Word: sham
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...Sham and Shame...
...depend upon voluntary contributions to get elected. Often vilified but never seriously challenged, the system embarrasses and compromises both donor and candidate, openly invites corruption, and suggests to an increasingly cynical public that favors can be bought. Irrational and poorly regulated, the giving and getting are often done through sham committees, so as to preserve anonymity or evade ill-conceived laws. Much of this activity is furtive, although this year everyone seems to be talking more openly about the mechanics and manipulations of fund raising than ever before...
...down. This year, by contrast, the market belongs to the farmer. Tobacco auctioneers in North Carolina, where the crop was kept short by the weather, are being forced to ration tobacco at premium prices among customers; in effect the auctions, though performed for custom's sake, are a sham. In California an early frost scared buyers of grapes into believing that the crop might be sparse. Actually, the cold weather did only spotty damage, but in some cases prices were bid up by more than 50%. "This is the year we've all been waiting for," says Harry...
When a proficient young athlete has completed school, he gets a Kaderstelle (cadre position), which frees him, one way or another, from work. He may, for example, enroll at a university and draw a stipend without doing any studying, or he may get a sham job in a factory that he will visit only to pick up his wages. He thus can remain attached to his sports club and concentrate on his specialty while at the same time leading an elitist life in the supposedly classless society. He can get any food he wants in any quantity, even the fresh...
...locked wards without their personal possessions. The challenge of simply coping with life in a mental institution destroys a patient's self-respect and saps his desire to work out his problems and return to life in his community. Many patients deteriorate. Many never leave. It is a disgraceful sham to call these institutions hospitals. They are human garbage dumps for communities which choose to hide their undesirable and disturbed members from view rather than to help them...