Letters to the Editor
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Americans should be REQUIRED to learn to play poker
Poker punishes you in the long term for making bad decisions, but it can reward bad decisions and punish good ones in the short term.
Becoming a good poker player requires you to overcome your emotional impulses, dedicate yourself to learning and understanding the game, satisfying yourself with good decision making and not on making money (concentrating on making money is a sure way to lose in poker.)
In an age when our leaders invoke the "smoking gun is a mushroom cloud" and we all run in fear without asking "what are the odds that the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud? is the investment we're making against that contingency proportional to the risk? does our plan make any sense?" we could all do with some education in good decision making.
We often use poker metaphors in politics. "Boy, I'd love to play poker with the Democrats...he's playing a high stakes game...Bush just went all in."
Why, do you suppose, that is? Because we recognize that skill at poker is an apt metaphor for skill at more complex issues.
And why do the various family research councils want to ban poker? Because they prefer mindless sheep to people who understand how things work.
They're denying you education. Don't let them.