Word: argumentative
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...Second, the argument that supporting the rights of women will insult the Muslim world is demeaning to women and to Muslims. Women's rights are human rights. They are not simply American, or western customs. They are universal values which we have a responsibility to promote throughout the world, and especially in a place like Afghanistan...
...past two months, our public conversation has changed almost beyond recognition; arguments that were unimaginable last summer are now the stuff of talk shows and chat rooms. Should we torture terrorist suspects? Embrace racial profiling? Seal the borders? Bust the budget? It may be the surest sign of a healthy democracy that in the wake of an attack that stopped a nation in its tracks, we have begun to move forward again in every direction, with less consistency but more urgency, engaged in an argument with ourselves and one another over what these times demand...
...Senate, under Democratic leadership, unanimously took the opposing view: Only by federalizing security workers and performing high-level background checks, their argument goes, can the government implement truly universal safety standards. Otherwise, you end up with the same private firms employing the same incompetent people who?ve allowed past lapses...
...cutting taxes, drilling in the Arctic, letting the private sector provide airport security and a host of other Republican priorities. But it is an act of intellectual dereliction to categorically dismiss those ideas as nothing but partisan favoritism. Winning the battle for public opinion requires a more sophisticated argument than prattling about how ghastly it is for Republicans to disagree with Democrats. Voices from the left ought to drop their scary stories and at least try to put up a real fight...
...direction: “Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish.... Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence...