Upsetting Article on ESPN
The water's starting to boil... First, go read this article: D'Amato shows poker face.I stumbled across this article reading Daniel's blog, and his thoughts on the article pretty much sum up mine as well. The comments on the espn page are also quite good, looking at how many people are disgusted by the article as well.
The issue here is so much greater than poker itself, however. I mean honestly, online poker isn't that big of a deal in our lives. It didn't even exist ten years ago. Now, I believe that many lives are better with online poker, and I am not agreeing with the UIGA, I'm just stating that compared to the major issue at hand online poker really doesn't matter.
I have heard an analogy about a frog, a pot of water, and a stove. If you boil the water and then dump in the frog, the frog will jump out of the water - it's too damn hot. But if you put the frog in the water and then boil the water, the frog's a goner. He will swim around as the water gets hotter and hotter, continually getting used to the rising temperature of the water. By the time the frog realizes anything it's too late.
It is pretty much the same way with this country today. I wrote a blog in Nov 2004 on the Bill of Rights and how nine of the ten are violated every single day by our government in this great nation. You can read the article here: "Which Do You Prefer: Unpleasant Truths or Comforting Lies?"
Over the past 70 years the government has slowly been taking away our freedoms and infringing on human rights. Up until now, I had not been directly involved in any of these. But with the passing of the UIGA, the freedoms of 28 million americans, almost ten percent including myself, have been infringed.
What is next? Are they going to make it harder to drive a car? They're set up to. We've given them control by allowing them to change driving from a right to a privelage with driver's licenses and vehicle registration. We've allowed them to create criminals out of people who haven't done anything to anybody. Beginning in 1917, our government began trying to legislate morality in this country, and it failed miserably with the period of history known as the prohibition. Lessons were not learned and history has repeated itself.
Today, due to the Patriot Act, YOU can be sent to Guantamano Bay if you are suspescted of being a terrorist or being involved with terrorists. You can sit there forever, never be charged with a crime, interrogated daily, and be left to rot for as long as the government feels it is necessary. Pretty unpleasant feeling to me.
But, nobody does anything because they're not directly affected. I think it's sick that people get sent to Guantanamo without being charged, but I don't know any of them and I'm not being sent, so I really don't care that much. I can talk about how wrong it is, but nothing will change unless we do something.
But now many of us are being directly affected by the actions of the Government of the United States of America. I had $3,500.95 seized as evidence in a money laundering case. I'm sorry, that is my money, and I want it back. I had my right to play online poker greatly infringed, and I want that back. I want the government to stop meddling in our daily lives. I want the government to stop making it a crime to own a firearm. I want the government to stop inventing victimless crimes, packing our jails with those "criminals," and then passing the bill on to us. I want the government to stop meddling in the capitalistic economy and let things return to the state of a free market. I want to live in freedom, not afraid that my right to go to church or visit family or travel out of the country will be taken away in the future. Those are the issues that we will be facing next, and this online poker fiasco should be our wake up calls.
Peace and Good Luck,
Devo
posted by Devo @ 1:44 PM
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