Justice and redemption are both, at best, frail defences against humanity's darker reaches.
Their offense looked frail this week against two ghosts from last October, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum of the Carlos Beltran-fortified San Francisco Giants.
As he filed his copy home, the voyage of one frail craft against the world's foremost nuclear power became a media event, cheered on by the Canadians and increasingly embarrassing to the United States.
The newcomers fell trees, burn bushes and graze cattle on what is left.The Mau forest, where the Ogiek live, was protected by court orders, but that was a frail defence against the government.
He said that the policemen had splashed soapy water on the floor and walls of the cell, as they usually did, and that the old man, who had not bathed in a week, had yanked his shirt off and rubbed his frail back against the wet floor.
How they built the organization, which in the years since has become a significant, if still relatively frail, barricade against the erosion of the landscape at the hand of man, is largely a story of philanthropy: raising money in small donations from members and in larger amounts from a few wealthier individuals and foundations.
Money is the only protection — frail and inadequate — against these horrors, and Scrooge's only thought is to work as hard as he can, every day, to store up as much money as possible.
Consider "Contact," which is supposed to be about sex: "frail / blue against the militant / grass that does cover all / in the residential / precinct of the / New England town".
Alice is no frail social outcast battling against Pakistan's misogynistic patriarchy and religious majority.
