If this is truly the Decline and Fall of the Clinton Empire, it is marked by one freaky stroke of bad luck and one striking historical irony.
Amis paints a picture of a nation still struggling to find its place in the world after suffering a "truly dramatic decline" in the middle of the 20th century, a decline made plain by being "humiliatingly brought to heel" by the US during the 1956 Suez crisis.
How will it fare if it is truly in decline?
We have to consider the possibility that the housing price downturn will eventually be as big as that of the last truly big decline, from 1925 to 1933, when prices fell by a total of 30 percent.
WE have to consider the possibility that the housing price downturn will eventually be as big as that of the last truly big decline, from 1925 to 1933, when prices fell by a total of 30percentt.
Those needs are efficiently and hilariously summarized by the classic image of Charles Laughton, in his Oscar-winning performance in Korda's "Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933), devouring a capon with his bare hands, insouciantly tossing the bones over his shoulder while he deplores the truly shocking decline in good manners that characterizes his century.
"One of the nation's great national success stories over the past two decades has been the truly stunning declines in teen pregnancy and childbearing," said Bill Albert, the chief program officer for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies.
At this lunch he said that if I truly lamented the decline of the serial novel, he would be very happy to publish one.
With such a small sample size just a few seasons it is also unclear whether the N.F.L.'s numbers are truly in meaningful decline, especially in the context of eroding viewership of live TV across the board.
Until then, we remain complicit in this truly unique species' decline.
Probably they just don't want their guys to get funny ideas that if they wear cling-film underpants they can start dressing like homos in skinny jeans, because that truly is the decline of civilization.
