Word: cavil
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...Americans deserve that consideration—being largely considered, on everything from census forms to college applications, as generically “white”—or whether the mobster stereotype legitimately can offend is unfair. Certainly few questioned the rights of Native Americans and Muslims to cavil about The Salient or the Crimson sports page for their commentary. In this instance, however, the parody of The Godfather does not intend to illuminate any larger issue, political or cultural—it is admittedly a joke. To the critical observer of collegiate political correctness, this episode begs...
...example, the tug of wills on early ballots for best film was between Slumdog and Rachel; each had strong adherents and, it turned out, strong detractors. By the fourth ballot, a winner had emerged: Milk, which, for many members, was the least objectionable film in the bunch. Who could cavil at the choice of a quality bio-pic about a slain gay activist...
...Exegetes of Millar's graphic novel may cavil at some changes. The true function of the Fraternity, explained early in the comic, is held back as a third-act twist. (If you don't want to know, don't even read the teaser synopsis on the movie-tie-in book's cover.) Some moviegoers may cringe at the number of subsidiary lives ended, and innocent autos totaled, in the big action sequences. Hundreds of people, maybe thousands, die in a train wreck while the members of the Fraternity pursue their killer games. But here's the thing...
...frequent cavil against Brown is that he is not. Brown often vacations in the U.S., but one suspects that it is not the fun and froth of American culture that draws him there so much as earnest policy discussions during summer conferences at the Aspen Institute in Colorado. A colleague says Brown has a huge appetite for American history and politics, routinely stocking up in bookstores on Washington's Dupont Circle. (Though a man of the left, Brown has broad tastes: a bathroom in his house contains a well-thumbed copy of Moral Judgment, by James Q. Wilson, a favorite...
...measure, the $36 billion in profits that ExxonMobil earned last year is staggering. While corporate critics cavil, shareholders see a company simply doing what companies are supposed to do--earning money. Given Exxon's riches, though, the 32,677 claimants in a 17-year-old suit pursuing a $4.5 billion damage award from Exxon for its 1989 Valdez oil spill are puzzled: Why doesn't the world's largest and most profitable oil company just pay the victims and move on? Exxon recently argued its third appeal of the award handed out by a jury in 1994 as punishment...