Word: oughtn
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...tragedy of the earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday is easy to measure in the lives lost, homes destroyed and infrastructure wrecked. The paradox of the quake is equally evident: when a natural disaster so devastating hits, oughtn't we have some way of predicting it? Hurricanes, blizzards, even volcanoes can be forecast well before their arrival, after all, allowing governments and people to make lifesaving preparations. Earthquakes, however, are stealth disasters, geological phenomena largely undetectable until just seconds before they occur. What scientists have long wanted to know is why quakes are so sneaky and what, if anything...
...elbows under her chin, as her legs - it's painful for me even to type this - Walk in a Circle Around Her. The audience gasps in a mixture of wonder and horror; it's not that the body can't do this, it's that the body maybe oughtn't. Whatever the crowd reaction, the maneuver is nonetheless spectacular. (You can see the entire routine here on Youtube; Patterson's big moment comes about 4 min. 45 sec. into the clip...
...complex critters might be glad to be part of a species that's free of such Draconian sexual rules, but Liebig doesn't think it's wise to get above ourselves. All manner of lawsuits, divorces and blood feuds can erupt over people breeding when - or with whom - they oughtn't. Often, the methods used to expose the cheaters aren't terribly different from those of the ants: more than one philanderer, after all, has been exposed by a whiff of the wrong perfume on his clothes when he came home. "The idea that social harmony is dependent on strict...
...declare officially when the country wades into war focuses the global and domestic minds on what's to come, not to mention its own. If you can't make a convincing case in the chambers of the House and Senate for a constitutionally proclaimed war, then perhaps we oughtn't embark on it. President George W. Bush took what was arguably undeserved heat during the 2004 campaign when, in a flash of either candor or carelessness, he conceded the point that the war on terror would not end explicitly with, say, a satisfying ceremony on the deck of a battleship...
General Augusto Pinochet may be fast approaching a meeting with his maker, but many Chileans believe he oughtn't be allowed to die in peace. Although the decision has not yet been made public officially, a number of Chilean sources have indicated that Chile's Supreme Court on Tuesday voted 12-10 to lift the former president's immunity from prosecution, opening the way to a slew of prosecutions for kidnapping, torture, murder and other human rights violations during the general's 17-year dictatorship. Pinochet eluded a court date in Spain earlier this year when the British government ruled...