Word: kowtow
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...merit pay and charter schools will make teachers more accountable for their performances and put the unions’ worst members at risk of being dismissed. This perverse incentive has stymied Democratic politicians’ efforts at school reform for decades. But President Obama’s refusal to kowtow to a powerful lobby, even if it forms a strong base of support for his party, demonstrates his independence and desire to put campaign promises into action. This is encouraging for the state of education in this country...
...malefacting characters: they get jumbled in the viewer's mind, and slack-jawed apathy ensues. Novels can afford a rich banquet of personalities; it's what readers sign up for. But ratiocination isn't welcome in modern movies, which prefer visceral impact over intellect. Not that the film should kowtow to ignorance--only that it might have streamlined the dramatis personae, the better to concentrate on the plot...
...says Naegele, she was no maverick - not yet. "The state party gave her the mechanism to get into that office," says Naegele. "As soon as she was confident enough to brush them off, she did. But she wasn't an outsider to start with. She very much had to kowtow to them...
...supplicant in world affairs. Equally forceful in his own country, he has done dreadful things. Chechnya's soil is sodden with blood and is ruled by a thug who has Putin's approval. The Russian media have been intimidated into submission. The rule of law is widely ignored. Businessmen kowtow to the government or else lose their businesses. Almost a fifth of Russians live in poverty, according to U.S. figures...
...need of another Eliot, a dreamer who will take risks and challenge the Harvard community to push itself to its limits. We hope that the presidential search committee has the courage to select such an individual rather than a “safe” choice who will kowtow to Harvard’s many and varied constituencies...