"We're emerging with a more rational capital structure, " Mr. Lissy said.

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We're a group of educationalists, rational people who believe that it's okay for a human being to speak about his homeland in his songs and his talk.

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"When you're sick, you don't always make the most rational decisions, " says Ms. Wilkes, the party planner.

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Believing one has the answer, whether or not such belief is justified, re-establishes a basic trust that we live in a just, rational-enough world.

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The mass re-election of Republicans in a year like 2012 can have no other rational interpretation than as a mandate for Republicans to oppose tax, regulatory, and government spending increases.

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But the problem with at least one of those semi-rational explanations is that all three ratings agencies have today said they're not going to downgrade France from AAA, and also that the price of French government bonds has actually risen today, which would be a good thing for French banks.

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Curiously, they're not much concerned that the mist itself might be toxic -- surely the most rational explanation.

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"We're a certain kind of culture which makes it hard for us to behave rationally when the rational thing is to be tough, " he says.

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