There’s a quote, I dont recall the source
Where a man that works hard and plays hard is talking to his physician and is sternly told he must slow down. His listens to the speech, and his response to the lecture is basically…
Hey, I don’t pay you to tell me to quit burning the candle at both ends. I pay you to supply wicks and wax to the best of your abilities.
And while I understand the value of consulting trained counsel, he has a point about the relationship. Unless we call you “Mom”, those who actually work for us don’t get to *tell* us what to do.
That includes the government
They are supposed to be public servants, not rulers. There’s enabling legislation that allows them to pass laws within a strict set of parameters for the health, safety and welfare of citizens… But it is important to remember they do NOT have universal privilege to just TELL us what to do on any subject on which they choose to legislate.
It doesn’t matter how pure they claim their intentions are, which I’ll add is usually a load of manure to begin with… They are not our mom, our nanny, our owners or masters.
Case in point: Gambling
Who the heck is the government, particularly one that runs and or allows to be run a lottery, to tell us we cannot play online poker or gather at a casino and play cards for money?
The fact that governments run their own gambling scams like the Texas Lotto (which itself has been the source of much internal criminal activity) suggests they aren’t so much doing it for OUR good as claimed, but because they dislike competition.
They can claim it is for our good
But a decent poker player has a helluvalot better chance of breaking even or making money on a $100 poker stake than he does dropping the same on some powerball tickets. Do the math. And even if their motives ARE pure, that still isn’t their business. How can they allow a guy to do leverage bear spreads on the NYSE that could cost him his house in one fell swoop and tell me I can’t play in a cash game with $20 at stake?
As for Poker being “a game of chance”…
- -a- so is the lottery
- -b- that’s STILL not their business, and
- -c- poker simply isn’t.
Take any yahoo that calls poker a game of chance, and sit him at a table across from Phil Ivey. I’ll tell you who wins the game before the first card is dealt.
Bottom line, it isn’t their money. It isn’t their job to tell us we CAN use it for this entertainment purpose but not THAT. If I was going to bet (which I do) I’d say the real reason is poker is hard to tax and the government hates any game they don’t get a piece of.
The whole thing looks pretty suspect to me, and I didn’t sign up to be raised by the all-important jerks that frequent our legislatures.
By the way:
Here’s a link to a site trying to rein in gambling. You know, cause it’ll mean Trouble (oh friends you got trouble! Right here in River City! That’s trouble with a T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool….). http://stopinternetgambling.com/
Tell me these people aren’t playing the nanny card.
Sorry ladies… Newsflash. I don’t care. Get a life. This one’s mine.
My 2 cents. Your mileage may vary.
Rob Jones for President 
“Government exists to protect my rights, not to order my life. And I damn sure don’t exist to serve government.” — Neal Boortz in Somebody’s Gotta Say It, 2-20-07
You know pretty much where I stand on this kind of thing. As in the above quote, the only legitimate power of government is to protect my rights from aggression by others or a foreign army. For them to attempt to legislate my behavior, even if it is for the ostensible purpose of “protecting me from myself”, is not in their Constitutional power under Article 1, Section 8 of their delegated powers.
Once we started down this slippery slope long ago, it led to were we are now. There was a time when Americans were truly free. Now it is the government that is free. Free to do whatever it pleases. There is not a facet of our lives where they do not feel emboldened to intervene. They can tell us how to behave, what we may eat, drink, or smoke, and the things we are allowed to say.
Somewhere along the line we allowed the government to slip the chains of the Constitution that were binding it down. Now the tail is wagging the dog.
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I love to sit at poker table with anyone who thinks poker is a game of chance.
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You and me both, Annie. :-)
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RE: “Somewhere along the line we allowed the government to slip the chains of the Constitution that were binding it down. Now the tail is wagging the dog.”
Apt description Wendell. I look at the lives our predecessors lived and realize, yes, they had it rough to the Nth degree as far as creature comforts, and mere survival was a struggle. I don’t envy them that, but I am pretty sure I’d rather struggle for survival than be a well-fed beast of burden that plows the fields for my master.
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