That's a big ice cream cone.


February 20, 2007 12:47 PM
Deconstructing the self-licking ice cream cone
Posted by David Postman
Times D.C. reporter Alicia Mundy has a story this morning -- the banner story in the printed paper -- about former Congressman George Nethercutt's lobbying work for with a Spokane firm that he had helped while in office.

The story says:

Nethercutt's relationship with Isothermal is a classic case of what is known in D.C. as the "self-licking ice-cream cone": A lawmaker helps a company win a contract, that company helps the lawmaker stay in office, and on and on it goes.
I had never heard of a "self-licking ice-cream cone." With some Googling and Lexis-Nexising, I find it is a term used in D.C. It doesn't seem to be used widely, and I don't find examples of it as a description of the congressional/lobbying revolving door. It's a clear pejorative, used in some cases to describe the more unsavory elements of the military-industrial complex. It seems to be something with no real purpose, something completely self-serving. I don't read the story to say that about Nethercutt's job, so I'm not sure his is a classic case.

Here are a few definitions:

self-licking ice cream cone n. a process, department, institution, or other thing that offers few benefits and exists primarily to justify or perpetuate its own existence. Also in the form self-licking lollipop.
A phrase not widely used (Google finds a mere 927 references), a "self-licking ice cream cone" is something that is very clever but entirely self serving and essentially useless.
A metaphor to describe an entity that exists only for its own benefit. A quick web search seems to show this phrase is commonly used by policy wonks and pundits to describe government institutions. In his article "The Intelligence Gap: How the digital age left our spies out in the cold"1, Seymour M. Hersh wrote this about the NSA: "One former official described the civilian leadership as 'a self-licking ice-cream cone', with little tolerance for dissent or information it did not wish to hear."
The New Yorker, December 6, 1999, pp. 58-76.

"Self-licking ice cream cone" is the descriptor for a self-fulfilling prophecy as described by the 20th century sociologist Robert K. Merton: "The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true."
The military-industrial complex is a political economy with a big P and a little E. It's very political in nature. Economic decisions, which should prevail in a normal market system, don't prevail in the Pentagon, or in the military-industrial complex.
So what we have is a system that essentially rewards its senior players. It's a self ... what we call it, we have a term for it, it's a self-licking ice cream cone. We basically take care of ourselves. And that's why we have the metaphor that it's Versailles on the Potomac. It is basically self-referencing.

Apologies to Mr. Robert Kaplan, as I am borrowing the above term from an article he wrote a few years ago following a visit to Afghanistan. When Mr. Kaplan referred to the "self-licking ice cream cone", he was specifically referring to Bagram Air Field, which by that time had become swollen with various Army and Air Force support personnel who seemed to have no real impact on the war effort. They basically existed to justify their own existence.

I have heard that the battery life on the PRO was unsat when considering a long haul international flight.

My forecast seniority is also showing negative for the last couple of years. Must be a database error.

I just heard it from a captain. Take it or leave IMHO.

Oh, do you have the link? That sounds AWESOME :P

As I have read, Delta mostly does hiring from the inside. I'm new to the airline stats and how they work :/

Exp: PPL w/ Instrument :P

Warthog

It is true that 600 is the official word from flight ops now. I have not heard 800 yet from the kremlin, but that would not be surprising.

A maximum of about 100 of those can be Compass, and a slightly larger portion will be Endeavor. They strive to have at least a 65/35% ratio of civilian to military. That leaves quite a bit of room for those wanting to get hired, particularly if the number increases above 600.

Not sure what you mean by hiring from the inside... there are very few intra-company transfers to flight ops.

Good luck with your flying!

Thanks for the clarification and the good fortune!

Warthog

You start long call the minute you are of short call... i.e. you are now on a 12 hour leash.

Technically you don't have to answer your phone right away, but they only have to have 12 hours between report and when they first attempted to contact you.

Another reserve question. I'm on a one day trip. I get a SC assignment for tomorrow and acknowledge the assignment via I-crew. After finishing up the one day I have a voicemail telling me they removed the SC and assigned me a 2-day and I need to acknowledge after blocking in. I ack the trip but don't get credit for the SC. I thought if we acknowledge a sc assignment we got the credit if the take it away and give you a trip. I didn't so I called and they told me we don't.

You only get credit for a short call assignment if you start it. It happens all the time with scheduling. They will assign you a short call, take it away, put you on long call and then assign you a trip.

Yep, that!

I wonder if/when the food finally showed up to the place where the greatest pilots in the world walk through the door? :)

(I'm all about having a healthy amount of Delta pride, but that sign does make me roll my eyes a bit)

Good example: A carrier battle group. The carrier exists to take care of the fighters that take care of the ships around the carrier, which in turn take care of the carrier.