[Brooklyn Kid]

That's why the author's analogy doesn't work for me.

[Iris7]

"That's why the author's analogy doesn't work for me."

How strange is your point of view. Emile Lahoud's personal dilemma can be seen as tragic, or as comic, or as self inflicted. Straddling the fence can become the uncomfortable and humiliating experience of being ridden out of town on a rail.

Perhaps you are unacquainted with preindustrial idiom. The individual riding the rail is supported only by the rail between his legs and the entire assemblage is supported between two trotting horses. The object of this dubious honor must be fastened to the rail securely, of course, and the upward movement of the rail are sudden and sharp.

For "rail" think a four inch diameter green wood pole, quite elastic and very stiff. The unwelcome experience is continued until "he has had enough". There is an element of rough justice involved. And so we return to Mr. Lahoud.