"It All Depends On Whose Ox Is Being Gored" By Bob Christie —— Bio and Archives July 29, 2017
Here’s what the above idiom means. If something awful happens to someone you don’t know, or perhaps dislike, you are likely to ignore it in the first instance, or may even applaud it in the latter instance. If something awful happens to you or your loved ones, well, that’s a different story altogether. There will be no applause from you; there will be scorn and retribution if you can make that happen.
Suppose a fence-jumping, wall-scaling illegal immigrant entered your home and horribly mutilated and murdered a member of your family . . . or maybe even your entire family. Unfortunately this has happened in the US on too many occasions. After the fact collective anguish on the part of American voters contributed to the election of Donald Trump who promised to build a wall to keep such perpetrators away from you and your family. Further, Trump has directed authorities to wage an all out war against the notorious gang of illegals from Central America known as MS-13. They number in the thousands and their activities are too horrific to describe in this civilized publication.
It is also a fact that prominent celebrities, among others, have damned President Trump for his intention to protect all Americans.
Now that you have read the setup, I direct your attention to the news articles immediately below. Note that only fourteen months passed between these items.
05/12/16 04:10 PM EDT
Actor George Clooney was asked at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday if his new movie, “Money Monster,” presaged a future under a White House run by Donald Trump.
“Let’s start much simpler — there is not gonna’ be a President Donald Trump,” Clooney replied. “Fear is not something that drives our country. We’re not going to be scared of Muslims or immigrants or women. We’re not actually afraid of anything, so we are not going to use fear. It’s not going to be an issue.”
Amal Clooney stated she is “perplexed” by Trump’s popularity following his remarks about various minorities. “When you listen to what the leading Republican candidate has been saying about building walls, about excluding Mexicans and saying there has to be a complete shutdown [of] all Muslims entering the country … he kept saying, ‘They only want jihad, they don’t believe in our way of life, they don’t respect our system,’ ” she said.
7:19 AM PDT 7/28/2017
George Clooney has fired back at paparazzi pictures of his twin babies with wife Amal. The pictures were plastered on the cover of France’s Voici magazine and are making the rounds online.
“Over the last week photographers from Voici magazine scaled our fence, climbed our tree and illegally took pictures of our infants inside our home,” George Clooney said in a statement. “Make no mistake the photographers, the agency and the magazine will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The safety of our children demands it.”
According to the Clooneys, a wall separating you and your family from serious harm or death is not required for your protection. Actually they think the wall is a bad thing. If something awful happens to you or your family they are not likely to even hear about it because they don’t know you. But climbing a fence to take pictures of the Clooneys and sell them to publications demands authorities prosecute the paparazzi for endangering the safety of the Clooney children.
Would it be impolitic or unfair to point out the blatant use (abuse?) of the idiom described above? Maybe it would be kinder and gentler to suggest the Clooneys build a more impregnable fence . . . and remove the tree.