Word: spasmed
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Whoever the culprit, officials said, he was no mad-genius Unabomber type. Only one of the three pipe bombs in the duct-tape-clad package actually detonated. Match this criminal klutziness with a Southern accent and down-home demeanor, and the composite portrait was enough to inspire a spasm of dark humor. "The Una-doofus," joked Jay Leno. "Unabubba," a federal agent said...
Liberia's latest spasm of fighting began earlier this month. Leaders of the country's two main warring factions--who, following a peace agreement last August, had formed a new ruling council in Monrovia--announced their intention to arrest one of their own council members, Roosevelt Johnson. His followers responded by spilling into the streets, blowing up two helicopters recently donated by the U.S. and seizing hundreds of hostages, including, reportedly, at least 20 peacekeepers. Holed up in an old military base, they exchanged fire with opposing militiamen...
...Primary 1 was evil. An eruption of such violence aimed at such targets, at such spotless innocence and hope, cannot be comprehended or diagnosed in language that is less than absolute. "Haywire" won't do. "Psychotic," "maniac" and so on suggest mere dysfunction, or else a morally neutral spasm of the reptilian brain, a bug or two in the limbic system. Nor is there much comfort in thinking that such behavior arises from some Darwinian maladaption. "Man has developed so rapidly," Loren Eiseley wrote, "that he has suffered a major loss of precise instinctive controls of behavior. So society must...
...worst spasm of violence since the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord of September 1993. Citizens of Jerusalem were only just recovering from the city's first explosion when news broke of the second on the very same bus line--No. 18. Many wondered how the peace process could go on. Israeli President Ezer Weizman said, "It can't continue this way. We have to really stop and think...
...current crisis is no mere cyclical spasm. With both the cold war and the Mitterrand era over, France faces critical challenges. Will it be able to play a leading role in a more united Europe, or will it end the century where it began--overshadowed by a strong, united Germany? Will it continue to modernize its economy, or will it cling to a large, state-protected sector as a source of jobs and social stability? Will the French be able to preserve their culture and national identity in the face of the continuing encroachment by the Anglo-Saxons...