Surgical masks are ubiquitous in Japan, particularly during hay fever season.

For one thing, such convictions can always be faked by those determined to dissimulate.

In the classroom, we have arguments on some of the most fiercely held moral convictions that students have about big public questions.

The US went to war in Iraq on the basis of Bush s gut instincts and religious convictions, not rigorous evidence.

The reaction of Boot, and others of his persuasion, points to a genuine dilemma that always occurs in authoritarian systems that use some semblance of democracy to bolster their legitimacy. What are opposition candidates to do when they are asked to take part in elections that they know they cannot win, or that, even when they can win, will give them only minimal authority?

The historical and strategic sensibilities of all the countries assembled in the new Europe are so different that they cannot have a common foreign policy.

There were also reports of bureau members convincing friends (usually sharing the same political convictions) to go to vote and fill up the voting booths.

But the possibility of violence should not distract us from noticing that fundamentalist convictions also motivate positive political activism.

This is a symbol of what we can achieve when we believe in the impossible, when we have a team, when we have pioneering spirit, and especially when we understand that all the certainties we have should be thrown overboard.

It seems to me that our discussion reflects the opposite, that a better way to mutual respect is to engage directly with the moral convictions citizens bring to public life, rather than to require that people leave their deepest moral convictions outside politics before they enter.

Faced with difficult questions in foreign, fiscal, and social policy, he would be wise to turn toward the center rather than conciliate his conservative base, but it remains unclear whether the politics of conviction or of pragmatism will prevail.