- Times are tough for states, individuals and yes, even governments. State and federal agencies and bureaucratic organizations are having an impossibly difficult time figuring out how to balance their budgets while also carrying dozens of dead-weight slackers who do little to no work on a daily basis. Cutting some of these do-nothings loose would help, but of course the government isn't going to do that. Instead, the Justice Department is reversing its stance on most forms of Internet gambling in the hopes of fleecing America’s growing quotient of degenerate gamblers out of enough money to adequately fund the government’s day-to-day operations. The department has reversed its long-held opposition to nearly all Internet gambling, eliminating a major legal obstacle for states that want to legalize online gambling to help fix their budget deficits. In a legal opinion issued by the department’s office of legal counsel in September but made public on Friday, the Justice Department responded to requests by New York and Illinois to clarify whether the Wire Act of 1961, which prohibits wagering over telecommunications systems that cross state or national borders. Illinois and New York wanted to use the Internet to sell lottery tickets to adults within their own borders, but the impact of the Justice Department’s change in position will almost certainly extend beyond those parameters. In the simplest of all possible explanations, the decision opens the door for states to allow Internet poker and other forms of online betting that do not involve sports. New York has offered an online subscription service since 2005 by which state residents can enter Lotto or Mega Millions drawings. The state has been working on plans for a broader online gaming system, but the contractor for the project feared legal battles if it moved forward. Armed with its newfound freedom, New York Lottery officials plan to add two additional jackpot games, Powerball and Sweet Million, to its current online lottery subscription service and permit New York residents to buy single-draw tickets online. In Illinois, the superintendent of the state lottery had the gall to suggest that the new policy would enable the lottery to regulate purchases and actually protect gambling addicts. “Right now we can’t guard against someone walking into a lottery retailer and buying too many tickets and behaving excessively,” superintendent Michael Jones said. “Now with credit card purchases, we can guard against excessive play.” Yes, that is exactly how the system will work. Some bureaucratic pencil-pusher behind a desk will determine whether or not a deadbeat dad who isn't supporting his four children by three different mothers can buy that extra batch of Powerball tickets. No one is sure how big the online gambling industry actually is, but most estimates put it in the 11-figure range, as in tens of billions of dollars annually. Both the District of Columbia and Nevada have both approved limited forms of Internet gambling, and New Jersey has been considering legislation allowing sports betting and other forms of Internet gambling, so this party is only getting started. Let the excessive online gambling by those who can least afford it commence……………
- NATO may be an organization supposedly dedicated to making a positive impact around the world, but it certainly doesn’t have any goodwill in the bank with Pakistan. That may have something to do with last month's NATO raid on Pakistani border posts that killed 24 soldiers. Pakistan could be upset about a report issued last week by the U.S. military that blamed inadequate coordination by both Pakistani and U.S.-led forces. Either way, Pakistan says it will only consider reopening key NATO supply routes to neighboring Afghanistan if NATO is willing to pay. Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar insisted his government has not yet decided whether to allow NATO to resume overland shipments of non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan, but suggested it will be a cash-to-cross arrangement if anything at all. Mukhtar informed media members in Sukkur that if the routes are reopened, "it will not be free." Well played Pakistan, well played. Allowing NATO to use your roads for free is a weak move and no one is going to respect you if you agree to that. While claiming the reasoning behind the decision is the high volume of heavy traffic that has damaged the country’s road infrastructure over the last 10 years is not as strong a play as simply forcing NATO to pay because you feel like it, adding tolls or tariffs on NATO shipments is still a balls play. Mukhtar explained that any money raised through would go to road infrastructure. Sadly, he did not punctuate his words by looking directly into the nearest camera, telling NATO it could kiss Pakistan’s ass and holding a middle finger aloft as he walked from the podium………….
- Dropping a new jersey on the Washington Wizards does not change the insanity of the Washington Wizards. As long as the Wizards are suiting up crazy Andray Blatche, they will continue to have one of the more mentally unstable rosters in the NBA - or any other sport for that matter. Following the Wizards’ season-opening 90-84 loss to the New Jersey Nets, in which Washington blew a 21-point lead, Blatche was asked about coach Flip Saunders observing that the team began to rely too much on individual efforts in the second quarter. While Saunders did not mention Blatche directly, it was clear from how the Washington offense operated during the period that Blatche was among Saunders’ targets. The temperamental 6’11 forward sounded off in the locker room after the game. "You can't keep having me pick-and-pop and shooting jump shots," Blatche said in the locker room. "Give me the ball in the paint. That's where I'm most effective at. I've been saying that since training camp: I need the ball in the paint. I don't want to be the pick-and-pop guy that I used to be. It's not working for me." Blatche scored 11 points on 5-for-13 shooting and further hurt the team by earning a technical foul exchanging words with Kris Humphries, a.k.a. the ex-Mr. Kim Kardashian. Suggesting the team wasn’t using him to the best of his abilities made some media members and experts question whether Blatche was lashing out at his coaches and teammates, a suggestion he didn’t like. "Every body need to shut up I didn't call out my coach or team mates I said I had a bad game need it n the post instead of jump shots," Blatche tweeted. Saunders met with Blatche before practice Tuesday to talk about the situation. "We talked about what he said about as far as wanting to be in the post," Saunders said. "And I told him, that's something to my ears. I love hearing that. ... But then he also has to understand that just because you get it at 17 feet, you don't have to shoot it either. I'm not twisting his arm to do that." Seventeen is an ironic number for Saunders to reference because prior to the league’s five-month lockout, he gave Blatche a book titled "The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player." Blatche said he has read about half of it. Now might be an optimal time to read the other half……….
- Those hoping for a full-length film version of the cult TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, there is no good news for you at the moment. A reboot of the forerunner to the “Twilight” saga and all of the other vampire flicks of recent years was in the works, but the project has been put in an indefinite holding pattern because screenwriter Whit Anderson, who was not part of the original series, failed miserably in his attempts to recreate the vampire magic of “Buffy” creator Joss Whedon, who is not a part of the new project. Anderson had been given the job of reinventing Whedon’s brainchild but delivered a script that "fell far short of expectations and, in the end, was rejected completely” by studio executives according to sources close to the situation. Anderson’s failure doesn’t mean the project is dead and a new writer is reportedly being sought to take the project forward, but producers are also debating whether to kill the concept entirely. That would probably hit favorably with Whedon and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who portrayed the show's heroine during its successful run from 1997 to 2003. Both Whedon and Gellar have criticized the idea of reviving the franchise. Whedon is currently working on “The Avengers” but found a moment to share his thoughts on the “Buffy” film. "This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths, just because can’t think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself," Whedon fumed. Gellar wasn’t any sunnier in her remarks, declaring, "I think it's a horrible idea. To try to do a 'Buffy' without Joss Whedon, I mean that's, like, honestly, to be incredibly non-eloquent: that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard." Seems at least a few people agree with those sentiments……….
- GPS is not for everyone. Specifically, it’s not for China because the Chinese aren’t fans of most things American unless it’s chunks of America’s national debt the Chinese can buy up and lord over the United States. In the latest attempt to prove it doesn’t need America for anything other than an economic punching bag, China officially launched its own satellite navigation system Tuesday, which will provide initial positioning, navigation, and timing operational services to China and the surrounding region. State media reported the debut of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BNSS), which is intended to replace China's reliance on the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The BNSS has been under construction and in the interim, China has launched 10 satellites, the most recent of which went up in November. Six additional satellites will be launched in 2012 and the system as a whole will be completed by 2020. Although it is not complete, Beidou is reportedly compatible with the U.S. system, as well as the EU's Galileo Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS - yes, its actual name). But as with everything the Communist Party does in China, there is a more sinister overtone to the satellite navigation system. In other words, it won’t just be to help commuters find their way through the traffic-packed, smog-riddled streets of major cities. China has recently developed an antiship ballistic missile that could hit a moving aircraft carrier up to 1,700 miles offshore and Beidou could be used with other technology to locate the whereabouts of U.S. ships in the region. In other words, it could be useful should China decide to make an American ship go kaboom. Not that China would ever consider such an attack…………
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