First of all, it's kind of a relief having Roy Moore as the chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court.

I know, I know. Let a higher court say something about freedom from religion or the rights of gay people and he pops up, gesticulating wildly like some kind of wacky waving inflatable tube man outside your favorite used car lot.

But Moore is something his peers on the court are not. He is unpredictable in matters outside the Bible and the Founders. Which means, sometimes, that this guy - love him or hate him or just shake your head at his audacity - is the only thing that stands between regular Joe and the rubber stamp of all those judges bought and paid for by the Business Council of Alabama.

But then come the days like these. When it seems for all the world that Moore doesn't really like being a chief justice at all.

He's already been booted off the bench once for failing to obey a lawful federal court order to remove the statue of the Ten Commandments he had commissioned for the Alabama Supreme Court building.

Now he is telling probate judges and constitutional officers of the state of Alabama that it doesn't matter what the federal courts said when they struck down Alabama's same-sex marriage ban, because ... he disagrees with the ruling.

It's the same-old, same-old song and dance, friends.

What it really shows is that Moore's real job is not as the Chief Justice of Alabama's Supreme Court. His real job is the one he held before he was re-elected: as a self-appointed defender of God and morality in the courts.

Roy Moore being sworn in. (Julie Bennett / jbennett@al.com)

Think about it. In 2011, the year before he ran and won the office of Chief Justice for the second time, Moore held a 20-hour a week gig at the non-profit that still counts Moore's wife Kayla as president.

The stated mission of that organization - the Foundation for Moral Law Inc. - is to "Educate the public and promote current litigation aimed at moral and religious issues," according to the organization's IRS forms. It exists to "restore the knowledge of God in law and government and to acknowledge and defend the truth that man is endowed with rights, not by our fellow man, but by God."

Which sounds an awful lot like what Moore is doing right now.

It's just not as lucrative these days. In 2011, the Foundation for Moral law received total revenues of $550,093, with $547,533 coming from gifts and grants, according to the group's Form 990. That year Moore, for his 20 hour job, received $453,000 in pay, or 2 1/2 times his current public salary.

Which means 83 cents of every dollar given this non-profit that year went to pay Moore.

Which makes you wonder how to get on the gravy train of a non-profit like that. And makes you wonder if donors knew they were contributing simply for the joy of paying Roy Moore. But that's not my point right now.

My point is that Roy Moore left a high-paying job in which he was hired to restore the notion that God and law go hand in hand, no matter what the U.S. Courts say, in order to take a publicly paid and duly sworn job oversee Alabama's highest court, and has used that job to continue to try and restore the notion that God and the law walk hand in hand, no matter what the U.S. Courts say.

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It seems clear he is again ready to ignore the federal courts and the orders he does not want to follow.

It seems clear he is willing to stand again in the courthouse door to protest a lawful court order he does not like.

It seems clear he likes his old job better than his current one.

He might as well go back to being the wacky waving inflatable tube man over there. At least it pays better.