Our Military Imigry

Lock, stock, and barrel:
 Something in its totality.  It could refer to taking over, or capitulation or giving up or reliquishing of rights.

Melt down:  Similar to the older term of "break down" but has the conotation of moral credability or moral fibre itself breaking down with the context of evil feeding in itself and compounding the problem untill there is nothing left.

Left-handed:  Something done surropticiously or in a round about or unconventional way.

Minefield:
In my usage it refers to traps and pitfalls hidden in my words to trip up and ensnare the unsuspecting.  It can refer to dealing with a volitile person who could explode at any minute if the wrong topic should inadvertaintly be brought up.

Collatteral damage:  Harm done to innocent people either in real or in verbal conbat or in some act of revenge where other people besides the intended target are impacted.

Loaded for bear:  This of course means ready for an argument, being armed with facts and knowledge about your enemy and a lot of "things' you're just waiting to "do to him".

Hanging on to the firecracker too long:
This is another way of saying "You should quit while you're ahead and not wait till the inevitable bad thing happens.  It's knowing you have limited time to do your thing and make a fast exit.

Exit strategy:  Knowing there is an escape rout or a means of quickly aborting what you are planning or carrying out, should a possibly forseen thing warrent needed quick action.

Datente:
A cooling down of a bad or explosive situation to give a person time to either just do nothing or walk away from it gracefully, or possibly a means of compromizing with an enemy who may prove useful and productive to you in some capacity.

Stealth:  Someone who is sly and lives by the motto that "Others pay attention to what they think is the obvious without noticing what I'm really doing.  Stealth behavior is behavior that puts on a front.

Frontal assault:  Tackeling an issue or situation in a straightforward, above board manner.

Give a person enough rope:  Let the other person "hang himself" with his own mistakes, that you're not about to tell him that he's making.

Drop the bomb: Make an announcement- - - often involving embarrassment or demotion or dramatic loss in status or oppertunity, or asserting control over another.

Start the ball rolling: Time to execute your well thought out plan for the other's destruction.

Under the table:  An agreement between two or perhaps more people in the know- - and by mutual agreement their arrangement is kept from general knowledge.

Doubling down:  Often used to mean making a bad mistake worse, but in more generic terms it means to increase the stakes or risks of what you are either saying or doing to make the reward greater but the consequences also greater.

Defuse the bomb:  Similar to detente.  It means to say something to remove a volitile issue -especially one where your defences may be weak- - from present consideration, to buy you a little time.

Off the Mark:  This may mean insulting someone but you are picking the wrong area to attack, one in which the other guy is will prepared, or to see a mistake someone has made and deciding to let it ride, because they are making a fool of themselves.

Keep your powder dry:  This is an old one.  It means "pick your battle" because you have limited verbal or stratigic resources and have to time your attacks when they'll do the most good.

Shooting blanks:  Most often this refers to a man hoping to become a father but is in fact sterile.

Flaming out:  Someone who fails in a spactacular, and perhaps entertaining manner.

Like going around explosives with a blow torch:  This one is self explanatory.  Often it refers to talking to one in much higher authority in a highly uninformed or inappropiate way- just not thinking.

Hair trigger personality:  One that gets "set off" at the drop of a hat.

Sending up a flair:  Making an open appeal to help, usually from your superiors.

Stabbed in the back:  Betrayal and being double crossed.

Finely honed technique:  Alluding to the sharpening of a knife for greatest effectiveness.

Well practiced:  Someone who's an expert at what they do.

The floor dropped out from under you:  You were BADLY let down and basically you're dead meat. You've been hung out to dry.

Head them off at the pass:  To do an "end run" around the other person to beat him to the destination.

You've got the ball; run with it.  You are the logical person to be front man for our team because you have the oppertunity and a clear field ahead of you to gain a lot of ground for our team.

Premptary Strike:  Being the other fellow to the punch.

Engage the enemy:  Begin firing on him.  Open conflict in any situation.

For-warned is for-armed:  Like the Boy Scout motto:  "Be prepared"

One taco short of a combo:  Mentally unbalanced.

The whole enchalada:  Getting everything and getting it now.

Circling the drain:  A person or long standing institution about to "breathe its last".

Biting the dust:  Dying

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer:  A person who's not very smart, especially in key things.

Pull in your claws:  Usually between two women.  It's an open appeal to tone down the hostility of this conversation, often because the time and place in inappropiate.

A long shot:  This used to be a literal expression but refers to anything with a low or difficult probability of coming to pass.

Giving them both barrels:  Telling someone off and putting them in their place.

High strung:  This probably alludes to archery - rather than a stringed instrument.

He was AWOL:  It means just not "showing up" for a key conflict where your presence is expected.

Gunny-sacking:  It means - often with spouses, one of them brings up a minor issue but brings it up one time too many- - and the other spouse lets them have it- - and brings up every grudge they's had for the past several months.

Burning your bridges behind you:  You shouldn't close off your own avenue for retreat or consiliation should the situation warrent.

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it:  This is a decision that need not be made now.  And when we come to that point we'll be able to see more clearly what we need to do anyhow.

Shooting the wounded:  People who carry social darwinism to the extreme that they even use it on people they call their friends, abandoning them at the drop of a hat when they are in trouble.

Passed the deadline:  Originally a term used in war internment camps where if you crossed a certain ling you would be sumarily shot.

Bringing it to a head:  In the old days sumary judgements were herolded by the beating of a drum.

Dug in:  Prepared to "wait it out" in a situation that won't be resolved any time soon.

They smell blood:  You're in big trouble.  Showing fear in a situation is often suicidal.

Circling the wagons:  The other side has no option left but to stonewall.

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians:  Too many people want to be the boss and nobody wants to do the hard work.

All hat and no cattle:  A guy who boasts a lot but has nothing to boast about.

Maverick:  An un-branded steer.  An independent freelancer.

Going to the mat: Risking everything for a collegue you think is worthy of it.

Spurring them on:  Obviously it's the horse analogy here. You usually do this out of support for an ally but may do it with an enemy if you believe you are leading into a trap.

Putting your cards on the table:  It means coming clean about who you are and what you expect of yourself and others.  It may be related to "putting your guns on the table" meaning "I'm playing fair.  I want to be civilized about this".

Muffing it:  It means a failure to exicute something properly

The Ball is in your Court:  Meaning you're the one who logically needs to make the next move

Dropping the ball:  Starting off fine- - but making a fatal mistake and the other guy is allowed to cease the very issue or point you were going to score with, and score with it himself.

In for the duration:  Someone basically proclaiming undying loyalty to your cause

In for a penny; in for a pound:  Once you make something an issue- - often the key issue is not of Degree but of Kind.  And once you go down a certain road, the "logical consequence' tendency is to keep headed down that same road.

Beating a dead horse:  Harping or obsessing on an issue that's no longer relivent.

Borrowing trouble:  Getting involved in a fight "you don't have a dog in" and take on needles risks.

Too much water has passed under the bridge:  The other person has gone just "too far" to apologise or dare to seek forgiveness from you Now.

Run aground:  Being a C E O and screwing up and improperly "navigating" the business through hazzards.

Paracite:  One who "sucks up all the oxygen out of the room and feeds off of everyone around him and gives nothing back.