Monthly Archives: October 2006

George Will Has Lost Count

This entry was posted in Drug Laws on by

As noted here a while back:

The us congress has passed legislation which prohibits US banking institutions from processing credit card and funds transfer transactions by once free residents of the United States with internet gambling companies.

Now president w has signed the legislation.
George Will rips the new prohibition and provides some detail on which slime balls are benefitting.
Unfortunately George can’t count:

Perhaps Prohibition II is being launched because Prohibition I worked so well at getting rid of gin. Or maybe the point is to reassure social conservatives that Republicans remain resolved to purify Americans’ behavior. Incorrigible cynics will say Prohibition II is being undertaken because someone stands to make money from interfering with other people making money.

Surely, Prohibition II is the failed war on drugs and this gambling stupidity might reasonably be called Prohibition III. Except, that as Will points out:

Forty-eight states (all but Hawaii and Utah) have some form of legalized gambling. Forty-two states have lottery monopolies. Thirty-four states rake in part of the take from casino gambling, slot machines or video poker.

Hardly seems to qualify as a prohibition does it? Nevertheless the federal action reeks of the same broken rationales as Prohibition I and the horrendous war on drugs.
When a foreign government or an al quaeda kills Americans, destroys their lives, our response has been clear and strong: see WWII and Afghanistan. If a foreign government had ruined as many American lives as the war on drugs there would be a massive outcry to obliterate said foreign government. Why do we give our local, state and federal governments a pass?

Via A Stitch In Haste.

Friday Ark #108

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

We add boarders all day Friday plus intermittently on Saturday and Sunday so visit frequently.

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Invertebrates

Birds

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

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Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (73 shouts as of 10/12)

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 133rd edition, 10/8, is up at Curiouser and Curiouser. The 133rd edition will be hosted by The House of the (Mostly) Black Cats on 10/15. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 10/14 by Rosa’s Yummy Yums . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 34th edition is up and hosted by Tortoise Trail. The 35th edition will be hosted on 10/26 by Migration.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 13th edition is up at Deep Sea News. The 14th edition will be hosted at the end of October by The Neurophilosopher’s Blog.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted “too rapidly” by the same host. I don’t know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I’m sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh….