2010 Fears Article Wall Street Journal

Holly N. (United States of America)
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  1. reignite
    ignite anew, as of something burning
    While Mr. Abdulmutallab's underwear bomb thankfully did not explode en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, his botched attempt (and the heroic acts of passengers) has reignited one of the decade's most pervasive—and overblown—anxieties: that terrorist violence would become "the new normal," an everyday occurrence in the United States.
  2. overblown
    puffed up with vanity
    While Mr. Abdulmutallab's underwear bomb thankfully did not explode en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, his botched attempt (and the heroic acts of passengers) has reignited one of the decade's most pervasive—and overblown—anxieties: that terrorist violence would become "the new normal," an everyday occurrence in the United States.
  3. coarsen
    make or become coarse or coarser
    For instance, it is unimaginable that we'll go 10 full years without a White House Conference on the Coarsening of Culture, that some form of deadly yet cuddly mammal will be identified as near extinction even as its population is increasing, that we will suddenly recognize that our core common culture is threatened by the failure to teach "The Brady Bunch" in the K-12 curriculum, and that viruses are either multiplying or disappearing altogether at an alarming rate.
  4. ubiquity
    the state of being everywhere at once
    All of these oh-so-pressing issues received multiple congressional hearings when they should have been more properly rinsed away, like the hand-sanitizer gels that rose to ubiquity.
  5. hierarchical
    classified by various criteria into successive levels
    In the late 1980s, it was self-evident to those in the know that Japan's government-subsidized, super-hierarchical and tightly integrated mega-corporations were intrinsically superior to their American counterparts.
  6. solvency
    the ability to meet maturing obligations as they come due
    Whatever the cause for the slowdown in sex, as the solvency of Social Security and Medicare come closer to reality, not to mention the true costs of health-care reform and record-setting budget deficits, expect a series of prurient exposes on the trouble with promise rings and alarmist reports worrying about who exactly is going to pay for Baby Boomers' entitlements.
  7. prurient
    characterized by lust
    Whatever the cause for the slowdown in sex, as the solvency of Social Security and Medicare come closer to reality, not to mention the true costs of health-care reform and record-setting budget deficits, expect a series of prurient exposes on the trouble with promise rings and alarmist reports worrying about who exactly is going to pay for Baby Boomers' entitlements.
  8. alarmist
    a person who alarms others needlessly
    Whatever the cause for the slowdown in sex, as the solvency of Social Security and Medicare come closer to reality, not to mention the true costs of health-care reform and record-setting budget deficits, expect a series of prurient exposes on the trouble with promise rings and alarmist reports worrying about who exactly is going to pay for Baby Boomers' entitlements.
  9. perennially
    in a perennial manner; repeatedly
    Given that the first big jump to the Internet, networked computers and e-commerce started more than a decade ago, we're perfectly poised for a perennially recurring panic that we're in a new Dark Ages and that the major innovation necessary to pull us out of our current recession is never going to happen.
  10. Beelzebub
    chief spirit of evil and adversary of God
    It is probably only thanks to the intervention of the Gores that we managed as a country to wrestle free both of Beelzebub's and Ronnie James Dio's bony grasp.
  11. entitlement
    right granted by law or contract
    Whatever the cause for the slowdown in sex, as the solvency of Social Security and Medicare come closer to reality, not to mention the true costs of health-care reform and record-setting budget deficits, expect a series of prurient exposes on the trouble with promise rings and alarmist reports worrying about who exactly is going to pay for Baby Boomers' entitlements.
  12. contraption
    a small mechanical device or tool
    The contraptions in SkyMall magazine run decidedly more toward hot-dog-and-bun toasters than something as futuristic as, say, an airport-screening device that actually works.
  13. subsidize
    support, as through grants or other funds
    In the late 1980s, it was self-evident to those in the know that Japan's government-subsidized, super-hierarchical and tightly integrated mega-corporations were intrinsically superior to their American counterparts.
  14. integrate
    make into a whole or make part of a whole
    In the late 1980s, it was self-evident to those in the know that Japan's government-subsidized, super-hierarchical and tightly integrated mega-corporations were intrinsically superior to their American counterparts.
  15. affirmative action
    a policy designed to redress past discrimination
    Many colleges have even acknowledged that they practice affirmative action to pump up the Y chromosome counts on campus.
  16. intrinsically
    with respect to its inherent nature
    In the late 1980s, it was self-evident to those in the know that Japan's government-subsidized, super-hierarchical and tightly integrated mega-corporations were intrinsically superior to their American counterparts.
  17. inalienable
    incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another
    As a sadly appropriate parting gift to this grim first decade of the 21st century, a period so debased that the Boston Red Sox managed to win not just one but two World Series, we can thank Nigerian would-be suicide bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for robbing us of our inalienable right to use a cramped bathroom at 30,000 feet.
  18. intractable
    difficult to manage or mold
    It was one of the worst decades ever for stocks, the U.S. mired itself in two seemingly endless and intractable wars, total federal spending increased by more than 100% in real dollars, unemployment hit double digits and for the second time in 10 years, the government is poised to massively intervene in health care (and not just Medicare this time).
  19. decry
    express strong disapproval of
    In the 1950s, masculinists decried "Momism," the control of the household by the pants-wearing monster formerly known as Mother (think "Rebel Without a Cause").
  20. innovation
    the act of starting something for the first time
    When we're not complaining that the rate of innovation is so fast that it's causing future shock, we like to complain that it's been years since anything radically new has rocked our world.
  21. self-evident
    evident without proof or argument
    In the late 1980s, it was self-evident to those in the know that Japan's government-subsidized, super-hierarchical and tightly integrated mega-corporations were intrinsically superior to their American counterparts.
  22. desultory
    marked by lack of definite plan, purpose, or enthusiasm
    There was plenty serious that went wrong with "the Aughts" (one more indicator of a desultory decade: the period has produced no commonly shared nickname).
  23. rampant
    occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
    Yet for all that trouble, we spent a lot of time and energy in the Aughts fighting phantom menaces, such as the ideas that vaccines cause autism in children, that ATM machines featuring a Spanish-language option posed a threat to national sovereignty and that rampant steroid use by players was turning off fans who attended Major League Baseball in record numbers.
  24. occult
    supernatural forces and events and beings collectively
    For a classic example, think back to the 1980s, when Tipper Gore, the wife of then-Sen. Al Gore, helped form the Parents Music Resource Center and addressed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation regarding the pressing topic of sexual, violent and occult imagery in pop music.
  25. deficit
    an amount that is less than expected or required
    No wonder they are also more heavily medicated and diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder too.
  26. impoverished
    poor enough to need help from others
    We Need to Reinflate the Higher-Education Bubble

    Forget about all the worries aired in the last decade that college was a cruel hoax that was creating an impoverished underclass that could only find work as baristas.
  27. intervene
    be placed or located between other things
    It was one of the worst decades ever for stocks, the U.S. mired itself in two seemingly endless and intractable wars, total federal spending increased by more than 100% in real dollars, unemployment hit double digits and for the second time in 10 years, the government is poised to massively intervene in health care (and not just Medicare this time).
  28. erroneous
    containing or characterized by mistakes
    As Ohio State political scientist John Mueller has documented, such fears are as erroneous as they are deeply held.
  29. plausible
    apparently reasonable, valid, or truthful
    By definition, such worries need to be simultaneously undocumentable and just plausible enough to convince politicians, celebrities, civic do-gooders, captains of industry and media types that our very society hangs in the balance.
  30. dissent
    a difference of opinion
    After a couple more quarters of weak or nonexistent growth, get ready for calls to banish dissent and individualism in business that will last right up to the moment that the Chinese government makes the wrong call.
  31. simultaneously
    at the same instant
    By definition, such worries need to be simultaneously undocumentable and just plausible enough to convince politicians, celebrities, civic do-gooders, captains of industry and media types that our very society hangs in the balance.
  32. banish
    expel, as if by official decree
    After a couple more quarters of weak or nonexistent growth, get ready for calls to banish dissent and individualism in business that will last right up to the moment that the Chinese government makes the wrong call.
  33. sovereignty
    the authority of a state to govern another state
    Yet for all that trouble, we spent a lot of time and energy in the Aughts fighting phantom menaces, such as the ideas that vaccines cause autism in children, that ATM machines featuring a Spanish-language option posed a threat to national sovereignty and that rampant steroid use by players was turning off fans who attended Major League Baseball in record numbers.
  34. utterly
    completely and without qualification
    Sure, the Clapper was promising, but it utterly failed to usher in an age of smart appliances that would do our bidding without even being asked.
Created on 一月 2, 2010

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