The Patriot Act, legislation passed after 9/11, has been much in the news. But who knew that it was an acronym? Apparently, whoever created it ought to participate in our "6 letters to fun" thread.
quote:The USA Patriot Act has an awkward, even an Orwellian name, which is one of those Washington acronyms derived by calling the law "United and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Interrupt and Obstruct Terrorism." You get the impression they started with the acronym first, and then offered a $50 savings bond tho whoever could come up with a name to fit.
This makes roughly as much sense as renaming french fries "liberty fries" when the French wouldn't blindly follow us into the morass which is George Dubya's Iraqi adventure.
In any case, "united" is an adjective and "strengthening" is a gerund. A more sensible (barely) acronym would be "Unite and Strengthen America etc etc."
Then again, being more sensible in this aspect of the war might imply that we should be likewise elsewhere and God knows we can't have that!
quote:HR3162: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I agree, it sounds like an urban myth, but in this case it isn't. The bill, and its laboured acronym, exists. Shu's original post was slightly incorrect in that the title is "Uniting and Strengthening America..." and not "United and Strengthening America...", which disposes of CJ's objection.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I assume that in its abbreviated form USAPATRIOT is pronounced U-S-A-patriot (and not usapatriot), an amalgamation of an initialism and an acronym. [using the strict interpretation that an acronym should be a pronounceable word.]
