Nuke-You-lar weapons...
I admit it. I REALLY don't like the way news media (and EVERYONE) has taken to using the acronym WMD, for the now ubiquitous and apparently ephemeral 'weapons-of-mass-destruction'. I really don't like it.
But this week, every TV and Radio news show has dropped that stinky acronym in favor of providing ample coverage of that foul-up sound bite of the "President" of the United States in the State of the Union Address. By "coverage" of the story, I mean the "POUNDING of this story into the ground".
And playing that ONE line. over. and Over. and OVER; this one:
Saddam Hussein had "recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,
signaling a step toward development of a nuclear arsenal."
At least... that's the way it's written.... AND pronounced.
But he doesn't SAY nuclear.... DOES he? He says "nuke-you-lar".
I've heard it at LEAST five thousand times this week on the radio.
EVERY time I hear the sound byte start, I know what's coming... and yet, like some horrible accident on the side of the 405, I can't turn away. I have to hear it, just to be sure it wasn't my imagination the last 4,999 times i heard it.
Okay. He's never pretended to be a great public speaker. He admits he gets nervous. I can't blame him, since I would be too if I spoke like him.
But for gods sake man, if you're the PRESIDENT, then just MAYBE you should learn how to pronounce at LEAST the important words in time for the big speeches, Don't You Think? At the VERY least, LISTEN to the way people around you pronounce stuff. Everyone else in the white house says it right.. why can't the PRESIDENT get it?
You sound ridiculous, George... and it's embarassing.
Of all the lame things he says that I have to endure, or all the inane acronyms that become everyday language, hearing them doesn't distress me even a thousandth as much as I get when I drive to work in the morning and hear about the trickle of killings overseas. Every day I think of people I know who are THERE. Who will likely BE there for a while, and actually are at risk of not coming home, and I have no idea what that risk IS, or when it could end. THAT'S what really bothers me.
The lousy pronunciation's just the gravy.
But this week, every TV and Radio news show has dropped that stinky acronym in favor of providing ample coverage of that foul-up sound bite of the "President" of the United States in the State of the Union Address. By "coverage" of the story, I mean the "POUNDING of this story into the ground".
And playing that ONE line. over. and Over. and OVER; this one:
Saddam Hussein had "recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,
signaling a step toward development of a nuclear arsenal."
At least... that's the way it's written.... AND pronounced.
But he doesn't SAY nuclear.... DOES he? He says "nuke-you-lar".
I've heard it at LEAST five thousand times this week on the radio.
EVERY time I hear the sound byte start, I know what's coming... and yet, like some horrible accident on the side of the 405, I can't turn away. I have to hear it, just to be sure it wasn't my imagination the last 4,999 times i heard it.
Okay. He's never pretended to be a great public speaker. He admits he gets nervous. I can't blame him, since I would be too if I spoke like him.
But for gods sake man, if you're the PRESIDENT, then just MAYBE you should learn how to pronounce at LEAST the important words in time for the big speeches, Don't You Think? At the VERY least, LISTEN to the way people around you pronounce stuff. Everyone else in the white house says it right.. why can't the PRESIDENT get it?
You sound ridiculous, George... and it's embarassing.
Of all the lame things he says that I have to endure, or all the inane acronyms that become everyday language, hearing them doesn't distress me even a thousandth as much as I get when I drive to work in the morning and hear about the trickle of killings overseas. Every day I think of people I know who are THERE. Who will likely BE there for a while, and actually are at risk of not coming home, and I have no idea what that risk IS, or when it could end. THAT'S what really bothers me.
The lousy pronunciation's just the gravy.