self-licking ice cream cone
n.— «By repeating Red Team victories from one Unified Command or agency to another without trying to fix the problem(s) creates a “self-licking ice cream cone” for the IO community, that is, an ensured mission and fund site for the foreseeable future.» —“Safeguarding Information Operations” by Stephen W. Magnan in Center for the Study of Intelligence Studies In Intelligence (Washington, D.C.) Summer, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Kim from Council Bluffs, Iowa, notes that kırmızı, the Turkish word for “red,” sounds a lot like the English word crimson. Are they related? Yes! Both derive from a word for the insect whose scientific name is Kermes vermilio. The English words...
Why do we speak of the red, white, and blue when discussing the American flag? Why not blue, white, and red or white, red, and blue? A couple of reasons: The color order lodged in the language thanks in part to the patriotic song from the 1840s...