1.   Aside from demographics, there are also short-term explanations for the shifting allegiances of older Americans.

2.   Advances in technology, consolidation into fewer large hands and shifting allegiances are already at work to make the ultimate effect of any legal outcome impossible to predict.

3.   No one expects die-hard fans to quit watching, but there are signs of a shifting allegiance away from big-money sports.

4.   The shifting allegiances between the men might have been more vivid onstage, but here the situation just feels static.

5.   Thus far the war here has been remarkably successful, with a combination of heavy U.S. bombing, a proxy Afghan army and the shifting allegiances of warlords.

6.   More recently, plans to bring Indian casinos to the Catskills bogged down amid competing plans and shifting allegiances.

7.   That is largely because shifting allegiances and growing chaos make it hard to distinguish friend from foe.