Word: regretful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Plenty hard, it seems, since somewhere in the course of our fin de siècle excess, we corrupted the culture of contrition as well. Public apologies now play like vaudeville: the extravagant remorse of disgraced televangelists, the snarled "I'm sorry" of celebrities who exude regret at being caught rather than being wrong, the artful admissions of politicians who want credit for their confessions without any actual cost. We've learned to peel them apart with tweezers, find the insincerity and self-interest: If I caused any offense (you thin-skinned morons), I regret it. And so apologies...
...forgives people for a living, has been having trouble: he had to apologize for ever accepting the lame nonapology of an excommunicated bishop who declared that "there was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers - it was all lies, lies, lies." The bishop was entirely willing to regret that people were offended by his arguments, just not that he had made them...
...hiding, an apology is just a start. But it's free, and it's right, and it's even empirically smart, whatever their pride and their lawyers may tell them. Most people file lawsuits out of anger, not greed. In states that passed "apology laws" that let doctors express regret when things go badly without having it thrown back at them in court, some hospitals have seen malpractice suits drop by half. Any marriage counselor can tell you that love means always having to say you're sorry. An apology is that rare instrument that restores strength through...
...then a sophomore, tied a school record with 67 saves in that game while her teammates exhausted every inch of their bodies’ capabilities to try and come away with a win. Wisconsin ended up eking out a victory, but the Crimson returned to Cambridge with nothing to regret and everything to be proud...
There are two main reasons for regret - one practical and one symbolic. The practical point is best made by the phrase: the West made them do it. Yes, some of the countries on the brink of collapse have brought disaster on themselves. Places such as Latvia and Bulgaria have run massive current-account deficits and are now paying the price. But the ability to borrow and spend so much comes, in part, because the countries had opened up their capital accounts and sold off their banks to Western Europe at the E.U.'s urging. Financial liberalization and free trade were...