But regardless of how pernicious Ravi's actions may have been, it's hard to pin all the blame on a teenager who wasn't even alive when the true crime was committed.
In reality, his administration is "buying time" for a more pernicious agenda: time for covert action to sabotage Tehran's nuclear program; time for sanctions to set the stage for regime change in Iran; and time for the United States, its European and Sunni Arab partners, and Turkey to weaken the Islamic Republic by overthrowing the Assad government in Syria.
What he worried about is "the pernicious effect, upon both thought and action, of an undue surrender to our sensual nature" on the one hand and "the nefarious influence exerted upon our knowledge and upon our conduct by a preponderance of rationality" on the other.
QUESTION FROM DIZ: Do you agree with John Cassidy that perhaps Wall Street doesn't do any good for society — that the effect of their actions may actually be pernicious?
Or Apple and the others fail again to take action on these problems, which are pernicious to solve, easy to pass on to others, and have the agreeable side effect of reducing manufacturing costs?
While federal action is necessary to combat the pernicious effects of furtive spending, it is my belief that states can and should be a part of this effort.
Brian Brooks, a Washington lawyer who is co-chairman of a Federalist Society committee on class actions, said that such "claims shaving" was pernicious.
As the investor's advocate, the S.E.C. should ensure it does not take any action that would harm investors by facilitating the pernicious use of such poison pills.
"We can no longer accept the conduct of the intelligence services acting under such a pernicious veil of secrecy, and we will be taking immediate action to try to establish more information.
But the scale of its action also shows how worried it is about a pernicious recession stemming from a traumatised banking system.If there were any doubts that a further big rate cut was on the way, they had been dispelled by the time the central bank's monetary-policy committee met this week.
