Fewer Than a Handful

[beamjockey]

I switched on C-SPAN while brewing coffee this morning. The Federal Communications Commission was on. Republican Commissioner Robert M. McDowell was firing a stirring broadside in his dissent from the FCC's new network-neutrality ruling. He said this:

Part of the argument in favor of new rules alleges that "giant corporations" will serve as "hostile gate-keepers" to the Internet. First, in the almost nine years since those fears were first sown, net-regulation lobbyists can point to fewer than a handful of cases of alleged misconduct out of an infinite number of internet communications. All -- all-- of those cases were resolved in favor of consumers under current law.

I was struck by the similarity between Mr. McDowell's phrasing and that of a public-service announcement I recall from years ago:

Every so often,
Innumeracy strikes.
Out of all Americans,
a lot suffer from it.
But we can win the fight against Innumeracy with your help.
All it takes is a few pennies a day.

Comments

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even before I scrolled down, that "fewer than a handful" jarred me. The "infinite" comment likewise.

How many hubs does it take to pass an infinite number of "Internet communications" in a finite number of years?

[hartree.livejournal.com]

This is the numerical equivalent of Casey Stengel's grammar.