As an addendum to the previous post, i have 950 pictures from individual people’s digital cameras, and another 500 from the photographer. I have no idea how to organize or distribue these in any sort of organized fashion.

After months of planning, steress, and worrying. After what seems like an endless string of decisions problems that seemed to be destined to offend one person or another, or ruin something, the big day was finally here. (Yesterday that is, I’m not like dream king who actually posted from the yichud room). I don’t think I really realized what was going on till I started walking down the aisle. During the first part of the walk I was thinking “this is a nice wedding”. About halfway down I suddenly realized “hey, this is my wedding! They’re all standing cause I’m walking down and I’m the groom!”

The wedding was awesome. Not just because Rebecca and I were joined in the timeless union of marriage, but because everyone we knew was there, and everyone seemed to have a great time too. The shtick alone was worth the price of admission. Dave breakdanced, Oren juggled, Matt dressed up in a trek uniform, David was the cat in the hat, Mark and Andrew had a lightsaber duel, Efrat and Shoshana tapdanced, Mordechai was Dilbert, we were presented with all the tools necesarry to build a settlement in settlers of Catan, Evonne was dressed as…… something, Clate was a klingon, Yonatan did hand stands, we were presented with untradeable calamity cards, (each other), Matt shor kurt with a nerf gun, Kurt brought out his old Wash U hardhat, Andrew pulled a ketshup bottle out of Hillel’s rear end, and everyone had a chance to jump rope (made out of the catering hall’s napkins). My brother had tested out a flaming hat the night before, but the catering staff saw him walking in with cotton, alcohol, and matches and stopped him. (I do have a video of him testing it the night before which I’ll have to post later).

To everyone who came, all I can say is thank you. Thank you for everything you did, for the shtick, for the dancing, for the enthusiasm, for keeping me hydrated, and thank you for just being there. This day would not have been nearly as enjoyable without all of you present, and each one of you added your unique presence to the wedding and made it the wonderful and fantastic experience that it was.

The best touch of the wedding (other than the fact that I walked down the aisle to the theme from Star Trek FIrst Contact and Rebecca walked down to Part of your world from the little mermaid), was when the ketubah was presented. Rb. Levene, who is the rabbi of the shul my family has attended since before I was born read the ketubah, and I then presented it to Rebecca. Rb. Freundel (who was running the show), then said that he was presenting Rebecca with a translation of the ketubah…. in Klingon! (Courtesy of the chief rabbi of the Klingon empire of course).

We have the best darn friends in all of explored space

As a last note, Mark Dredze was collecting people’s pictures from their digital cameras at the end of the wedding and had a few hundred pictures at last count. I’m going to get them and post them somewhere around here soon. If you have pictures that none of us have, please contact me so I can add them to the collection.

The final page of this chapter of the Ray Killen trial (which William has been dutifully updating me on), is at an end. Ray Killen was sentenced to 3 consecutive 20 year prison terms – the maximum sentence possible. I must admit, I’m surprised. I didn’t expect him to get the minimum due to his age, but I didn’t expect him to get the maximum either. The judge eloquently pointed out that the law makes no distinction in sentencing based on a defendant’s age. The reason I say this is the final page of this chapter is because Killen’s lawyers have said they will appeal. The only question is” can they stall the appeals long enough that Killen will die of natural causes first? The irony in all of this is that the people who were even more guilty than Killen – the Sheriff (who arranged everything, arrested the three civil rights workers, and delivered them to the klan), and the triggerman were both convicted 40 years ago and sentenced by a racist judge who only gave them 6 and 10 years respectively. I guess the best lesson to take from all of this is that our justice system (although not perfect) has improved a lot, and although we will most likely never be able to end htred, racism, or murder, we can do the next best thing by ensuring that the system is as fair as possible to both the guilty and the innocent.

It’s hard to believe, but my wedding is in 3 days. I’ve spent the last several months working 18 hour days and sacrificing everything else in my life to try and plan this wedding. Yet I know that the wedding is pointless and unimportant. What’s important is the marriage that comes after the wedding. What’s important is that where Rebecca and I once had individual and sparate lives, we will now be inextricably joined in the timeless bonds of marriage. And yet for some reason, we’ve spent almost no time preparing for the marriage which will last a lifetime, compared to a day long wedding. I told myself at the beginning of this process that I knew what was important and that I wouldn’t lose sight of it, and yet somehow I think I have. For all my time spent looking at the “big picture” I missed the biggest picture of them all.

A friend of mine named Michael dropped by this evening to pick up something from my place. While he was here he inquired as to my current level of insanity and mentioned that the week before his wedding, while he was being driven crazy with details, he ate at a nearby pizza place every night to save him the trouble of cooking. Since a new kosher deli just opened up about 3 blocks from me a few weeks ago he mentioned that it might be a time saver. Thing is, I don’t think I’ve actually eaten dinner since Friday night.

note: After typing this I decided to go have something to eat. My dinner consisted of a few handfulls of peanuts, three glasses of wine, and some leftover ice cream that my future sister-in-law left here. The wine has kicked in so I think I’m going to go to sleep.

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This is a perfect example of the most overly comercialized religious practice I have ever seen. I can’t even begin to count the number of things wrong with this.

note: The post below was written the morning of 6/21 when the most recent reports about the Killen trial were stating that the jury was deadlocked 6-6. After further deliberations thaey have convicted Killen.

In my last post I calmly and deliberately already laid of the basics of the Edward Ray Killen trial and my plan to send him interracial gay pornography. Expect no such politeness in this post.

Killen organized and masterminded a premeditated triple murder in 1964 that fits the definition of terrorism. The only reason he wasn’t found guilty (although he also wasn’t found innocent) is that he was tried by a jury of 12 white Mississippians and had a racist judge preside over the trial. Many other people have gotten the death penalty or life in prison for killing or conspiring to kill fewer people. True, they should have retried Killen 40 years ago instead of waiting till now, but we can’t correct the past. Edward Killen is a terrorist and a murderer. The 6 jurors who found him innocent are clearly buying into the defense that Killen is too old to try, or that the murders happened too long ago to be worth convicting anyone over. There is no statute of limitations on murder or conspiracy, and for a very good reason. The dead and still dead, and their families still grieve. Letting Killen off the hook again would be nothing short of a travesty of justice.

update: Manslaughter? You’ve gotta be kidding me. Manslaughter is reserved for accidental murder. Edward Killen rounded up the posse, made sure to borrow a bulldozer and bulldozer operator to bury the bodies, and told everyone to bring rubber gloves. Far from accidental this murder was meticulously planned. Killen should be convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, ordering and orchestrating a murder, and should be rung up on anti-racketeering and anti-terrorism charges.

Today was the first day of the new trial of Edgar Ray Killen, the ex-Klansman who is being charged in the murder of 3 civil rights workers in 1964. The 3 civil rights workers had come to Mississippi to register black voters after the civil rights act. They were harassed by the locals, and eventually arrested by sheriff Price. Price kept the in jail and denied them their phone call until 10:25 PM. He then released the 3 civil rights workers. A short time later he jumped into his car, and caught them before they were at the county line. He pulled them over again, forced them into his squad car, and drove them to a deserted area where he had arranged for the Klan to meet him. Killen had spent the day rounding up recruits for a “butt ripping”, and had told them to all bring rubber gloves. An ex-marine named Wayne Roberts was the one who actually performed the murders, killing all three with a rifle from point blank range.

The FBI investigation eventually became the subject of the movie Mississippi Burning. Segregationist judges kept blocking the DoJ’s attempts to get an indictment until the supreme court intervened. A jury of 12 white people was selected, including at least one who admitted to being a member of the KKK. The jury could not initially reach a conclusion, and ultimately came to a compromise where they convicted Rainey, Roberts, and several other people, found a group of people innocent, and could not come to a decision on Killen. The convicted people were sentenced to between 4 and 10 years in jail by judge Cox, who said “They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man– I gave them all what I thought they deserved.” Killen was never retried until today.

So where does that bring me? The Klan websites (think twice before you click that link – it’s a Klan website), have been running pieces in support of Edgar Killen, the ringleader who organizer a premeditated triple murder. They have also been kind enough to include his address so you can send him money for his legal defense

Edgar Ray Killen
1056 Road 515
Union, MS 39365

You know what I want to send him? Interracial gay pornography! Poor old Ed seems to have high blood pressure, and I’m sure the sight of some good old fashioned love between white and black men would be just the thing to bring joy and happiness to his “Christian” heart. (He’s also an ordained minister although he clearly missed the class on “love thy neighbor”). So seriously – let’s start an internet campaign for this thing – tell everyone you know to send Ed Killen some interracial gay pornography. If interracial gay porn doesn’t exist, then find the next best thing.

I’ve always wanted to do this:

I was going to save this for next Pi day (3/14), but I got impatient.

If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 - Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955

The New York times has a great article about a group of researchers at Yale who have trained monkeys to use money. The results are fascinating. The monkeys made intelligent choices about when and which food to buy, made irrational choices about gambling, committed at least one bank robbery, and, on at least one occasional, traded sex for money. Whatever your interest in economics or psychology, I recommend the article as a great read.