Word: argumentative
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Zimbabwe's old white Rhodesian settlers are just as riveted by the past. They argue that until Mugabe and his supporters give back farms that were appropriated from whites - something no Zimbabwean leader endorses as either practical or just - there is no hope for economic recovery. When that argument is put directly to Mugabe at an investors' conference, the President, 85, answers with a fluent 14-minute history lesson on how Zimbabwe won its independence. The point of this polemic? The responsibility for any problems with land reform, concludes Mugabe, "is a British...
...joke!" he yells. "They got me. They turned me out," says Combs, shaking his head as he walks away. One night, with 1,300 extras at the Greek Theater at 11 o'clock, Apatow suggests yet another shoot of Brand's rock performance with pyrotechnics. He enlists his favorite argument: "Maybe it'll show up in the DVD extras." (See the top DVDs...
...long ago as 1982, the economist Mancur Olson made the argument, in The Rise and Decline of Nations, that as a democracy matures, special interests grow more entrenched. Their intense dedication to their own specific needs, Olson wrote, often trumps the broader, but less focused, interests of society. And that was before the rise of cable news and talk radio. It was before the utterly corrupting effect of televised advertising on politicians really kicked in - the need to raise money (from interest groups, mostly) and to exercise extreme caution lest one of your votes be used to decapitate...
...columnist Steven Pearlstein's contention in the morning paper that even an imperfect health-reform plan beats the status quo. The President circulated the column to his senior staff, Emanuel recalls, declaring, "This is required reading." And that night at his prime-time news conference, Obama repeated Pearlstein's argument. Top aides say he spends at least two hours a day in meetings and on the phone with key members of Congress, particularly those on the Senate Finance Committee - some of whom hear from the President almost daily. His message to them usually boils down to two words: Keep moving...
...Twitter. Because nothing spells commitment like 140 characters of lucid, compelling argument, there's a new Tweet Your Senator page on BarackObama.com, the website maintained by the Democratic National Committee. Here, you can log-in and send one of a half a dozen or so prewritten tweets to your state's Senators. And for your trouble, you get to see your picture and tweet pop up on a map of the U.S. Shiny! (Follow TIME on Twitter...