Word: argumentive
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While there’s an argument to be made for appreciating coffee’s natural flavor, as a utilitarian drinker, I don’t find it too compelling. I know, I know, there’s Jamaican Blue Mountain, there’s Tanzanian peaberry—there are plenty of obscure beans to delight the connoisseur. After all, coffee is an acquired taste. But so is anything, I would imagine, if you work hard enough at acquiring...
...Office of the U.S. Courts had erred in rejecting Golinski's inclusion of her wife on her insurance election form. Sidestepping constitutional questions about equal treatment for gays under the law, he agreed that the Defense of Marriage Act forbids the government from recognizing gay marriages. But Kozinski's argument centers on the Federal Health Benefits Act, which says that coverage must be provided for an employee's family, including a spouse and children under the age of 21. While the Administration interpreted that as meaning the coverage could only be provided for couples whose marriages are recognized under federal...
What lends “Eating Animals” its power, though, is neither its scope nor its journalistic merit. Rather, the importance of “Eating Animals” lies in the depth and nuance of Foer’s argument and in the portrait he sketches of animal agriculture as it stands today. Foer is occasionally shrill in his denunciation of factory farms, but his examination of animal welfare representatives—a vegan activist, several “ethical farmers” and a small slaughterhouse owner—is both more in-depth and more...
...Foer notes, culture is expressed in eating practices, and to change what we eat is to fundamentally change our identity. But change can also mean progress, and although diehard carnivores looking for reasons not to give up meat will find holes in Foer’s argument, it is more compelling and accessible than most arguments for vegetarianism. Even those who choose not to change their eating habits will come away from the book thinking more critically about their food, something that both vegetarians and omnivores should strive...
Fear is a kind of parenting fungus: invisible, insidious, perfectly designed to decompose your peace of mind. Fear of physical danger is at least subject to rational argument; fear of failure is harder to hose down. What could be more natural than worrying that your child might be trampled by the great, scary, globally competitive world into which she will one day be launched? It is this fear that inspires parents to demand homework in preschool, produce the snazzy bilingual campaign video for the third-grader's race for class rep, continue to provide the morning wake-up call long...