Quackers. Quaking. Quit it.
Now they were funny.
That Donald Duck so mad all he could do is spit and sputter. Jumping up and down swinging his fists.
And that Elmer Fudd with his eared hunting cap and stomping around yelling with ” you cowardwy wabbits! Bang, bang! And I’ll bwow you to smitteweenies! ”
Real characters. Classic.
Looney is the word. (US public domain image: 1943, copyright not renewed. Warner Bros/ commons.wikimedia.org)
But these two characters? Not so funny.
Albuquerque, NM one guy saw a bumper sticker he didn’t like, walked over, and confronted the driver. Lectured him.
The second driver at first responded he didn’t want to discuss politics.
Walk away! Walk away now! (image by ezhuttukari /commons.wikimedia.org)
Things escalated.
There was yelling.
There were comments like: “People like you should be shot” (By the offended man. How odd.).
Finally, driver #2 pulled a handgun and ordered the first angry man to his knees.
Cops had been called and arrived.
The gun wielding driver #2 was arrested.
Not cartoon worthy.
(US Public domain image of 1943 Elmer J. Fudd. Copyright not renewed. Warner Bro. /commons.wikimedia.org)
Judge, call up Daffy Dick and let him handle it:
Of course there could be complaints of favoritism, but he knows quackers.
Or maybe Yogi Bear? (He’s smarter than the average bear.)
Stop this period: sentencing could end this.
Daffy? No. But I am quacking mad. (Image: TPWL/MAd duck. (www.TPWD.state.tx.us:publication:pwspubs:media)
Mr. “I’m so right and I’m gonna learn ya” driver #1:
Your jaws get wired shut for a month.
Ponder this: Every thought or impulse that goes across your brain doesn’t have to come out your mouth or be acted upon.
In addition: No one made you king of the world or the boss of anyone.
Quit it. Mind your own business in order to stay out of trouble.
Mr. “I’m tired of your yapping so I’m gonna pull out the gun cause I have one” driver #2
Your arms get strapped tightly against your body for a month.
Ponder this: Use your words not your weapons (includes feet, fists, hammers, knives, guns, cars, airplanes with box cutters)
In addition: ” if you need assistance ask politely (or you won’t get to eat or other stuff….)
So quit it. Overreacting is bad and causes bigger trouble.
Children! Cover your ears. Maybe your eyes, too. (Plaid hunting hat from http://www.woolrigh.com)
This whole stupid incident (NM,Dec. 4) is making the media rounds again – with emphasis on stupid #2’s gun.
Not much has been said about two major problem: intolerance and overreactions.
With adults in parking lots acting like this, is it any wonder emotionally unstable teens (do the 2 previous adjectives, descriptive words, need to even be there? Those just go with the age group)
Is it any wonder anyone who is constantly bombarded with images/ sound bytes by TV, films, and parents jumping to “correct other’s opinions or irrationally choosing violence to settle conflicts does the same?
New Year’s Eve is rapidly approaching with all those promises to improve. (All for show?)
Perhaps if people focused on tolerance and stopped overreacting next year, society would be less a path of glass?
I’ll drink to that…safely, not in a drunken frenzy soon forgotten.
Are you reelin’ in the years
Stowin’ away the time
Are you gatherin’ up the tears
Have you had enough of mine? (by Steely Dan)
New Years. It’s really thinking time.
No jokes about it.
Enough quacks, already.
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge
Read more about tolerance and ideas for New Year’s Resolutions: “Christmas is Piggy Greedy”
Reformed duck: knows when to squawk and when to walk away.(Image by Ernst Vikne / commons.wikimediaa.org)
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28 Comments
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Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge 
You are right–we need to teach our children empathy and civility at an early age and keep repeating the message over the years. And we need to quit glamorizing characters on TV and in movies who have ‘tough’ attitudes like these. Everything interacts together. Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Except maybe a vacuum.
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The puzzle pieces do get put together. It takes a bit of work and determination to get them in appropriate spots. Thanks for tossing in a comment
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We were talking recently about the good old days when people just punched each other when they got mad, instead of pulling out a semi-automatic and blowing them to smittereens.
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Ah… the good old days. There are just so many cranky people in the world, perhaps it was always thus. We should look back 20 to 30 years ago to see the root cause.
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I have a feeling explaining human behavior would have to go back further than 20 -30 years. The more things change, the more thing stay the same? Thanks for stopping by to toss a comment in
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Seems like the “really bad kids” threatened with chains or waved a switchblade, but it was thought cowardly to use anything but fists. And the “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me” was yelled out all the time.
Progress really changes things?
Thanks for punching out that comment.
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And thus you get to my concern about many topics where the rationale of “responsible persons” is used to justify some action or inaction. Truth is, I know many responsible people, that, put in the right circumstances, will behave in an irrational and irresponsible manner. So sorry, I don’t trust that argument.
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Just about anyone and everyone can be pushed past their limits and endurance. We have to hope most situations aren’t that extreme. This story suddenly reappeared everywhere without any attention given to the instigator’s horrid behavior that started it. Seems unfair to punish just the one.
Dogs seem to have better social behavior in many cases these days. Thanks for hanging out to chat a bit
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Even the most responsible among us have limits and may sometimes act irresponsibly. Best not to have a gun around when that happens. As for the demonstrably irresponsible …
I have never put bumper stickers on my car. No sense inviting trouble when there’s so much anger and maliciousness in the world. Even “Have a nice day” could provoke someone. You just never know.
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There’s so much anger around, it’s best to use common sense to stay out of trouble.
Too little impulse control and anger management.
And a lot of self righteous people who feel it is their duty to “sit you down and straighten you out”
People need to go back to minding their own business – take care of your family and friends – and let others go their own way.
Thanks for driving over to chat ( and thanks for featuring that amazing young artist!)
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As always, I start out laughing and then got serious – plenty of good things to think on in here. I especially liked,
“Every thought or impulse that goes across your brain doesn’t have to come out your mouth or be acted upon. . . Mind your own business in order to stay out of trouble.”
My husband does this all the time and I wish people would tell him to butt out instead of getting so mad at him.
Nancy
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Maybe it was easier to get along when there was more land than people – greater distances between people kept interactions down and conversations more polite? Or is modern life so complex and irritating that people are constantly at the edge of control and ready to explode?
Hope things step back a notch in the new year.
Thanks for circling by to chat
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you allways bring an intresting view to the world we share. Like this post. Because I have been gone for a while, reading this blog has me feeling like I never left home. Thanks again. Happy new year to you.
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Always appreciate your visits and comment. The end of the year is always frantic, you do what you can. Thanks for resting a bit over here
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John Wayne…where are you? He will learn us how to behave! 🙂
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Do we all have to swagger and say Ma’m?. Speaking of learnin’ us to behave, Have you seen those videos on all the news stations (national and local) from Peru where the people circle around and watch pairs fight? Apparently it’s tradition to fight your enemies at the end of each year to end any issues….one the one hand they are only using fists ( whips/quirts are used by referees for control), but the other hand, this is Peru’s tradition…do all the news stations need to be showing this here? Does anyone need to see this considering the violence in this society – and giggle over it? Please don’t look all self righteous about stopping violence one minute, then show video showing how violence is OK.
Sorry, getting off soap box now…must lighten up.
Thanks for adding a giggle to the comments!
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heeheehhee….getting off soap box now is too funny! When you mentioned those fights in Peru, the Fight Club movie popped in my head. *gasp*
Okay, maybe we should settle it with a bit of St. Augustine…”this too shall pass.” 🙂
and peace be with us all. 🙂
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Sounds like a plan, St Augustine! Wishing you lots of smiles to carry you into the new year!
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And you can multiply incidents like the one in NM by a factor of 10,000 if more people are allowed to carry guns. The gun will be the punctuation mark in far too many grievances between neighbors and strangers. I’m sure the police have far better things to do than to break up remarkably idiotic disturbances like these. God help us all.
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Growing up with guns in the house (everyone had them since dads came back from war) we were taught that guns were the final resort in the face of a threat – and if you take it out you had better be prepared to use it and face the severe consequences.
Now the consequences are very light.
One big concern is that this story resurfaced as fodder for gun control – But little is said about the self-righteous loud mouth that started it and escalated the threats even shouting the second man should be shot for his ideas.
People need to mind their own business and stop instigating dangerous situations. Tolerance for other’s ideas/beliefs is critical. If you don’t like what they believe – stay away from them.
God helps those who help themselves…and we were given brains so we ought to use them.
You are so right, the law enforcement has much better things to do
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I’m sorry – guns are not the problem. The use of guns by people with poor impulse control, overwhelming anger issues, and an ingrained belief that guns are a fine way to settle a problem or force someone to hand over their goods is an issue. When I was growing up, every family had guns. Everyone hunted. Kids brought their guns to school for after-class hunting, and left them in the school office for the day. Parents carried them in trucks. No one got shot, no one got robbed, and certainly no one used a gun to settle a dispute.
I’ve thought about this a lot, because of course we watched plenty of westerns, where gun play was a big part of the action. One thing that crossed my mind was that skill in handling a gun was as much a part of those films and tv shows as firepower. And the people getting shot were “bad guys” – not some dude at a stoplight with an offensive bumper sticker. The gun was seen as a tool. You used it to bring home dinner, get rid of a snake, or provide an afternoon’s fun in the form of target practice.
More importantly, everyone understood clearly what a gun could do, and was trained in how to use them safely. Even kids like me, who were interested in other things, went through gun safety training at home. We weren’t afraid of guns, because we understood them, and we weren’t afraid of people with guns because we never saw someone use a gun against another person.
I understand how complicated this is, and I understand that sometimes steps have to be taken to stop a cycle of violence. But if every gun in the US were taken away today, the violence wouldn’t stop. And there’s this – we live in a desperately fearful society, and many of those fears are getting projected onto guns. The politicians sensing opportunity, are doing what they do. We’d be much better off if we dealt with the causes rather than the symptoms.
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Thanks for the insightful and intelligent comment.
It is concerning about this old story resurfacing as fodder for the gun debate.
Nothing is much is being noticed about what started this incident: someone going out of their way to tell someone else how to live their life. And lecturing escalating the situation after being politely told to leave things alone. So the instigator gets to walk smugly away playing the “victim”. (And he got lots of attention)
Realistically, angry people, unstable people, and criminals will always find a way to cause damage and get weapons of one sort or another.
Murder is against the law. People still keep killing.
Better to focus on real solutions than easy emotional knee jerk reactions.
Thanks for parking your comment here
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Each of us has a right to our own opinions. But I wish some folks wouldn’t be so loud and “in your face” with theirs. Also, if our opinions are based on misinformation or bad reasoning, we should revise them to fit the facts.
I’ve never been one for bumper stickers exactly because of potential situations like this. While I don’t feel the need to share my opinions with the world (especially in purposely provocative language), I also fear that someone of an unreasonable or unstable frame of mind might confront me about them. I’m just not the kind of person to put myself into that kind of situation.
Why have tolerance and rational behavior become undesirable to so many people?
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Thanks for the perceptive comment. Don’t do bumper stickers for the same reasons. Wish there was more live and let live. Perhaps the new year will see a return to commonsense and tolerance. Hope you are warm and snug with the snow – and your new year bounces in gracefully.
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This story is so crazy. When we saw it on the news, I had to have a discussion with my kids. Why do adults have to make it so hard? I teach my children to respect others and that it’s never okay to lay a hand on someone in anger and then adults go and do things like this! Come on people. As for bumper stickers and my political/religious beliefs? I don’t display, just in case…
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Every time a story like this surfaces (like the current one with the end of year fight tradition in Peru) You have to wonder if anyone notices kids are watching. Really hard to explain to kids why adults are acting so childish. (good parent! good parent!)
Yeah, gave up bumper stickers for the same reason – no need asking for trouble.
THanks for rolling this way!
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I like your sentences for the offenses. More creative judges are needed. Perhaps you should apply. 🙂
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Creative sentencing might help – the current ones don’t seem to be having much of an impact. Let’s hope for a quick return of common sense. THanks for dropping by to chat
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