That's all correct about IE. In this case however, it seems like the reason for the if/else is for the benefit of Mac Firefox 2. In that browser, the weight of the text appears to alter suddenly whenever it's opacity shifts between 0 and 0.0001, and also between 0.9999 and 1. The else block emulates the fade in/out without triggering this jarring effect.
Joel Birch.
