The Johns Hopkins researchers say that if other radio frequency ID systems are vulnerable, the new field could offer far less security than its proponents promise.

While legitimate physicians speak in terms of chances of success, proponents of cancer quackery promise certain cures.

But the one-vote margin of defeat in the Senate left the amendment in a shallow grave, and proponents promised to try again next year.

So the next time that some proponent of tax reform promises king-size economic benefits, there's reason to be skeptical.

Will slot machines deliver the tax revenues, jobs and property tax reduction its proponents have promised?

The proponents promised "a continuous blanket of security" with patrols triple the level provided by city police.

And their proponents promise appropriately outsized scientific results.

And more remarkable still, at the first long look, it appears to make the great esthetic leap forward that its proponents have promised from the start.

Yet even as proponents of the ballot measure promised to challenge today's ruling, they seemed to be preparing for a long haul.

But block grants are not the revolution their proponents promise.