Word: ruthlessness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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John Pierpont Morgan is usually "depicted...as a ruthless predator who robbed America's farmers and workers to line his own pockets," writes Jean Strouse. But halfway through her first draft of Morgan: American Financier (Random House; 796 pages; $34.95), she realized that the picture she was getting from plowing through a mass of Morgan documents, many of which no previous biographer had seen, was far more complex. Starting over, she has produced a more balanced and crisply written--though at times unnecessarily detailed--portrait than her subject could ever have drawn. History, Strouse observes, is written by "the articulate...
...talent for making friends--as distinguished from mistresses. He started a new romance at age 74 with a titled Englishwoman of 49. Women saw past not only the hideous nose but also the peremptory manner that they thought disguised an inner shyness. With some reason: Morgan was ruthless in getting rid of inept partners, but could hardly ever bear to fire them in person...
Insufficiency, in other words: Joffe's pessimistic portrait almost gloatingly deflates pretensions to humanity and spirituality under the onslaught or ever more ruthless desires and their conniving human servants. As the sex scenes tally up, even the audience gets called on our lewd desires: we see an isolated cabin and hear, ah, the unmistakable sounds of full-on lovemaking--a duet for bedsprings and moans--but are red faced as the real scene turns out to be someone on an exercise bike...
...video game. Seduced by the antiseptic green glimmers of smart bombs and high-altitude jet jockeys flickering across TV screens, we'd come to consider international conflict little more than the quick thrill of bloodless lightning victories. This war is not like that. This war is the ruthless reduction of Kosovo: mass expulsion, killing, burned villages, the obliteration of a people's identity. This war is American soldiers--Staff Sergeant Andrew Ramirez, Staff Sergeant Christopher Stone, Specialist 4 Steven Gonzales--captured, humiliated, perhaps tried, perhaps killed. This war is sophisticated supertech airplanes dropping tons of ordnance night after night that...
...WINNER LIMBAUGH. HE'S RUTHLESS, NEWLY SVELTE AND HAS BETTER RATINGS...