Homophobia in the Law

The Attorney General of Virginia is asking for unprecedented repeal of anti-discrimination laws:

Ken Cuccinelli II has urged the state's public colleges and universities to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, arguing in a letter sent to each school that their boards of visitors had no legal authority to adopt such statements.

In his most aggressive initiative on conservative social issues since taking office in January, Cuccinelli (R) wrote in the letter sent Thursday that only the General Assembly can extend legal protections to gay state employees, students and others -- a move the legislature has repeatedly declined to take as recently as this week.

This is a horrific request and all I can think of when I see intentional discrimination like this is slavery.  A couple hundred years ago, people all over this country thought that slavery was morally legitimate, and half the country seceded in order to maintain laws which would keep the practice in place.  At the time, it was more of an monetary need than anything else, as the entire economy of the southern half of the country was dependent on a steady supply of extremely cheap labor.

This however, is an entirely moral issue.  Just as you'd be very hard pressed to find very many people in this country today who would support a return to legalized slavery, I hope you'll find the same about sexual discrimination in 100 years.  I think it's pathetic that we might have to wait that long to at least outlaw this form of bigotry.

The Stark Plan

I agree wholeheartedly with Jayson Stark on both his points here.  Participating in the Olympics would be bad for Major League Baseball, and the WBC should be held at a different time.  Play all the preliminary games a little later in spring training than you otherwise would, and then hold the semi-final games and the Finals over all-star week.  It'd be a big Baseball fest with an international home run derby, the futures game, and most importantly, the big time WBC games.  (I don't even think you need what would be a watered down all-star game.  Just announce the chosen players and let interleague play decide the home team for the World Series).

And one more change I would make, whether or not you changed the timing of the thing.  When choosing WBC rosters, make the provisional rosters larger, and tiered.  Each country chooses 3 players for each position, and brings only the first guy on the depth chart.  The teams also grab a couple of utility guys, the same way a normal MLB squad would.  Derek Jeter won't have to worry about missing valuable ST time sitting on team-USA's bench.  And if there are a rash of injuries, a utility player won't have to start a semi-final game out of position at 1B, you just call up the next starter, who has been hitting everyday in the Cactus or Grapefruit league.