Word: tools
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...refusal to abandon the English system of measurement in favor of the metric system is shortsighted. Our stubbornly clinging to feet and pounds has a negative effect on everything from tourism to machine-tool exports. Britain, Canada and Australia have changed successfully. Are Americans any less intelligent or adaptable...
Even so, leaking is indeed a classic tool in the hardscrabble world of Washington politics. Congressmen, who are generally given only the outlines of a covert operation, occasionally hint their opposition to a secret activity without actually exposing it. Intelligence officials, on the other hand, leak for a wider variety of motives: to support or reshape an operation (such as assistance to the Afghan guerrillas), sometimes to score points or advance their political position...
Even if Moscow's actions fall far short of its rhetoric, there are forces outside the control of either superpower that are fundamentally changing the nature of the cold war. With nuclear weapons an unusable tool, the military might of the two countries has become less important in shaping global relations. In terms of economic influence and total share of global production, the status of the two superpowers is already declining...
Humor is an important, yet seldom scrutinized political tool. Achieving the right mix of barbs and self-deprecation can be tricky, but devastatingly effective. So all seven contenders gamely lighted matches for the roast, the first time in the campaign they have been on the same stage...
...adult. Rock Musician Frank Zappa, a formidable foe of those who would censor rock lyrics, gets the movie industry's inside joke: "Is there any kid who hasn't seen an R-rated movie ((without his parents))? What was supposed to be a warning has turned into a marketing tool." Teens who stay up past 8 p.m. can watch R-rated films on pay cable, and at midnight, Manhattan minors can watch Robin Byrd, the G- stringed host and self-described "X-rated Ed Sullivan" of Manhattan's lube tube. "My show is for adults," she says. "If children watch...