Word: thunderclapping
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...draft of a communiqué by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, together with their Japanese counterparts, mildly identified "peaceful resolution of issues concerning the Taiwan Strait" as a "common strategic objective" of the U.S. and Japan, the news rolled round Asia like a thunderclap coming out of a clear blue...
...acceptable reality really meant for me," he said at one of the most extraordinary news conferences--at turns lyrical, philosophical and evasive--in U.S. political history. "Were there realities from which I was running?" And then his answer: "My truth is that I am a gay American." That thunderclap was quickly followed by two more: McGreevey said that he had had an extramarital affair with a man and that he will resign Nov. 15. McGreevey neglected to mention that he unburdened himself because he expected the man to sue him for sexual harassment...
Benchmark statistical moments are almost always anticlimactic. When the U.S. population shifted from rural to urban areas in 1920, there was no annunciatory thunderclap. And in about 2060, the year by which census figures suggest that non-Hispanic whites will become less than 50% of the population, the switch will have long been old news. Still, such dates have historical cachet, and 2004 soon may too. The University of Chicago's respected National Opinion Research Center (NORC) has reported that the proportion of adult Americans calling themselves Protestants, a steady 63% for decades, fell suddenly to 52% from...
When the bomb went off shortly after 2 p.m., the narrow lane, crammed with people, acted as a muffler. Just 300 yards away there was only a low boom, like a faraway thunderclap. It was as if the sound had been absorbed by the tens of thousands of devout Shi'ites gathered outside their faith's holiest shrine to listen to Friday prayers over the speakers. But then a louder sound rumbled down the lane and into the nearby square--the anguished shriek emerging from a thousand throats. Panicked worshippers charged into the square, their dust-covered dishdashas spattered with...
From our own historical vantage point, so concerned as we are with issues of violence and war, it would be difficult not to hear the “sounding” of Kandinsky’s “first hour” as an ominous peal, a thunderclap, a clash of cymbals—announcing the end, if not of the world, then at least a certain way of perceiving it. Or perhaps it serves as a warning against excessive optimism...