The U.S. and Global Security Review - Blog by Michael Novakhov

M.N.: This interesting term: "pissing contest" needs some further exploration and description, mostly for my own self-educational purposes. It might be somewhat enlightening psychologically, but it seems to me that there is much more in this emerging conflict than the psychology alone.  A  pissing contest , or  pissing match , is a game in which participants compete to see who can  urinate  the highest, the farthest, or the most accurately. [1]  Although the practice is often associated with adolescent boys, women have been known to play the game, and there are literary depictions of adults competing in it. Since the 1940s the term has been used as a  slang   idiomatic  phrase describing contests that are "futile or purposeless", especially if waged in a "conspicuously aggressive manner". [2]  As a  metaphor  it is used  figuratively  to characterise  ego -driven battling in a  pejorative  or facetious manner that is often considered vulgar. [3]  The i