Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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Some good news...
[Read the article: Life, liberty and the right to play online poker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... here.
Let me declare an interest. I want to play online poker, not because I expect to make any money, but because I enjoy playing in online tournaments and pitting my wits against others. A mental sport, if you like.
The difficulty the US has in banning its citizens and financial institutions from participation in international online poker games, is that poker is not completely illegal in the US. It is allowed in Nevada and in various Native American reservations.
If the US wants to make a principled stand based on the morality of poker, then it must ban all poker games within its own territory--which we know will never happen.
Now the US may well be concerned about the involvement of organized crime, money laundering etc., but this can be dealt with through international treaties that regulate online poker rooms. Oh, I forgot. The US doesn't do treaties.
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@dataguyx
[Read the article: Life, liberty and the right to play online poker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Online poker rooms make their money by the "rake" a small percentage of each pot, or by entry fees into a tournament.
For example a player pays $11 to enter a tournament, but only $10 is returned to the players in prize money, so with 100 players, the house makes $100 profit and $1000 is distributed among the winners.
In cash games there is a bit more room for manipulation, but it really depends on there being a rogue programer, (which you find from time to time in banks and other financial organizations.)
Anyway, the whole point is that it is possible to develop international standards and the majority of people will not play on sites where there is any hint of impropriety. Companies like Party Gaming, parent company of Party Poker are quoted on the London stock exchange and subject to overview as is any company. Same goes for other major gambling companies.
Probably the chances of running foul of a rogue programer online are much less than the chances of running into a crooked dealer and his accomplice in a bricks and mortar casino.
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And...
[Read the article: Life, liberty and the right to play online poker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... there is something wonderful about being able to sit down at home and play a game at a table with nine players who come from half a dozen countries and three continents and all play together in friendly rivalry. Only ten years ago such a thing would have been quite inconceivable.
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Reader, I married him
[Read the article: Should I take my husband's name?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You probably ought to adopt the Spanish system by which you both keep your names, but your chilren's bear his surname followed by your surname (your father's surname, that is).
This is very practical, because you can always be sure who the mother is, but paternity (and grandpaternity!) is never quite as certain unless there is DNA testing.
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If Bonds goes to prison..
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... it won't tell us much about Bonds but it will send out a powerful message to many baseball fans, especially the impressionable young, that doing steroids without a valid medical purpose is stupid and dangerous, not to mention ILLEGAL
A few weeks ago in a previous letter on the subject, I mentioned a muscular young man aged 21 at my work who had built up his body using steroids because his girlfriend had told him he was not "big" enough. I mentioned that he was prone to sudden rages and loss of temper and that recently he had got into a fight in a bar, badly hurt someone, and had been arrested, leading to his suspension from work.
Two weeks ago I saw a familiar looking name in a small article in the local Sunday paper. The same guy had been in a single vehicle accident at 3:35 on Thursday morning and had died on the spot.
Now, I cannot absolutely prove that steroids caused his death. No doubt alcohol, a legal product, was partly to blame and it would not have been a bad idea to use a seatbelt. But I strongly believe that if he had not been using illegal steroids, he would mostl likely still be alive, because the chain of events that led to his decline might have been interrupted.
OK, he was probably a pretty worthless individual. He certainly did not have Bond's societal value as a person blessed with innate psychomotor skills that enabled him to hit a ball a long way with a stick.
But someone said to me: "Hey, Brian was a buddy of your, wasn't he?" Well, he wasn't a buddy, but he was a young person in need of guidance who sometimes asked my opinion about relationship matters.
He might or might not have been influenced by seeing someone like Bonds go to jail for using steroids illegally and then lying about it under oath. But in as much as young people are influenced by anybody or anything, they might be influenced against using steroids when they see a big shot like Bonds in the slammer.
Certainly top athletes often talk about being "role models", so Bonds could provide some community service by modeling the role of prisoner for liars and cheats.
So no, this indictment will not tell us anything about Bonds, but that is not the point.
I know that you, King, are a libertarian who believes that all drugs should be legally available over-the-counter without prescription and that the weak should go to the wall, hell, or whatever their ultimate destination, but I just disagree profoudly with your basic position, because if it was implemented (which it never will be), it would be quite disastrous.