Word: quip
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Reams have been written on the differences between Islamic and Western societies, but for sheer pithiness, it's hard to beat a quip by my former colleague, a Pakistani scholar of Islamic studies. I'd strolled into his office one day to find him on the floor, at prayer. I left, shutting his door, mortified. Later he cheerfully batted my apologies away. "That's the big difference between us," he said with a shrug. "You Westerners make love in public and pray in private. We Muslims do exactly the reverse...
...tainted by human-rights abuses and widespread corruption. During her tenure, Amnesty International accused Pakistan of having one of the worst records of extrajudicial killings, torture and custodial deaths, and in 1996 Transparency International named the country the second most corrupt in the world. (Nigeria came in first, locals quip, because Pakistan bribed the corruption-monitoring organization.) But faith, hope and loyalty still run strong in Sind, where much of the population is uneducated and depends on landlords, employers and party leaders to tell them for whom to vote. If Bhutto had to make a deal with Musharraf to return...
Reams have been written on the differences between Islamic and Western societies, but for sheer pithiness, it's hard to beat a quip by my former colleague, a Pakistani scholar of Islamic studies. I'd strolled into his office one day to find him on the floor, at prayer. I left, shutting his door, mortified. Later, he cheerfully batted my apologies away. "That's the big difference between us," he shrugged. "You Westerners make love in public and pray in private. We Muslims do exactly the reverse...
...desire to see the man he praised for his "great leadership and great friendship" put his skills to work for the benefit of the global environment. Blair refused to be drawn on his plans for the future, and prepared to leave the podium, returning only for one last quip. "My press officer said whatever else you say today, don't say 'I'll be back,'" he remarked to laughter and a round of spontaneous applause...
...cannot brush off McCain's "small varmint gun" quip as entirely lacking substance. If anything, it's a model of political economy: There's the obvious reference to Romney's now-notorious "evolving" opinions (on gay rights, on abortion, on immigration), there's the more obscure dig at Romney's comic explanation for his spotty hunting record (the "lifelong hunter" has been on two hunts - "for small varmints, if you will"). And there's the for-junkies-only joke, resurrecting a six-month-old charge that Romney's landscaping company employed illegal immigrants from Guatemala. As an added bonus...