“My friend, the swift mule, fleet wild ass of the mountain, panther of the wilderness, after we joined together and went up into the mountain, fought the Bull of Heaven and killed it, and overwhelmed Humbaba, who lived in the Cedar Forest, now what is this sleep that has seized you?” - (Trans. Kovacs, 1989)—From the Epic of Gilgamesh

A metaphor like the one above will make an average person feel lower than average. The author compares his friend to 3 animals: the mule, known for its reliability and resourcefulness; the “wild ass of the mountain,” which is kind of like a mule, but more surefooted in the mountains; and finally the “panther of the wilderness,” endlessly stalking about for predators. The author portrays his friend as a combination of these animals, picturing him as a well equipped person.

"The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central -- that's their decision not to show the image of Mohammed or not -- it's Parker and Stone," he said. "Like little whores, they'll sit there and grab the bucks. They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus. That's their stock in trade."

The speaker is equating Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of “South Park,” to a life of greed and misery. When most people think of whores, they think of loose women, but here they are actually speaking about people who would take pot shots at anyone for the right amount of money. This probably wouldn’t affect public policy, but it would make a lot of executives and public officials be under more public scrutiny.

“The War on Drugs”

A favorite of many administrations, the drug fight has increased multiple times (i.e. it was not always the “war on drugs”). This has set a matter of public policy, saying that we are treating drugs like a human enemy. While it allows us to use a large amount of firepower, people are distrustful of anything with “war” in the name. We’ve even named “drug lords” and our leader in the drug fight is a “drug czar.”

“He is a monster.”

Being compared to a monster has definite negative connotations. It is hard to imagine what people think of when the word monster is used, but like we discussed earlier with Frankenstein, a monster is something that people stare at. This, like the first two, really has no public policy effect, but these three do affect how people are seen. People who are compared with one of the above metaphors or a variation are usually not seen in a good light. It hurts their reputations and in the case of politicians, their chances of reelection.