It Was At This Moment Democracy Died.

[DonRedwood]

Last edited Fri Oct 11, 2013, 05:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Once upon a time Democracy was sitting on the side of the river sunning herself. It was a lovely day with Democracy. The air was clear and sunny, the water was clean and sparkled as it rushed beneath the old growth forest on the mountain.

Yes, Democracy lived in a beautiful world.

And then the Republican Scorpion crawled out from under a rock. His whisper sounded like a hiss. A testy hissy little voice that sounded like Golum, if Golum's voice had a Cuban/Canadian/Texas twang about it.

"Democracy, I need to cross the river. Can I sit on your head while you swim me across?"

Democracy laughed at the absurdness of such a request.

"Mr Scorpion, I know you. You are cruel and hateful and you will sting me and kill me!"

"No, no," twanged the Canuck, "Why would I do that? If I were on your head and stung you, you would drown and I too would die!"

And Democracy thought long and hard. In fact, she had a cup of tea while she was waiting. She gave Mr. Scorpion a cup of tea too. He drank it fast and begged for more.

Democracy thought the tea was bitter. Mr Scorpion had a second cup, and then a third.

"Well," he hissed, his black scales oily and dark in the sunshine, "Will you swim me across?"

And Democracy, thinking a nice drink of clear river water would help rinse the bad taste of the tea from her mouth, agreed.

She slipped off her robe and stepped into the brisk, fast-running river. She sank down and her lovely hair spread out around her.

"You promise you won't hurt me?" She asked as she leaned her head towards the Scorpion.

A line of drool fell from his mouth as he assured her. "No, Sweet Democracy, for I love you like no other. If you were to drown, so would I."

And so Democracy tipped her head and the Scorpion skittered on. And Democracy swam out into the river thinking she was safe, for who would hurt her if it meant their own demise?

And then the burning streak flashed across her brow. The Scorpion had stung her. Burning ripping pain flashed through her mind. And again, and again he stung. Her beautiful face began to swell and then he jammed his stinger into her eye. His poison ran down her face as she flailed and kicked in the rushing river. She screamed in pain, but then her limbs began to sink to her side. Her face was almost slipping under the water. Death was rushing forward to take her.

"But why did you do it?" She sputtered with her last breath, Her remaining beautiful blue eye glittering like a sapphire in the sun.

"Because it is my nature, Democracy. It is my nature." And he stung her in her remaining eye.

And Democracy slid to her watery grave, with the Scorpion clinging to her hair as it pulled him under.

"But I thought I would be King," he thought to himself as the darkness enveloped him as well.

And the moral to the story? Ted Cruz is a nasty piece of work. Oh, wait, I mean, the Scorpion can't help himself, because, um, like, I don't know. His brain is the size of a pinhead?

Help me out here DU...I'm not quite sure of the moral.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I retell the story of the little foxes starring Cruz, Paul and Ryan as the little foxes. Don't miss out your you'll miss them spoiling the vine!

[DonRedwood]

1. Edited for some less than stellar grammar

[Egnever]

2. Troll!

just kidding. Couldn't help myself considering your spelling post!

[DonRedwood]

3. Lol...I wondered who was gonna bust my chops!

But I am the FIRST to admit that I rely heavily on spell-check. Grammar however.... I prefer to just think it is my down-home style.

[Uncle Joe]

4. That fable has different variations and has evolved over the last two or three millennia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_and_the_Mouse

The Frog and the Mouse is one of Aesop's Fables and exists in several versions. It is numbered 384 in the Perry Index.[1] There are also Eastern versions of uncertain origin which are classified as Aarne-Thompson type 278, concerning unnatural relationships.[2] The stories make the point that the treacherous are destroyed by their own actions.

(snip)

Aesop's fable was current in the East during mediaeval times and is told at great length by Rumi in his Masnavi as an example of the dangers of unequal friendship.[12]


An 1847 illustration of "The Scorpion and the Turtle" from the Persian Kalilah and DimnaAt about the same time, a different version concerning a scorpion and a tortoise had emerged among the fables of Bidpai. The scorpion asks the tortoise to carry it across a stream and promises that it will do no harm. When the tortoise discovers that the scorpion is trying to drive its sting through his shell, he dives and drowns the treacherous insect. Although many of Bidpai's stories can be traced back to the ancient Hindu fable collection, the Panchatantra, no Sanskrit version of the scorpion story exists. A German study by Arata Takeda suggests that it was introduced during the 12th and 13th century in the Persian language area.[13]

Takeda's study began as an attempt to find the origin of a more recent hybrid tale with elements of both Aesop's fable and the Eastern analogue. In this, it is a frog that is asked by the scorpion to carry it across the water. To allay the frog's suspicions, the scorpion argues that this would be safe since, if he stung the frog, both would drown. The frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog. When asked the reason for his illogical action, the scorpion explains that this is simply his nature. The earliest verifiable appearance of this variant was in the 1954 script of Orson Welles' film Mr Arkadin.[14] On account of its dark morality, there have been many popular references since then.[15] The moral that there is no hope of reform in the basically vicious was common in ancient times and was exemplified, for example, in Aesop's fable of The Farmer and the Viper, but no evidence exists of a link between them.

Personally I believe that today, the Democratic Party is becoming more like the turtle.

Thanks for the thread, DonRedwood.

[DonRedwood]

5. I'm glad to see someone is keeping up with the classics!

Instead of the Kardashians.

[GeorgeGist]

6. self-loathing ...

by proxy?