In his defence he cites some big thinkers, including Roy Harrod, a British economist best known as a growth theorist and a biographer of John Maynard Keynes, who thought discounting future generations was just a "polite expression for rapacity".
But the movement for reform has only gathered pace after the sudden growth of enjo kosai (compensated dating), a polite expression for schoolgirl prostitution, which has got seriously out of hand with the arrival of cheap mobile telephones, coupled with the economic recession.
When I told them I planned to marry, have kids and still work, they would say iii naaa — a polite expression of envy and admiration.
Airport staff members, virtually unchanged since Soviet times, are "soapy," Mr. Belyayev said, using a polite Russian expression meaning cynical and prone to pilfering.
He shook Tony's hand with a polite, tense expression, then said, "Will!" Will Arnett was passing by.
By contrast, women tend to use mitigated assertions along with questions, offers, suggestions and polite expressions, she said.
The North Koreans moved past the exhibits, their faces fixed in polite expressions that showed little awe or envy of the palaces and intricate historical tributes that their Southern counterparts had built since the end of the war.
Another priest and half a dozen or so of my erstwhile school friends were already there, three of them sitting by the fireside in the living room with grimly polite expressions on their faces.
Basic French, for instance, is knowing how to count, the days of the week, months of the year, basic verb structure, nouns and adjectives, simple but helpful vocabulary, greetings, polite expressions, how to ask and tell the time... and with that and four thousand dollars you can go to Paris and have a blast.
Gordon says that terminal tour was "horrible", but declines, with a polite tone yet pained expression, to discuss the divorce.
Intrigue changes his facial expression from a polite smile to a thoughtful gaze.
