Political language


Origins of the phrase "pork barrel," and it's not pretty

Oh my.

Via Reason's blog Hit & Run comes this excerpt from American Heritage magazine.

The metaphor stems from the practice in the pre-refrigeration era of preserving pork in large wooden barrels of brine. The political usage may have been inspired by the distribution of rations of salt pork to slaves on plantations. "Oftenitmes the eagerness of the slaves would result in a rush upon the pork barrel, "wrote a 'journalist' named C.C. Maxey in 1919, "in which each would strive to grab as much as possible for himself. Member of Congress in the stampede to get their local appropriation items into the omnibus river and harbor bills behaved so much like negro slaves rushing the pork barrel, that these bills were facetiously styled 'pork-barrel' bills."

Guess I will have to fine another phrase to describe it.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - April 20, 2007 at 04:50 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library



Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved