Word: patriarchal
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Most slavish praise. Babbitt's hosannas to Democratic Patriarch Robert Strauss, who joined Buckley in the questioning. Babbitt twice promised Strauss a Cabinet post in his Administration...
...from the beginning this "legal-minded people" had something to argue about, although they did agree about their origins. Johnson sifts the archaeological record and concludes, as does Genesis, that Abraham the patriarch came from Ur, a Sumerian city excavated in the 1920s and believed to have flourished in the fourth and third millenniums B.C. Such corroborations of ancient texts by modern scholars suit the author's purpose, which is to condense legend and fact into a flowing historical narrative...
...surprisingly, they don't find out. Neither do we, mainly because Lee works with silly dialogue and stock situations. At one point, the Black patriarch reiterates white segregationist arguments and then, moments later, discovers that daughter Bridget has been having an affair with Billy Brown, the white housemaid's boy. He flies off in a rage, swearing revenge upon the poor kid. These actors do their best with this warp-speed melodrama and even manage a few comic moments, but Lee's material doesn't allow any great depth of characterization...
Still, Reagan has taken advantage of our kindness in the extreme. Unlike the children of an aged parent, we cannot keep making excuses for our elected patriarch. He is accountable, and his health is the least of his problems--as well as ours. To be presidential means to possess a capacity to lead and a willingness to accept responsibility. The more attention paid to the president's health, the less we are able to see his larger failings...
Butler opens with the imminent death of Sir Robert Charles, who is the current Minister of Defense and the patriarch of a poor but prestigious family. Having recently had a heart attack, Sir Robert is more dead than alive, surviving only with the aid of various life-support machines. Lady Charles has decided to put him out of his misery and pull the plug--much to the pleasure of heir apparent Hugo and his twin sister, Annabel. Planning ahead, the family has placed him in a coffin right in the middle of the Charles estate drawing room. The youngest...