Ancient Were Tactics

Humans have no idea how many other species they owe for ideas they claim as their own, tactics in particular.

In the 2nd Great Were War, a little over 2 million years ago, weredogs and werewolves, in armies of hundreds of thousands, just hurled themselves at each other and had at it. It was simply a matter of getting into the thick of it, killing as many of the enemy as you could and not getting killed yourself.

Weredogs somehow stumbled upon an edge in these battles. They started going into these fights as small packs, 3 to 4 weredogs, and fighting together, cover each other's backs, creating small redoubts from where they fought until the fighting was done. It was not long before the werewolves countered and started using the same tactic.

Weredogs countered by making the small packs larger, squad-sized, 10 to 12 dogs. And they came up with other variations that allowed them to move, to fight and drive like a wedge into the enemy. The wolves countered. So the dogs countered, increasing the size of these battle-packs to 25 to 30. Soon it was 100. Then flanking attacks became all the rage.

Eventually mankind imitated these tactics. Of course, that has all been forgotten, who first taught mankind about squad-sized and company-sized battle field tactics.

The wedge formation came from birds.

Just setting the record straight. Again.

Brits Killing Pets for Payouts

Weredogs in Britain are a bit riled up. A new British fad is people killing their pets for pet insurance payouts. The insurance industry reports that pet insurance fraud was over $30 million last year, in 2010, up from $670,000 in 2009. Many Brit weredogs are pissed, and I don't mean inebriated.

Mankind Less Violent

Recently, I went to hear a lecture by a man named Steven Pinker who published a book recently wherein he claims that mankind has been getting progressively less violent over the past 15,000 years.

Pinker's book is titled: "Better Angels of Our Nature." In this book he uses data and evidence, going back 15,000 years, to support his claim that man has gotten less violent over that time.

I think Prof. Pinker needs to get out more.

I, as one who has lived over 200 years, and has lived throughout many wars, and periods of peace, can assure anyone who is curious that mankind is not becoming less violent.

Any other opinions?

Yonatan

An old friend is in town, staying with me. He is much older than me. I love to hear his stories, has fought in many wars and battles, large and small. But few stay with him still as much as the day Yonatan Netanyahu died.

Yonatan was the only casualty of the Israeli commando rescue force that on June 27, 1976, pulled off the classic Entebbe Raid and rescued over 100 hostages, 83 of whom were Israelis. It is a classic in the annals of special operations. Yonatan was also the commander of Operation Entebbe.

My friend, Marek, was on that raid. He had a strong bond with Yonatan and faults himself for Yonatan's death. This is odd and uncommon amongst weredogs, especially one who has seen so many centuries and wars.

Marek, being a weredog, is not Jewish. But he is very comfortable around  Jews and like to play the role of Jew and has done so in several of his human phases. He wishes he had been at Massada and claims to have once known a weredog who was there. I don't have all the details of that dog but suspect there are deeper issues that have to do with his attachment to Judaism and his guilt over Yonatan's death.

Each, regardless of where he is or which phase he is in, he goes to a synagogue and grieves for Yonatan. Several times, during human phases, he has traveled to Jerusalem for this grieving.

I have known, and know, many weredogs who identify with one human religion or another. This is odd when you consider that weredogs are not religious. We are not naturally drawn to religion on our own, but only through human associations. And you could never get two weredogs to agree on anything having to do with religion. However, such discussions do not much involve disagreements about doctrine and digressions and as they do the smells of churches, how the people and spaces feel to them, and the timbre of truth in the voices of pastors and priests. I wonder if it is any different with people.

Werewolves despise human religion. They believe that churches and clergy screw up man's search for higher power, and that the best place to connect with any higher power is anywhere that you can see the full moon at night.

Marek is joining Caitlyn and I this week for some patrols and surveillances, and a pack meeting that has promised road-kill BBQ, one of my few weaknesses. Ever wonder what happens to all the roadkill that you see on the sides of roads, and then you don't? Probably it winds up in the belly of weredogs, or werewolves.

Loneliness and Solitude

I am smelling and seeing more isolated people. I see them on streets and in offices and in stores. Their scent is distinct, the sour smell of isolation and apathy.

Dogs are good with solitude. Wolves are even better. But both can die from loneliness. Both need a pack to survive. People need a pack or family or tribe.

Most people have lost the ability to be alone, in solitude. But many people are dreadfully and desperately alone. There is a difference between solitude and loneliness.

Solitude, for a person, means being away from people. Loneliness means being disconnected from people. One can be lonely in a crowd. For solitude one must be away from people.

Every pack has side-projects, such as trying to bring a rogue or lone weredog back into the fold, into their pack. My pack currently has 2 it is trying to bring back in. 1 is a weredog who I have known several times in my centuries, but who I have never really known at all.

Loneliness is different from solitude. Extended loneliness wounds and carves the soul. Solitude nourishes the soul. One can be in solitude and not be lonely. And one can be lonely within a crowd or large city.

Loneliness goes against the survival instinct. 50,000 years ago being alone meant death. In today’s over-populated world solitude seems to be the opposite, people fear it, but they need it on a subconscious level. This a main reason why people fish, hunt, climb, do things that get them out of cities and into the woods, deserts and mountains, places that remind their primal selves that they can survive outside cities, that cities are relatively new and modern constructs.

Neos are the exception. We are finding that they are incapable of loneliness, that they crave isolation, that they are repelled by connection with others, even of their own kind, other neos. This is a weakness we can exploit.

Weredog Killed

A weredog was shot yesterday, killed in a park in Olathe. The shooter is unknown, not a were, but possibly a neo. The weredog who was shot and killed was a well known and well liked dog in the KC packs. His name was Jerod.

We are looking into it. Much of the factors of this don't make sense. It was in broad daylight. The shooter is an unknown, but had a gun while walking a dog. The other dog is a non-were mastiff. And the police report claims that Jerod was running around loose and attacking people and other dogs in the area. Jerod would never have done that. This was a set-up.

But there have been concerns about Jerod lately, over the past year. Last time I saw and spoke to him at a grand pack meeting he did not seem himself. Over a year ago he left his family with whom he had been with for 8 years. It was time for him to switch to human phase. He had hard times this time around as human, for some reason I could not ascertain. He bounced between a few jobs and, worse, lived alone.

Living alone can be a blessing or a curse. But weredogs generally need companionship, to have someone or someones in the same house, or whatever, when they lay down to sleep at night. Loneliness was wearing Jerod down. But he seems to have chose it. And we have no idea why.

Samhain

Samhain is about here, upon us again. It is that time of year, nearly Halloween. The Celts and neopagans celebrate it as a sort of mystical pagan festival of the dead at the start of winter. It also ties in with the Catholic All Souls Day. But all of that is horseshit. Samhain has been around since the last of the great werewars. It celebrated the end of that war and the pledge of all weres to never let things go to that edge ever again, to where all were, dogs and wolves, nearly wiped each other out.

Samhain was celebrated in the 8th century as an end of harvest, but became popular in the modern era in the 19th century in Britain, and then spread to other parts of Northern Europe and America. But it had been observed by weres for many thousands of years before the Irish, Scots, Celts and neopagans got on board. No one can say for certain, but most certainly it had to have been some weredogs that let it slip and led all those late-comers to it.

Samhain is the one night of the year that weredogs and werewolves have traditionally come together to celebrate. All weres in any area come together for a massive wereparty. Some I have been to over the centuries have been very out of control, very memorable. Ironic that some I do not much remember.

What are they like? Think of raves with meat. Sure, there's booze. Beer goes with BBQ even for weres. But alcoholism is rare amongst weres. But there weredog counselors everywhere for meataholism.

There are several Samhain celebrations that I will be attending in the next week, all with weredogs and werewolves, most of whom will be falling off the wagon and gorging themselves on every conceivable type of meat. The Bourbon, scotch and ale will also flow, you can be certain. Fluufy, you owe me a bottle of Lagavulin.

I need a break, a week of night play and abandon. I have been out every night for weeks, patrolling and planning, checking up on and keeping tabs on Sven and Rick, Jack and Sherry too, and my large crew of dog friends, who are telling me amazing things, good and bad, about their families and neighborhoods. You humans would be screwed without all your dogs to watch you backs.

Details to follow. Been napping most days, after being out most and all nights. So blogging and investments have gone to the back burner. Nothing better than a fall dog nap, especially after being out all night stalking bad dogs.

Yes, in ensuing centuries after the armistice that created Samnhain weredogs nearly hunted and pursued werewolves into extinction. Some habits are just hard to give up.