Word: argumentative
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...safe to argue again, perhaps, but the soul-shaking argument is the one we are having with ourselves. Is all this making me stronger or just making me a wreck? Am I doing enough to protect my children? What about that woman who threw her kids in the car and drove to Florida and is not coming back? Is it weakness, or arrogance, to even think this way? Or wisdom? "You could get hit by a bus," we remind ourselves, and then in the next breath, "God helps those who help themselves." So do we move to Wyoming...
...clock universal keycard access should be granted to all students. The proponents of 24-hour access, this page included, have stressed its ability to make the campus a safer place by allowing students to swipe into the security of any House at any hour. But aside from the powerful argument grounded in student safety, the potential of open access to promote better social interaction among students provides an independent justification. There is simply no good reason why Harvard’s undergraduates—who form lasting friendships both within House walls and across the broader Harvard community?...
...There is a role for reason in arbitrating among them, and the ideal of liberal education (so painfully distorted at the hands of the Core Committee) is that through learning we can discover what the world is like and how one should live within it. The model of rigorous argument that mathematics provides, the skepticism and attention to empirical reasoning of the sciences, the rich and various examples of human action to be found in foreign places or past times, the emotional clarity and insight into our nature that we gain from literature, music and art—these...
...many Vietnam-era lessons apply automatically. A major accusation against the U.S. in the '60s--that it was the aggressor in Southeast Asia--is not so easy to invoke this time, when any U.S. military action will follow a terrorist attack carried out on American soil. And the argument that the mass murder of Sept. 11 was brought on by injustices of American foreign policy is hard to credit when Osama bin Laden is a man whose ideal of social organization is not exactly Denmark...
...common argument among term-limit opponents that the restrictions turn out good, hardworking, popular incumbents like Guiliani along with the less likable legislators that term limits target. In truth, however, we cannot measure the number of good, talented people who never run for office and never have the opportunity to serve because they are locked out by the power of incumbency. However, there are several cases of term-limited members trying to stage a comeback by running against their replacements. In half of these cases, voters decided to stay with the new member, even though it is likely that without...