Bill's Notes

Volokh links to this by Minn. Law Prof. Jim Chen [btw, Loving v. Virginia is the decision that declared anti-irracial marriages illegal]:

When this generation shall have passed from this earth, God and/or posterity will judge us as severely for our unwillingness to confess the legitimacy of homosexual love as we today judge those who resist the rightness — legal, moral, and spiritual — of Loving v. Virginia. Yesterday Massachusetts, today New Jersey, tomorrow America from sea to shining sea.

'Cept no one's talking about homosexual love ... we're talking about the redefinition of marriage so that it makes no sense, and then imposing that impossibility on the rest of us.

Those with same-sex attraction can already love anyone they want.

And they can already get married anywhere they want.

They just can't impose their decisions on the rest of us — that is, force us to recognize a logical impossibility.

As far as his direct channel to God, I would gently remind Prof. Chen that according to Dante, the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who pervert reason. But it sure is cute how he got all prophetic and sanctimonious like that.

But I'm a nice guy, and I've been willing to compromise on this issue lately. Not civil unions. Not calling it "same sex marriage." Simply a change in the nomenclature. Call it "Royal Marriage." Someone is identified on the "Royal Marriage" certificate as "King" and someone as "Queen". We thus save the terms bride, groom, husband, wife and marriage from abuse.

And one last thing, about this nonsensical, incredibly racist concept that somehow homosexual sex is analogous to interracial sex ... just think about the difference between someone asking you whether you've slept with someone of another race and whether you've slept with someone of the same gender. Did that feel like the same fundamental question to you?

Let me put it perhaps more crudely from a white male perspective. If Playboy's Miss November is black with perfect C cups, you'd feel one way. If Miss November is white but has a pair of big hairy balls, you'd feel another way. Really not analogous, is it?

Do they even teach logic in college anymore?

I despair. No wonder we can't count the votes in elections anymore. We can't even figure out how to define marriage, which comes with the source code.

One thing to note: The Cardinals have a history of taking early leads in the World Series, only to make it real close in the end.

1967: Up 2-0 and 3-1, the Cards let the Red Sox fight back to 3-3 before Bob Gibson shut down the Sox and the Dream died once again.

1968: Up 3-1, the Cards lose the last three games and the Series to the Tigers.

1985: Up 3-1, the Cards got a bad call in Game 5 and went to pieces, losing the last three and the Series to the Royals.

1987: Up 3-2, the Cards got hammered in the HomerDome and lost the last two and the Series to the Twins.

So here the Cards are up again, 3-1. Let's look at the history.*

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* Yes, I know that mathematically, this post counts as bullshit. But it's more fun to think there's mystical forces involved.

NFL football is a great sport, but even if the pay is millions, the players earn it. Turns out it may take years off their lives.

The linked article is a little over-the-top and annoying, but makes a good point about the wear-and-tear of the NFL.

I'd like to see a study about college football players' life expectancy.

This warning sign should be on all blogs containing bad ideas.

Here's a link to more futuristic warning signs.

Isn't that exciting? But for a lifelong insomniac, a couple of nights in a row of relatively peaceful sleep is a big deal.

On the N.J. Supreme Court decision ordering the legislature to pass laws: The legislature should pass a law saying, "The decision violates the separation of powers, so screw off." As far as the decision itself, it's full of the same category errors as all "SSM" decisions.

Not much that can be done at this point. If judges can make decisions like this, they can do anything they want.

[Shakes head, walks away.]

Here's a pretty good list of the GOP and Bush Administration failures seen from the right.

There's no doubt that President Bush's glacial pacing and refusal to fight the War on Terror with any kind of seriousness has worn down many of us on the right when it comes to defense. It's made the next president's job more difficult. The War on Terror is, officially, in the words of my friend John V., like "watching a gang of monkeys try to fuck a football."

NOTE: This post has been corrected. Ron did not spend the whole summer in the hospital. He was in fact in and out of the hospital, and I'm not sure how much was "in" and how much was "out". I misintrepreted an email. IB regrets the error.

NOTE 2: Ron died on Oct. 11, not Oct. 4, as originally noted.

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A former colleague, Ron McRae, has died. You may recognize the name; Ron posted here at IB for a couple of months.

I last saw Ron in February when he came into the office here in Springfield. He looked terrible, struggling for breath with each step. He looked on his last legs.

He was trying to reconnect with people ... he'd been living in Central PA for several years, working on his magnum opus, Einstein's Last Folly. He was tired from the isolation and the struggle with the book, and felt that he was right on the cusp of finishing it and publishing the book.

We went to lunch, and had one of our wide-ranging conversations on chess, economics, foreign policy, and of course, epistemology. I remember thinking how much I missed those conversations; we had had many such discussions in six years of working together, and now, four years later, it was nice to remember how enjoyable those conversations were.

He was a brilliant man, albeit a tortured soul — but he usually had a good sense of humor about the tortured part. Sometimes he wore it as a badge of honor. He was one of a kind, something out of a Dostoevsky novel, or perhaps more Dickensian, a tragic vision, a person who could not quite permit himself to succeed, and who struggled to manage his enormous talent and contain his mental problems. In the end, he fought his shortcomings to a stalemate in this world. A chess player would appreciate that.

The conversation back in February would be our last; we had a falling out in April over materials on this blog: no need to recap it. In late May, Ron McRae was felled by a heart attack. He spent the summer in and out of the hospital, fought all summer, and then died on Oct. 11.

He dies leaving many of us with pleasant, one-of-a-kind- memories and many anecdotes to share with friends and loved ones. He had a way of summing up things — once, he told me that he hated a job so much, that the only way he could convince himself to go to work was to tell himself that "I'm only leaving the house to get breakfast." After breakfast, he'd decide to go to work.

Ron McRae grew up in Buffalo, N.Y. He loved his mother very much, and missed her terribly after her death, something he only touched on once or twice. I don't think he'd mind if I shared that. He attended public schools in Buffalo and went to Dartmouth College. He joined the Navy, and then worked for Washington muckraker Jack Anderson. There, he did some stories on paranormal activities, especially as related to Defense Department research, and published a book, Mind Wars, in 1984.

He spent some time in the 80s as a stringer for the Economist in Beirut; there, he witnessed what he considered horrific Israeli atrocities against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. He was so deeply affected by seeing six Palestinian youths burned internally with phosphorous that he came to side with Palestinian terrorists against Israel.

He later left Lebanon and worked for newsletter companies on and off for about 10 years back in the States, finally leaving the business in 2002 after several top New York agents showed interest in his book. I have witnessed this — I met the agent, who called a draft of one section of the book "brilliant," and felt if Ron could finish it, it would sell. The last four years of Ron's life were dedicated to trying to finish this book while coping with his personal demons. As a writer, you have to appreciate the ones who die on their shield, and Ron did, struggling to the end to find a way to put his vision on paper.

A one-of-a-kind has passed away, and in the place he goes, epistemology is no longer an issue ... "for now through a glass darkly, but then, face to face." Ron, rest in peace. I have no doubt about your baptism of desire. May God bless you and keep you. May you be reunited with your mother. And may you have many pleasant conversations with the philosophers and the sages. I know that when you saw the Forms ... it was all worth it.

Pax Christi.

1. Jacksonville's loss to the Texans cost me $20 by knocking me out of the company's football pool. You pick one team per week, and if you lose, you're out. And two people left after last weekend. Seven people got knocked out. So I have company.

2. Went to something called a "corn maze" and a "hay ride" in a location known as a "farm". Can you tell I'm a city boy?

3. I won't tell my farm boy/city boy joke with the punchline, "I can't shut the machine off, but don't worry, it's only set to one quart."

4. Nor will I tell my joke, "That's nothing. You should've seen the guy last week with the chicken."

5. Had spontaneous remission of cigar-smoking. Here's what happened: A week ago, I got a nasty, nasty cigar from my normal brand. I haven't wanted one since. And then once I stopped smoking regularly, my lungs decided to purge. Feel better and I'm disgusted by the idea of a cigar. Right now. All addictive states-of-being are subject to unscheduled and unannounced change.

6. Great World Series so far. Glad we can just sit back and enjoy a great battle between two storied franchises. It's the sporting equivalent of watching lesbian porn — you don't have to worry about the wrong camera angle suddenly grossing you out.

7. Full disclosure: The link in the post below does not refer to random strangers. There's history there. There's a pattern of behavior there. More later. Maybe. Or maybe not. Haven't made up my mind.

8. That's all. Have a good week.