Pun Salad

It's the 200th day of 2006. You may still have time to celebrate; please do so appropriately and responsibly.

• Jacob Sullum is steamed up about the DFW airport arrest of David Carruthers, the CEO of BetOnSports, a British online gambling firm.

  How would the U.S. react if an executive of an American media company were arrested in Beijing for violating a Chinese law against subversive online speech, or in Tehran for creating indecent Web content viewed by Iranians?

  My advice: if you're violating a country's laws, don't go there. Even if the laws are stupid. Maybe especially don't go if the country is either a Communist dictatorship or a lunatic theocracy.

  Radley Balko is also irate.

• Oh, but maybe Jacob's point was that the US is turning into a theocracy. Ohhhh, I get it. Although there certainly doesn't seem to be any danger of that in Everett, Washington, where the local Superintendent, Carol Whitehead, squashed an attempt by the Henry M. Jackson High School wind ensemble to play "Ave Maria" at the school's graduation ceremony. To compound the stupidity, a lawsuit by the young alto saxophonist against Ms. Whitehead is in progress.

  (Via Joanne Jacobs; as one of her commenters says: "I suppose the Superintendent has also instructed the football team not to call any Hail Mary plays if they happen to be a touchdown behind in the closing seconds." Heh!)

• Via GeekPress: funny math. I laughed. May help to know some math.