Pork

{{foodnav}}{{hatnote|Not to be confused with '''long pork''', which is [[Cannibalism|something entirely different]].}}
'''Pork''' is an English word from [[Latin]] ''porcus'', itself from Proto-[[Indo-European]] ''*porḱo-''. It has two common unrelated meanings.

==Food==
Pork is the term for most pig-based products intended for consumption. In [[advertising]] terms, it is also referred to as "[[Soylent Green|the other white meat]]", mostly to contrast it/compete with chicken. Pork is a particularly popular meat in relatively [[poor]] or marginal areas. 

In [[Judaism]] and [[Islam]], where they actually pay attention to their holy book's dietary strictures, pork is forbidden (in the former, it is not [[kosher]]; the latter, it is haram and not [[halal]]). This religious custom stems from the idea of pigs as unclean animals. Unclean animals were not to be eaten because they would make the eater unclean upon consumption.  The uncleanliness those societies were worried about is suspected to have been the disease {{wpl|trichinosis||,}} which has been mostly eradicated in modern times<ref>[http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/porkworm.asp Coke Adds Life], [[Snopes]]</ref> &mdash; to the point that a pork loin dish ordered at a fancy restaurant can be ordered rare or medium rare in temperature.<ref group=note>It is still possible to get {{wpl|Yersinia enterocolitis|''Yersinia enterocolitis''}} from contacting uncleaned pig intestines; it's notorious for having a wide array of symptoms that make it difficult to diagnose, although diarrhea is usually present, but is rarely fatal. Although regular cooking easily kills them, they are, similar to the closely related [[plague]] bacteria, resistant to cold temperatures). Cases almost never occur from sausage casings, but in the form of chitterlings.</ref>

Pork is also considered unclean and is forbidden in [[Seventh-day Adventism]] and [[Rastafarianism]].

==Politics==
[[File:Pork-roast.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Congress spends YOUR [[tax]] dollars to make itself fancy meals like this!]]
Pork is also an (originally [[American]]) [[political]] term referring to "frivolous" [[government]] projects whose main purpose is to ensure the reelection of incumbent representatives, who can return home and campaign on how much [[bacon]] they're bringing home to their district. Of course, people have a really hard time actually pointing out real pork, as most of those projects turn out to serve a very important purpose, no matter how weird they seem at first blush.<ref group=note>Consider the following fail from [[Fox News]]: [http://hannity.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/03/12/waste-102-the-final-list/ Waste: The Final List]. Very, very ''little'' of this list is actually waste (much of it is funding for various [[science]] projects, and the largest chunks of the package are funding for such frivolities as [[nuclear waste]] cleanup and [[Amtrak]] subsidies). Interestingly, even stuff that seems frivolous, like the football gloves, might have applications in other parts of the clothing and safety equipment industries.</ref>

Projects that are derided by [[politician]]s as pork inevitably only exist in ''other people's'' districts.  You could say that one man's pork is another man's highway.

Pork also serves to lubricate the wheels of governance by getting reticent members of [[Congress]] to vote for a bill they otherwise might not have and provide congressional leaders with leverage for keeping their caucus in line.

Those opposed to Congressional earmarks have occasionally pushed to give the [[POTUS|President]] line-item veto power, at least until ''Clinton v. City of New York''.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/supcourt/stories/wp062698.htm Court Strikes Down Line-Item Veto], ''[[The Washington Post]]''</ref> The Constitution of the [[Confederate States|CSA]], in one of its rare changes not related to [[slavery]], required that all Congressional bills deal with only one subject (few [[West]]ern nations currently do this, though the state of [[Nevada]] does locally, and in [[Great Britain]] there is a similar rule of laws having to state in their title what they are about).

===The Pork Crusader===
The most (in)famous politician to slide down the anti-pork [[slippery slope]] was [[Senator]] William Proxmire ([[Democratic Party|D]]-[[WI]]), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee for nearly a decade.  While his {{wpl|Golden Fleece Award|"Golden Fleece Award"}} revealed several instances of what could be considered wasteful spending, he then attempted to gut legitimate research from organizations such as [[NASA]] (especially the [[SETI]] program) because he thought they were "nutty fantas[ies]" (you can never escape [[Dunning-Kruger]]).

==See also==
*[[Abomination]] (what eating pork is considered [when eaten by [[Jews]]] according to [[Leviticus]])
*[[Animal Farm]]
*[[Populism]]
* The [[NIMBY]] principle is in some sense the same thing in reverse

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:United States politics]]

Categories: Food, United States politics