Word: quaintness
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...invasion of Afghanistan reached its climax, hundreds of captured al-Qaeda fighters and irregulars fighting for the Taliban regime were shipped to the naval base at Guant??namo Bay for interrogation. Gonzales wrote a memo to Bush in January 2002 that described aspects of the Geneva protocols as "quaint" and "obsolete." A few weeks later, Bush signed an order deeming al-Qaeda combatants "unlawful" and thus not deserving of prisoner-of-war status or the protections Geneva provided. "The war on terrorism," wrote Bush, "... ushered in not by us but by terrorists, requires new thinking...
...Marxist guerrillas that have made Bihar one of India's most lawless places. Buddhism died out long ago here, and shows little sign of taking hold again. Indeed, the idea that a religion associated with passivity and otherworldly mysticism might offer a solution to their problems would seem hopelessly quaint to many people in Bihar and other troubled parts of the Buddha's homeland. As a friend once told the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, the Buddha was one of those "luxuries India could not afford." Mishra, however, has decided that the opposite is true: that the Buddha still matters...
...focus of the novel, and her jarring introduction to college life mirrors the surprise Wolfe hopes many readers unfamiliar with the subject will feel. The brainiac brunette from the tiny town of Sparta, in North Carolina’s Alleghany County, is so sheltered in her books and her quaint family life that she has never tasted alcohol, danced, or (we are expected to believe), learned the very first thing about sex. This is because, according to Wolfe, her mother abhorred the subject and—as we all know—parents are where all teenagers learn about illicit...
...name on the January 2002 draft of a legal memo intended for Bush that argued that al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan were not prisoners of war but enemy combatants who had no legal rights under the Geneva Convention, parts of which the memo derided as "quaint." Gonzales contended that "the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians ... renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on the questioning of enemy prisoners...
When the keg ban was initiated two years ago, Dean Lewis was driven by a quaint paternalistic impulse, which ultimately proved unsound. The University has lately taken steps toward a more pragmatic and results-oriented alcohol policy. We sincerely hope Harvard applies that kind of nuanced thinking to their policy on kegs. Student health and safety concerns are of primary importance, but foolishly banning all kegs serves nobody’s interests. It may in fact lead to more dangerous drinking instead of less. Dean Gross, you’ve taken small steps to rectify this mistake: why stop halfway...