In reality, it has already become many things.

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Siebel, the sales-automation software firm, has many terrific things going for it, including CEO Tom Siebel, who may be the best of the 1995-2000 lot.

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It has at least three factions, and they disagree on many things, so it will have a hard time pulling itself together into a truly cohesive legislative force.

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Yet many aborigines support it, because at least in some places it has made things better.

ECONOMIST: A distinct society, perhaps becoming less so

"It is a very, very deep heritage and it has a long history including culture and language and music and food and many, many things, " he says.

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This has been done, but it is unsatisfactory because in a cross-country comparison many other things vary along with political institutions: it is impossible to isolate the effect of political arrangements on happiness.

ECONOMIST: Happiness is a warm vote

Many times it has to do with response to and resolving problems, warrantee support, even simple things like does anyone answer the phone.

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"Let Us Talk of Many Things" is proof, if it were needed, that for the last 50 years Buckley has been a presence -- witty, scathing, philosophical, generous, often surprisingly tender -- in the middle of the American conversation.

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