Question: In the English language, who are the true "sitting ducks" so easy to take a pot shot at that they take hit after hit and don't talk back?

Answer: We routinely project our human faults on other species, calling crude people baboons, crazy people loons, sadistic criminals animals or beasts, and on and on, says Mark Davidson in "Right, Wrong, and Risky."

Pig and dog join skunk, jackal, leech, vixen, vulture and weasel in our animal-arsenal of insults. Asinine is ass-like, bovine ox-like (dull, stolid), elephantine elephant-like (awkward), serpentine serpent-like (subtly sly), vulpine fox-like (crafty), etc. Such expressions are "deeply embedded in human history and psychology."

As Jared Diamond argues in "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," humanity can solve problems threatening our global society today only if we act on the fact that WE are the cause. We would do better, at least one step toward enlightenment, to face the truth linguistically that our worst, most destructive behavior is not animal-like but all too human.

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Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com, coauthors of "Can a Guy Get Pregnant? Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So- Everyday) Questions," from Pi Press.