grodscorp@grods.comNelson’s Law
 | Posted by Jeremy on Sunday 22 June 2008, 9:28 am Categories: Things that shit me Tags: Tags: BrendanNelson, GeorgeAthanasi, petrol |
You know what gives me the screaming shits? The so-called “Urban Dictionary” website, and it twice cancelling without warning my entirely reasonable definition of Nelson’s Law, as prompted by Mr Rogenous at the last GrodsThink podcast.
Fortunately, urbandictionary.com doesn’t have a monopoly on the coining of new phrases. GrodsCorp is just as influential (check the visitor numbers, it’s true!), and I therefore submit the following for your future referencing pleasure:
NELSON’S LAW
Named in honour of Australian conservative politician, Brendan Nelson -
“As a debate about the economy continues, the probability of the increasing price of petrol at the bowser being mentioned by a non-government politician approaches one.”
It is considered a disingenuous debating technique, analogous to Godwin’s Law, unless the person raising the price of petrol is actually proposing a genuine alternative.
COROLLARY: Athanasi’s Observation - the gap between a political discussion commencing and Nelson’s Law being demonstrated decreases over time.
EXAMPLE: Ending every media release with a disingenuous reference to the cost of “getting petrol into the car” is an example of Nelson’s Law.
I’m working on a definition of urbandictionary.com too, but am yet to come up with one that’s safe for a family website such as this.
