Rumsfeld channels Lewis Carroll

[khaosworks]

Rumsfeld: NATO Threatened by 'Unknown Unknowns'

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld baffled NATO allies and journalists alike on Thursday by saying the greatest threats to Western civilization may lurk in "unknown unknowns."

...

"The message is that there are no knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns, that is to say there are things we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- things we do not know we don't know.

"So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say 'well, that's basically what we see as the situation', that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns," he said.

... and never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line?

My brain hurts.

Comments

[kyrielle]

Owwww.

[eviltofu.livejournal.com]

http://radio.weblogs.com/0103167/stories/2002/05/31/theFineArtOfBaloneyDetecti.html

Carl Sagan's Fine art of baloney detection.

Unknown Unknowns

[(Anonymous)]

Unknown Unknowns
(tune: _Mony Mony_ , Bloom, Cordell, Gentry, James
performed by Tommy James & The Shondells)

NATO threatened by unknown unknowns
There are things that we know that we know
There are things we now know we don't know
But there are also things we do not know we don't know
We don't know (know) No (No) No (no) Know (know) No

Things we do not (unknown unknowns)
...know (unknown unknowns)
...we (unknown unknowns)
...don't know (unknown unknowns)
Each year (unknown unknowns)
...we find (unknown unknowns)
...a few more (unknown unknowns)
Oh no!
No (no) Know (know) No (No) Know (Know) No

(We don't know unknowns, no know unknowns...)


--
keith lim