Speaking In Tongues
A Geezer’s Notebook, By Jim Foster
There is a problem with writing a column when the mood strikes and you know it won’t be published for at least three or four weeks. A lot can happen in 30 days. Sometimes the guy you are writing about has passed on to his reward, either by natural causes, or by someone passing him on purpose. Today, March 27, I was thinking about The Donald who in his wisdom has been comparing his trials and tribulations to those of Jesus.
I have no idea how, but he will get off somehow, and no wonder the US has what may turn out to be the worst political system in the world. Their constitution was quite a democratic idea when it was drafted, but because they are human, or close to it, they screwed it up somewhere along the way until they now have a two-party system where one side not only dislikes the other but actually hates their fellow Americans. They could be very well heading for another civil war as asinine a possibility as that is to us, a fairly normal group of people (although I have long thought the people of Barrie are a little strange and may have to be brought in for questioning).
The whole idea of Americans going to war with their fellow Americans seems preposterous in this day and age but all we have to do is listen to them to know that it is possible, hopefully not probable.
Do you ever get the feeling you are watching a great nation destroying itself? The Gauls must have felt like that when Rome, a powerhouse for centuries, was falling apart and they were waiting in the wings. Eventually all great empires fall and cease to be a world power. When was the last time you worried that the Philistines were getting a bit too uppity and Carthage was stocking up on elephants?
Enough of the politics and on to more serious stuff.
Isn’t it about time TV networks, governments and us fairly normal folks dumped acronyms? They drive me nuts. Or maybe it is just me. Granted I’m a bit slow on the uptake but I am getting a bit tired of trying to figure out what a handful of letters mean. If it was just once in a while, it wouldn’t be so bad but we see or hear them all the time. The one that started me off on this crusade was CDIC. I know what it means, well I remembered after I looked it up (Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation) but this particular CDIC popped up on CNN and Wolf Blitzer or some other bozo was referring to the American Community Development Investment Center. In my stupidity I thought he was talking about the CIBC which wasn’t even the same acronym and wondered why the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was involved in whatever CNN was running on about. But it could just as easily have been CAA or CARP, or because it was on CNN, AARP. All I’m asking is for the news media to stop abbreviating everything and spell the damned things out.
There was an article in the Toronto Star (4/8/24) with the headline Ottawa investing $2B into AI research, growth. Nowhere is Artificial Intelligence defined in the article. The writers just assume every reader knows exactly what it means but do they?
I hate to lay the blame on the Americans but they started most of this stuff, especially with politics and their GOP, Grand Old Party and lately the ever popular JFT, Jesus for Trump. (I made that up – like Jesus would ever vote for a whacko like Trump.)
We all know what CIA and FBI stands for; we have been hearing or reading about them forever, the FBI since 1908. The CIA is a relative newcomer and wasn’t created until 1947. They also have the NSA down there (and maybe up here) and a few other spy organizations. The US Intelligence Community alone has 17 more agencies under its umbrella and they all have acronyms.
We mustn’t confuse any of them with our own CSIS, or the one with the horses, what is that one? Now I remember, the RCMP.
We are proud members of NATO, NORAD and of course, the UN, as well as OAS and what is the one where Canada and Mexico routinely get shafted? Ah yes, NAFTA.
It is time to stop all this acronym stuff. I was ranting and raving this morning and said that very thing to the SROOH. (Supreme Ruler of Our House) and she said, OBIOYA (Oh blow it out your…) Mary, that’s not very nice.
(Image Supplied)
