Word: furor
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...Having steered clear of the recent furor over President Obama's release of the so-called torture memos, the former Secretary of State weighed in with two public pronouncements in quick succession. Asked about waterboarding during a dorm visit with students at Stanford University, where she is now a political science professor, she said that "by definition if it was authorized by the President," the controversial technique was legal. The sound bite, with its inadvertent (and unfortunate) Nixonian resonance, raised eyebrows on the right and hackles on the left...
...Bybee has been called the "forgotten man" in the mounting furor over the CIA's harsh interrogation of imprisoned terror suspects - but he's quickly assuming a leading role. Though the mild-mannered lawyer has attracted little public attention, as a top Justice Department official he approved an array of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" against alleged al-Qaeda members that many observers call torture. They include forcing prisoners to stay awake for a week or more, waterboarding them and trapping them with an insect to exploit their fear of bugs...
President Obama's decision to declassify Justice Department memos detailing the interrogation techniques legalized by his predecessor has sparked a predictable partisan furor. Bush Administration officials say the release has somehow compromised national security and let the enemy in on our secrets--even though U.S. interrogators' use of harsh and even sadistic techniques has been known for years. Liberals criticized the President for initially rejecting the idea of prosecuting former Bush officials, though Obama later said he is open to a 9/11-commission-style inquiry into interrogation abuses...
...also an impatience that characterizes [Washington]," he said, "that insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers. When a crisis hits, there is all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died down ... instead of confronting major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way." (See a special report on Obama's first 100 days...
...Rite of Spring” (“Le Sacre du Printemps”), two ballets with specially commissioned scores by Igor Stravinsky, are perhaps two of the most famous; the latter, with choreography by the legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, caused a furor at its inception by virtue of its outrageous costumes, unusual choreography, bizarre story of pagan sacrifice, and Stravinsky’s musical innovations, all of which tested the patience of the audience to the extreme. “My hope at the symposium is to recapture something of the excitement of the premiere, by thinking about...