expired equines

[victor steinbok]

Another new one for me, from the pen of Adam Serwer:

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=04&year=2010&base_name=what_the_new_black_panther_cas
> Also, _not_to_cremate_a_dead_horse_, but conservative obsession with this case is another example of the phenomenon of conservative epistemic closure.


Following a brief search, I found only a couple of other instances
where the phrase was not used in its literal sense:

http://www.redszone.com/forums/showpost.php?s=f254985ea3f8a4f1552001bd80568cbb&p=1334031&postcount=7
> I'd rather not make the playoffs in '06 to make a playoff run beginning the next year and rebuilding the weakest part of our team for the next few years. I'm _cremating_a_dead_horse_, but I still think this was a great trade.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05012/440853-126.stm
> KOVACEVIC: I am so weary of this topic from my previous beat that I happily fast-forward to the next _without_cremating_the_dead_horse_ ...

http://1337planet.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=348&st=0&p=6414&hl="dead%20horse"&fromsearch=1&#entry6414
> From now on when I want to know how to cremate a dead horse by beating it, I'll ask BS.
> This post has been edited by Undertow: 05 September 2006 - 05:17 PM

Apparently, the horse has been beaten so much that it's time to cover
up the crime by cremating it...

Well, it seems exactly how one gamer felt too--after five posts that
involved the line about "beating a dead horse", someone (comment #18)
finally wrote on a thread,

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=711961893
> Whoever that finally disbands the guild imo will gain a lot of respect for _finally_cremating_that_dead_horse's_corpse_ and spreading its ashes all over lorderon and of outlands!

<Also here:  http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/search.html?characterId=778307992&sid=1>

Actually, he's not alone (comment at 10:18pm):

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/my-daughter-biden
> I sympathize with you, Tep, I really do, but that horse has been dead for nine months and it's been stinking for eight so maybe it's time to stop kicking it. You're fouling your shoes. ... So who's it going to be, Tep? McCain/Palin? Obama/Biden? _Time_to_cremate_that_dead_horse_of_yours_.

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showpost.php?s=85afc728dded471a7ea88914c0347166&p=627199&postcount=25
> BTW i am going to cremate the dead horse honorable moderators. i know this is not the time or the place for this debate

It seems, in most cases--EXCEPT Serwer's, of course--"cremating a dead
horse" actually does imply that it will no longer be beaten, kicked,
flogged, flagellated, etc.

VS-)

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