Word: leveler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...much did you know about the situation Greece was in before you came to office? How big a surprise was this crisis to you? We all knew, and I knew personally, that Greece was going through a crisis, but the level of the impact of the crisis on the economy was not known. (See pictures of Athens threatened by wildfires...
...Also, decentralizing this huge central government to regional and local government so that services are provided at a local level, but decisions are also made a local level, which makes it more accountable. When I was Minister of Education, for example, I would sign the leave of absence of the driver of a dean of a university. So if he had to take his holidays, I would have to sign that. This is crazy. This is micromanagement. But the reason that existed was that one hand people thought that was control, and that comes from a legacy of authoritarianism...
...actually aimed to keep both the Soviet Union and the U.S. vulnerable to nuclear attack by forbidding the development of defensive systems. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks of the same year, which capped the number of weapons allowed each side, set the balance of destructive power at a fixed level. In 1986, two great dreamers, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, met in Iceland with the aim of total nuclear disarmament. The duo failed, but their talks set the stage for the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty--the only agreement ever to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons...
...more work. And while the main lesson I took away from my two days is that technology is a gift from God and should never be turned off - one simple text would have kept Cassandra's friends at the party, which would have led to more drinking and Liberace-level candle lighting - I did learn that I'd rather hang out with my wife and son than find out every time someone retweets me. I don't want to feel the need to respond to everything as soon as I can. But I do, of course, need everyone else...
...biracial roots and his attempt to build a political identity based on consensus rather than insistence. Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, has written an expansive work, as much an account of the forces that forged Obama's identity and intellect as it is a presidential biography. Though the level of detail can overwhelm at points, Remnick's fluid prose keeps the narrative on track. The book is well reported--featuring a host of anecdotes from intimates who ducked the media in 2008--and manages to set the President in historical context without losing sight of his humanity. Recounting...