Every time the little gate creaks--I'm in the shed with the tanks at the end of the garden--I wonder from which of my pasts the person is arriving, seeking me out even here: maybe it is only the past of yesterday and of this same suburb, the squat Arab garbage collector who in October begins his rounds for tips, house by house, with a Happy New Year card, because he says that his colleagues keep all the December tips for themselves and he never gets a penny; but it could also be the more distant pasts pursuing old Ruedi, finding the little gate in the Impasse: smugglers from Valais, mercenaries from Katanga, croupiers from the Veradero casino and the days of Fulgencio Batista.

First of all, many who hold that combination of views (that is, regarding the death penalty: abolitionist; regarding abortion: libertarian) do so because they don't think fetucide is homicide, so that it is perfectly consistent to hold both views. (Think of someone who is opposed to murder but doesn't mind killing innocent turkeys, or even killing innocent great apes).

On some occasions standing ovations may be given to political leaders as a matter of course, rather than as a special honour.

https://books.google.com/books?id=4J9aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA235 page 235 He was prudent and induſtrious, and ſo good a Huſbandman, that he might have led a very eaſy and comfortable Life, had not an errant Vixen of a Wife ſoured his domeſtic Quiet. … https://books.google.com/books?id=4J9aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA236 page 236 By this Xantippe (ſo was the Wife of Socrates called, ſaid Partridge) By this Xantippe he had two Sons, of which I was the younger.