Word: commandant
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...other countries, a government would automatically have called out its army to put down the kind of civil unrest that beset Lebanon in the past fortnight. But Lebanon's 16,000-man armed forces, like the nation itself, are a special case. Since the high command is predominantly Christian, much of the Moslem population would have resented the army's presence-and the soldiers might have split along religious lines. So the government prudently allowed the troops to remain in barracks...
...sooner had Cairns come within reach of the top than his decline began. Last week Whitlam sacked his second in command in the midst of the worst political scandal in Australia's history. At issue were charges that associates of Cairns had used their influence to seek foreign loans for the government that would have brought them millions of dollars in commissions...
...sponsoring a bill to have contraceptives openly displayed and clearly priced. The men regard this proposal as scandalous, although their own pet projects are as bad or worse. One member fulminates that if God had wanted a permissive society, "he would have given Moses ten suggestions instead of ten command ments." Ably abetted by the antic direction of Alan Arkin, Rubbers is a zany caricature of mandated imbecility. As Brooklyn's gift to liberated womanhood, Laura Esterman is roguishly supple in alternating the abrasiveness of Bella Abzug with the dimpled wiles...
Spiritual Uplift. The movie, which is inveterately confusing, has to do with Jonathan E. bucking the corporate biggies and refusing to retire on command. Director Norman Jewison (Jesus Christ Superstar) and Screenwriter William Harrison champion nonconformity and the glories of individuality against a faceless state as zealously as if they had just discovered these notions writ large on a fiery tablet. Only those for whom these ideas are also a revelation will appreciate the cautions that are strewn throughout the film like pennants waving in the cheap seats...
...blades can be "feathered" (or turned on their axes), by manual control; they will continue to whirl at a steady 40 r.p.m. even as the wind varies. In future NASA models, chip-sized computers developed for spacecraft will monitor the performance of the windmills and automatically command them to adjust to wind changes...