Word: ritual
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...Arab side of town, election day usually starts with a sickening ritual: the few brave voters who appear are beaten up by Palestinian militants. Word of the attacks then spreads swiftly around East Jerusalem, and other Arabs stay away. Beitar's fans may be right: the millions of shekels lavished on the Arab vote may be wasted, as they could be spent on new star players for Gaydamak's luckless team. Meanwhile, Jerusalem, the capital of three monotheistic faiths, could drift toward religious intolerance. As columnist Tom Segev writes glumly in the newspaper Haaretz, "All that is left...
...rivals on the road to the presidency. But starting Thursday morning, those morning meetings will concern two more intractable foes: America's enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with whatever other intelligence droppings the nation's spies have gleaned overnight. The hour-long CIA briefings are an early-morning ritual for Presidents, and they will begin for Obama even before he has named the national-security team - the Secretaries of Defense and State, and the National Security Adviser - who will ultimately have to act on the contents of those intelligence briefings. It's all a part of the slow-motion...
...much as the exchange of fire rattled the truce, it may have been ritual bloodletting. Neither Hamas nor Israel wants the cease-fire to end yet. The Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants to prolong it because his Labor Party, according to polls, stands to lose more legislative seats in this February's general elections, and a prolonged, bloody assault on Gaza - which would probably fail to crush Hamas - could further jeopardize his chances. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel...
...Thanksgiving maneuvering is getting interesting. To counter Wal-Mart, the much smaller KB Toys slashed prices to $10 or less on more than 200 items. Best Buy is staging an essay contest: applicants vie to describe how important a family ritual Black Friday shopping is. The 25 winners get a $1,000 gift card, a limo ride and early admittance at 4:30 a.m. to the Black Friday deals. The electronics dealer will provide hot chocolate and outside movie screens showing holiday films to tired customers who wait in overnight lines. And in a drastic move to steal market share...
...line - who was juggling multiple calls - informed me that while I was a registered voter, they had not yet received my absentee application - and that I should fax another one and mail it as well, just to make sure. I did as told, making it a nightly ritual for a week to call before bedtime to see if they had received my fax. I never got through. (Read about the 7 things that could go wrong on Election...