Sometimes it seeks out patients who need help, as it did in the case of Chunyang, the Dongqi student.
The U.N. Security Council could refer the situation to the I.C.C. as it did in the case of Darfur.
Yet that appears to be what the Bloomberg administration did in the case of Agudath and Ohel.
"If his purpose is to remove the dictator from power the same way he did in the case of Haiti, then his trip is welcome," Mr. Garcia said.
The legislation would also make it easier for the government to seize large troubled companies, as it did in the case of the American International Group.
As the comedian Bill Maherpointed out, strong language can poison weak minds, as it did in the case of Timothy McVeigh.
Perhaps that makes the gesture all the grander, as one might argue it did in the case of what is now — again — the tallest building in New York.
China doesn't go for underdogs, so expect a parting of ways as Assad reaches his seemingly inevitable end, much as China did in the case of Libya.
What remains unclear, and possibly incalculable, is whether divestment can alter the calculus, even in the very broad way that it did in the case of South Africa.
And of course, everybody in Brussels is insisting that Spain will not need a bailout, just as they did in the case of Portugal last year.
Because of this uncertainty, regulators have acted as hesitantly as they did in the case of the Internet and housing bubbles.
