Word: retort
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Liberals smugly retort that it actually costs 12 cents. Then they are satisfied that there really isn't a problem of useless bureaucracy. But Joe and Wanda Voter know better...
...pointed out that federal funds account for only about 7% of total spending on education, and argued that much of the money is spent so inefficiently that "we could eliminate most of it and nobody would notice." Such arguments moved New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, to retort that waste and inefficiency never prevented the Administration from spending on defense...
...most damning -- and colorful -- evidence was on tape. In one casual exchange between Drexel's Bruce Newberg and Princeton/Newport partner Charles Zarzecki, the prosecution saw evidence that the co-defendants knew exactly what they were up to. Newberg teasingly calls Zarzecki "a sleaze bag." Zarzecki's retort: "You taught me, man." Replies Newberg: "Welcome to the world of being a sleaze...
Opponents retort that the states are selling not dreams but delusions. As early as 1776 the economist Adam Smith complained in The Wealth of Nations that "in the state lotteries, the tickets are really not worth the price." Today, in one popular form of lottery, a bettor picks six out of 54 numbers; the odds of getting the right six are 1 in 12.9 million...
This method of retort, I fear, has been largely effective, and not only in this instance. It has not succeeded in preventing the sensitizing of language or the broadening of the curriculum, but it has succeeded in stripping these actions of any moral force. It is presumed that if the aggrieved party is placated, it is done not out of a sense of remorse, but rather under pressure...