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Please pardon this interruption in your normal daily routine as we pause for just a moment to ponder a sloppy, dopey trend in modern popular speech.

Today we turn our attention to variations on the phrase, "We've got to...", a lazy overcomplication of the more simple, and more appropriate, "We must..." or "We have to..."  (By the way, the phrase "have to" is itself something of a source for heated debate, but for now we will let it slide.)

You know the phrase to which I refer.  It's everwhere these days. 

"We've got to..."  "They've got to..."  "I've got to..."  "He, she, it's got to..."

Think about it for just a moment the next time you open your mouth and utter any variant of this phrase.  Pause to think back to your 3rd grade teacher of English or Grammar.  Take that contraction and expand it out to its component parts.

"We have got to..."

"They have got to..."

"I have got to..."

If you don't see the trouble with adding the word "got" in any of the phrases above, then you are qualified to join nearly every talking head now populating the local or cable news channels.

If, on the other hand, you immediately recognize that the word "got" is an unnecessary, badly formed modifier in nearly ever phrase above then you are welcome to give yourself a pat on the back and a gold star on your forehead.  You actually learned and retained something from those years of High School or College English.

For those who may still be confused...

"I have to..."  or, more properly, "I must..." will clearly suffice as a replacement for "I've got to..."

How about, "We have to..." or  "We must..."?

"They must..."

"He, she, or it must..."

You get the point.  Next time someone tries to tell you, "America's Got Talent," you may remind them that, "America Has Talent," thank you very much.

Thank you for your attention.  We now return you to your normally scheduled broadast.