# Rumsfeld Gets Top British Award !

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfeld-gets-top-british-award/216970>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 4, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfeld-gets-top-british-award/216970 "2003-12-04T16:45:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfeld-gets-top-british-award/216970/1 "2003-12-04T16:45:42Z")

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Donald Rumsfeld has recieved the " Foot In Mouth Award " from the Plain English Campaign for talking utter nonsense . Full story hear :-

[http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm\_843209.html](http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_843209.html)

I wonder if he gets lessons from GWB ?

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**Author:** ![Joachim\_Pieper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Joachim\_Pieper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joachim_Pieper)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfeld-gets-top-british-award/216970/2 "2003-12-04T16:59:43Z")

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the man is a comic genius!  
Cheers.

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rumsfeld-gets-top-british-award/216970/3 "2003-12-04T17:23:48Z")

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Actually, it seemed to me that this particular quote was perfectly plain English; it is the concept that is a bit complex, although not ridiculously so.

Rumsfeld did omit one of the possible permutations, the “unknown known”, which is the thing that you in fact do know, but are not aware of its significance.

An example would be a criminal case, where you finally figure out whodunnit, you almost always find that you had evidence in your possession that pointed to the right guy, if only you had been able to recognize it.

The statement is also related to the old wheeze about high school:

_Freshman know they don’t know.  
Sophmore’s don’t know they don’t know.  
Juniors don’t know they know, and  
Seniors know they know!_

(which is why sophmores are so obnoxious)