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Isn’t This Rich?

And by rich I mean the lobbies that are successful in getting governors to propose prison time and heavy fines for online gamblers and poker players in the same bill that makes the way for licensing for casinos.

Patrick’s casino legislation, which has been introduced at the State House but is not expected to get a hearing until next year, would license three casinos in three regions of the state. Casino developers would bid on the licenses, and Patrick expects they would attract 10-year licensing fees of $200 million to $300 million for each casino.

Oh, never mind. It’s the State that will get rich. My bad. Don’t you wish you could use the legal system to set up a monopoly for yourself and your buddies?

I don’t.

Thanks to Reason for pointing this one out.

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Ron Paul on Face the Nation

Great appearance this morning on Face the Nation for Dr. Paul. People who think that it doesn’t matter to raise a few million dollars doesn’t make sure you’ll get some big media air time, check this out. My favorite part of the interview was when he turned the “anti” question around and stated all the things for which he is “pro”.

Enjoy.

Part I
[youtube k0C00o6mtwY]

Part II
[youtube rxoK6UV4l_4]

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Ron Paul in Local Press

The local (Knoxville) Ron Paul meetup group was featured in the KNS today.

I feed guilty that I have not been to a single event that the meetup group works. I really need to correct that. I’m on their mailing list and keep up, but just haven’t made it out. However, one cool thing about Dr. Paul’s campaign and his supporters is that it is grassroots, so there are many ways to contribute, one of which is writing a post or two here every now and then.

Or maybe I’m just rationalizing.

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The Real Crisis

As I huffed, puffed, and struggled through a short run at what should be a comfortable pace in cool weather this morning, I had a little bit of an epiphany:

We don’t have a health care problem. We have a health problem.

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Your Lack of Apathy Shocked Me

In my last poll I asked if you really cared…a pretty open ended question. To my surprise, most people actually do care, at least about a few things. And half of those care about most things.

Only two people chose “nope,” indcating that they don’t care at all.

It doesn’t really matter to me though, I was just wondering how you all felt.

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First Annual Backlink Drive

This isn’t really an SEO oriented blog, but the topic does come up every now and then, usually relating to things like the importance of backlinks. Backlinks help in several ways–traffic, Technorait authority, Google PR–and are key to building a successful blog, or so I’ve read.

How do you get links? A couple of ways are pretty easy, but also pretty meaningless. Paying for links (I don’t and can’t afford it) can be risky, and submitting your site to a ton of directories that don’t get much traffic (I have) takes a lot of time.

My preferred way to get links is to write some good content that people who author blogs dig and want to talk about themselves. This is the best type of link in my opinion. It implies relevance to the other blog’s readers which produces traffic, it provides strength in measuring systems like Technorati, and most importantly, it strokes my ego. Seriously—the fact that someone liked (or hated) a specific post I wrote enough to comment on it is pretty cool.

The next best link is the one I’m asking for in this post–the Blogroll Link. I rank it second for one main reason–I’m not always sure what it means. It could mean that you like this blog in general, but not necessarily any one post specifically. It could mean that you are linking to get the attention of the blog you linked to in hopes of getting a link back. It could just mean that someone asked you for a link, and that’s the easiest way to give them one. That’s exactly what I’m doing here. I’m conducting my First Annual Backlink Drive by asking all of the folks who subscribe to the feed or visit on a regular basis to take a couple of seconds and add me to your blogroll.

There, that’s it…quick and painless. I figured this is a much better way to ask than emailing a bunch of folks individually. It saves time for everyone, and since you are probably reading this through a feed, you remain anonymous and don’t have to feel bad because you told me “no”.

By the way, the correct answer is “yes”.

Thanks! And feel free to spread this idea around amongst your own readers/subscribers. A backlink to the guy who gave you the idea would be much appreciated. 😉

I’m going to measure the success of this request by Tehcnorati. As of this posting, authority=49 and reacions=84. While I’m in the mood I’m going to go ahead and pen the draft for the Second Annual Backlink Drive, coming to this blog November 7, 2008.

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For All You Political Junkies

Kat Coble has posted a pretty good summary of present day politics in the United States.

But, really, the two major parties are very much the same now. They’ve both become interested solely in purchasing continued incumbancy, and any governance which may or may not occur is incidental.

Very true. This reminds me of an episode of The Wire I saw the other night–incredible show by the way. A Baltimore heroin operation is faced with the problem of taking an inferior product to the marketplace. Their solution? Split into two separate brands and manufacture some pretend competition between the two. The junkies end up buying the same crappy product either way, and the cash all flows to the same source.

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Not Exactly A Designer Drug

I heard about this “new” drug on a radio show the other day, but it sounded too disgusting to be true. Then a co-worker grew up in Zambia and was telling me that it is pretty common there among young people. Now from The Smoking Gun

It’s an inhalant called “Jenkem,” and causes hallucinations and a “euphoric high.” Of course, as the bulletin notes, Jenkem users dislike its sewagey taste, which can last for days. That’s because Jenkem’s active ingredients are urine and fecal matter, hence its street names like “Butthash” and “Fruit from Crack Pipe.”

Even though I have to giggle at the word “butthash”…ICK! Yet another reason drugs should be decriminalized. At least it keep a few people from inhaling human waste by choice.

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The 5th of November

If you didn’t think Ron Paul was a serious candidate, consider that his fund raising effort yesterday pulled in $4.07 $4.3 million. That is the second biggest fund raising day for any candidate ever. Only Hilly has raised more in one day. Ron Paul’s message is hitting home with a lot of people–people who can afford to contribute to a successful campaign. Many would argue that they can’t afford not to.

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Top Marathoner Dies in New York

The craziest thing about this story to me is that he was only 6 miles in. As they mention in the video, autopsy results are pending. It is very scary to think that something like this can happen to a top athlete with unbelievable endurance. Scary and very sad.