Word: argumentativeness
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When West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller gave his closing argument on Sept. 29 to the Senate Finance Committee in support of his amendment to create a new government-run health-insurance plan, he sounded amply frustrated. Describing the people of his state, he said they were "out in the cold" and "helpless" against faceless insurance bureaucrats who treat them unfairly. A public health-insurance plan, he said, would create competition for private insurers and could put patients, not profits, first. "These are people," he said, banging the table more than once. "Eleven-year-old kids. These are families...
...that argument is getting harder to make. In most of Europe, Afghanistan has always been the good war, compared with the bad invasion of Iraq. After the attacks against the U.S. in September 2001, almost 6 in 10 French voters supported sending troops to Afghanistan. Italians and Spaniards backed troop deployments in similar numbers; Britons were even more enthusiastic...
While the Internet has already made it difficult for subscription services like newspapers to compete, writers argue a similar transformation will occur with the university. Now that Harvard and other top universities are putting their content online, the argument goes, the physical university will become a relic. A high-quality classroom experience is open to anyone with a computer...
...problem is, it didn't quite do that. Winning the 2007 Pan American Games was considered a big, if sometimes chaotic, success for Rio. To triumph over rival bidder San Antonio, officials used the same argument - that this was Rio's turn. To back that up, they promised to transform the city with a new ring road system, something called a "via light" railway (presumably a light railway), a new state highway and 54 km of new metro lines...
...that Rio has a well-deserved reputation as one of the world's most stunningly beautiful and welcoming cities. The third upside is the one that Lula and Rio officials have been hammering home: that fair is fair; that this is South America's turn. It is a valid argument. South America deserves its chance. But it also needs someone to make sure it keeps its promises...