Friday, April 28, 2006

Displaying execution devices

Mark Kleiman, writing about possible Republican presidential candidate George Allen, notes that, among other dubious actions, Allen used to display a noose in his law office early in his career.
Even if — stretching things a bit — we imagine that the noose was intended to refer to legal Western hangings rather than the more common informal variety, what kind of twisted character uses a replica of an execution device as office decoration?
One might well ask what kind of twisted character uses a replica of an execution-and-torture device as a religious symbol... Oh, wait.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Random question of the day

Why does this Italian "Wanted" sign for Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano have the word WANTED printed in English, especially when the rest of the sign is in Italian?