Why do they get so much pain and effort, and where does such a decisiveness come from?
A cluster of particularly vivid qualities was shaping George W. Bush's White House through the summer of 2001: a disdain for contemplation or deliberation, an embrace of decisiveness, a retreat from empiricism, a sometimes bullying impatience with doubters and even friendly questioners.
Perhaps it was not a surprise to see the IPC salvage the situation given that the body, responding with the decisiveness sorely missing from its Olympic counterparts, had already demonstrated its resolve by banning Russia from the Games because of evidence of state-sponsored doping.
And maybe I saved up all this energy, this decisiveness and directness, from being the quiet one with Will, the one who observed... .. Ask folk musicians of a certain age to list their influences and a good chunk will bring up Oldham, probably his supremely sombre 1999 classic, I See a Darkness.
It suggests success, urgency and decisiveness... Dublin, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, is design.
The PSC chief, Jaime Nebot, has shown the leadership, initiative and decisiveness that many demand from Mr Mahuad but he has led in the wrong direction.
His openness and decisiveness are a welcome break from past Olympic traditions.
In that game, their 2011 first round pick, Mark Ingram, ran with more quickness and decisiveness than we've seen from him this season.
But Europe has flinched at every turn from showing the decisiveness that its problems require — and in the market panic of the last few days its leaders have been caught out once again trying to stem the fallout from yesterday's disasters instead of planning the pre-emptive action that will avert the problems of tomorrow.
