Word: absurd
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Carswell's further discussion of the O. A. is quite to the point--he himself realizes its superiority to any E., however A. His illustration includes one of the key "Wake Up the Grader" phrases--"It is absurd." What force! What gall! What fun! "Ridiculous," "hopeless," "nonsense," on the one hand; "doubtless," "obvious," "unquestionable" on the other, will have the same effect. A hint of nostalgic, anti-academic languor at this stage as well may well match the grader's own mood. "It seems more than obvious to one entangled in the petty quibbles of contemporary Medievalists--at times, indeed...
...long run the expert in the use of unwarranted assumptions comes off better than the equivocator. He would deal with our question of Hume not by baffling the grader or fencing with him but like this: "It is absurd to discuss whether Hume is representative of the age in which he lived unless we note the progress of that age on all intellectual fronts. After all, Hume did not live in a vacuum...
...three U.S. warships that were supposed to be protecting it. The American vessels, bristling with the latest gear to defend against planes, ships and submarines, could not cope with the World War II-vintage mines. "Who is escorting whom?" asked Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd last week. "This patently absurd and ridiculous result of the first escort mission is embarrassing to the nation...
...interplay of violence and sex brings to the fore the exhiliration of facing death. Like life, and patriotism, Vietnam is a good time while you're in it, but in the end it is all quite absurd...
What about the Security Council? If Pell really wants the Security Council to protect the gulf, what he means is for the U.S., Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union to act together. But this is absurd. China, for example, is supplying Iran with the very missiles it would use to target any peacekeeping flotilla. And even if united action were possible, it would not be desirable. What the "U.N. route" really means, after all the disguises are removed, is that the U.S. should act in the gulf only with the permission not just of allies but also...