Teacher Arrested

At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to
be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while
in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule,
and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney general John Ashcroft said he
believes the man is a member of the notorious al-gebra movement.

He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math
instruction.

"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft said. "They desire average
solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a
search of absolute values. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y'
and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they
belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates
in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'there are 3 sides to
every triangle'." When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush
said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math
instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."