Word: absurd
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...review of Leonard Bernstein's unflattering biography ((MUSIC, May 18)), Michael Walsh's dismissal of Lenny as a musical self-parody is absurd. The excellent Vienna Beethoven cycle, along with Bernstein's first-rate Schumann, Haydn and Mahler, is testimony to Walsh's aesthetic silliness. Although several of Bernstein's recent compositions have been less than successful, that situation does not constitute proof of Bernstein's artistic irrelevance. Babe Ruth struck out more than most hitters, yet his niche in Cooperstown, N.Y., remains secure. Whatever his personal flaws, Bernstein is a powerful, worthwhile musical presence...
...some people's mind, the line was the office of sponsored research, and that was an absurd line," Martin says. He says that one code should apply to all work done by Harvard faculty members, whether done for the government...
Ronald Reagan has always run for office proclaiming himself to be a government outsider, but he took his absurd style of governing as a government outsider a bit too far when he allowed his aides to formulate and execute American foreign policy in the White House basement, bypassing the State Department as well as the Congress. At one point Albert Hakim, an Iranian financier and arms merchant, was sent to Iran by high administration officials to negotiate secret treaties on behalf of the U.S. with the ayatollahs...
Leaving aside the rhetorical thrust concerning "moralism of the critics," I note that Huntington's criticism of the Administration and his dig at the "unwarranted optimism of the advocates" is all the more absurd since some of his own opinions were no more than "misplaced optimism," as we see from the passage quoted in section 3. Indeed, Robert D. Putnam in his PS article states that Huntington was guilty of "misplaced optimism about the effects of American-sponsored forced draft urbanization' on the prospects for South Vietnamese resistance to the Communist insurgency...
Such open splits are still rare, but the new Afrikaner discontent is having its effect even on politicians loyal to Botha. Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha (no relation to the President) told an election rally this month that some of the social restrictions of apartheid are absurd. "I cannot understand," he said, "how you can stand in a lift with a black man with a toolbox in his hand, but when he puts on a suit you want nothing to do with...