Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to A "Verbal Typo?"

Still slogging uphill against the headwind...
Tom Brosz — (archived)

If nothing else, this serves as an excellent demonstration of a particular thought process.

From this earlier response:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jordan [a little kid]. Well, Jordan, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.

I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw THAT an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident.

Other possible rephrasings: I saw WHERE an airplane hit the tower. I saw HOW the airplane hit the tower.

All of which would be perfectly consistent with someone who had heard that it had happened, but had not yet seen it with his own eyes. If you'll note, it looks like he was about to say Andy Card had first told him, but he skipped on to the classroom because that was what would interest a kid.

If I might introduce you to Occam's Razor, which is usually the first thing defenestrated by conspiracy nuts:

I can either assume that the President of the United States, the Man With The Football, was in on a vast conspiracy to kill 3,000 Americans and destroy a portion of New York City...

Or that George W. Bush...GEORGE W. BUSH...made a verbal mistake while he was speaking off the cuff.

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