To me, though, it was new and astonishing, a sort of revelation.
But that so many supposedly objective observers and business journalists badmouth that legislative act is astonishing, a manifestation of both how poisoned our politics have become and, even more alarming, of how economically illiterate or lazy so many seemingly smart people are.
The recent revelation that in 2003 Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the original leaker of the name of a CIA agent has led to an astonishing climax in a case that clearly should never have seen the light of day.
"To score 38 goals in a season - so far - is an astonishing feat for a winger, " said FWA chairman Paul Hetherington.
Yet just last week came news that Amazon deforestation had increased almost six-fold in just a year - an astonishing rise, and a trend large enough, if it continues, to guarantee the emissions target won't be met.
It was, for example, able to record the wandering of a wren from Cumbria in the north of England to Devon in the south a distance of 400km (250 miles), and an astonishing hop for a bird so small.
It is an astonishing windfall for a country with fewer than three million people.
"It's an astonishing performance for a documentary on Britain's youngest channel, " a spokesman for the five-year-old station said.
The new Nokia 808 PureView seems to be an astonishing beast, a cameraphone with a 41 megapixel lens.
In Italy, Juventus maintained their astonishing unbeaten Serie A record, which now stands at 29, after a 2-0 victory over Inter Milan.
The passion being put into these events is astonishing and proves a global interest in this new way of sharing knowledge and reawakening wonder.
CNN: With TED, amazing ideas spread at speed of sound -- and light
It completed an astonishing turnaround from a spell when the Championship side looked poised to spring a real shock on their Premier League opponents.
In my view she has abused her position among the novel-writing elite to launch this astonishing attack on a woman half way through her pregnancy.
Losh left little of herself beyond the stone, wood and glass of her astonishing church and a few other local structures a mausoleum, a cross, the schoolhouse, some cottages.
ECONOMIST: The surprising story of a north country architect
Just as the Tigers sensed a truly astonishing comeback, Boro raced up the other end and Viduka rammed a shot across Myhill and into the far corner from 15 yards.
Instead, he writes about his astonishing experiences as a front-line surgeon (and, for many years, as a medical trainee) in a country on the border between first and third world medicine.
It was only many years later in 1989, Mr Beyeler says, when an exhibition from his now astonishing collection made a hit in Madrid, that he first realised that his paintings really ought to be on permanent exhibition somewhere.
And I believe that where we are today in the global playing field and how the United States is held in the esteem of the rest of the world is an accomplishment that I frankly find astonishing in such a short period of time.
Rioja Alta astonishing to see a top Spanish wine in an Istanbul restaurant and Zeynep says that, in her mind, the tensions between the urban elite and their plush lifestyles and the Islamic-led government (and, for that matter, the mostly devout masses) could not be brushed under the carpet.
President Bush made absolutely no mention of missile defense in his State of the Union address, an astonishing omission at a time when the war against Islamic fanaticism is at the forefront of American politics and only days after China finally acknowledged that on Jan. 11 it had tested a missile in space by destroying an aging weather satellite.
The latter proved a somewhat astonishing reminder of forgotten lessons about nuclear power risks, unique to that technology: A failure of one power plant in an isolated location can create a contagion in countries far away, and even where somewhat different variants of that technology are in use.
FORBES: New Centralized Nuclear Plants: Still an Investment Worth Making?
Yet it's more than a little astonishing that the proponents of the Senate immigration bill would claim the banner of anti-racism to justify a measure that will deepen and prolong the subordination of those American ethnic groups already most deeply subordinated.
The study found that participants burned an astonishing 272 calories during a 20-minute workout.
Based on press reports, it estimates that 80% of them were militants, rising to a pretty astonishing 95% in 2010.
At first glance, it's an astonishing upset, against a home-country favorite no less, but Baker looked like he'd been there before.
Looking deeper into the data, though, shows a second astonishing fact that is actually surprising: how high the gun-suicide rate actually is.
Estevez joins a cast that includes his father Martin Sheen and a truly astonishing collection of notable actors: Anthony Hopkins, William H.
That is astonishing to think that a company the width and size of Apple can make such large gains, even when taking into account that they are trading at such high numbers.
应用推荐