Thursday, September 02, 2004

Headscarves, Hostages and the Hoi Polloi

France’s headscarve ban, for Muslim girls attending school in France, is inextricably knotted to the French journalists currently being held hostage in Iraq.  Both of these items, are inextricably knotted with the need government’s have for controlling the hoi polloi.  It’s a pity, actually.

“French Muslim girls obey headscarf veto."

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 04:29 PM
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What Comes to Mind?

What comes to your mind when you read words such as the following?

Bighorn
Sedan
Umbrella
Cactus
King

Probably not what you were thinking.

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 04:19 PM
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"Ya Might Rabbit, Ya Might"

I’ve mentioned the line that serves as the title to this post, in an earlier entry here, but I cannot recall, at this moment, what entry.  It’s from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon.  It came to mind again this evening when I read a piece at Scientific American.com titled “Miracle on Probability Street."

The piece is both a review of the book Debunked, and a condensed primer on the Law of Large Numbers.  It makes for a short, interesting read on miracles and the probability of one happening to you.  An interesting sentence from the piece.

"Events with million-to-one odds happen 295 times a day in America."

Now, where can I place a bet on one of these 295 occurences?

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 04:07 PM
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It's All "Blather" Anyway

Robert Bianco, writing for USA Today is a tad upset with the pundits who have been covering the Republican Convention.  His displeasure is expressed not only in the title to his piece, “TV swamps convention with blather," but within the body of the piece also.

"As President Bush’s acceptance speech tonight closes the Republican convention and sends us full speed into the final electoral push, would it be too much to ask one tiny favor of TV’s anchors, analysts and pundits?”

“In the name of all that’s holy, shut up."

Well, Robert, you are correct, there is alot of blather emanating from the convention, and the pundits, but it’s all kind of like white noise, a masking of the inanities being uttered by both the political clowns, and the clowns on teevee.  It’s a shame they don’t cancel each other out.

Link to USA Today story via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/02 at 05:21 AM
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