Poker Perambulation

Well, it is again the weekend. Time to lighten up and say, ‘Hey!’ again to our friend Jon Stewart’s great Internet piece. There is a lot of truth in satire.

My fellow dotty old men up in Washington are out there saving the world for us, truth-justice-and the American way. They aren’t faster than a speeding bullet; but, they are with it guys in tune with the American people — at least all those named Bubba and Ray Bob.

Jon satire is honest satire. Satire strikes to the heart of the matter. Satire without truth is sad humor. ‘Course Jon nails it as usual. The two topics: ‘tubes’ and our beloved UIGEA aren’t insignificant. But, just maybe, the tubes topic is more important over time.

The Net has grown like Topsy – it is an accidental happening. The founders had some great ideas. Some has stood the test of time. Others, like e-mail, are close but no cigar. But, it has created this all without government intervention. Government intervention seems to always get it wrong and always for the highest moral and ethical reason which the guys in Washington seem to couch everything in. Tubes and UIGEA are the foot in the door for these guys to get all that money from the folks with a lot of money and Washington lobbyist at their beck and call.

The Internet dances to our mouse clicks because it is a dumb network. The intelligence is in my computer and my head. Whether its our blog or visiting sites that aren’t mainstream, it does our wishes. We communicate and view in the manner we wish. It is almost impossible to keep someone out of the net. Just looking at your spam arrivals is proof. The innocuous sounding ‘Net 2.0′ has the potential to change all that. To implement it, the net will be more controlled. It will have inaccessible layers. This added security benefits only those who have already demonstrated that they aren’t security conscious. Even my brokerage firm – which should be among the most secure – has been compromised. But, companies have allowed these kinds of compromises without the Internet being involved. Net 2.0 is a band aid for the clueless.

Government loves to regulate. And when they can fill their coffers doing so, so much the better. With the war time footing, we always allow compromising our basic rights. We don’t do it well but it is a necessary thing for a supposedly free society to do. We always seem to do it poorly but it is still a necessity. What is troubling is that we are now doing it in other areas. The UIGEA is a demonstration of that tendency.

Many of the things that get regulated seem fitting and proper. We don’t appreciate kiddy porn or a long list of things that make middle America uncomfortable. Fittingly, we have little sympathy for the deviants among us. The problem is they create a vehicle for other deviants in society – like those evil gamblers that play poker – to be sidelined. We need to keep that in mind when climbing on the regulatory band wagon.

ADDENDUM:

Here’s a new Google feature. I threw together: UIGEA, INTERNET, and POKER to get the results you see. At least I hope we see it. You never know with new features in a canned program like Dashboard.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 7:52 am and is filed under Journal, Off Topic, Poker Philosophy, poker legislation. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.