Word: reflexivity
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...same can't be said of MacFarlane's other shows. Sitcoms like The Office (and, still, The Simpsons) prove that the best comedies aren't always those with the most jokes per minute. MacFarlane has the talent to be in their league. But he needs to control his gag reflex...
...Unfortunately, this "gotcha" reflex runs deep in the government, says Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department attorney who was forced out of the DOJ after she blew the whistle on the department's destruction of e-mails related to the Bush Administration's prosecution of John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban." "Basically, the government doesn't like whistle-blowers, and they have demonstrated time and again mountainous bad faith - as in this case, turning a perfectly good whistle-blower-incentive law into virtual entrapment," says Radack, who is the homeland security director...
...even in the murkiest of moments, the world's most opaque regime always, as if by reflex, reverts to a familiar playbook. In the seven months that Barack Obama has been U.S. President, North Korea has been unrelentingly hostile, testing long-rang missiles and a nuclear bomb amid constantly belligerent rhetoric. Now, having backed its way into this bleak geopolitical corner, Pyongyang says it might want to talk. (See pictures of North Koreans at the polls...
...physical pain - and it seems that people may use curse words by instinct. Indeed, as any owner of a banged shin, whacked funny bone or stubbed toe knows, dancing the agony jig - and shouting its profane theme tune - are about as automatic as the response to a doctor's reflex hammer. (See 20 ways to get healthy and stay that...
...from using profanity descriptively, idiomatically, abusively or for emphasis, and points to similar behavior in animals that suggests its evolutionary roots. If you step on a dog or cat's tail, it will let out a sharp yelp of pain, for example. "Swearing probably comes from a very primitive reflex that evolved in animals," Pinker says. "In humans, our vocal tract has been hijacked by our language skills," so instead of barking out a random sound, "we articulate our yelp with a word colored with negative emotion...