Word: venalities
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...victims of Executive Life's collapse. Garamendi contended that the PBGC bears some responsibility for those annuity payments, since it supervised the termination of pension plans in which federally guaranteed benefits were replaced by insurance annuities. Said he: "Doubtless there are some villains in this piece. Venal businessmen, negligent regulators, careless rating companies, crafty accountants and lawyers, greedy pension-plan sponsors are all candidates, and if punishment is due, it should be meted out. But that's not going to solve the giant human problem we face. None of the bad guys has the resources to make thousands of pensioners...
...those situations. In a war of so little consequence that we haven't even put our economy on a war footing, there is no absolutely no reason to put our democracy in hock Conservative opposition to debate and dissent is not motivated by military necessity, but by the most venal sort of political opportunism. The insinuation that opponents of war somehow love their country less is one of the basest--and one of the most effective--smears in all of politics...
...provided the milieu of a corrupt city ruled by warring gangsters) and The Glass Key (which provided the plot of an aging boss and his young adviser involved with the same woman). To this blend the Coens have brought a teeming cast of sharpies, most of them spectacularly, thoughtfully venal. They speak wittily but often don't mean quite what they say; listeners must find clues in their equally eloquent silences...
Darkman wants to be Batman. Its hero, a scientist (Liam Neeson) scarred in body and soul after being left for dead by venal thugs, is a cloaked crusader bent more on vengeance than on justice. Director Sam Raimi, whose cheapo slasher film The Evil Dead achieved cult status, mines familiar comic-book terrain with a plucky heroine (Frances McDormand), a couple of corporate villains -- one slick (Colin Friels), the other slimy (Larry Drake) -- and plenty of explosive violence that virtually reads KA-BOOM! in block letters across the screen...
...when the talk of college basketball is dominated by the tawdry and venal, reliance on the rock of moral principle seems almost as anachronistic as the smothering defense Princeton plays. Allegations of point shaving, reports of doctored transcripts, illegal payoffs to players and graduation rates that should shame college presidents abound. Television and the money it provides to broadcast games have corroded the soul of the sport. Each of the 64 teams to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament receives a payment of around $286,000. If a team makes it to the Final Four, the payout...