Word: splintered
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Emerites of St. Augustine. It was a fateful decision. Luther's tortured soul, which attached itself to new ideas with a fervor that seems strikingly modern, turned in a decade's time against the institution he had vowed to serve and created one of history's greatest religious splinter groups. Rome wanted to suppress his ideas, but Luther quickly found that the printing press could be used as a sort of technological megaphone--printing copies of his Ninety-Five Theses faster than they could be gathered up and destroyed...
When technology cuts the cost of spreading the word, strange things happen. Potentates grow insecure and marginal dissenters feel their oats. Monoliths splinter and the splinter groups splinter again. (There are now hundreds of Protestant denominations.) The effect is hardly confined to religions; the era of computerized mass mail and desktop publishing has seen the number of political-interest groups grow by an order of magnitude. But religions, with their aspirations of human brotherhood, uniquely highlight the paradox: communication is supposed to be a social cement, yet new communication technologies are often fragmenting...
...interested in spreading his message than winning. He is raising no money and intends to spend less than $5,000 from his own pocket, foreseeing a campaign of video- and audiocassettes. Still, Republicans are excited about his prospects. Says G.O.P. pollster Bill McInturff: "The Greens are my favorite little splinter party...
...bombers are, but the bomb was a complete shock to many in the IRA's leadership, and could jeopardize the talks. There are still a lot of people who want them to continue, but this will make it much more difficult." It is possible that an IRA splinter group is trying to call a halt to the negotiations, but the sheer scale of the operation implies that a large efficient group did the job. Hillenbrand calls the operation "a very professional, very clean job. The bombers could be very high up the IRA chain of command...
...almost everything right. As he foretold, the public hated the Republican blackmail strategy. But even more ominous, he saw that his coalition was beginning to splinter. On Wednesday morning he had taken a secret ballot of his members on whether to reopen the government. By 111 to 54 they had voted no. But those 54 votes told Gingrich that he was losing control of the House and would have to give up his best weapon in the budget war. And so, with eyes downcast and voice resolute, he recalled his own childhood as an Army brat, remembering what...