Word: absurdities
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Another example of absurd and alienating tactics from the opposite end of the spectrum was SLAM’s stunt of taking janitors’ children trick-or-treating at former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ home last Halloween to demand higher wages and increased benefits. Rather than advocating in a professional manner, a possibility given the ongoing bargaining between the janitors union and the University, the group decided that the best way to convince Summers that janitors need higher wages was to invade Summers’ personal life. This is akin to the students from Social Analysis...
...slightly higher wages—the median was $52,792 per year in the 2000 census for the metropolitan area—but whatever benchmark is used, SLAM’s figure is inflated. While many on campus agree that Harvard ought to value its workers, it is absurd to claim that Harvard must pay far above the market wage. Because of its unwavering commitment to these ridiculous demands, SLAM drives moderate sympathizers away...
...should generally stick to their act. Most people would rather be entertained than given a political lesson, a fact seemingly lost on Streisand at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 9, when she seriously misread her fans by pushing her agenda just a little too much. The results were predictably absurd and decidedly unfunny...
While on trial, convicted 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui mercilessly baited 9/11 families, insulted court officials, and praised Osama bin Laden as his "father." But behind the absurd antics, one person continued to support him: his mother. She struggled to prevent the conviction and possible execution of a son whose hateful beliefs had turned him into a virtual stranger...
...money now "available" to faith-based organizations because of particular administrative reforms announced six months earlier. It was one of those wonderful Washington assertions that is simultaneously accurate and deceptive and just confusing enough to defy opposition. On the one hand, we had eliminated some ancient and patently absurd regulations, many of them promulgated under seemingly faith-phobic Democratic Administrations, that discriminated against faith-based groups simply because they might have a religious-sounding name. The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, for instance, was once denied the chance to apply for a federal grant even though it was an entirely...