The middle class, by its own reckoning, now stretches to encompass about three-quarters of the population.
It is a dynamic that, as she suggests, may continue to have some contemporary relevance: "Like a living unit, the group stretched to encompass the awkward and odd: only rarely was there an absolute impasse.
Indeed, in a pinch, the "external aggression" concept trotted out by Makdissi could be easily stretched to encompass the various forms of foreign interference, such as the covert funding and arming of Syria's rebels (reportedly by the U.S., Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and various European countries including Great Britain and France), that is currently occurring.
Last week, The Huffington Post reported on the origins of one of those breaks, a "manufacturing" deduction that lobbyists stretched to encompass public utilities, oil companies and even coffee roasting.
Now, we are asking that the ethical principles be stretched to encompass the uncertainty, the risks, the benefits and the burdens of research protocols.
Rural electrification, Jimmy Carter wrote, "made it possible for us to stretch our hearts and stretch our minds to encompass public involvement in affairs that would not have been possible" otherwise.
The borough boundaries stretch to Hurn Forest in the north encompassing Bournemouth Airport and eastwards along the coast as far as Walkford.
Having stretched our minds to encompass forbidding concepts of mathematically plausible universes, in the last chapter he comes to the old-fashioned humanist conclusion that there is no point looking for uplift and moral guidance in all this: "our Universe does not give life meaning but life gives our Universe meaning".
I struggle to imagine how they stretch the word "democrat" to encompass a person who kills those who won't bow to him.
