No kidding! Ur-r-r-r-p! Quick, slurp it up before she boots me out the door or gets it cleaned up. Just a question that may or may not have an answer but I didn’t want to search it out on the internet and end up going to ask.com. I really hate ask.com. Ask a question, get a page full of links to other places…gee…just what I was hoping for, the direct answer. If you feel you have the answer right off the top of your head, leave a comment please.
Me thinks me have no attitude for life and the antics of the clowns that doth scurry round the circus tent intending to please and entertain when they are in truth there to snatch away your freedom and life’s choices.
Even dogs get to eat their puke now and then!
And yes, I’m referring to the recent Black Friday where online poker was snatched from my computer screen. I’m pissed as hell about it! I’m infuriated at the government and their intrusion into my home to take away something that provides a living and entertainment for me.
I recently wrote an article for PokerWorks’ main page – Antigua Fires at U.S. Online Poker Shutdown – and as I went back and looked at the United States cocky, bullshit, eat my shorts attitude about everything – including my rights – it made me want to puke. We, in the United States, are supposedly in the middle of having our ‘public morality’ protected by instituting a law against internet gambling and prosecuting online poker sites.. The joke is on someone for sure. Of course online poker IS NOT illegal. So what is the big rhubarb all about? Money Laundering? Bank Fraud? Why were the banks appointed to be the sheriff in the first place?
I can’t help but question what the whole issue is all about. Is it because Joe Blow doesn’t believe in poker and he’s a power in the federal government and I have to go with what he believes regardless of how I believe? Is it all about morality and someone out there believes I have to bow to virtuous conduct? Is it about politics and big business?
Politics and big business definitely come to mind – casinos want to control everything because they can’t rape the ordinary Joe if they don’t. Surely the federal government (people running it) is smart enough to figure out that there are billions going down the tubes with internet poker being carried offshore so why not just control it, regulate it, tax it? What if the casinos are controlling the politicians, not simply for the sake of poker but put it into the landfill and wrap up the whole package? My last post of substance had a comment from Clearspine that brings questions when one considers why Bill Frist was so insanely set on initiating the UIGEA:
“Good question. On the face of it, Frist was just a standard Republican, spouting off about less government, less government, unless it involves getting involved with our personal rights, in which case the government has to protect us from our own depravity. But here’s an interesting little blurb from Frist’s Wikipedia entry:
“In September 2006, working with Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, Frist was a major Senate supporter of H.R. 4411 — the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act. Frist’s bill called for restrictions on banking transactions for online gambling, while Frist has received contributions from land-based casinos. The bill, which passed without debate as part of the Safe Port Act, also allowed horse racing and lotteries to remain legal.” Hmmmmm? Was the fix in from the start?”
Why is legalizing online poker such an issue and why is the DOJ determined to bust online poker sites? Because of the UIGEA? I just don’t buy it. I hear people say, “It’s all about the money…” Really? If it was all about the money, it would be legalized and the US would be capitalizing on billions! There has to be something more.
Have we, the citizens of the US, ever been given the right to vote on online gaming? No!
Will a pro ever win the main event of the WSOP? I say yes, this year the field will be thinned down to the bare nub because online qualifiers won’t be there and your average Jill can’t afford the buy-in so this could definitely be the year.
Will I get to play my two $215 and one $33 SCOOP tickets won in the WBCOOP on PokerStars in May? Nope!
Does a dog get to eat his puke? Yup!
But I can’t play online poker! Show me more morality please!
It may not be the fault of seat belts but that was the start. Seems like a good law that saves lives. Then it progressed to air bags and then multiple air bags coming at you from all directions. Again it saves lives but there is always a cost. Now you have a fender bender and are out bouocou bucks.
A case can be made for just about anything if we ignore the cost. That can be financial or a preference or an honest to goodness freedom.
Excuse me, I am leaving here. I need a smoke.
One of the validation words is Cheach. Not one of those smokes.
Seriously? Cheach? Of course he’s spelled Cheech but it’s ‘close enough for government work’ – an expression I heard many times when I was a kid. If you were outside my abode today, you would never get that smoke lit…the wind is a real ripper.