Word: assertion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stricken ghetto dwellers. The 1968 Kerner Commission report famously declared that America was in danger of becoming "two societies...separate and unequal." In the hysteria following the 1968 riots, the Thernstroms say, the commission overlooked data showing that blacks had been making substantial strides. And 29 years later, they assert, it is clear that blacks gained more ground in education, income and other areas before the civil rights movement and affirmative action than they have since. In fact, the first signs of actual slippage emerged around 1970. The commission also failed to foresee that 40% of today's blacks would...
Male movie stars didn't always have to act like commandos to assert their machismo. How many bad guys did Clark Gable or Cary Grant kill in their careers as Hollywood heroes? Precious few, because life--even a villain's life--was held more precious then. Maybe the old movies were naive, but we'll take naivete over the thoughtless, numberless carnage that makes the modern action film a Bosnia for fun and profit...
...hallmarks. For starters, Xers are more racially diverse: only 70% call themselves white vs. 77% of boomers. Compared to a generation ago, nearly twice as many of today's twentysomethings--28%--agree "there is no single way to live." In this cohort, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans assert their identity more than ever. And whites are more multicultural. Fair-haired dreadlocks are commonplace. Fashion designers knock off urban street trends rather than the other way around. Gay rights are assumed: the latest campus cause is discrimination against "transgendered persons." Body piercing has gone mainstream. As in the return...
Indeed, this argument (championed by former Chief Justice Warren Burger, among others), has always seemed goofy to me. Let's suppose for a minute that all of the historical evidence demonstrating the framers' intent to assert the essential civic right of the individual to protect his family and property did not exist (John Adams, class of 1755, and Thomas Jefferson, for example, were explicit about their beliefs; Adams insisted that Congress not "prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms"). Even if Second Amendment revisionists were right in arguing that the militia...
SENTENCED. CHADREL RINPOCHE, 58, high-ranking Tibetan monk accused of leaking information to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader; to six years in prison; on charges of disclosing state secrets and conspiracy to split China; in Xigaze, Tibet. Chadrel is a casualty of China's determination to assert its authority over Tibet's spiritual life...