Sunday, October 30, 2011

BloggeRhythms 10/30/2011

Nothing much in the news today, lot's of same old, same old about how the administration's disintegrating piece by piece and Cain's doing well in the polls. And, unfortunately, these stories will go on for another year until the election sorts it all out.

On another front, there's the surprising change in the weather (pun intended). According to National Weather Service spokesman, Chris Vaccaro, the 1.3 inches of snow so far in Central Park in Manhattan makes this the snowiest October there since records began being kept in 1869. It's also a record for the date of October 29. It's part of a storm expected to dump anywhere from a dusting to about 10 inches along the East Coast.

Looking out my window at the flakes reminded me of a report I read last week, saying this winter's expected to be the coldest one in many years, with lot's of snowfall predicted. And that got me to thinking about Al Gore. Because if his phantom global warming hype is still believed by anyone other than those who are making millions off the scam like he is, I'd like to sell them some stock in a company that I'll create tonight. Maybe I can come up with a cure for terminal dumbness.

But then I went on to remember that the last time there was an unexpected early cold front, or maybe it was a blizzard, some noted pro-global-warming scientists got together to explain that the freak freezing weather was "the exception that proves the rule." And that phrase always confused me because, I not only have never understood what it means, but it sounds completely ridiculous to me. Because I think if there can be an exception to something, and it doesn't happen the same way all the time, then it's not a rule in the first place.

In any case, just to satisfy my curiosity this morning I looked up the phrase and here's what I found out.

According to "Fowler's Modern English Usage" the following is an example of the original meaning:

The phrase is derived from the medieval Latin legal principle exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis ("the exception confirms the rule in cases not excepted"), a concept first proposed by Cicero in his defense of Lucius Cornelius Balbus. This means a stated exception implies the existence of a rule to which it is the exception. The second part of Cicero's phrase, "in casibus non exceptis" or "in cases not excepted," is almost always missing from modern uses of the statement that "the exception proves the rule," which may contribute to frequent confusion and misuse of the phrase.

Another example states:

Special leave is given for men to be out of barracks tonight till 11.00 p.m.; "The exception proves the rule" means that this special leave implies a rule requiring men, except when an exception is made, to be in earlier. The value of this in interpreting statutes is plain.

In other words, a legal exception implies that something is normally not excluded.

Then there are some more:

Stating that emergency vehicles may exceed the speed limit carries the implicature that other vehicles may not do so, even if the latter is not explicitly stated. Similarly, a sign that says "parking prohibited on Sundays" (the exception) "proves" that parking is allowed on the other six days of the week (the rule).

The phrase may also be invoked to claim the existence of a rule that usually applies, when a case to which it does not apply is specially mentioned. For example, the fact that a nurse is described as "male" (the exception) could be taken as evidence that most nurses are female (the rule). This is a slightly looser interpretation of the original meaning.

So, now that I've done my research and read the preceding examples over and over many times, I'm more confused than ever about the rules part, but have a much better understanding of what Al Gore and the scientists are doing. They're taking a subject that most folks know nothing about and creating tons of hype, and smoke, and noise about it and then using theory's that college professors with Doctorates in English couldn't understand to prove it.

So I guess the only rule about global warming I've proven today is PT Barnum's who said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

That's it for today folks.

Adios

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