Word: pointlessly
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...pointless display of pique, the House voted, 215 to 200, against raising the ceiling on the national debt by nearly $100 billion, to $929 billion. The rejection underscored the anger of many Congressmen over the Administration's bud get and economic policies. But the defeat was more symbolic than real. When the House votes on the bill a second time, it is expected to pass. The alternative would be unthinkable even to conservatives: the Government would have to stop borrowing within a few weeks...
Jensen says he might be willing to oppose IQ testing in elementary schools, because such tests seem pointless, except to scan for the occasional bright underachiever who needs special help. Later on, he says, testing is essential to assure fairness in competition for college and good jobs. "It's better to rely on a test than on the whims of an interviewer or employer. The tests are color blind, and that should be reassuring...
...first murder is one of the most revolting yet put on film. It put me off my popcorn, and I'm not easily nauseated. Alien operates thereafter on our anticipation of similar blood and guts; the tension is totally mechanical and rather unfair. The movie proves witless, plotless, pointless, spectacularly unoriginal, and surprisingly cruel...
...somberly and forcefully and glancing frequently in the direction of Scoop Jackson, the most outspoken of the SALT opponents. The President appealed to the Senate to back the agreement as "a matter of common sense." Without the pact, he said, the U.S. would be pushed into "an uncontrolled and pointless nuclear arms race." The President said "neither side obtained everything that it sought" in the negotiations, and argued that "the package that did emerge is a carefully balanced whole, and it will make the world a safer place for both sides...
Vacations may be pointless. The Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia once found themselves with an embarrassment of leisure. Their yams came up so abundantly that they had no need to work for their food. To occupy their excesses of spare time, the islanders devised the Kula, a ceremonial maritime exchange of economically worthless objects- red shell necklaces and white shell bracelets. The Kula, in formal circuit around the islands, was the vacation and vocation of the people. They became their own quaintness, their own tourist trap. It is possible, in the end, that they even took American Express...