One lonely green gum ball

Another flash of brilliance from Johnny Rocketseed:

One of the very high quality posters at the Power Line Forum is Korea Vet. Korea Vet has designed a quiz on the subject of profiling. Here it is, and here is a sample:

1) In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:

a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the age of 17 and 40

2) In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:

a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

You get the drift, no doubt, but it's worth taking the whole quiz--a trip down memory lane.

SCOTT adds: AS Daniel Pipes points out here, Sirhan Sirhan is a Christian Arab, not a Muslim.

JOHN wonders: Does this mean we can add him to the list of "Christianist" terrorists, along with Eric Rudolph? Sort of the exception that proves the rule...

Okay, sez Johnny, maybe only one of the two examples cited were actually Muslims, but still. In fact, this is the exception that "proves the rule." No, you knucklehead: it is not the exception that proves the rule. In fact, your comment proves you have not the faintest notion of the meaning of the bromide.

Let's make it simple, Johnny. Let's say you have ten (10) gum balls; eight (8) are red and two (2) are green. Say you eat one red one and one green one. The red one was good, but the green one tasted terrible. So now, Johnny, you have seven (8) gum balls; seven (7) are red and one (1) is green.

Being no fool, you say to yourself, Johnny, I'll only eat the red gum balls, since experience tells me that the green ones are terrible. We will call this "Johnny's Rule." Words to live by, really!

Now over the course of twenty minutes or so, Johnny consumes the seven (7) red gum balls. Now the only gum ball that Johnny has left is the one (1) remaining green one. Don't eat that one Johnny; remember your rule?

But Johnny can't help himself; he pops the green gum ball in his mouth and gags at the taste. That's awful, says Johnny, I shouldda obeyed my rule!

That second green gum ball, Johnny, is the exception that proves the rule.

"An exception that proves the rule" is an instance of breaking the rule and suffering the consequences that caused the rule to be established in the first place. You have it exactly backwards, Johnny.

Thus endeth today's lesson.