LVRJ: Online gambling ads draw scrutiny

[Ed Miller]

I'm surprised I haven't seen this posted yet. Forgive me if I missed it already.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jan-13-Tue-2004/news/22969041.html

[Poker blog]

Sigh. Government is way, way too big.

[Redhot_man]

thank god that the government is here to control the way we think and live.

[Cubswin]

I agree that government is way too big but i wouldnt be against the government getting bigger in this case if it meant fully legalizing online casinos/cardrooms and then regulating this industry. It is a $5 billion dollar industry and the government stands to make their 'fair share' if they allow these cardrooms/casinos to operate on US soil. This would also mean that we would be protected against those rouge operations that pop up from time to time. The likely downside would be closer scrutiny of winnings by the IRS. Will this happen anytime soon? Not as long as the Republicans are in control and the gambling lobbys keeping pouring money into the pocket books of politicians.

regards
cubswin

[Legend27]

Blame the Democrats.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Blame the Democrats.

Sorry. They get half the blame. The GOP is also a big-government party.

Don't get stuck on stupid. Vote Libertarian.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

typical government hardball strongarm tactics. anyone who thinks the government, in particular law enforcement, is at all interested in anything whatsoever other than making money, is fooling themselves. It's all just state sanctioned organized crime, and these a-holes are just pissed because the government isn't getting a big enough cut from online gaming to be happy, so instead they'll just be assholes.

al

[rkiray]

Sorry in case you haven't noticed the DOJ (who issued the subpeons) is run by Republicans. This is another clear case of King George and his right wing evangelical Christian fanatic wackos trying to impose their religion on us.

[DrSavage]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry in case you haven't noticed the DOJ (who issued the subpeons) is run by Republicans. This is another clear case of King George and his right wing evangelical Christian fanatic wackos trying to impose their religion on us.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think this has anything to do with religion. Until all lotteries are banned (or even at least their ads are removed from public broadcast channels), I will only beleive that government's fight against gambling is because they want their piece of the pie and has nothing to do with any moral problems whatsoever. This hypocrisy is way too obvious.

[rkiray]

John Ashcroft and King George are the biggest threat to our constituation in the nations history. There actually no federal laws that prohibit on-line gambling (except on sports). But that's small potatoes compared to locking up citizens indefinately without accesses to the courts, lawyers, or their families.

[mosch]

If you look at the Texas Republican Party Platform (http://www.rlctx.org/RLCTX/Texas%20Republican%20Party%20Platform%202000.htm) you'll see that they oppose government sponsored gambling (lotteries), and that they oppose all other gambling as well. (search on the page for Gambling, it's about 3/4 of the way down the page).

Additionally, if you search on the words God or Creator you can find all sorts of repressive stances, including their belief that there should be no seperation of church and state.

If you read the whole thing, you'll find it so full of contradiction that you'll wonder who could possibly believe all of these things, without having their head explode. Not only does it regularly contradict the founding principles of the United States, it also regularly contradicts the words of their well-thumped Bibles.

And if you want to know other things the current administration believes, check out New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/), which lays out the radical plans of the neoconservatives which are currently being implemented. Their ideas may or may not be good, I certainly hope that their theories are true, since they're being implemented and it would be disastrous if they weren't, but they provide evidence (http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm) of the true timeline of the plans for an American occupation of Iraq, and in other articles, the full scope of their vision.

The current administration is a mix of two wildly different groups who are each using the other as a means to an end. The neoconservatives hold the view of America as a new Rome, bringing democracy to the world through a mix of military force (Iraq), and threats of military force (Syria). The Christian fundamentalists simply want to force their morality upon all Americans, and are willing to help the neoconservatives in a you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours arrangement.

I won't pretend that I know if all this will end up being good or bad for the world, or America in general. I just pray that it turns out to be less destructive, bloody and oppressive than these applications of power have been throughout most of history.

Also, I want to draw a 30BB pot after flopping a straight flush.

[DrSavage]

I see what you are saying, but this pro-christian stance to me seems like just an extra tool to draw christian votes. I don't think GWB is such a religious fanatic he presents himself to be. In my experience when you see contradictions within a party platform it's usually not because of the real contradictions on these issues within party itself, but a conscious attempt to play along to as large part of electorate as possible.
Just my point of view.

[TimTimSalabim]

The ironic thing about the religious right is that Jesus never said anything about trying to control other people's behavior. In fact, just the opposite, he was a live and let live kind of dude. Turning the other cheek even. As someone once said, the worst thing that ever happened to Christianity was Christians.

[Cosimo]

Jesus was a fundamentalist terrorist. I'm not sure why anyone (who isn't currently advocating suicide-bombing) looks up to him.

More seriously, however /images/graemlins/grin.gif I have to agree with DrSavage here: government does enough stupid things for both major parties to share the blame.

Also, I would like to point out that name-calling (Ad Hominem) is a logical fallacy. Google will provide several good reference pages in the first (http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~shagin/logicalfallacies.htm) few (http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm) hits (http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/).

(PS the point about Jesus=terrorist was to try to derail the conversation so grotesquely in order to point out that it was off-topic.)

[MMMMMM]

Cosimo: ""Jesus was a fundamentalist terrorist. I'm not sure why anyone (who isn't currently advocating suicide-bombing) looks up to him."

If you actually believe this you are profoundly ignorant.

Jesus advocated non-violence, loving one's neighbor as one's self, forgiveness, and turning the other cheek. Despite any evils certain people have claimed to be doing in God's name or Jesus' name, that has nothing to do with Jesus' actual teachings or words.

There is nothing in the accounts of Jesus' life, nor in his words, that even remotely resembles terrorism or the advocacy thereof. If you read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John (which are essentially accounts of his life, words and teachings), you will see that this is irrefutably so. Anyone who says Jesus engaged in or advocated terrorism is either profoundly ignorant or lying.

You postscripted that you made the point for reasons related to manipulating the discussion. However it is so entirely false a point that I thought it should be noted.

[Philuva]

I am so sick of hearing about the Republicans being for small gov't. That is complete BS. They have moved so far from that policy it is sickening. And now, they are not only into big gov't, they are into gov't control of morality. It is sickening. Any real Republican should be voting Libertarian.

I always vote Libertarian. If most people did more research, they would realize they were agreed with their priciples as well, specially poker players.

[thetman]

Big Govt sucks!

[Cosimo]

I would like to note that Jesus was executed as an enemy of the state.

I've gone to Sunday School, but I don't believe that any of the happy notions taught there counts as knowledge of Jesus' life. The Christian Church (in its many branches) currently advocates non-violence, forgiveness, etc. Did Jesus do the same? We'll never know in the same way that we can know what Roosevelt said at fireside chats, or what Jefferson thought of federal power, or of countless historical figures that bring with them signifigantly better documentation than Jesus.

Yahweh was elevated from a local god to the One God, Creator of All Things over the course of a thousand years. After early successes, however, the cards started running cold for the Jews, including the Babylonian Exile. So how does a Jew reconcile that with the Jews being the chosen people of the great, unique, all-powerful One Creator? John the Baptist and Jesus both believed that Jews could no longer merely think good thoughts: they had to act to bring about the Kingdom of God (in which Yahweh would directly rule over his people).

So, no, I don't seriously believe that Jesus advocated suicide-bombing. Instead, I place him as a fundamentalist who agitated fellow Jews to rise up against their Roman oppressors in order to prove their worthiness to Yahwah, which would prompt him to begin his Kingdom. A few colorful interpretations later, and the code-word for direct divine rule becomes a poetic phrase to describe the afterlife, and/or the supremacy of the Jews' god.

I like linking to logical fallacies (http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm), so there you go. I'd also like to agree that GWB and Ahnold are both big-government conservatives.