or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
October 05, 2004
To My Knowledge, I Am Not Wearing Underwear
Many people have noted what Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday about Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
I'm not so interested in the arguments about Saddam and Al Qaeda. But I'm very interested in making jokes about politicians. So... why exactly is it that Rumsfeld prefaced his statement with "to my knowledge"? Isn't he the foremost authority on what he perceives with his senses?
It's much like him stating, "To my knowledge, I like hamburgers." Or: "To my knowledge, I am not wearing underwear."
Now, I do have a theory about why he said this. A favorite technique of lying politicians is to preface their lies by saying "To my knowledge..." That way if they're caught, they can claim they didn't know what they were saying was false.
But chronic liars like Rumsfeld have told so many lies and needed to invoke the "To my knowledge" prefix so often that they can't break the habit. Thus they use it even when (1) they're not lying and (2) it makes no sense.
Posted at October 5, 2004 09:31 PM | TrackBackMany people have noted what Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday about Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
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What interests me more than "to my knowledge" is the "strong, hard" thing that "links the two". Rumsfeld may not know it, but between us girls, he's gayer than Karl Rove, Ken Lay and Ken Starr combined.
> Thus they use it even when (1) **they're not
> lying** and (2) it makes no sense.
Woah, hang on a minute... are you saying that Rumsfeld tells the truth sometimes?
Posted by: James J. Dominguez at October 12, 2004 06:35 PMJames J. Dominguez,
I know it's shocking, but based on the evidence, I can come to no other conclusion.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at October 13, 2004 05:39 AM
