Word: quo
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...present-since East bloc forces already enjoy a 2-to-l advantage in men, tanks and planes in Europe. As NATO Secretary-General Manlio Brosio warned: "The Soviet Union has set itself two aims and two programs: a minimum program, which is the ratification of the status quo in Europe; a maximum program, which would be the establishment of a pan-European security system that would exclude North American countries from Europe...
...values and judgments. Any one of these values or judgments can provide the basis for bitter controversy. If an adviser urges higher taxes, he may be charged with oppressing the poor; if he advises lower taxes, with favoring the rflich; if he advises no change, with maintaining the status quo...
Boren's Three Laws sum up NATAPROBU's philosophy: 1) When in charge, ponder; 2) When in trouble, delegate; and 3) When in doubt, mumble. The organization dedicates itself to "optimize the status quo by fostering adjustive adherence to procedural abstractions and rhetorical clearances." It also promotes "feasibility studies, reviews, surveys of plans, surveys of feasibility studies and surveys of reviews." NATAPROBU's gobbledygook letters and memos, sent irregularly to offending agencies, sound alarmingly real. Victims of the Internal Revenue Service's terrifying forms, for example, will immediately recognize such splendid Borenized phrases as "quanticized investment...
...shows. Listen, the networks are delighted with Sesame Street. They figure if it's around, they won't really have to do anything." Sociologist Wilbur Schramm, whose specialty is communications, agrees: "The media dare small changes, but not fundamental ones; their whole impact is to retain the status quo...
Until now, that status has been nothing to quo about. One of the most beloved legends of radio concerned Uncle Don of WOR radio who finished a broadcast and sighed à la W.C. Fields: "That should hold the little bastards." The mike had been left open, the little bastards' parents wrote in, and Uncle Don's autogiro never again set down on the roof of Bamberger's department store. In a sense, that minuscule conflict has occurred ever since. Cynicism has animated most children's shows, from Howdy Doody to Magilla Gorilla. Bozo the Clown uttered fatuities between pitches...