Registered: Apr 2001
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its not something I like to do, but Ill do it now cause this is a bit over played. "The British Plain English Campaign" (probably and epileptic donkey dance of stupidity...but who am I to say/never heard of em...not big on pompous snobbery) just gave ole Rumsfeld a "foot in mouth" award for the phrase quoted below...though to be fair to them Ive seen idiots of shapes and sizes moaning because they dont understand it, made their tiny brain rattle...what ever...so let me draw a picture.

quote:

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns,"

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Last edited by euphorbia on 12-02-2003 at 02:57 AM

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
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Rumsfeld is not nearly the doobie smoker GW is. Now that man needs something in his mouth to prevent his words of wisdom from flowing too freely.

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from here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...odd_rumsfeld_dc

quote:

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"Reports that say something hasn't happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns; there things we know we know," Rumsfeld told the briefing.

"We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

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quote:

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Originally posted by Musashi
from here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...odd_rumsfeld_dc



makes a lot less sense when taken as a full quote

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Heh. I ran across that story ealier today and even thought about startin' a thread with it. I'm glad you did, though, 'cause you got tits.

Anyway, I read his quotes and I don't get what the hubub is all about. What Rummy said sounded very similar to something I studied years ago called the Johari Window.

So, yeah, he made sense t'me. Perhaps the media's just takin' a short breather from pokin' at President Bush. Fresh meat 'n' all that. So, carry on, Rummy, carry on.

Amen.

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Psshh...thats simple game theory...how the fuck did they give those 2 douchebags credit??

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Let's not forget this runner-up pearl of wisdom:

"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman," - Arnold Schwarzenegger

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quote:

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Originally posted by 3MTA3
Psshh...thats simple game theory...how the fuck did they give those 2 douchebags credit??

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Johari window! Man, I think that I will be reminded of that thing until the day I die. I can never escape it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Vegas
Johari window! Man, I think that I will be reminded of that thing until the day I die. I can never escape it.

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I think that all Rummy does is talk in circles so that he can dodge answering those tough questions.

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quote:

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Originally posted by euphorbia
its not something I like to do, ... most people are stupid and you have to talk to them like they are children, like they are ignorant, like they dont know their asshole from their mouth...cause a lot of them don’t.

and I say that with love.

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Registered: Aug 2000
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euphorbia: Do you ever feel as if it's like they're talking to you in a very personal way?

No matter.

I thought it was mildly clear.

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phorbs darling, that's a misquote. He actually said:

quote:

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"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know"

Audio

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Last edited by philjit on 12-02-2003 at 08:50 AM

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Incidentally, the "epileptic donkey dance of stupidity" and "pompous snobs" at the British Plain English Campaign spend most of their time lobbying for changes in the Insurance sector to make policies more compact and easily digestable for consumers, rather than having polices written in legalise as they currently are.

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The Plain English Campaign are not about snobbery, they are about using plain English (not overcomplicating expression for effect, which is probably more common with 'snobs' than 'plain English' is. If they are snobs, they are at least being snobbish about something worthwhile, which is to say, using English to communicate clearly').

Rumsfeld's quote was badly expressed, although the idea is fair enough. Seems like a fair comment from the Plain English campaign, although Rumsfeld himself has said stupider things (as I mentioned in Phil's duplicate thread, the one about 'he is in Afghanistan, he isn't in Afghanistan, or he's dead' wasn't even an interesting point, although it was clearly enough expressed, I guess, not to qualify).

Rmsfeld's quote actually sounds even worse when you hear him actually saying it, than it does when it is written down.

Politicians are probably the worst offenders for mangling clear English to avoid questions and create misleading effects (although I am not sure why Rumsfeld explained this so badly, unless it was just something that he hadn't thought clearly about explaining). What Rumsfeld was expressing was actually a good point (although not a terribly sophisticated one, or one with which most intelligent people will be unfamiliar).

Last edited by Smug Git on 12-02-2003 at 09:26 AM

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Personally, I think Chris Patten's comment that "the British Conservative Party has committed political suicide and are now living to regret it" should have won.

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Registered: Feb 2001
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This thread was cool until Phil arrived.

We need a sign that Phil has entered and taken over a thread, to warn people like me. What he writes is scary.

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The trophy



Past winners

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I just saw the quote on the news and it made perfect sense to me. The news guy was playing up to the fact that the sentence was long and used big words. No wonder British youth think its cool to be a stupid fucktard.

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I think that the problem with it relates to the clarity of using a word as a noun and also as the adjective to describe that word, and doing it again and again.

The idea behind it is interesting enough (about the difference between being aware of gaps in our knowledge as compared to being unaware of the gaps), although it is pretty obvious (so preumably the communiciation should be best aimed at less cerebral). The Plain English campaign is about clear use of English to communicate (awards that they gave for good use of English aren't as publicised as the footinmouth award, even though most of the awards that they give every year are positive, because the media prefer the funny sort of stories).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Phil
Incidentally, the "epileptic donkey dance of stupidity" and "pompous snobs" at the British Plain English Campaign spend most of their time lobbying for changes in the Insurance sector to make policies more compact and easily digestable for consumers, rather than having polices written in legalise as they currently are.

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