Ed Brayton gambles with fools

No, this isn’t a report on one the ever-wonderfully abrasive blogmeister at Dispatches’s Poker nights. Rather, it’s about an amusing bet Ed made to Matt Barber, the idiot who created a pseudo-scandal when he was fired from Allstate after writing an anti-gay column (Google around, details are scattered here and there). “Bam-Bam” Barber went into a paranoid frenzy (along with all other religious-right kooks) over the passage of the oh-so-notorious hate crimes bill, screaming that pastors would be jailed for hate speech and so forth.

And as for pastors? "There is a very weak exemption in [the bill] which is totally illusory, and a religious exemption is not going to protect pastors," responds Barber. "Renegade prosecutors and politically correct leftists in positions of authority can subjectively determine what is or is not a hate crime." And then move on to prosecution, he adds.

Here’s the offer Ed has made:

I am willing to bet that not a single minister will be convicted in this country under the hate crimes legislation for preaching against homosexuality. And since we can't have such bet be open-ended, here are my proposed terms. We start with $100 for the first year. At the end of the first year, if someone has been convicted of such a "crime" I'll pay up. If not, you can either up or go double or nothing on the second year.

Every year that goes by without such a conviction, the amount of the bet doubles. You can bail out at any time, admit that you were wrong and pay the accumulated money owed. And if, at any time, someone is convicted merely of speaking out against homosexuality in this country, I pay up whatever amount of money is currently on the line based on the above formula. At the end of ten years, the loser pays up and the bet is concluded.

And if I win, you can pay the money to a charity of my choice. If you win, you can keep the money. Deal?

Of course, Barber won’t take the bet, even if he does hear about it. Either he’d be too cowardly, or more likely, maybe even he would realize he would most likely lose a shitload of cash. As a commenter says it:

Ed, you realize Matt's just going to die owing you $10 million or so, right?

I LOLed at that one.

Technorati tags: Matt Barber · Ed Brayton · hate crimes bill · hate speech · religion