Word: conundrum
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Some questions are so fraught with political ambiguity that a criminal trial cannot answer them completely. One such conundrum: Who should be held accountable for the Iran-contra affair? Last week a jury in Washington rendered a judgment on retired Marine Lieut. Colonel Oliver North. But it was a verdict equivocal enough for both the defendant and the prosecutor to hail it. North proclaimed a "partial vindication" because he was found not guilty of nine felony charges. Prosecutor John W. Keker asserted that North's convictions on three other counts demonstrated "the principle that no man is above...
...nation should feel ashamed and enraged by the sorry condition of the underclass. Its misery in the midst of an affluent society is a disgrace. While the growth and strength of the black middle class prove that the U.S. has gone far to untangle its racial conundrum, racism remains at the top of a long list of unsolved national problems. The success of middle-class blacks is mainly the product of their own hard work and tenacity. But it would not have occurred without the national consensus, embodied in civil rights legislation, to dismantle segregation and create equal opportunities...
After more than a dozen books and scores of travel articles, Morris remains unjaded by the noise and disruption of urban life. She is certainly a believer in possibilities (see Conundrum, her 1974 account of the medical and psychological sex-change procedures that turned James Morris into Jan Morris). It is worth noting that when she writes about the "architectural hodgepodge" and "irresistible activity" of Hong Kong, she does so as a visitor, not as a permanent resident. Home base is a quiet village in Wales where, one can reasonably assume, the feng shui has been good for centuries...
...bring down the $145 billion federal budget deficit. Defense specialist William Kaufmann of Harvard estimates that the military programs already in the acquisition pipeline could cost more than $900 billion -- three times the entire amount the Pentagon will spend this fiscal year. "The B-2 embodies the defense conundrum," says Gordon Adams, director of Washington's Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Defense Budget Project. "Controversial mission, extremely high costs -- all at a time of falling budgets...
...Nightline: "They are exhausted, they are stressed, and they've got a gamut to run." Caras and others did not believe that Putu, Siku and Kanik would ever reach their wintering grounds off the coasts of California and Mexico. Meanwhile, conservationists and whale lovers might reflect on this conundrum: How can the human outpouring of concern for three whales, however sentimental or misplaced, be translated into real protection for whales in general...