Word: commoner
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Club Without Rules. In legal terms the Commonwealth simply represents "the lowest common denominator of consent." It has no constitution or common law applicable to all members; none is pledged to come to the defense of any of the others. There are no obligations or set meetings, no voting procedures or joint policies, and no stated method of .applying for admittance or of being rejected...
Individually and together, they have entered defensive alliances with Washington: Canada and Great Britain are members of NATO, Australia and New Zealand have joined the U.S. in ANZUS (excluding Britain) and SEATO. Canada and the U.S. made common cause in building the radar DEW line to prevent surprise attacks by Soviet planes coming from the North Pole...
...Commonwealth" has nothing to do with sharing riches. The word took root in Renaissance Europe as an equivalent for the old Roman res publica, i.e., the public good or the common weal. Oliver Cromwell's dictatorship in England (1649-53), after the execution of King Charles I, was therefore dubbed "the Commonwealth." The U.S. colonies liked the self-governing implications of the word, and several states (e.g., the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania) still bear the name. As early as 1852, British officials were employing commonwealth as a euphemistic name for empire. It has now grown to mean...
...President Eisenhower the ruling was still "ridiculous." But the FCC lamely argued that the letter of the law left no other choice, said that it was up to Congress to put some common sense into the law. Hustling to do just that before the 1960 presidential campaigns begin in earnest, the Senate subcommittee took under consideration eleven bills to keep splinter candidates from snagging newscasts, heard CBS President Frank Stanton declare that it would have been impossible to give equal-time coverage to all candidates of the 18 parties in 1956. If the rule is not changed, said Stanton, "simple...
...enough to know it would never work out. And then again: "Is it fair to have children at my age?" What's more, he is aware that the girl really wants a father more than she wants a lover. Every counsel of experience and common sense requires that he let her go-so he asks her to marry him. And she accepts...