Final Word from Thursday, August 4, 2011
Wherever you look, once-invincible tyrants are being destroyed. Bret Stephens of theWall Street Journal said that Osama bin Laden was Obama's greatest triumph andthat this will forever put him one notch - if only one notch - above Carter. The Serbsgave up Mladić. Mubarak is in a cage. Nato is dead set on killing Gaddafi if it diestrying. Murdoch was forever humbled. DSK gave new meaning to post-coital regret.The dollar is in the dungeon. The Magnitsky death squad was blacklisted by the U.S.Seventy future Norwegian politicians were mowed down by an assassin. The Hungariangovernment wants to prosecute three ex-PMs for financial profligacy. Evenin the Czech Republic, lottery despot Aleš Hušák was brought down to size, and VítBárta was given a slap on the wrist. But for the most part, Czech heroes and villainshaven't yet recognized how the world is changing and how fragile their existence is.
Glossary of difficult words
invincible - too powerful to be defeated or overcome;
to be dead set on - to be absolutely determined;
post-coital/postcoital - occurring or done after sexual intercourse;
dungeon - a strong underground prison cell, esp. in a castle;
Magnitsky - a Russian lawyer who died in a Russian prison;
to mow someone down - to kill someone with a fusillade of bullets or other missiles;
profligacy - reckless extravagance or wastefulness in the use of resources;
to bring down to size - to make a person more humble.