rice bowl
n.— «Attempting to take the moral high ground in a debate that in the past has been characterized by high emotions as each service sought to protect its own “rice bowls,” the Army leadership avoided suggesting to the commission ways that the functions the military services perform could be restructured.» —“Army Seeks Moral High Ground In Briefing To Roles Panel” Defense Daily Sept. 15, 1994. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...