Word: half
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nation where blacks were shut out of decent schooling for generations, the SAT ran straight into the complications of race. The second half of Lemann's book is largely the story of how the arguments for affirmative action collided with the presumptions of the meritocracy. What to do? Abandon the idea of an elite created by the universities, says Lemann, though he doesn't altogether define what should take its place. All the same, he's right when he describes the predicament of the ETS: "an institution in charge of individual opportunity" in a country where opportunity is "the thing...
...come? The Federal Reserve figures that the stated interest rate on home-equity loans averages 9.5%, only half the usual credit-card rate. Even more important, the interest on a home-equity loan can usually be deducted on the borrower's tax return. In some cases, these tax savings can bring the effective interest rate below 5%. Now, that's a deal...
While a bloated, imperial operation could hardly be expected to pick up on warning signs, Gore insiders particularly fault Mark Penn, the lead among Gore's half a dozen pollsters. Penn shares his energies with the President, Hillary Clinton and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Over and over, Penn told the Vice President that Bradley posed little or no threat, that Bush was not as far ahead as public polls suggested and that most voters were confusing the Texas Governor with his father. At one point, when Penn was insisting that Gore was no farther than 10 points behind Bush...
Businesses are not required to provide pensions, but they are a given in most large companies. Though close to two-thirds of all workers actually do better under a cash-balance plan, 40- to 50-year-olds about to enter their peak earning years can lose up to half of their expected final payout. To drive that point home, some Big Blue employees flew a banner over the Minnesota state fair that read, IBM'S PENSION THEFT COULD HAPPEN...
...dramatic is exacerbated by casting serial over-emoter Martin Sheen as Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, who makes his first appearance speaking in the voice of God. Bursting into a showdown with religious conservatives, Sheen quotes the First Commandment, then unburdens himself of a pair of minute-and-a-half speeches while Coplandesque music swells and the camera cuts to admiring staff members, in case we've failed to notice how darned inspiring he is. There will be no curtains left in this Oval Office once Sheen has finished chewing the scenery...