"We don't even know how many legs he's got"

This one is a brief foray into politics: the War in Iraq:

There is an article in the current Economist, which is rather downbeat on the Great War, although they have been pro-war boosters all along. It contains the wonderful:

"Who would die so wantonly? It beats American intelligence officers. Asked about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a notorious - and, according to some reports, one-legged - Jordanian fanatic, a senior American official admitted, "We don't even know how many legs he's got."

You have to laugh, or you'd cry. If you want reasons for the latter, visit the "Lancet study" section of the new-look Tim Lambert, which not only tells you how many excess Iraqi deaths we've caused, but also shows to what lengths people will go to avoid knowing it.