House of Eratosthenes

“Bumptious” is a word that means to be self-assertive, saliently so. If you stand up for yourself, you might be bumptious, but that by itself doesn’t do the trick. Bumptious means loud; it means to be offensive, usually, with some measure beyond what’s necessary. It means your strategy is self-preservation, and perhaps there is some nobility in that, but your tactics are unnecessarily shrill. Bumptious is a word I have to work hard to keep from overusing, for if I were to start using it, I can see myself easily wearing it out — it’s such a great word. It’s an addictive word. Besides, it’s a relevant word; we live in some very bumptious times.

I know a lot of registered Democrats. Some are reasonable, some are not, but all of them have a lot of loyalty to the “home team” above & beyond what they can logically explain. And all of them are bumptious about these loyalties they cannot explain; only on certain days, however. Monday, Wednesday and Friday they might be wisely counseling me that they’re above the fray and see no advantage to highlighting their disagreements with me, opting instead to “agree to disagree.” But such agreements go sailing out the window on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. They’re selective about their contrition and shyness. They choose, judiciously, when to be quiet and when to be loud. It all depends on what’s going on.

I notice that all the Democrats I know, are this way. The extreme ones, the moderate ones. It’s time for some in-your-face table-pounding…when it’s time for it…otherwise, now is not the time. And they always want to be the ones choosing what time it is.

Now, this Kerry thing is most peculiar. People who sympathize with John Kerry now say he was joking; those are the ones who want to talk about it. The rest of them are willing to forfeit the whole issue. Tee hee! Did I say that? No, nobody’s forfeiting anything…the ones who don’t want to talk about Kerry’s “botched joke,” are indignantly instructing the rest of us to think Kerry forgot to stick in a couple of words that would have completely changed the meaning of what he said, and we should do it for him or else we’re “misinterpreting” what he said. I think Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic party, summed it up best.

Howard Dean, in comments to reporters in his home state, said Sen. John Kerry had committed “a blooper,” but the reaction had given Democrats an opportunity to highlight what they describe as the Republicans’ weaknesses on the Iraq war.

“Kerry made a blooper. Bloopers happen,” Dean said at the state party’s campaign headquarters.

“I think we want to focus on the president’s intemperate rhetoric in saying to vote for a Democrat is a vote to help the terrorists win,” Dean said. “That’s clearly untrue and that’s exactly the reason why President Bush is a failed president.”

Nobody with a brain who’s been following this, Republican, Democrat, or anywhere in between, is pretending to believe Dean’s going to be consistent on this. He won’t; Democrats in general won’t; that’s my whole point. Bloopers happen? Does that mean bloopers don’t count, ever — or bloopers don’t count today? Like, next time President Bush makes one, the time-honored blooper will go right back to being an indicator of leadership material or lack thereof?

This selective bumptiousness is okay, I suppose, except for one thing. And it scares the ever-lovin’ crap out of me.

Republicans tell me if we are going to leave Iraq “before the job is done,” disaster will surely follow. They may be right, they may be wrong. But I’m much more concerned about whether this is a middle-of-the-road ponderance of likely future events, or a right-wing talking point. It doesn’t seem, to me, to be a right-wing talking point. Democrats and liberals could take issue with this any day they want to. They’re judiciously bumptious, you see. They could decide to argue with this and say “no, no, we can leave Iraq, and there won’t be a price to be paid by ANYONE for this.” They could say that.

They choose not to. Their sagacious bumptiousness tells them to let this one pass. And in my eyes, by their silence, they’re agreeing with this. Let me guess: That evil President George Bush has got us in a no-win quagmire situation, and we need to get out, but if we do so it will all go to shit. Something like that, right?

Okay. So both sides agree we can’t just pull out of Iraq without disaster following.

Democrats have a platform of doing exactly that thing. Sure, the euphemism is “redeploy.” But their plan is to leave.

So Republicans have an ominous prediction of disaster if a certain thing is done; Democrats share in that recognition of the bad things that will happen if we do that thing. They agree. They only disagree about whether it’s good to discuss it or not. But as to what will happen if we do that thing, they agree.

Well, Democrats want to do that thing — leave — and Republicans don’t.

I mean, do I have that right? That’s the platform, isn’t it…if we pull out of Iraq, the place will become a shitstorm — so let’s do it? Is this election really more complicated than that? Really? A party that wants to do what will lead to a disaster, versus another party that doesn’t? If so, what am I leaving out?

I’m sorry, I’m sorry. That’s a silly question about such a trivial matter. Er…oh wait a minute, no it isn’t.

Help Us Jon Carry!

Bumptious huh? Cool!

As a Vietnam vet with a BS, MS and PhD, along with two sons BS, BA serving in the ME (Both USAF combat pilots.), I was just a tad troubled by the junior senator from MA.

This comment by the “flamer” Kerry, no matter what the spin, is a perfect reflection of the sentiments and values that the far left places on our military. This was no slip upon a joke gone south, it was a statement expressing his “truth” about our heroes, a status he could never achieve, and can never get over. Never! I listened to him in ’72 and was enraged over his bull s**t. In my humble opinion this turd is no more than a snot nosed, punk, s.o.b. who had a very special patron, then and now. His comment was also reinforced by his premature confidence that the Dem’s will recapture the House and Senate, so nothing is at risk, no matter what he says……or so he thought. We’ll see.

Regards,

JCC
- RunningRoach | 11/02/2006 @ 00:16
PS

I never read your blog.
- RunningRoach | 11/02/2006 @ 00:18
[…] I discussed this whole Iraq thing briefly last night. It’s not complicated at all, in fact, it’s even simpler than most people make it out to be. […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 11/02/2006 @ 09:58
RR,

Glad you were able to comment, and plumb pleased to have you not reading the blog. And special thanks to all the other nobodies who never manage to stop by to not read it, either. As well as to the folks who never quite manage to link to it.

Not quite clear from your comments what your feelings are about Sen. Kerry. You’re holding back too much. Don’t leave us wondering, tell how you really feel. 🙂 Seriously, thanks for your service.
- mkfreeberg | 11/02/2006 @ 10:08

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Sagaciously BumptiousWednesday, November 1st, 2006

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Wednesday, November 1st, 2006