July 20, 2004

PARANOIAC BY MARRIAGE:

Ex-Stanford physicist slams arrest of chess figure in Japan: BROTHER-IN-LAW ACCUSES U.S. OF USING BOBBY FISCHER AS PAWN (Nicole C. Wong, 7/20/04, San Jose Mercury News)

The brother-in-law of American chess legend Bobby Fischer blasted the Bush administration Monday for Fischer's recent arrest in Japan, saying Fischer is a pawn in a game of election-year politics.

"What Bobby's accused of is playing chess 12 years ago in Yugoslavia,'' said Russell Targ, a former Stanford laser physicist whose late wife was Fischer's sister. ``It looks like it's a distraction from the war and the economy. Let's arrest Bobby Fischer. That will take people's minds off their troubles.''


Ask the next ten people you meet if they've ever even heard of Bobby Fischer, nevermind that he was arrested.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 20, 2004 1:50 PM
Comments

Actually, he's reasonably famous, but I would just mark this up to a Brother-in-law trying to help out. (of course, it wasn't done for purposes of distraction)

Why exactly was he arrested on the trivial 12 year old accusation, OJ?

Posted by: h-man at July 20, 2004 2:22 PM

To curry favor with The Jews.

Posted by: oj at July 20, 2004 2:32 PM

I believe this is the same Russell Targ who ran an ESP research lab in the '70s with John Puthoff, resulting in what was called the most convincing evidence to date for the existence of ESP. James Randi eviscerated their findings and conclusions in the book FLIM FLAM!

Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at July 20, 2004 2:40 PM

Well good, I'm glad it was for a worthy cause, like getting re-elected. I was afraid it was some trite reason like enforcing the law.

Posted by: h-man at July 20, 2004 4:11 PM

I've heard of him and "frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn."

Posted by: genecis at July 20, 2004 4:22 PM

Mr. Barnett is correct - this is indeed the same Russell Targ who, along with his co-"researcher" Harold Puthoff, James Randi branded as the "Laurel and Hardy of Psi". He's just as good a political analyst as he is a scientist.

Posted by: steve chamberlain at July 20, 2004 4:51 PM

Surely there has been a warrant out for Bobby's arrest for at least 11 years. Those who believe that Bush reviews all arrests by the Justice Dept must be confusing him with the peanut farmer. Appears to be more gratuitous Bush bashing.

Posted by: ed at July 20, 2004 5:36 PM

Yep, as Steve and John noted, this is the 'Targ' of 'Targ and Puthoff', taken for a ride by Uri Geller.

You just cannot make this stuff up. Fischer and this guy are brothers in law?

Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at July 20, 2004 7:38 PM
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