Word: smug
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...James Naughton), a rumpled knight of the tenderloin who lives by a code of honor in a world of thugs and well-heeled thieves. Moments later the story shifts to the office (coyly labeled a "cell") where his creator labors as a hireling of a movie tycoon more crass, smug and fascinatingly awful than any envisioned by Nathanael West. As the tycoon (Rene Auberjonois) lays down the law (no social criticism, no politics, no hint of kinky sex), the moneystruck young writer (Gregg Edelman) peevishly retypes his scenes -- and, in an inspired bit of playfulness, that action causes his characters...
...temptation is to look at Eastern Europe with a smug vanity and say that democracy won. Our way is better...
...Merry Christmas is a Yuletide celebration that sounds snappy while simultaneously evoking the innocent pleasures of mistletoe and holly. All the things that hard rap never is, but those 7 million record buyers apparently yearn for it to be: safe, snug and (if you listen close), just a little smug. This is one key to the Kids' success. Parents are perpetually sweating about rap-smitten, rock- blitzed offspring going to concerts and mixing it up with gold-chain snatchers and drug vendors. Little chance of that on any block where the New Kids reign...
...years ago, I would have revelled in smug liberal elitism and written a review that painted Reagan and everyone who voted for him as consummate fools. I would have also missed the most important part of Reagan's book...
Amid such a global transformation, it is only natural for Americans to feel proud and perhaps even a trifle smug. After all, hotly contested democratic elections are as American as, well, campaign consultants, TV sound bites and 30-second spots. That, alas, is precisely the problem. For lost in the euphoria over this upsurge of freedom are some impolitic questions about America's own role in fostering free elections abroad. Democracy is indisputably good for the world, but are U.S.-style campaign techniques necessarily good for democracy? Should Americans feel elated if election campaigns from Manila to Moscow become...