"The Boom Stick" (by twoblink)

[twoblink]

"The Boom Stick" (by Twoblink)

There once lived 3 farmers named Billy, Bob, and Thorton. Each raised sheep. Now Billy was a liberal farmer, he believed that because he would never harm other people's sheep, that nobody would harm his either, so he did nothing to protect his sheep. Bob, a fairly conservative man, built a small fence around his farm and bought a big knife to protect his sheep. Thorton knew that the sheep trusted him and so he built a fence and bought himself a boom stick to protect his sheep.

One night, a big evil wolf came into town. The wolf stopped at Billy's farm, and swallowed a sheep. Billy the next morning, woke up to find that one of his sheep was missing. The following night, the wolf visited Bob's farm, to try to steal a sheep. Because Bob had a fence, the wolf made some noise while trying to get over the fence. Hearing this, Bob ran out and chased away the wolf with his big knife. On the third night, Thorton heard a noise, and ran outside with his boom stick. Sure enough, the wolf had jumped his fence and was trying to eat his sheep. Thorton aimed carefully, and "BOOOM!!" with one shot to the stomach, the wolf died.

Thorton called Bob and told him what happened, and Bob came over with his big knife and split open the dead wolf, to find that there was a dead sheep that belonged to Billy in his belly. So Thorton called Billy and told him about his sheep. When Billy arrived, he discovered his sheep half digested with a bullet hole in it. So Billy, disregarding anything and everything Thorton had told him, and disregarding the dead wolf on the floor, sued Thorton and Bob for killing his sheep and was successful in getting Thorton's boom stick taken away as well as Bob's knife. When Bob asked why Billy would do such a thing, he said "It's for the safety of MY sheep."

The next year, another big bad wolf came, and tried to eat one of Billy's sheep. This time, Billy heard it, but woke up. But it was too late, one after another, the wolf ate all his sheep. Billy called helplessly for Thorton to come help, but Thorton did not show up. The next morning, Billy screamed at Thorton "Why did you not come to my aid when I called?" "What could I have done? You took away my boom stick!" One by one, the wolf ate all the sheep on all 3 farms. Nothing the farmers could do but watch as their flock disappeared.

Questions, and comments welcome!

 

[Ironbarr]

That about covers it.

Good analogy.

Now - how can we get the message across to all the Billys and Billyettes of this country????????

Ideas?

-Andy

 

[P95Carry]

The message says it all ..... much as it does in the following well known piece ......

Not so long ago and in a pasture too uncomfortably close to here, a flock of
sheep lived and grazed. They were protected by a dog, who answered to the
master, but despite his best efforts from time to time a nearby pack of
wolves would prey upon the flock.

One day a group of sheep, bolder than the rest, met to discuss their
dilemma. 'Our dog is good, and vigilant, but he is one and the wolves are
many. The wolves he catches are not always killed, and the master judges and
releases many to prey again upon us, for no reason we can understand.
What can we do? We are sheep, but we do not wish to be food, too!'

One sheep spoke up, saying 'It is his teeth and claws that make the wolf so
terrible to us. It is his nature to prey, and he would find any way to do it,
but it is the tools he wields that make it possible. If we had such teeth, we
could fight back, and stop this savagery.' The other sheep clamored in
agreement, and they went together to the old bones of the dead wolves heaped
in the corner of the pasture, and gathered fang and claw and made them
into weapons.

That night, when the wolves came, the newly armed sheep sprang up with their
weapons and struck at them, crying, "Be Gone!" We are not food!' and drove
off the wolves, who were astonished. When did sheep become so bold and so
dangerous to wolves? When did sheep grow teeth?

It was unthinkable!

The next day, flush with victory and waving their weapons, they approached
the flock to pronounce their discovery. But as they drew nigh, the flock
huddled together and cried out, 'Baaaaaaaadddd! Baaaaaddd things!

You have bad things! We are afraid! You are not sheep!'

The brave sheep stopped, amazed. 'But we are your brethren!' they cried. 'We
are still sheep, but we do not wish to be food. See, our new teeth and claws
protect us and have saved us from slaughter. They do not make us into wolves,
they make us equal to the wolves, and safe from their viciousness!'

'Baaaaaaad!' cried the flock, 'the things are bad and will pervert you, and
we fear them. You cannot bring them into the flock!' So the armed sheep
resolved to conceal their weapons, for although they had no desire to panic
the flock, they wished to remain in the fold. But they would not return to
those nights of terror, waiting for the wolves to come.

In time, the wolves attacked less often and sought easier prey, for they had
no stomach for fighting sheep who possessed tooth and claw even as they did.
Not knowing which sheep had fangs and which did not, they came to leave sheep
out of their diet almost completely except for the occasional raid, from
which more than one wolf did not return.

Then came the day when, as the flock grazed beside the stream, one sheep's
weapon slipped from the folds of her fleece, and the flock cried out in
terror again, 'Baaaaaad! You still possess these evil things! We must ban you
from our presence!'

And so they did. The great chief sheep and his council, encouraged by the
words of their advisors, placed signs and totems at the edges of the pasture
forbidding the presence of hidden weapons there. The armed sheep protested
before the council, saying, 'It is our pasture, too, and we have never harmed
you! When can you say we have caused you hurt? It is the wolves, not we, who
prey upon you. We are still sheep, but we are not food!'

But the flock drowned them out with cries of 'Baaaaaaddd! We will not hear
your clever words! You and your things are evil and will harm us!'

Saddened by this rejection, the armed sheep moved off and spent their days
on the edges of the flock, trying from time to time to speak with their
brethren to convince them of the wisdom of having such teeth, but meeting
with little success. They found it hard to talk to those who, upon hearing
their words, would roll back their eyes and flee, crying 'Baaaaddd! Bad
things!'

That night, the wolves happened upon the sheep's totems and signs, and
said, 'Truly, these sheep are fools! They have told us they have no teeth!
Brothers, let us feed!' And they set upon the flock, and horrible was the
carnage in the midst of the fold. The dog fought like a demon, and often
seemed to be in two places at once, but even he could not halt the
slaughter.

It was only when the other sheep arrived with their weapons that the wolves
fled, only to remain on the edge of the pasture and wait for the next time
they could prey, for if the sheep were so foolish once, they would be so
again. This they did, and do still.

In the morning, the armed sheep spoke to the flock, and said, 'See? If the
wolves know you have no teeth, they will fall upon you. Why be prey? To be a
sheep does not mean to be food for wolves!' But the flock cried out, more
feebly for their voices were fewer, though with no less terror, 'Baaaaaaaad!
These things are bad! If they were banished, the wolves would not harm us!
Baaaaaaad!'

So they resolved to retain their weapons, but to conceal them from the
flock; to endure their fear and loathing, and even to protect their brethren
if the need arose, until the day the flock learned to understand that as long
as there were wolves in the night, sheep would need teeth to repel them.

They would still be sheep, but they would not be food!

Plain as a pikestaff to us ... wish it were also so clear to ''them''!!

 

[4v50 Gary]

Great stories guys. Now, I'd like to have my mutton.

 

[Gewehr98]

So is it more than just a coincidence...

That Billy Bob Thorton figures in this tale?

 

[twoblink]

Billy Bob Thorton? Personally, I can't stand anybody who got to date Angelina... so it's a personal grudge

I had a dream about it last night.. thought I'd put it into a story..

I've always enjoyed children's stories as the lessons are so evident in them.

It's so simple that a 4 year old gets it; but 45 year old congressmen and women don't...:banghead:

 

[Ironbarr]

twoblink...

Re your sig... I started with a T1000 and basic w/ a green monitor; moved up to an Osborne 1 in CPM. Finally to DOS, etc.

Osborne was touted as the first "portable", had two 90k drives until a software upgrade pushed to 180.

It really was a "luggable". You could always tell the guy with an Osborne - he had one arm longer than the other.

Back then programmers wrote tight code - they had to. Now it's loose, takes up a lot of space.

I still have it - somewhere.

One day I'll take it out for bullseye - see if I can center inside the "O".

-Andy

 

[Apple a Day]

I'd consider adding the following section to the very end of the story.
" The next night the Big Bad Wolf returned. 'I'm so hungry I could eat anything' the Wolf said to himself. When he got to the farms, there were no sheep left in the fields. Confidently, the Wolf walked up to the houses, one by one, kicked open the doors, and pounced. In the morning the farms were completely empty."
It may be a little over-the-top but give it a think.

 

[Smoke]

A Fox in the Henhouse

Things were bad in the barnyard. Especially in the chicken house. It hadn't always been that way. Farmer Lopez used to know every hen by name. He raised them from chicks, rocked their eggs, and communed with them. He fed them faithfully, the best layer mash he could buy and lots of good clean water.

The hens reciprocated by layin' an egg a day. It was a good working relationship. If a hen skipped a day or Farmer Lopez was a little late with the feed, neither made a federal case out of it.

Then the demand for eggs went up. Farmer Lopez traded up from a screened-in chicken duplex to a giant poultry palace. He took in more hens. He still gave them feed and water, but since there were so many he wasn't able to give them the personal attention they had become used to. He hired a duck to oversee the mechanical feeder. He put the goat in charge of counting eggs.

The hens became disgruntled. They complained. Farmer Lopez wanted to talk to go talk to them personally but he was busy meeting with the goat. So he hired another duck.

Lurking outside the chicken house was the fox. He had never been able to get near the hens when Farmer Lopez was doin' all the feedin' and egg gatherin'. But now, every time the goat called a meeting or the ducks dozed off, Brother Fox would help himself.

Soon Farmer Lopez was forced to employ the mule as a security guard to protect the hens from the fox. But this required that they lay more eggs to pay for the mule.

The fox stole the mule's eggs while he was guarding the hens. Then, when the mule took a break, the fox slipped into the hen house and knocked off a hen. This resulted in less eggs and more meetings with the goat. Now and then, while the goat and Farmer Lopez were meeting, Mr. Fox would nail a duck, the goat turned up missing.

Eventually, the Department of Barnyard Regulation (the DBR) became aware of the chaos in the chicken house.

"Something must be done!" pleaded the hens, Farmer Lopez, the mule, the three-legged goat, and the remaining duck.

"We'll former a secret committee to reorganize the chicken house," declared the DBR. "But we will not seek the opinions of Farmer Lopez, the hens, the mule, the duck or the goat. They lack the revolutionary vision required. The committee will be composed exclusively of foxes!" pronounced the chairman of the DBR, a fox himself.

"National health care in the United States is a mess! We'll form a task force to solve the problem," declared the president, a lawyer himself.

Baxter Black,

 

[Baba Louie]

but 45 year old congressmen and women don't

Oh, they GET IT twoblink... thats the scary part. THEY want THEIR flock to be totally dependant on... THEM.
Wise men knew this years ago and wrote something about it into the law of the land...

 

[MikeB]

Ironbarr

"Re your sig... I started with a T1000 and basic w/ a green monitor; moved up to an Osborne 1 in CPM. Finally to DOS, etc.

Osborne was touted as the first "portable", had two 90k drives until a software upgrade pushed to 180.

It really was a "luggable". You could always tell the guy with an Osborne - he had one arm longer than the other.

Back then programmers wrote tight code - they had to. Now it's loose, takes up a lot of space.

I still have it - somewhere."

I still have my Osbourne somewhere too; I also still have the Teletype that connected to my DEC PDP 11. Of course the PDP11 wasn't exactly portable, well no more portable than a large refrigerator anyway.

Anyways these stories are excellent lessons, however they won't sway the true hoplophobes.

 

[MicroBalrog]

http://www.a-human-right.com/RKBA/fable.shtml