Word: speaker
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When parliament is in session, it struggles to find a quorum for deliberations. Repeated attempts by TIME to get attendance figures from the office of the Speaker have been rebuffed with the claim that such data is too "politically sensitive" to be published. But Iraqis don't need statistics: they can tell from the wide swaths of empty seats clearly visible in the live broadcasts on state...
...wider campaign against the government reflects not so much an attack on democracy as it does the failure of the country's sectarian system to resolve internal disputes. The system, which reserves the presidency for the Maronite Christians, the Prime Minister's job for a Sunni, the speaker of parliament for a Shi'ite and generally distributes power on the basis of ethnicity and sect, was originally created to achieve stability through a careful balance of power. Instead, it has produced political deadlock and a system dominated by leaders whose domestic power is based on alliances with foreign powers...
...empty and ill-used, like an interrogation room after a waterboarding. Greengrass cuts each action scene into agitated bits; but he can't let fast enough alone. Could he please explain why, in the chat scenes, the camera is afflicted with Parkinson's? The film frame trembles, obscures the speaker with the listener's shoulder, annoys viewers and distracts them from the content of the scene. It surely interrupted my enjoyment of the movie; for a minute I wanted to give it a good spanking...
...wasn’t that my language skills had taken a sudden plummet—I had never been particularly fluent Chinese speaker! But no longer confused, I was still inexplicably troubled...
...afternoon comments proved to be just the opening salvo before a much bigger blast later in the day. The keynote speaker for the evening dinner was Joyce Carol Oates. who delivered a lively speech about her book Boxing, preceded by a long, esoteric meander through the history of the modern essay. In the midst of her lecture, Oates appeared to make a subtle criticism of Winfrey, whose book club has had a huge effect on the book-selling business. Musing on what truth is within the context of a memoir, Oates seemed to be questioning how Winfrey could pass judgment...