ADIEU

                    

            Adios, amigos.  No more blogs, no more observations, no more Internet poker.  The prudent men in Washington who help govern our lives have taken it upon themselves to shut us down.  Apparently, playing poker for money online is detrimental to the public weal.  Rather than finding a means to authorize, control and tax Internet casinos, our wise elected officials have preferred to label our activities immoral.  Just why they condone some forms of gambling  – horse racing, state lotteries, etc. - while condemning others is unclear.  Just why they chose to ignore the desires of millions of their constituents in favor of heeding the voices of a handful of anachronistic moralists remains equally perplexing.  By attaching the Internet Exclusion Act to a rider of an obscure bill, our well-meaning Solons have done nothing less than kick us out the back door rather than escort us out the front.  I guess they think the evil that lurks in the heart of men is manifest by hundreds of thousands of individuals sitting in front of video screens trying to match wits with one another, for the most part with little money involved.  Historically decrying public intervention in private affairs, a Republican congress and a Republican administration are contradicting their own traditional values, God only knows why.  Lord save us from do-gooders, moralists and hypocrites, we can take care of monsters, bogeymen and sinners all by ourselves.