Word: label
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Most Americans have few qualms about embracing the rawest form of dog-eat-dog capitalism (including the only health care system in the world based entirely on private profit), and yet their unwillingness to label anyone as intrinsically less worthy and their commitment to "being nice" indicate a sense of compassion. Some might see a contradiction, but I think there's a logic behind it. Merciless selection seems less objectionable if we insist that no one is intrinsically unfit. The losers are victims of circumstance, who, in principle at least, can be helped to succeed...
American higher education starkly reflects this unwillingness to seriously label anyone unfit. Costa Rica, my home country, is an extremely egalitarian society in which it is considered bad form to make anyone else look bad, or to try to make yourself look too good. But if you want to get into the University of Costa Rica your performance on a standardized admissions exam is the only factor determining your admission and your ability to enter the career of your choice. The idea that a university should employ a large number of admissions officers devoted to reading application essays and listening...
...unofficial role as the First Lady. Especially since her candidacy was never really in doubt--Westchester Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the only other potential Democratic contender, dropped out months ago--the delay represents a lost chance for Clinton to appeal to voters still uneasy about the "carpetbagger" label. It doesn't help that the First Lady has not spent nearly enough time in New York--her Manhattan visit last Tuesday was her first visit to the state in the last two weeks. This has prompted concern among some state Democrats, including state Party Chairperson Judith Hope and state...
...professor at Boston College School of Management, voiced distrust of the surplus estimate, arguing that caps on federal spending budgeted for the next three fiscal years are wildly unrealistic and will--in fact, should--be exceeded. Already the government is evading spending caps by sticking an "emergency" label on all sorts of additional outlays. That, said Munnell, "makes a mockery of the whole process." Also, she noted, revenues are getting a huge boost from soaring stock prices, which inflate capital-gains-tax collections. Given the market's volatile ups and downs, who can be certain this windfall will continue...
Hoffman simply talks about giving audiences common ground with the most ostensibly unlovable of souls. "Actors are responsible to the people we play," he says. "I don't label or judge. I just play them as honestly and expressively and creatively as I can, in the hope that people who would ordinarily turn their heads in disgust instead think, 'What I thought I'd feel about that guy, I don't totally feel right...