Spelling Confusion

When does a rule become forfeit? I mean, how MANY exceptions must there be before someone says, "Uh, that rule is null and void!" and I'm not talking about economic stimuli plans or collateral benefit plans. Just a simple rule, we heard in elementary school.

The "i before e except after c" rule...I'm not buying it anymore.

Case in point? Forfeit. I used it just a second ago. No c's and YET the E is BEFORE the I! Weird. Wait! There's another! No c, and E before I! Arrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh! And thanks to friends at Wiki, I can use their examples as well. ANOTHER ONE! T-h-E-I-r! Along with species, science, sufficient, ancient, fancied, policies ...those have c's but don't follow that rule either!! Either?!?!?! Another E BEFORE I word. What about seize, sovereignty, vein, feisty, kaleidoscope, sheikh and neighbor? And beige, cleidoic, deign, dreidel, eight, feign, feint, freight, forfeit, geisha, gleization, gneiss, greige, greisen, heigh-ho, heinous, inveigle, neigh, neighbor, obeisance, peignoir, reign, rein, seiche, seidel, seine, sleigh, surveillance, veil, vein, and weigh? Those are E BEFORE I words!! And concierge??? That throws the rule out the window, too! That i is definitely before an e EVEN THOUGH it's after a c. But my favorite has to be:

The word oneiromancies (studies into the meaning of dreams) breaks the rule twice, in both ways.

Oh sure, Wiki, tell me all about the various augmentations that have been created to try to include the exceptions. Look, if it's got to have that many augmentations, I say that rule is no good!

No wonder so many people could care less about grammar, punctuation and spelling...it's just too difficult to keep up!

***Editor's note: I dedicate this post to Marisa, Britta and Stephanie, because they know I can be quite a grammar Nazi and love me anyway! :0) ***