Who's the a$$hole?

One of the things that irks the hell out of me is the assignation of blame to the wrong guy. There seems to be a lot of it going around these days and I suppose it has been this was since the beginning of time.

A sample of this might be a guy that takes a neighbor to work with him daily for months on end. He drives the guy back and forth every morning and when the day is over he may have to wait for him to show up. He does this without complaint.

So after several months of this the price of gasoline goes up and Mister Nice Guy suggests that Mooching Neighbor cough up a little cash to help out with the rising cost of fuel.

Mooching neighbor gets indignant so Mr. Nice Guy simply stops taking Mooching Neighbor to work. Mooching neighbor starts telling everyone that Mr. Nice Guy is a real a$$hole.

Who's really the a$$hole?

Joe the Drunk has been drinking on the job for quite some time and Tom Teatotaler has been overlooking it. Then Tom gets put into a position where he can not overlook things anymore and tells Joe to shape up or he will be reported.

Joe starts running his mouth telling everyone what an asshole Larry is. Yeah, right.

Who's the real asshole?

A kind soul let's someone past him in traffic as an act of kindness and the jerk behind him tries to follow the first guy only to find that the kind soul's generosity isn't to be taken advantage of. The jerk rolls down the window and shouts, "You asshole!"

Who's the real asshole? To find him all the jerk does is has to look in the mirror. There he is, bigger than life.

This is the kind of guy that you would give a piece of pie to out of kindness and generosity only to listen to him cuss you out because you didn't give him the whole thing.

About fifteen years ago I saw a guy in the local supermarket stealing steaks and I told him in a fairly loud voice to put them back. Of course, he started with the usual, "Hey, be cool!" crap. This was followed with the predictable "Don't be an asshole!" line.

Who was the asshole?

Truth is, had he been stealing a package of balogna or hot dogs I might have turned a blind eye but he was boosting top of the line steaks and I could only afford hamburger at the time. Had he been stealing hot dogs I would have figured he was hungry and overlooked it.

Instead, he was stealing from the top shelf.

Of course, he tried to assign the asshole title to me simply because I would not tolerate his theft.

Back in the 80s the Coast Guard started this zero tolorance policy and for a while was confiscating entire boats over a single joint. The policy didn't last too long but while it was in effect I was still commercial fishing.

I had a fellow crewman that smoked pot regularly and thought he was smarter than everyone else. I had a quiet word with him and told him that he ought not bring any weed on board. I also made it clear to him that if he did I would bring it directly to the skipper's attention.

Of course he called me an asshole. He got a surprise answer.

"No. YOU'RE the asshole. You're the one that is risking someone else's fortune and livelihood so you can be selfish and puff on your little joints. YOU are the one that is risking the jobs of four others so you can puff away. YOU don't have dime one invested in this boat and are risking someone else's entire fortune and the jobs of four people. I am not the asshole. I'm simply the one that isn't going to tolerate the real asshole!"

The skipper wasn't anybody's fool. He knew that the man in question was a heavy pot smoker and smelled it on him one day and promptly told him to pack his bags.

Another skipper I knew wasn't so lucky. 

He was headed north from Seattle and knew he would likely be inspected in Ketchikan, Alaska.

He sat the entire crew down and had a talk with them explaining to them that they were to get rid of anything they had that was illegal so they could pass through without any problems.

Of course, that guy thought he was smarter than everyone else and ignored the skipper only to find out that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.

The boat was seized in Ketchikan and the owner played hell getting it back.

I suppose that justice was served, though because the jerk that got them into the mess was rat packed by the crew and beaten to a pulp. It was one time where the asshole got what he deserved. Frankly, it doesn't happen often enough.

As I get older I tend to enjoy seeing the blame get shifted back to where it rightfully belongs although it never happens often enough.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY