Why I'm so much Smarter than a Board Certified Neurologist

There are two books coming out soon about the Terry Schiavo case and so I want to tell how I happen to know one of the 'figures' in the Terry Schiavo case. I was watching This Week with George Stephanapolas on the TV and the conservative commentator, William Crystal of the Weekly World ... something or other ... it doesn't matter, nobody reads it anyways except probably William Crystal. Anyways, Crystal said that the Doctor in this case who testified for the husband was: 'Ronald Cranford who's from Minneapolis and does a lot of these'.

Hey! I know him! Or did a couple of years back. I tuned my ears up then for what Crystal would say next about Dr. Cranford, expecting that Crystal would add more about Dr. Cranford than just the fact that he did a lot of testifying, like Dr. Cranford was obviously doing it for the money, or that he was a fanatic of the Dr. Kevorkian ilk or was some sort of egotistical glory hound or- I don't know - was an organ thief who sells human bodyparts to China. (By the way, Ronald Cranford has never denied that last accusation). Maybe that was all there was: Dr. Cranford testified on the wrong side more than once. And that was bad enough.

Oh, and speaking of 'doing it for the money': Wasn't William Crystal getting paid to give his opinion that somebody else was doing it for the money. Little hypocritical, don't you think, Bill?

I met Dr. Cranford when I was working at the desk of the Physician'sIncomplete Room at the Hennepin County Medical Center. I'd just started working there when Dr. Cranford came in to sign some records. He introduced himself to me, the new guy, and then mentioned that many people thought he looked like Gene Hackman and what did I think? My reply was that I supposed that I could see the resemblance, but Gene Hackman wasa lot thinner than he was and had more hair on the top of his head.

I might have gotten on his bad side at that point.

He really didn't look much like Gene Hackman, actually, I was saying that to be nice. He looked more like Buddy Hackett, if you can imagine a thinner Buddy Hackett with not so much hair - and living. The chief resemblance between the two was that Dr. Cranford had the habit of talking out of the side of his mouth when he was making wise-cracks like Buddy Hackett used to. Dr. Cranford was one of the more friendly doctors at the hospital. To start with: he actually talked with us. Often he would come in and tell jokes with that being his only purpose for visiting us. Like the other Doctors, he was always busy but he had enough time to be personable. By the way, this might be just a Minnesota thing, but the vast majority of the Doctors at that hospital were very nice indeed and not at all the God-complexed jerks that Doctors are supposed to have a reputation for. They were politer than the general public, as a rule.

So, I would talk with him occasionally and I found out that he was somewhat known nationally and had been on Oprah more than once. (Oprah's a nice lady, he says). He had been earlier involved, maybe a decade earlier in a famous 'right to die' case. I think it might have even been the Karen Quinlan one. "They don't like me here," he told me, referring to the hospital, "I'm too controversial."

I believe he might have been an atheist who viewed consciousness and personality as the 'ghost in the machine', the machine, of course, being the human brain and the ghost being our self awareness. I'd asked him once what he thought about Near Death Experiences, him being a neurologist and all he must know something about it. He told me thatit was all made up that there was an industry being built on what was nothing more than hallucinations. (I beg to differ, but I'll get into that later).

Here's the question that William Crystal failed to address about Dr. Cranford's participation in cases like Terry Schiavo's: Why does he do it? My guess - I don't know for sure - is that it's because he took an oath not to prolong suffering. The Hippocratic oath says something about that, I'm pretty sure. Doesn't it? I think it also makes you swear your oath by the God Apollo.

Anyways, regarding our conversation about near death experiences, what I should have said to Dr. Cranford was that near death experiences had, in fact, been investigated and that at least one medical doctor, Dr. Raymond Moody, had written a book about it (Life after Life) and come to the exact opposite conclusion, which was that near death experiences were indeed more than hallucinations. In his book, Dr. Moody, related numerous instances where patients relayed accurate information aboutthings outside of their hospital room that they would have no possible way of knowing. What I should have then asked Dr. Cranford was where's his book and where's his thorough investigation? Huh?

But, you know, that's one of those clever, devastating rebuttals that youcan only come up with, like, a couple years later. This evidence is what's called 'anecdotal', that is someone says it happens to them and that sort of evidence doesn't count. Unless of course you're on death row awaiting your execution, as hundreds of condemned men know personally. Then, of course, it's golden. Can someone please explain to me how the same type and sort of evidence that's good to end a man's life (a couple of women, too) is still not good enough for science?

Just because something hasn't happened in a laboratory, with control groups and then been repeated, it doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. Most everything happens outside of the lab. The same thing with stuff that falls out of your particular philosophy: Just because you don't believe it can't happen or doesn't exist doesn't in the least affect whether it really has or does. Reality is not something you can vote on. It exists entirely outside of the democratic process.Ok. Here's another devastating rebuttal I should have used on Dr. Cranford. When he told me that near death experiences were nothing but hallucinationsI should have looked him straight in the eye and said: "Then prove to me that you're not an hallucination."

Zing! That would have shot him right down. Because how could he?

You know, I just realized that almost nobody who's reading this would actually ever know who really said what or when, so ... yeah, I did say that stuff to Dr. Cranford. Not only did I say it, but he was absolutely dumbfounded and his only reply was to bow his head respectfully and say to me: "You're a much smarter man than I am, Mr. Sommers. I am hanging up my stethoscope, posthaste, and will give up the practice of medicine. Entirely."

Alright, that's not what happened. He's still practicing medicine and probably thinks he's as right in all of his opinions now as he did then. I do think the guy had a tendency to exaggerate, though, as in: "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story." For example, he golfed a lot and claimed that over his lifetime he'd gotten four holes-in-one.

Forgive me if I'm wrong in this, but most professional golfers never get that many in their career. How does he do it?

Someone should tell him that miniature golf doesn't count.

What a Half a Trillion Dollars can Buy: Part III of an infinite series

Logically my series can have infinite parts, but today I'll stay at one:

Lap dances! - lots and lots of lap dances. A half a trillion dollars that was spent on Iraq could have better been spent on adult entertainment at strip clubs. Let me get out my calculator here ... five hundred million divided by an average of twenty dollars per dance ... that would be ... twenty five million! Wow, that's sure a hell of a lot of happiness. Of course, when I think about it this would mean that lap dances would become a government program and so, of course, it would be run with the usual government inefficiency.

Crap. We'd all have to fill out multiple forms and put with excessive delays just so we could have one naked woman crawling around on us. Hey wait, I think I might be willing to put up with that. Okay, sure. I can live with the government running the free lap dance program because it's sure a lot better than no free lap dance program. Right?

And unlike the war in Iraq nobody would be losing limbs or dying prematurely, except possibly from too much fun! Nobodys going to be blown up or kidnaped or anything like that. So, let's do it. Let's bring our troops home right now and start spending all that war on the government lap dance program. I'll even be magnanamous about this and say that our returning troops can be first in line.

They deserve it, don't you think?

**And please feel free to check out my new novel, Rexroi, on-line. Just click on the sidebar to the right **

Texas Taliban

When I was Texas - never mind when - it was legal to drive with an open drink and, of course, a loaded gun. They had drive-up bars where you could buy your drink and then drive off and slurp it down. I can't say that I ever took advantage of the laws - much - I guess I do recall having open drinks while a passenger to Mexico or elsewhere (Never got to 'boys town', either, wherever that was). But I never drove myself while intoxicated. That's the important thing.

Now in Texas the police are actually going inside of bars to arrest people who are drunk. You see, bars are public places and you can't be drunk inside of a barbecause it's a public place. On the TV article I saw about this they showed the Texas police who arrested a woman who was a guest at the hotel whose bar she was drinking at. It didn't matter. She got arrested anyways.
Some guy got arrested while protesting that he had a designated driver. And that didn't matter, either.

Exactly how hard do you think it really is to find somebody drunk inside a Texas bar? Just take a little time to think about that.

Give up?

It's not f****g hard at all! That's shooting fish in a barrel. In fact, not just in Texas but pretty much any place in America, period. At a rough guess I'd say a minimum of half of all Americans have been drunk in public and that's probably being way conservative. There aren't enough police to arrest all of us criminals and there aren't enough jails to hold us all. And that means that there are about one hundred million Americans who are on the lam, because they never properly got caught for the crimes - public intoxication - that they committed.

We should all turn ourselve in and see what happens.

Banning smoking in bars I kind of understand - kind of. Bartenders and waiters and waitresses and stockboys and bar backs and musicians work there and they shouldn't be exposed to cancer causing second hand smoke blah, blah, blah. Fine. Bars aren't health clubs and they also aren't a Disney theme park, and adults should understand just what kind of place they're walking into ... but I don't smoke anymore so ... fine. No smoking in bars.

No drinking in bars? Hmmm. Don't tell me that drinking isn't the same thing as getting drunk because if you have ever been into a tavern you really should know better, so just don't pretend that you're so holy and pure. No, no. I seldom do those wicked things - used to, not lately - and I'm probably never going to return to Texas (friendly people, way too hot). Thus I have no dogs in this fight but it just offends my sensibility.

What about the kids? That's my question. They aren't going to have the opportunities to go wild and blow off steam if this type of thing goes further than Texas. Can you imagine MTV Spring break if Florida enforced their public intoxication laws? My worry is that the next generation is going to grow up boring and is that a risk we as a nation should take?

What else a Half a Trillion Dollars will Buy You

Now, Let's face facts: The war in Iraq is all about oil - or energy which as far as the Bush Administration is concerned is still about oil. Oh sure, as with lots of wonderful things the Bush administration will give lip-service to alternative energy (Switch grass, anyone?) but in reality little or no money will actually be allocated to it. Just remember with W that Black is always White. No Child left Behind actually means every child Left behind. And so on... You can find your own examples without my help.

**Before I forget: I put Rexroi on-line. The Link is on my sidebar to the right. After reading my insightful essay here, go check it out**

So, here's another thing I figured out that could have been bought with that half a trillion that was spent on Iraq: Energy independence. If every penny of that half a trillion were spent on Solar cells or Windmills or fuel efficient vehicle technology or biofuels or this or that ... again, endless examples, but seriously, we'd be quite a ways away from worrying about the Middle East. We could just treat them all like we treat Central Africa (where there is bloodshed but unfortunately for them, no fossil fuels). With our wind mills and solar cells in place we could sympathize with their plight and leave it at that. Just like in Africa.

Of course, that would only work until they all build their nuclear bombs. Then we'd have to start paying attention again, but mutual assured destruction still works and with places like Iran we are more assured to destroy them with our many, many nukes than the reverse.

Before I went on my blog I tried to price out windmills so I could plug that figure into the half a trillion and tell you how many windmills we could get. Curiously enough, windmill merchants are pretty cagey about actually revealing their prices. Hmmm. I wonder why that is.

Alright, I know why that is. It's because if you saw the real price right off the bat you'd get sticker shock and click on to the next site. They probably are expensive, I believe. However, because of economy of scale if a whole lot of windmills or solar cells were being produced the price would come down just because it would be so much cheaper to produce them en masse.

Well, I'm still going to get one. But I will wait until the prices come down.

What you can buy for a Half a Trillion

Half a trillion dollars happens to be what we've spent so far on the war in Iraq and so far - oh wait, I almost forgot, my novel Rexroi is on-line click on the sidebar to the right - anyways, half a trillion dollars spent on Iraq and it reminded me about how I used to concretize everything, which was how many packs of cigarettes that would buy. I haven't smoked for awhile so I'm not exactly sure how much they cost these days but somebody told me five bucks a pack up in Minnesota - where I used to live.

So, with that math at my old rate of a pack a day I could smoke for approximately one hundred million days without having to worry about going out for another carton. Maybe if the secret of immortality is discovered I could actually do that.

But wait! That might be another thing that a half a trillion dollars could have bought instead of the disaster in Iraq - immortality. And if not immortality it sure would have gone a long way towards curing a disease or two - like cancer. The next time you're thinking about how great it was that we got Saddam out of power please think about which you would have liked more, Saddam out of power or a cure for cancer.

Ironically, there really is a pretty good chance that you'll get cancer someday. You're going to die of something so odds are good that it could be cancer. When you are dying of cancer you can think about that.

New Realities

**My new novel, Rexroi, is posted on line. Click on the Upcoming Chapters on the sidebar to the right**

Two of my favorite reality shows have had their debuts this week. The first one is MTVs 'The Real World'. I believe this one qualifies as the very first American reality show ... and it's showing its age. By now the premise is pretty tired, but I still like it enough to take a look.

It all depends on who they put in that house together, but the problem is that any person they choose is already so narcissistic that they think their life should be filmed 24 hours a day. You pretty much always get the seven most self-indulgent twenty-somethings available. But they're all good looking, or mostly good looking. And if there are one or two hot chicks, that's usuallly enough for me.

This time around the men are all meat-heads and the women are all self-centered (but beautiful) dimbulbs, with the exception of a blonde anorexic girl who has clear emotional issues, which is not at all fun to watch.

I'll most likely still half watch most of the episodes just to see if anything interesting happens.

The second of my reality shows is The Surreal Life. The surreal life is when B-list celebrities are put in a house together and they interact. The celebs are also made to do various activities to earn their keep, like performing skits, or as a band, or filming stuff or this or that ... just silly stuff. The Surreal life - to me - always has an undertone of tragedy to it, because the celebs are people whose names were once well known, but now these poor people have to do this, for the money.

The celebrities this time around are Florence Henderson, Sherman Helmsly, some blonde named Amanda who I guess did some nude modeling, Tawny Kitaen, CeCe DeVille, The guy from Smash Mouth, some steroid pumped former wrestler, and transgender famous Arquette sibling Alexis Arquette who somewhat pulls off sort of looking like a woman but just not quite. It's kind of disturbing as I find myself kind of attracted to Alexis, but then getting creeped out by the dudeness. Oh my God, I might be sort of kind of Gay! in a way.

So far Florence is kind of coming out looking like a bit of a prude. Hey, I thought she was a cool old broad. what's up with this? The nude model Amanda seems to feel criticized by Florence for selling herself out and not developing her talent. Or something like that. Tawny Kitaen (still looking pretty good in my book) is very much the damaged ex-beauty queen. She made some comment about how she couldn't do dishes because it reminds her of her poor upbringing. Puh-leeze. If everybody else in that house can do the dishes, she sure can, too.

So, that was the first episode. The previews of upcoming episodes promised a number of significant freak-outs by cast members. Alexis Arquette was shown in about three or four of these. Tawny Kitaen also had a freak-out if I recall correctly. And the nude model had several weepy feeling sorry for herself scenes.

Stay tuned. I'll keep you posted.

Possum in the Garage

**My New novel, REXROI, is posted on line, now. Use the sidebar where it says: 'Upcoming Chapters'. It's the whole novel. Really. By the way, if anyone knows Seth Green, there's a really great part for him in this, assuming it were adapted to a screenplay - which it isn't - that's a lot of work, and I'm not going to do it. Unless Seth asks me to ***

I've recently noticed that I have a possum in my garage and I'm not sure whether I should be happy about this or not. I know I used to have a woodchuck there, and I was alright with that. I even named my woodchuck (Woody). My woodchuck used to live under the stacks of wood I have for my fireplace and I don't know now if he moved out and was displaced by the possum or if I have both a possum and a woodchuck in my garage like some sort of Disney movie. Do these two species get along or are they like some sort of implacable foe?

I don't know. The woodchuck I didn't mind so much because he was cute, just furry and fat and fun. Possums? Well, they are furry and kind of fat, but the problem is that tail. It's long and hairless and that's rather rat-like if you ask me. I don't want any relatives of rats hanging around my neighborhood bringing down our property values.

What's the problem with having these varmints living so close to me? Well, as I said, I'm mostly okay with it. However, I'm told that they chew things. The woodchuck does the wood, of course. Fortunately he left me plenty, so I don't see why he and I can't share that, after all, the woods are full of wood and there's plenty where that came from. I'm not sure what possums chew on, probably wood also so the same argument holds for it as for the woodchuck. The possum and the woodchuck also might have Rabies, but I don't think that's likely and if either one bites me - hopefully - I'll be smart enough to get a Rabies shot.

I must say, I do have a little bit of interest in eating that possum. Every since the Beverly Hillbillies I've wondered. Granny, I recall, used to cook up a lot of possum (where was she getting it in California?) and all the fancy people turned their nose up at it, while Jed and his kinfolk just loved it. There must be a reason for that. You know, I'll bet it's actually pretty tasty. Now, I don't have any active plan to make the possum my dinner, live and let live, but if someone put a plate of possum roast in front of me: I'd try it. Wouldn't you?

I try to be a good host for my varmints. Sure, they moved in uninvited but now this is their home. You have to look at things from their perspective. Here they have this nice place with lots of wood to chew on and a couple of times per day this huge giant (me) comes in and disturbs their day with his gas spewing vehicle and his noisy tromping about, taking their nice wood and burning it up.

How would you like it? What would you think if a couple times per day a troll just walked into your house and took your furniture and burned it outside? Even worse, what if this troll even is thinking about eating you? See, that's what they have to put up with and that's why I'm so patient with them. It's got to be hard for them.

What the Beep?

**My new novel, Rexroi, is on-line. Click on 'Free Chapters of an upcoming novel on the right sidebar. It's the whole novel, I just haven't bothered to change the link words**

At work a couple of my co-workers have had certain of their computer programs updated so that now, when they make certain keyboad errors, it will beep at them. And it beeps in a way they don't like at all, apparently; they've sure been complaining about it engough. I'm not certain whether the actual sound bothers them, or just the fact that it's continually pointing out their mistakes to them is the problem. My helpful suggestion that they can eliminate these beeps by not doing things wrong has not been received well by either of them.

But it made me wonder. Who decides? For example, in this instance why was it seen as an improvement to have these particular 'negative' beeps -- hereafter referred to as 'dysbeeps' -- added as an upgrade to the program? Was it perhaps discovered that without the dysbeeps there were too many errors, but the addition of dysbeeps improved things? I don't know.

But the point is: somebody had to decide -- and who was that? Have you ever thought about how much your life is controlled by these beeps? When you get up in the morning your alarm clock beeps at you doesn't it? When you put your car key in the ignition, what does it do? That's right -- beeps. Seatbelt not fastened? Door opened? Gas low? Beep, beep and beep. When you're at work your computer is constantly coaxing you or stalling you with good beeps (eubeeps) or the aforementioned dysbeeps. At home your stove or microwave oven beeps when you cook your food, and so on all through the day until you go to bed and set your beeping alarm clock to wake you up the next day.

Is there one Beepmaster who decides for the entire world, or is it done by multiple corporate committees of the most important people in the World? In my own mind I imagine there is one and only one Beepmaster and I will now reveal to you who that is.

It's Bill Gates. Who else?

Bill Gates the creator and marketer of computers across the world is the one who decides. The wealthiest and techiest billionaire dictates what sounds will run our lives, of course. He sits on his throne in his gloomy castle with a special orchestra to create the actual sounds that constitute the beeps, but I also believe that he has teams of neuroscientists to accurately measure the effects that they have on the brains of their subjects. Perhaps the neuroscientists even make suggestions about more effective beeps.

It goes further than this. The beeps are doing more than merely encouraging or discouraging us from certain actions, they are also programming us. The process is subconscious and subliminal but it is there and it's affecting every single one of us. One day Bill Gates will flip a switch and a pre-arranged series of beeps will sound from every computer in the world and we will all march out into the streets to do his bidding - except for people with hearing problems. They'll just wonder what everyone else is doing.

Snow Day: Part Two

The entire novel Rexroi is on-line. Click on 'FREE CHAPTERS of an Upcoming Novel' on the sidebar to the right. It really is the whole novel; I just haven't changed the link to say so, yet. Maybe I will today.

March in western Wisconsin is the snowiest month of the year. It also is the one that breaks your heart the most because you always get a few melty Spring-like days where it's warm and you can think about what you're going to plant and so on. I'm pretty much on the low-end of the gardening scale, but I got a few plants and I do pretty good at watering. Mostly I specialize in perennials, though I do have one place where I'll plant some non-perennials.

I call this 'rustic' gardening. I try to work in the wild beauty of the surrounding woods. If a wildflower pops up in my yard, I mow around it. My rule is that if I think it's pretty than it gets to stay.

However, please do not take gardening advice from me. There are certainly more experienced gardeners than I. My usual attitude is that plants must earn the right to be in my garden (or house). If they can survive the way I want to treat them, then they can belong to me. It's not like I'm going to spend my days being their butler or anything. They have to be able to stand on their own two feet and pull their own weight.

Monday was also a snow day in this area. I feel a great deal of guilt taking another day off like this, especially after there was so much talk in the office about what everybody else was going to do about today's snow. It sounded like most were going to try and make it in come hell or high water. Boy, I'm sure not living up to the required standards of a hearty Midwesterner, am I? Ah, screw it! At least I'll be a living Midwesterner, even if everyone calls me a pussy.

I've been called a pussy before. I've survived.

I suppose I could make it to work if I truly wanted to. It would probably take about three hours and I would be at severe risk of ending up at the side of the road in a snow bank in freezing weather and if that happened I'd be pretty screwed and the snow is still coming down ... hmmm.
I wonder if I have any cocoa left. Maybe I'll build a snowman.

There was a woman in the office yesterday who had two children with her (a boy and a girl), the boy was about six and the girl might have been three or four. So I asked the boy if he'd built a snowman on Monday. (He had). Then I asked him if he used a carrot for the nose (yes) and charcoal for the eyes (yes). Then he kind of clammed up, because why was this big man interrogating him about his snowman building habits, anyways?

So far I haven't written anything controversial that the spiders seem to like, you know like the Enron Scandals, the War in Iraq, Bush's sagging approval rating, problems with the Medicare Prescription plan or anything like that. Please accept my apologies. I'm really just killing time here until I can get out of the house and do something.

Fun Things to do on a Snow Day

I changed my mind and posted all of my next book Rexroi on line. It's on the link that says 'chapters' of an upcoming book, but it really is the whole thing.

That was the Second fun thing I did on this snow day, posting the entire book on-line. I was up in the air about that - whether to do the whole thing - basically that's giving away the e-book rights. But then I happened to come across the website for the science fiction publisher Baen books and they are giving away all (or lots, I forget) of books away on line. The reasoning goes something like this: There basically is no way to safeguard e-books and they're going to be downloaded for free anyways, so ... they might as well get it from you.

Free samples are always a good way of garnering interest, too. My unofficial impression is that people will pay for e-books that provide them with information, you know, how to do things, but they will not pay for e-books that just provide them with entertainment - fiction, in other words.
I may be wrong.

Rexroi is a book I have a lot of affection for and you'll have fun with it.

And if you are or know a publisher interested, by all means contact me. The information's on my profile.

Yes, I know that's a long shot and I will be doing the more traditional shopping it around and stuff. I don't know when, though. I'm pretty busy doing other things at the moment.

Okay. So that was the second fun thing I did today. The first fun thing wasn't actually fun. My Direct TV had gone out, most likely from the bad weather. So, I unplugged it and waited and it didn't come back so I called the support line.

I've had more than one unhappy experience dealing with them. The unhappiest was when I was transferred THIRTEEN time over AN HOUR AND A HALF. You see, they have call centers all across the country so each and every person working there has no reason to want to keep you on the line ... they do have a good reason to tranfer you, though, because then you're somebody else's problem.

Oh, and Roger Wood Electronics in Eau Claire is the most F**ed up place to get actual service from. Just imagine an electronics store in Hooterville and you got the entire picture. If you live in Eau Claire, please don't shop there. They blow.

So, when I do have a problem now, I ask for the person's number and I also have a stamped envelope in front of me so that if the service isn't satisfactory I can immediately write a letter of complaint. (Really). Know what? When you have their number right from the start it works out.

Tim (4102) didn't actually solve the problem, but he suggested that because of the combination of rain, snow and ice from the night before something might be blocking the satellite dish. That gave me the idea to get out my Swiffer sweeper and clean off the snow and ice from the dish on my roof.

And that did it!

Thanks, Tim. Good job.

Then the third thing I did, since I had cleaning supplies out was I cleaned. It's not fun, but if you're stuck at home it might as well be a clean home. Although, probably the same effect could have been achieved by just removing my eyeglasses so that I didn't see all the dust and grime.

Live and learn.

Well, needless to say, with the TV working that was the fourth fun thing I did. I hope if you find yourself in the same snowy day prediciment these will all be helpful suggestions.

Unmarried Gays in Wisconsin

Wisconsin legislators - Republican, I presume - have introduced a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in this state. I've been kind of wondering: is this really necessary? On my list of thing that I would like them to handle, this one has never made it to the top hundred. I don't care. I think any gay that wants to get married should be able to and God bless them. Nobody is saying that I have to gay marry anyone so I'm alright with anybody else volunteering to do it.

I've always been puzzled as to why people care so much about this. It's not going to cost us any money or if it does it's going to be so little that it's not worth worrying about because even if gay marriage were one hundred percent legal in Wisconsin very, very few people would actually do it - I'd guess like a fraction of one percent of the population. I know, if we allow this the next thing is that we will have marriage between people and animals.

So? That doesn't affect me, either. Let them marry animals if they want to. But, of course, nobody should have sex with an animal, because that's just sick.

In Jesus's time, nobody was gay. There were homosexual acts, of course, but that didn't make you gay. The Romans, who ruled the Western world, didn't make such a distinction about the act itself, rather the important thing was whether you were the active or the passive partner and the social status of your partner. In other words, it was okay to pitch, but not to catch - and anything you did to a slave was just fine and the age or gender didn't matter since they were slaves.

Jesus never said anything about gay marriage, so we don't know have any solid guidance from him on that. In fact, Jesus didn't say much about marriage, period - which is why at weddings the selection of gospel verses to read from is pretty slim. The Lord said something like: ... therefore a man shall cleave with a woman ... and some more stuff. That is usually taken to mean that he has sanctified the current bond of matrimony that we believe in an practice. However, monogamy really was a Roman practice. In the Middle East at the time it was the custom for well-to-do men to have multiple wives.

In my youth homosexual acts were illegal. It seems hard to justify that in this day and age, but at the same time segregation of the races was also legal. This is such a stunning societal change, but I suppose the fact of the matter is that the men who made and enforced those laws are all dead now and we have more important things to worry about than this.

When you ask what the rationale is for gay marriage in America you are also forced to ask what the rationale for any marriage is. Marriage, for one thing, is for the creation and fostering of children so that we can replenish our population. Gays don't reproduce so they don't need marriage, right?

Well, no. Heterosexuals reproduce at a rate of 48% and self identified gays reproduce at a rate of ... 46%. So, yeah they have children, too and almost at the same rate as heteros - and this is before you even factor in adoptions and such. And, think about this: Not every heterosexually married couple has children. Children simply don't make a marriage. Sometimes they destroy a marriage.

My view on this is that gay marriage is a good thing. It's a good thing because it encourages love and isn't more love in the world a good thing?