Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Drive by shooting in western howard county!



Slots seem to be very popular in the western part of the county. There are quite a few pro slots signs, but this one is the largest I have seen. The fact that it is attached to a kick wagon really drives home the "pro farming" message that the sign attempts to communicate. The photo was taken from a moving car, which is why it is not centered. What did you think the title of this post referred to?

The slots signs seem to take one of two approaches with their message: pro public school or pro farm. I doubt that slots will have much impact on either. If slots funding is earmarked toward public schools, other sources are funding will more than likely be cut back. The impact on small farms will probably be negligible as well, but who knows. The legalization of marijuana and industrial hemp would have a much greater positive impact on agriculture than slots.

Regardless, I support the legalization of slots because I think that people should be free to spend their money on whatever they choose. I have little patience for those who oppose slots for paternalistic reasons (or those like Gail Bates who oppose slots for religious reasons). However, I think that slots should be run by privately owned corporations, not the government. What the heck is this, the USSR?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

USSR FCA: United Socialist States of Re-engineered Former Capitalist America.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately we are sliding toward total socialism and/or communism. Our so called "free market" economy is really subsidized and meddled with by the government on a daily basis, including corporate welfare, which I totally oppose.

Now we have a proposed bailout for greedy, corrupt, wall street CEO's and mortgage banking baffoons. I have even heard that the buyout/bailout plan includes money for student loans and credit card debt. YIKES!

If there's going to be a bailout, it should be minimized to cover only the weakest loans, not all of them. I really don't want to see the total cost exceed $100 billion, although on principle it should be $0.

Anonymous said...

You are correct anon, the bailout should be $0. Fannie and Freddie privatized gains but socialized the risks, and many private companies followed suit with the expectation that substantial losses would be aborbed by the taxpayer. The chickens came home to roost. This "capialism for thee, but not for me" attitude that Freddie, Fannie, AIG, Lehman and others have makes me want to yak.

Anonymous said...

Rewarding this behavior guarantees more of the same.

And if we want to know who is responsible, we should all take a long look in the mirror because we continue to vote these people into office AD NAUSEUM.

We voted for them, and we got our just desserts. The best is yet to come.