Foot in mouth award for Rumseld
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Mr Mephisto |
For more in this vein, check out The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld, which includes the award-winning "The Unknown"
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That quote from Herr Gropenfuhrer is HILARIOUS.
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ROFL, he's my neighbour too. Oh I sooo wanna give a copy of this to the secret service guys in front of his house.
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also shows the intelligence of arnold!
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I love that one. One of my favourites is the Rumsfeld "moon" doctrine:
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Well, check out this link to some doozies our Prime Minister has come up with. Granted, English is not his first language, but he does speak it (english) pretty good.
Some of these are priceless, especially the "proof is a proof" one http://www.bayrak.ca/politics/chretienquotes.htm |
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I think the United States should declare a pre-emptive war on the moon. We'll call it Operation Moonraker (Cause James Bond is sooooo cool) and we'll obliterate that smug rock and free the peoples of coastal nations and states from the opression and tyranny of the moon's tides. |
Wow, Rummy pleases me. I think that is hilarious. It sounds confusing ( the known/unknown one), but if you read it through, it makes perfect sense. I think it is more of a brain-twister for the less intelligent, than it is nonsense. While context isn't there, it seems kinda dumb.... if you disect it line by line...it works, and its logical. I like his ability to use and/or abuse the language to make other feel stupid...or better yet when they are so confused they think HE is talking nonsense.
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You've got to be kidding Peryn, right?
It doesn't make sense. It's bad English, full of tautological pleonasms. I honestly worry about you if you think that nonesense "makes perfect sense." Mr Mephisto |
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A known known: We know that North Korea is in Asia. A known unknown: We do not know the extent of North Korea's nuclear program. An unknown unknown: If North Korea had some sort of evil weapon beyond our comprehension, not only do we not know it, we do not even speculate about the fact that we do not know about their weapon. I think he's trying to say, "we know about some things, don't know about other things, and don't have enough knowledge to even seek to know about yet other things." There's no way I can think of to express this concept without being obtuse. |
It's not grammatically odd, it's grammatically incorrect.
It's tautological. It's full of pleonasms. It could even be considered contradictory. And the fact that you have to try to decipher it to "try to understand" what he's saying is the reason it won the prize. Bad English, political mumbo-jumbo and the type of nonesense we accept too readily from all our politicians. Mr Mephisto |
As others have pointed out, it's logical and it can be followed. Not the phrasing I would have used, but to each his own. I always get a kick out of people who criticize others as if they are perfect. There are relatively few people in the world who speak as often to such a large audience on such varied topics.
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While the statement does make sense, it also seems overly complicated for something the american public is supposed to understand. Whether he was just trying to be clever or not, why would you go out of your way to over complicate your message thereby turning of the average listener, when allegedly it is to the average listener whom you speak?
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Poor phrasing, but very understandable.
It looks like Rumsfield haters are just looking for nits to pick, IMO. |
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I think Rumsfeld may have some stiff competition from Mr. Mephisto in next year's foot-in-mouth competition. |
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Known Knowns - I know I remembered to take the pill this morning Known Unknowns - I know I forgot to take the pill this morning. Unknown Unknowns - I forgot to take the pill this morning, but didn't remember that I forgot, did it with my b/f and got pregnant. Or maybe I'm just plain crazy like he is. |
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Also Mephisto, there is a bit of irony in your using "tautological" and "pleonasms" together to describe his writing :) |
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You're absolutely correct. Mea culpa. :-) Some people have lost all persepective in this thread. 1) The award is for people who use language in such a way as to obfuscate or confuse their audience. It's an award for bad English, of which this is a good example. 2) Rumsfeld haters? Now why did I know some NeoCon political hack would step in and accuse someone of knocking or criticising the US? 3) For the record, British politicans and councils have won the prize more than those from the US. Mr Mephisto |
Okay, lets break this down :
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So, when it all comes down to it, he would have been better saying, "There are things we know, and things that we don't know." However, how that relates to "reports that say that something hasn't happened" is still a mystery to me. MB |
It is all double speak to me. If it is an unknow nunknown, then what the hell is he talking about? If someone speaks but makes no sense, is something know or unknown?
It pretyy hilarious any way you look at it. |
I don't think to many of you have ever read a legal deposition. People talk quite differently then they write, and often ones mouth gets behind ones brain. Its quite amusing to see how many times someone with a M.D. PhD can say 'um' and 'well you know'in a single sentence. We won't even get into how many times people repeat themselves. This whole issue is cute and funny, but meaningless.
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Great analysis, m0ntyblack. :lol:
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Pardon us for having some fun. |
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Bloody hell...
You're all MISSING THE POINT. This has nothing to do with Rumsfeld or American politics. The "Foot in mouth" award is one of several awarded by the Plain English Society - http://www.plainenglish.co.uk This award is for "a baffling quote by a public figure". See http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/footinmouth.html for specifics and a list of previous winners. This is a list of all their awards. Plain English (the open category) Inside Write (for internal government documents) Media (for radio, television and newspapers) Golden Bulls (for gobbledygook); and Foot in Mouth (for a baffling quote by a public figure) The Plain English Web Award You "Rumsfeld defenders" and "Rumsfeld haters" need to relax. This years example is a perfect example of a baffling quote by a public figure. If you think otherwise you are being disingenuous. Mr Mephisto PS - and yes, I was being pleonastic in my earlier post. This is not the reason Rumsfeld won the award, but it's an example of how even finger pointers like me can mess up... :) |
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I've been called a Satan worshiper, I've been called a baby killer, but this is the first time I've been called a "Neocon political hack". Mr. Mephisto, nothing could be farther from the truth. And I do not recall saying that anyone in this thread is a "Rumsfeld hater", but I DO believe that this latest is a result of the current trendy US bashing among the leftist intelligentsia. Certainly it wasn't so hard to understand what Rumsfeld was saying in that quote that you posted that it deserved such an award. Ironically, the only post that I had to pull out the dictionary for was yours. |
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Did you even check the organisation's web page? Did you check the other awards they give? Most of the "winners" are British. This is a perfect example of the hyper-sensitivity of the current right-wing "intelligentsia" (if there's such a thing). Once again, it's got NOTHING to do with trendy US bashing. It's got everything to do with promoting clearly written or spoken English. Quote:
Last year it was actor Richard Gere. In 2001 it was the British artist Tracey Emin. In 2000 it was Alicia Silverstone. In 1999 it was Glen Hoddle, a manager for the UK football team. Stop! I just realized something!! There's a trendy US actor/BritArt /Soccer bashing conspiracy afoot... All troops to the barricades!!! Sheesh... Mr Mephisto |
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"Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me..."
-- Vincini |
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Brilliant. :D |
This is one of the most humorous threads I've read in a while. :D
I get what Rummy's saying, and I'm still glad it won the award. Its hilarious. I don't think its indicative of his intelligence at all. |
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And I say this as a Bush hater. |
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I can see it now... The Plain English Campaign, with over 3,500 registered supporters in over 70 countries, woke up one day and said "You know what, let's pick on the Americans. Let's pick a perfectly clear and understandable quote from Rumsfeld, because that's a perfect example of good English after all, and give him the award for it! We'll destablise their democracy! We'll show those Americans!!" Despite the fact that almost everyone agrees that the quote was deserving of the Foot in Mouth Award, you consider it perfectly understandable. OK. Nope, we're all wrong. You're right. It's a leftist, Euro, anti-US conspiracy... If what you said above was not so worrying, it would be farcical. Mr Mephisto |
Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home a little place of their own The Fletcher Memorial Home for incurable tyrants and kings And they can appear to themselves every day On closed circuit t.v. To make sure they’re still real It’s the only connection they feel ’ladies and gentlemen, please welcome reagan and haig Mr. begin and friend mrs. thatcher and paisley Mr. brezhnev and party The ghost of mccarthy The memories of nixon And now adding colour a group of anonymous latin American meat packing glitterati’ Did they expect us to treat them with any respect They can polish their medals and sharpen their Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for a while Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you’re dead Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye With their favourite toys They’ll be good girls and boys In the fletcher memorial home for colonial Wasters of life and limb Is everyone in? Are you having a nice time? Now the final solution can be applied |
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Having said that, I'm kinda wishing I hadn't even started this thread now. Some people seem to be just waiting for reasons to get their backs up, accuse the world of America-bashing or US-hating or some such nonesense. It's no wonder there is a huge amount of antipathy and, in some circles, down-right animosity towards America. It's a shame really. Oh well. Mr mephisto |
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That's true redlemon.
Oh well. I thought it had a political slant, the current winner being a politican and all, but I didn't expect it to degenerate into the usual Liberal vs NeoCon or America vs Everyone slagging match. I'm kinda tired of those. Mr Mephisto |
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