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...item every candidate deeply pines for: the devastating one-liner. To be really devastating, the line must appear to be true, clever and, especially, spontaneous. So teams of moonlighting Hollywood comedy writers have been churning out ideas for weeks. The classic of the genre is Ronald Reagan's retort to Jimmy Carter in 1980: "There you go again." But nothing is worse than an overlabored gotcha line that falls horribly flat, so spin doctors must first do no harm. Part of this is to gently persuade the candidates to be totally relaxed and natural while simultaneously being very careful...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: There They Go Again | 9/25/2008 | See Source »

...PEACE representatives retort that 194 Rwandan health-care volunteers will begin making home visits in September. They also point to some working projects whose real-world performance exposes both the strengths and weaknesses of Warren's theory. In early 2006, Grant Bornzin, a Saddleback member, was in a PEACE group directed to a Presbyterian church in the village of Remera, where elders spoke of needing milk for children. The team went back to the U.S., and Bornzin admits that "the idea festered" for two years, until a team member returned to Africa and e-mailed that "they really need...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Global Ambition of Rick Warren | 8/7/2008 | See Source »

...really two movies: a good adventure epic, with all the Chinese people, and a wan one, with O'Connells and the other the Westerners. Their character motivation is sketchy, their verbal wit scant; at times a scene revs to its climax and, instead of issuing some clever deflating retort, the actor will gaze dumbly into the camera, as if this were a rough cut, with the punch line to be edited in later. To camouflage the dearth of smart dialogue, Fraser and Bello indulge in sheepish smiling and sweet preening; the film's working title might have been Indiana...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Hong Kong Revives The Mummy | 8/1/2008 | See Source »

...Perez decision focused on... the importance to an individual of the freedom to join in marriage with the person of one's choice... It is a fundamental right of free men." 2. Marriage exists mainly for the purpose of protecting society by encouraging stable homes for children. The obvious retort to this position is that plenty of straight couples don't have children, and yet they can still marry. Those opposed to gay marriage answer this objection by saying that the state can't go around inquiring which straight couples are fertile and which are infertile; they do know, though...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Viewpoint: What the California Gay Ruling Won't Do | 5/16/2008 | See Source »

...mother answers, “Maybe a little,” adding that, like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, her appearance will be altered once her bandages are removed. The daughter asks why she is going to look different, a question which her mother dismisses with the retort: “Not just different, my dear—prettier...

Author: By Courtney A. Fiske | Title: Tummy Tucks for Toddlers | 4/23/2008 | See Source »

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