Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee tells school kids that moon is a ‘planet’ and ‘made up mostly of gases.’

Not sure what problem you find in what he said. I do a lot of troublshooting and one of the first things we do is outline, and list, the things that fit into those buckets. The bucket of unknown unknowns is the worst because they are the hardest to figure out.

 

He was speaking gobbledegook but probably in an effort at humor. I found Rumsfeld's press conferences to be the most entertaining of all. Tony Snow also did some great ones. I can't even listen to the present day ones. Even the spin is based on lies.

 

Jackson Lee says moon is planet made up of gases and Trump said moon is a part of Mars. How is this derailing topic and how heavily is this forum censored?

 

Heavily

 

She has a law degree, which means you can be completely ignorant of science and most anything thing other than law. And since she got it at yale it means even that means what she knows about the constitution leans more in the direction of some marxist idiot thinks it should have said rather than what the plain language actually says.

 

Post your quote. Going back to the moon might be a useful first step to getting to mars since most of the fuel usage occurs in achieving escape velocity to get off the earth.

 

It seems more likely that she literally misspoke - i.e. yes she really did say the moon was made of gases, but did not actually think the moon was made of gases. I've seen and been involved in public speaking ****ups many times long ago - it's completely possible for things to come out completely wrong and make no sense.

If she thinks the moon is made of gas, well that's an odd belief and I'm not sure where it would come from. Not something that would even be discussed in a normal college education unless one was involved in astronomy, maybe physics. It's not something I would demand people know as an essential fact unless they're involved in the field, but also something I thought everybody knew anyway.

 

My mind is boggled! I thought I understood physics but clearly I don't. Can someone explain how the astronauts made foot prints in GAS?

 

Correct, but what Rumsfeld said was "just gobbledygook". Not even "argle-bargle" (see below).

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Donald Rumsfeld, US Defense Secretary

WHEN HE SAID IT: at a press conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002

WHY IT WAS DUMB: Well, it’s just gobbledygook, isn’t it? Known knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns. Pshaww. This sort of convoluted, semantic hair-splitting is not what we want from a US secretary of defense." (emphasis mine)
BC BUSINESS, 11 Dumbest Quotes from Powerful People, By Matthew Mallon / September 25, 2010.
https://www.bcbusiness.ca/industries/general/11-dumbest-quotes-from-powerful-people-2/

"Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages
gob·ble·dy·gook
/ˈɡäbəldēˌɡo͞ok/
noun
INFORMAL

1. language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of abstruse technical terms; nonsense.
   "reams of financial gobbledygook"
   
   Similar:
   jargon
   
   unintelligible language
   obscure language
   gibberish
   
   claptrap
   
   nonsense
   
   balderdash
   
   blather
   
   blether
   
   argle-bargle
   
   rubbish
   
   mumbo jumbo
   
   drivel
   
   tripe
   
   hogwash
   
   baloney
   
   bilge
   
   bosh
   
   bull
   
   bunk
   
   guff
   
   eyewash
   
   piffle
   
   twaddle
   
   poppycock
   
   phooey
   
   hooey
   
   malarkey
   
   dribble
   
   rot
   
   cobblers
   
   codswallop
   
   ****
   
   stuff and nonsense
   double Dutch
   
   tosh
   
   cack
   havers
   
   garbage
   
   flapdoodle
   
   blathers
   blathering on about spirituality and life after death" data-hw="blather" data-lb="informal" data-tae="true" data-te="false" data-tl="en-US" data-tldf="" data-url="/search?sca_esv=f358e67545492018&q=define+blather&si=AKbGX_r0zqXEeLlZhGfi3fbO0QSW51wslq4VMFBh0mi4fMf8BpjCgA58hU9s3_e0o5wEnCKzoQrpzG9Xp0tVqcJL30W8URwmawUQF_gDCyDPh51XI_3fJPA%3D">
   wack
   
   bushwa
   
   applesauce
   
   bellywash
   
   bunkum"
   

 

So much for Yale law

 

It's perfectly logical.

Known Known: I know that the pressure in that tank is 90 psi
Known Unknown: I don't know what the maximum pressure for that tank is.
Unknown Unknown: The tank blew up unexpectedly and no one saw it coming. You didn't know that there was a crack in the bottom of the tank that lowered the max pressure.

Just because you don't understand someone doesn't mean that it's gobbledygook. Perhaps that is an unknown unknown for the people that think it was gibberish.

 

The bottom line, is that there is a LOT of uneducated / and or ignorant people in "influential " positions.......and they spread their ignorance with a large megaphone. Sadly, it is this kind of stupidity that is givng the country a bad image. (about education levels and intelligence of a population and its representation)

 

Your text is "perfectly logical". Rumsfeld's effort is "gobbledygook", and certainly not original. It may have come from a Persian poem.

"The poem has been attributed to everyone from Rumi and Naser-al din Tusi to Ibn Yamin and Mullah Ahmad Naraghi but none of the sources I found seem authoritative.

Several similar sayings exist in English and, according to Quote Investigator, can be traced back to the seventeenth century. Many of these were reported as translations of an “old eastern proverb.” One of the best known attempts is attributed to the famous explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) and was included by his widow in his posthumous biography:

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, can be taught; teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep; wake him.
He who knows, and knows that he knows, is a prophet; follow him.

Unfortunately, such bland translations fall far short of the charm and nuance of the original, much of which can’t easily be translated. Here’s an attempt at a more faithful translation with much help from the internet:

He who knows and knows that he knows,
Vaults the horse of wisdom over the spinning dome [Earth].
He who knows, yet knows not that he knows,
Wake him so he may not stay in his deep slumber.
He who knows not, yet knows that he knows not,
Still manages to bring his lame donkey home.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not,
Will remain mired in dark ignorance forever.

Go back and read the Burton version again and you’ll see what is meant by the phrase “lost in translation.”
Donald Rumsfeld and The Unknown Unknowns, The surprising source of the (in)famous quote, By Ben Fathi, Nov 29, 2021.
https://benbob.medium.com/donald-rumsfeld-and-the-unknown-unknowns-40b202fadf4

IMO, you and Burton handled the subject far better than Rumsfeld.

 

This particular attack on Trump is rather like a lunar eclipse of the record.

Why Trump Wants to Go to the Moon So Badly

The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com › trump-nasa-moon-2024

Mar 28, 2019 — The administration has vowed to return Americans to the lunar surface in 2024 “by any means necessary.”


Trump order encourages US to mine the moon

The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › us-news › apr › trump-...

Apr 7, 2020 — Executive order says US will oppose any international effort to bar it from removing chunks of moon, Mars or elsewhere in space.


Trump pushed for a moon landing in 2024. It's not going to ...

Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com › Technology › Space

Jan 13, 2021 — Biden will likely keep NASA's Artemis program, but on a different timeline.

Missing: base ‎| Show results with: base

The five biggest effects Trump has had on the US space ...

MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com › 2020/10/26 › five-...

Oct 26, 2020 — The plan was for the moon missions to utilize the architectures being developed for Mars, such as the next-generation Space Launch System and ...


Trump Promises Manned Moon Base, Mission to Mars ...

Reason Magazine
https://reason.com › Economics › Privatization

Aug 24, 2020 — The Trump administration has expanded a bipartisan drive to commercialize more of NASA's space operations.

 

Here's the vid. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

And let's not forget how she treats those she deems to be "idiots"

 

Party of Science:

 

Great point!

 

She's basically the Lizzo of Congress.

 

Yale ehh? Well, she should probably start teaching at Harvard

 

Indeed! Party of Science

Say "Studies Show" and they will believe anything.

 

This is ridiculous, everyone knows Sheila was talking about living on the sun, not the moon. She clarified her remarks on Twitter.

The sun is far more habitable than the moon...

Everyone is just jumping on her for misspeaking and they're ignoring she really wants to live on the sun instead of the moon.

 

I think the climate a bit to warm for my taste but sending Ms. Lee there for a sabbatical seems like it might be worth the cost

 

She certainly has all the right credentials, and would fit right in.
Harvard is apparently looking for a new president.