Word: vanness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When the Nazis came to power in Dessau, the Bauhaus moved again, this time to Berlin under the directorship of none other than Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He did what he could to appease the Nazis, forbidding left-wing student gatherings and producing exhibitions of what he hoped would be seen as apolitical abstract work, but it was no use. In 1933, with Hitler firmly in power, Mies arrived one morning at the converted factory where the school was housed to find it surrounded by black-uniformed Gestapo. Soon after, he shut it down for good and made...
...stage, at will, Francisco can drop his voice several octaves and intone, “Coming this summer. Action. Adventure. Romance.” In one sketch, Francisco invited the audience to imagine the voiceover to an upcoming action flick actually being honest: “Jean-Claude Van Damme is back in the same crap you’ve seen over, and over, and over again.” Coupling his ability to mimic LaFontaine to a repertoire of actor imitations, from Keanu Reeves to Al Pacino, Francisco is perhaps the only stand-up comedian...
There was more to the choice of Van Rompuy and Ashton than their individual qualities. In the classic European tradition of horse-trading, the E.U. tried to balance out the top jobs according to political background, geography and gender. Indeed, the Lisbon Treaty states that the two jobs - and that of the European Commission President - have to take account of "the geographical and demographic diversity of the Union...
...Van Rompuy is a Christian Democrat, from the family of center-right parties that dominate European governments and the European Parliament. The President of the Commission, Portugal's José Manuel Barroso, is also from the center right. Ashton was a dark horse, but she was seen as a consolation prize for Britain's center-left Prime Minister Gordon Brown, after his attempt to secure the presidency for Blair was rebuffed. For E.U. leaders struggling to meet the criteria - a task that one official likened to "three-dimensional chess" - they could at least claim that the Van Rompuy-Ashton...
Nonetheless, the choice of Van Rompuy and Ashton was seen as exposing the gap between the E.U.'s ambition and its grandiose rhetoric. "They might both be very capable, but neither has any sort of international profile or experience," says Marco Incerti, Head of Communications at the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think tank. "At the moment, it looks like two nobodies. But this is what comes of trying to please everyone when you choose these jobs...