Word: basics
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...awarded the Order of Lenin after he was traded for U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1962. KGB anniversaries are occasions for rallies and testimonials. "The competent organs," a common euphemism for the intelligence services, make up a kind of superelite. For years it was a basic tenet of Kremlinological wisdom that the head of the KGB was too much distrusted by his comrades ever to become General Secretary of the party. Yuri Andropov disproved that rule of thumb in 1982. He personified the Soviet obsession with security and reverence for the guardians of security...
...qualifications for a once-only maternity grant, eliminating a state-financed pension fund or restricting the $38 payment for funeral expenses to poor families. Special aid for the needy, housing benefits and payments to unemployed youths would also be axed. The foundations, the National Health Service and the basic old-age-pension system would not be touched by the proposals, which will be voted on by Parliament early next year...
...Reagan plan is entirely clear. It would reverse a 20-year trend of tax cuts for business that has resulted in individuals shouldering a proportionally heavier load of the burden. The basic mechanism remains clear too: lowering rates but making more income taxable by scrapping or reducing exemptions and deductions. Within that grand design, though, there are hundreds of provisions varying widely in impact. Details: Individual rates. The move to a three-stage, 15%-25%-35% rate structure would by Administration calculations reduce taxes for 58.1% of all American families; 21.2% would see no change except in the way that...
...movie is not to be taken literally. It is not an inside look at organized crime any more than it is a study of the joys and dangers of sexual obsession. It is a parable of generational conflict in Director Huston's most sardonic (or Asphalt Jungle) vein. Its basic irony derives from the fact that the Prizzi hoods, colorfully impersonated by such welcome old pros as William Hickey, Robert Loggia and Lee Richardson, represent, despite their line of work, traditional values. They take the long, institutional view of their enterprise, understanding that its greatest asset is its reputation...
...Iran is estimated at about 7 to 1, declared that it had rekindled the air war in retaliation for Iran's alleged involvement in an aborted car-bomb attempt on the life of the ruler of Kuwait, an Iraqi ally, two weeks ago; Tehran denies the charge. Iraq's basic problem is that it desperately wants to end the war it started 56 months ago, but does not know how to achieve that aim. The Iranian leader, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, continues to insist that hostilities will not end until the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has fallen. Some...