But to many onlookers, withholding relief seems callous when a continent is suffering as much as Africa is.
"This was a particularly callous murder where Grenfell put greater value on his acquisition of a car than the life of an innocent man simply protecting his own property that he had worked so hard for, " he said.
But this is almost certainly a false hope as well as a callous policy.
However, his callous remarks reveal a conscientious bias by current administration officials in their approach to regulated agencies.
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The closest thing to a knife fight has been Mr Gingrich's portrayal of Mr Romney as a callous wrecker of humble livelihoods.
That is a common argument, but it is beyond speciousness and it demonstrates a callous disregard for the true definition of privacy.
Criminals hurt society with a callous streak born from their lack of empathy and Oprah is embraced by society because she has empathy in abundance.
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As early as the 1930s Ben Graham observed how sensible men of wealth when investing in the market displayed a callous disregard of every precept that had brought them that wealth.
The airline condemned the decision to strike, saying it showed "a callous disregard" for BA customers and staff, but added that it was already planning contingency measures to ensure as many passengers as possible fly during the strike periods.
The University and College Union (UCU) said the memo showed a "callous and uncaring" attitude.
While specific cases of death or injury as a result of the use of the devices can't be proved, their sale was a "callous confidence trick, " the judge said.
Reduced to soundbites, the first sounded callous and the second like a flip-flop.
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"These officers were extremely fortunate not to have been killed or injured by such a cowardly and callous attack, " she said.
It will be hard to win public acceptance of the rebels as part of government after nearly a decade of callous behaviour.
Superintendent David Taylor told RTE that the murder was carried out in a "most malicious and callous manner".
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If you make a policy decision, if you are so callous as to do so, to slash Social Security benefits or Medicare benefits or education spending, you would then -- as you made a budget -- count that as savings, right?
The problems are daunting but, as for Africa as a whole, despair is no more use than callous indifference.
Hall was initially arrested in December and made a statement describing the claims as "pernicious, callous, cruel and above all spurious".
Mr Attlee likes his street, but he is no sentimentalist about a district that varies from the captivating to the callous.
Nintendo is going after a broader market and longtime fans are feeling dissed by callous wording.
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Until a decade ago America's medical profession had indeed been laggard and callous in providing pain relief to patients.
Further, they may to be callous to industry behavior which may be appropriate in the retail marketplace but inappropriate in a fiduciary context.
But it is a measure of how little inclined the leadership is to trust the market's callous hand operating through such things as mergers, sales and, especially, bankruptcies.
Children are callous in this respect, and if parents wish to ensure their children find acceptance, then find them a suitable community.
He skilfully embodies them all, from a stubbornly independent middle-aged man to the two adolescent girls (one pious, one callous) as they attempt to find their place in the world.
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Her conservative rival, Tony Abbott, who trained to be a priest and is equally combative but can be impulsive, believes voters will be uneasy at the callous way that Mr Rudd was ambushed by Labor heavyweights.
The prestige of getting to the top of Everest can sometimes blur a climber's moral judgement, leading to acts of single-mindedness that border on the downright callous.
And in one especially callous episode, Jobs refused to give founding stock options to one of Apple's earliest employees, even after a fellow employee intervened and offered to match whatever Jobs was willing to spare.
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