, those recipients were allegedly complimented in a taunt meant by Hezbollah for the ears of the Israeli military. Supposedly, that military was surprised by the willingness of those recipients of Hezbollah's charity to make sacrifices, as that military went about the business of pulverizing Hezbollah.

Just so happens, that taunt is a veiled insult to those recipients. So long as those recipients were assured that the price that would be reckoned in bloodshed would be borne solely by the Israelis, the former accepted that charity with effusive gratitude. As surprised as the Israeli military, as claimed by Hezbollah, must've been, the recipients of Hezbollah's charity must've been even more surprised.

. . . what a bitter lesson!