More governmental innumeracy
Anyone who’s even heard the word “bailout” this year knows that the numbers just don’t add up, and I’m becoming increasingly persuaded that actual knowledge of mathematical concepts is inimical to political success. Consider, if you will, Rod Blagojevich’s out-of-the-blue pick for Barack Obama’s old Senate seat, one Roland Burris, former Illinois Attorney General now best-known for contributing to Rod Blagojevich’s campaigns.
And, if things go the way I’d like them to, for this:
Burris, standing at the governor’s side, said he’s eager to get to work in Washington “to face a convergence of parallel crises.”
As the reader who was actually paying attention in high school has already noted, if they’re parallel, they can’t very well converge, can they?
(Via the always-attentive John Rosenberg.)
Jeff Shaw »
31 December 2008 · 11:03 am
HA! Reminds me of a line from Raising Arizona – another comic story about stoopid crooks. Here’s the line customized especially for this post:
“Which is it young feller, you want I should be paralell, or you want me to converge? Cuz’ if’n I stay parallel, I caint rightly converge, and if’n I converge, then I’m not really parallel now am I?”
Jeffro »
31 December 2008 · 12:40 pm
Just to be anal, in Non Euclidean geometry, parallel lines do converge. I never got around to actually taking that class, so YMMV.
CGHill »
31 December 2008 · 12:43 pm
You’d expect non-Euclidean geometry from the “reality-based community”? Not on your tintype, Binky.
Incidentally, if you search Technorati for “euclidean geometry,” at this moment in time this post is Numero Uno.
Jeff Shaw »
31 December 2008 · 1:53 pm
Never thought you could mix Illinois politics and the smell Schrödinger’s Cat, but whaddya know? What a paradox. Or is it?
Kay Dennison »
31 December 2008 · 2:26 pm
The bank bailout bugs me the most. Have you ever tried to explain to your banker that you accidently overdrew your account? His answer is “Tough! We’re gonna charge you fifty bucks for that twenty dollar overdraft anyway.” Isn’t it time we tell them them the same? Silly me — I thought bankers understood money and the consequences of mishandling it.
CGHill »
31 December 2008 · 3:14 pm
The lure of Big, Big Bucks has driven several hundred of them insane, I think.
McGehee »
31 December 2008 · 10:08 pm
The government’s been in the business of giving money away for generations. It was only a matter of time before the bankers ended up on the dole.
The bankers shouldn’t be taking it, but I blame Congress and politicians in general for throwing the money around in the first place. And the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party of a news media establishment that always helps government get bigger rather than smaller and taxes get higher instead of lower.
Sophistpundit »
1 January 2009 · 1:33 pm
Math is not a prerequisite to politics…
Dustbury: if the crises are parallel, then by definition they cannot converge….