orphielle

I keep hearing people say that John McCain was mixed up with the Keating Five. When I ask them "who were the Keating Five?" they don't seem to know.

Does anybody?

In Matthew 25, Jesus says to the people he allows to enter Heaven, "I was a stranger and you let me in." They answered "When did we see you a stranger?" Jesus: "When you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."

But what if the strangers are illegal aliens?

I am talking about the traditional meaning of "carrot on a stick," not the recent twist and misuse of the phrase into "carrot or the stick" meaning reward or punishment. I've heard Hillary Clinton and Chris Matthews, among others on TV, using it this way recently.

I'm referring to the carrot that used to be tied to a stick attached to a mule's or horse's head. When the carrot moved, the mule moved, trying to reach it. But since it was attached to his head,he never got his reward. It took a long time for a dumb animal to realize this, so he kept on following the path his masters wanted him to take.

Let's not allow politicians and the media to pervert the idiom "carrot on a stick" so that it loses its original meaning. It's important that our language retain a clear illustration of unfulfilled promises, because politicians are always making them.

Recently, during the Olympics, China set up pens where people could go to protest. First they had to go to the police to get a permit. Some who did that were not allowed to leave, but were imprisoned.

Now the Democratic Convention has arranged for "protest pens" (otherwise known as Free Speech Zones or Freedom Cages) to be set up in Denver, Colorado.

Where and when did this idea of confining protestors originate? Is America copying the Chinese? Or vice versa?

Or is this aspect of Jesus simply a liberal myth?