Word: blunting
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...bracket rather than increase the sales tax. But all Greeks are likely to feel the pinch in some way. The fact that many families usually rely on a variety of sources of income (including untaxed or black-market work), and because many own their own home, may help blunt the pain. (See "Greek Tragedy: Athens' Financial Woes...
...territory to mount operations against NATO troops in Afghanistan. Last month, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates was visiting, the Pakistan military's chief spokesman said there were no plans to launch fresh offensives for at least six months, if not a year. That was a pretty blunt "No" to the Americans. Now, with suspicions deepening over the nature and extent of the U.S. presence in Pakistan, winning its cooperation and shifting public attitudes has become an even more trying task...
...converse is that films starring other actors nominated for Golden Globe or Screen Actors Guild awards, and which received indulgent praise from critics, have stirred hardly a murmur at the wickets. Colin Firth's A Single Man has earned just $4.5 million in seven weeks of release; Emily Blunt's The Young Victoria, $6.8 million in six weeks; Carey Mulligan's An Education, $8.3 million in 16; Woody Harrelson's The Messenger, just $744,200 after 11 weeks in limited release; and Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer's The Last Station, $230,700, second week, limited. All that free publicity...
...banks last week, then Thursday's new restrictions on big banks - signal a somewhat new approach to financial reform. But they also signal a very new approach to politics and governing: more populist, more confrontational, less deferential to Congress, less eager for common ground. His uncharacteristically blunt message to financial giants and their political defenders said it all: "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have...
...scaring away the U.S. from defending the island nation of Taiwan. By shooting down one missile with another, China demonstrated its growing military prowess. But it also telegraphed its anger over last week's sale of U.S. Patriot interceptor missiles to Taiwan. Taipei would use the Patriots to blunt any attack by Beijing's 1,100 missiles poised just across the Taiwan Strait. China has threatened to use force should Taiwan, which has had its own political system for the past six decades, opt for independence...