For instance, getting rid of industrial and agricultural subsidies makes sense, but politicians cling to them.

ECONOMIST: The gods that have failed��so far

One aspect of all this is that more and more gay people today, not feeling marginalized and embattled as a group in the way that their counterparts of a generation ago did, feel less and less of a need to cling tightly to the label that once would have bound them together.

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So participatory culture and derived concepts have become important for them to cling to, as it makes up a larger piece of their generational identity.

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In 1982 the country's military dictators gambled that grabbing the islands, a far-flung relic of the British empire, by military invasion would allow them to cling to power on a wave of popular acclaim.

ECONOMIST: Argentina and the Falklands: The beef in Buenos Aires | The

Wearing the pin of an active serviceman's mother on her collar, Mrs Palin beamed with pride about her son and nephew's current service in the military and worked in a few shots at the Democratic presidential nominee's past gaffe about small town folks whose frustrations with life cause them to cling to guns and Bibles.

BBC: Republican Convention diary

Indian officials in particular accuse western nuclear powers of hypocrisy: happy to cling on to their own weapons, but not ready to trust them in Indian hands.

ECONOMIST: Nuclear complacency

The turbulence in Asia and the sour mood of world financial markets have given Mercosur's leaders powerful reason to cling together and Chile with them.

ECONOMIST: Mercosur

India's political families may come in all shapes and affiliations, but many have one thing in common: Once power brings them an official residence, they cling to it like a Ganges crocodile to a bather's leg - sometimes for decades after they cease to hold office.

CNN: ONE OF THE PERKS OF THE JOB

Gunmakers cling to their guns because they believe their survival depends on preserving and enlarging the market for them.

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Yet some, inside government and outside it, cling to the belief that the problem of children living in the streets or under them has come about because people are too lazy to look after their children and too ready to accept handouts.

ECONOMIST: The street children are the symptom of a bigger problem