Word: dicta
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Still, it is by his social theories that the new Jock Lit author tries finally to establish authority. The rambling nature of Michener's essay−chapter headings range from "The Media" to "Government Control"−allows him plenty of room for obiter dicta. They are all too predictable. Solemnly he warns against "the jungle of juvenile sports competition." As if it were a late bulletin, he announces that professional sports have become too violent ("I am worried about ice hockey"). He also worries about women athletes' vulnerability to foot injury, but he is, of course, for women...
...primary states where Brown is on the ballot-Maryland, Kentucky, Nevada, New Jersey-while building a skeletal national organization from such bones as Cesar Chavez's far-flung boycott network and activist church groups. Brown is considering a nationwide tour, the better to disseminate his "lower our expectations" dicta, woo uncommitted delegates and influence the polls during the pregnant preconvention lull...
...when five Justices, including the now-retired William O. Douglas, filed separate opinions that appeared to add up to a holding that the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment because it was then being imposed in a "freakish," "arbitrary" and "capricious" manner. Seizing on the Justices' own dicta, a committee of the National Association of Attorneys General within six months recommended what it considered the best way around the ruling: "a mandatory death penalty for specified offenses." With unaccustomed speed, 35 states and the Federal Government have since passed versions of just such...
...certain contempt for what he sees as the stupidities of American public policy. Ideologically, his book will probably be read by some as a callous, you-can't-make-an-omelette-without-breaking-eggs dia tribe against social planners, academics in public life and environmentalists. Among his dicta: "Adjustments that take the reward structure too far out of line with contributions produce economic decay . . . An entirely disproportionate share of medical attention goes to the chronic, hopeless ills of the aged at the expense of children and young adults, whose needs would be a much wiser investment of the resources...
...Senate, the Democrats were able to reform some of the musty rules and procedures that had slowed legislation for generations in both chambers. In the House, the drive for change was helped mightily by 75 freshmen members who refused to follow two ancient dicta: newcomers should be seen and not heard, and one gets along by going along. The revolution deposed the aging, baronial chairmen of three key House committees...