Now, it’s true that onlinepoker.org is paying me for this one-time advertising link; but it’s also true that I wouldn’t have accepted the money if I didn’t fundamentally believe in the idea: as government takes away more and more of our liberties, I find myself more and more committed to fighting for just about every freedom adult citizens in a country predicated on self-governance — where we’re not subjects, nor bacterium in some social engineer’s petri dish — can conceivably lay claim to.
To my way of thinking, the constraints on liberty imposed by bans on gambling (or eating french fries, or drinking soda, or smoking cigarettes, or sexing up a leather-clad gimp for $250 an hour, if that’s what you’re into) are far more insidious, from the perspective of classical liberalism, than are the nannystate “safeguards” against overindulgence used to justify government control over how we spend our limited time on this planet.
Your mileage may vary, naturally, but — as someone who got himself addicted to fantasy baseball (and then got himself unaddicted — miraculously, without a government worker, or a federal law there to “help” me through it!) — if we’re for liberty, let’s be for liberty. Nobody said freedom was without it’s potential pitfalls. In fact, the ability to fail is, in certain respects, what makes freedom so damn great.
So. Deal. And, well, deal.
I find it amusing in a world of Powerball state lotteries, this is even a debate.
I guess government is above morals.
Like Ponzi schemes, Lee, it’s OK when the government does it.
It isn’t about morals, it’s about competition. I have come to suspect that’s the only reason there are laws against theft.
Jeff cured himself of his fantasy baseball addiction … WITH HIS MIND!
He must have tiger blood are something…
Lee and Pablo, they tell themselves that the Lottery isn’t gambling. It’s true. something about it being a game of chance and not skill.
I like the lottery. It’s a tax on people who are bad at math…
Trump ran a casino into bankruptcy. After he’s elected, I’m sure he can do the same for federalized gambling.
The Fundamental Contradiction of the Democratic Nanny State
If I am not competent to choose what to do with my own money, how does stepping into a voting booth make me competent to (directly, via initiative/referendum, or indirectly, via electing representatives) make laws that decide what everyone can do with their money?
“It isn’t about morals, it’s about competition.”
Well, the point is, online poker is being blocked on moral grounds, no? By the same government that promotes the lottery as beneficial to children, nature and overall well being.
I could be wrong, on what grounds is it being blocked? If it’s a taxation issue, I’m sure that’s something that could be worked out.
Maybe it’s racist to give
indiansnative Americans competition.Also Italians.
Heh.
OT, but I was doing sprints today tethered to a sled carrying about 65# and I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to walk tomorrow. If my left calf is being honest with me right now, that is.
That’s… f’n awesome.
“If my left calf is being honest”
don’t trust a leftist
Meh. 10 sprints at about 40-50 yards each kicked my ass. I did two more running backward, but I was spent. Moved on to some blob hand transfers.
I did follow it all up by lifting a 100# Atlas stone 6 times, no tacky. So there’s that.
In the mail: one of these bad boys.
By the way, that 22# medicine ball I was gifted has been awesome. In addition to doing slams (I use my son’s old mattress, and I’m able to get the ball to bounce high enough that I can catch it and slam it almost without stopping for ten reps), I’ve been lying flat on my back and throwing it up in the air like you would a basketball chest pass and catching it as it comes down. 22# coming down at you from a couple feet up is surprisingly taxing on your hands. It acts as kind of a super g-force test on your wrists. I suspect it will really increase my punching power after doing it for a couple months.
Either that or break my wrist and hand.
I sometimes go with a 40lb plate in each hand. Yeah, it makes quite a difference. Can swing maybe 2/3s my normal routine that way. But, hey, I have freaky skinny man cardio. My secret is having less muscle.
Which is why I seldom finish up by lifting boulders repeated.
repeatedly, that is
That wouldn’t test my wrists at all. It would just mess me up.
I’ve probably sprained my wrists four or five times just working the heavy bag over the last few years.
I once dug a hole (a well actually) with a shovel 6 feet in diameter 12 feet deep.
That’s all I got…
That sounds like a nightmare I once had, Lee.
Well, at the end there it involved a ladder, a rope and bucket, and mud.
I used to be studly…