Word: draconian
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...This draconian rationing of toilet paper reveals itself as such when an urgent undergraduate, gorged on squash and Our Dear Leader’s weekly gift of hot sausage and eggs, finds himself perched on a porcelain potty. Smug because of a particularly generous offering to the Charles River, his hand reaches for his janitorial set only to find unwelcoming and coarse texture of a cardboard tube. Panic and rage...
...slay the deficit dragon that has been terrorizing the state for most of the past decade. But in his final budget proposal, on Jan. 8, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, struggled to address a $19.9 billion budget gap over the next 18 months, unveiling plans that include what he calls "draconian cuts" to social services. The man who used to be hailed as the Governator didn't reference any of his action movies to describe his battles with the deficit. Instead, he invoked a very different kind of movie: "The current tax and budget system is cruel. It is cruel because...
...influential pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, author of best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, has become an influential voice in several countries on the continent, including Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. But that prominence has recently drawn him into controversy. When the Ugandan legislature began considering a draconian anti-homosexuality bill - which in one version would have punished "aggravated homosexuality" with death or life imprisonment - Warren was castigated for not denouncing the proposed law, especially when one of its most public supporters was revealed to have been a speaker at a Saddleback-sponsored seminar. The American preacher severed...
...many countries, economic reform can be a good thing. Even draconian changes to paper currency can help governments draw a line between "bad economic policies of the past, often after taming a hyperinflation," says Marcus Noland, an economist at Washington's Peterson Institute of International Economics. However, this being North Korea, one of the most repressive and impoverished nations in the world, that's not the case. The government announced that it would limit the amount an individual can exchange to just 100,000 won - or less than $40 at black-market exchange rates - and any amount above that threshold...
...insurgents have been punished for their crimes and wonder why the Thai authorities have not done a better job infiltrating militant cells. In turn, Muslims resent what they see as an official attitude that regards members of their religion as potential terrorists who must be suppressed by draconian emergency laws. Perceived discrimination against Muslims has so penetrated large segments of the population that it is likely feeding the radicalization of a new generation of extremists...