Bush, Kerry and the Skull and Crossbones.

Factual Questions
1

What are the odds of Bush and Kerry both being Skull and Crossbones members (and it being due entirely to chance) as has been widely reported in the media? Also, what is the known history of this organization? Most of what I have found concerning this organization is from “fringe” type websites (ie Alex Jones et al) and thus I don’t really trust the information. I figure there must be more “mainstream” sources of information, but I have yet to find them.

In addressing the primary question you may wish to consider the following factors:

  1. Most Presidents come from a select few Universities. I think that LBJ was the only one who graduated from a State University for instance.

  2. Most Presidents come from wealthy families.

Thus, what seems like a fantastic event may turn out to be rather mundane from a probability perspective. Not unlike the example often used in statistics classes about the odds of meeting someone with your exact birthday at a party (they turn out to be rather lower than one might expect, around one in thirty if I recall correctly).

2

One in eleven.

Reagan, hallowed be His name, graduated from Eureka College. Hardly among the ‘select few’ of universities.

3

I’m not disputing your calculation, but how did you arrive at your conclusion? Consider, that there are probably ten to fifteen colleges and Universities which have produced a disproportionate number of Presidents (and other politicians). How many fraternal organizations (of which the Skull and Crossbones is but one) are present at these places? I would think that the odds would be substancially higher than one in eleven even if we only considered Yale.

4

Brutus is joking about one in eleven, Roland. There’s no way one can come up with actual odds for a question like this, given all the soft factors.

5

I believe it’s “Skull & Bones”, not “crossbones.” Least, that’s how people referred to it when we walked past their “secret” meeting hall.

6

Damn you, I used SCIENCE! to come up with ‘one in eleven’!

First, you take the number of degree-offering universities in America. = 1570

Then, you divide that by the number of letters in ‘Skull and bones’ = 13. Thirteen. Scary already, isn’t it?

Finally, divide that by the number of letters in ‘George W. Bush’ = 11. There is that eleven again!

So, we have

1570 divided by 13 divided by 11= almost 11!

The science of numerology can answer all, doubting Thomas.

7

Yes you are correct. By the way the site that had information that I don’t trust was www.infowars.com . There has to be “mainstream” information on this group as well. I would think it interesting if they were both SAE members, let alone something as esoteric and controversial as this organization.