Word: conning
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...also points a finger at the "relaxation of moral codes" as a reason for "increased deception." Yet this famous "relaxation" means in practice that Americans have been freed from 19th century sexual taboos - and 19th century hypocrisy. Finally, when was this Golden Age when Americans did not attempt to con and cheat one another? In the days of Tammany Hall perhaps? Or when slaveholders wrote of the self-evident truth that all men are created equal...
...twenty-four hours at a time," Wilson said, describing his deprogramming experience. "One man would sit with his face twelve inches from me, bring a lamp up to my ear and launch into a third degree, accusing the church's spiritual leader Moon, of being Satan incarnate, a con-man and a snake. They ripped Reverend Moon's picture, and told me I was a pimp, a prostitute and a piece of trash...
...commonplace that one must wonder whether society's very capacity to believe is not being gradually undermined. It has taken a drubbing in recent decades. Watergate yesterday, Abscam today (see NATION). In between, the people's credulity has been hounded by far more than the usual con games and rackets. The pathetic fact is that Americans seem to be resorting more and more to preying, with methodical duplicity, on other Americans...
This is indeed the Army of the eighties, though, with the stereotypical personalities of all the old service comedies transplanted into new bodies. The ferocious drill sergeant is Black; the macho commanding officer and the hard-bitten, street-smart ex-con are female. And as well as turning boys into men, the New Army turns girls into women. We know Private Benjamin has become a real woman because she has her first orgasm ("Now I know what it is I've been faking all these years!") with a French gynecologist she picks up while on leave...
...Sweet (as opposed to sour) Kraut," the "Duck" and "Vaya Con" are Hunt's code names for Gretchen Klapfor, Leslie Voit and Anita Diaz, respectively. All three runners suffered injuries last year but Hunt says they have great potential to boost this year's squad. (In case you didn't figure it out, Diaz' nickname dervies from the Spanish saying "Vaya con Dios", which means "go with God." Hunt says, "If she ever becomes captain, I can tell the whole team, 'Vaya con Diaz' and they'll have a great leader...