Word: balking
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Watergate, will have the most far-reaching effects on the personal lives of Americans. Are we to be programmed and made to perform like Pavlovian dogs and then condemned for what we do at someone else's whim and fancy? If so, we can only choose to balk, question and refuse to obey whenever we perceive the slightest lack of confidence or doubt in the wisdom of those rightfully ordained to be our superiors...
...source close to Agnew's defense indicated to TIME that the lawyers may not insist that reporters name each individual who provided information: the newsmen may be asked merely to confirm under oath that their stories accurately attributed leaks to "Justice Department sources." But what if they balk at this compromise? Will Agnew's attorneys then try to use the court's contempt power? "Obviously," said TIME's source, "they'd be inclined to go all the way in the case of someone giving them trouble...
Today I would balk before having the conversation at all because I have begun to feel that the language of the man's world orbits inexorably in its neat Ptolemaic system. The guy says, "So you want respect?" and I shut up because as soon as I try to redefine the word I lose my case. The difference is that four years ago a feminist defined herself in opposition to the square sexist world. She was a naysayer to a tradition of role playing grown dyspeptic, practicing toughness instead of timidity, sloth instead of chic, either anti-sex or sexually...
...lawyer has a fool for a client, then the lawyer who be comes his own client is not much better off. Some years ago Law Professor Monroe Freedman raised a storm by suggesting that a criminal-defense lawyer owed such complete allegiance to his client that he should balk at practically nothing, including even in some cases perjury. But this is closer to the no-holds-barred philosophy of war than to that of law. Professor Philip Kurland of the University of Chicago Law School has written about the Watergate mess: "Whatever one might properly expect of professional spies...
...naive approach has advantages--freshness and freedom from preconceptions of what is possible, can spur an institution into considering old issues in new ways. On the other hand, such an approach is highly susceptible to impatience and frustration as things and people seem to balk over and over again at the thought of change. Naivete brings with it a certain detachment that makes things seem quite straightforward by considering only the issues and not the people involved in them. Experience shown--fast--that no matter how sound the ideology, no matter how appropriate the policy, the implementation of it rests...