Republican’s ridiculous online gambling bill.

Here is just another reason that Republicans do not deserve to regain control of the house. Could some one please tell me what right does the Federal Government of the United States have to tell a private business, a credit card company or a bank, that they cannot process payments that settle gambling bets made on the Internet? Well the congress has passed a bill that is expected to be signed by President Bush that would do just that.

Sorry folks, I don’t care what you think about gambling. Maybe you think gambling is too risky, or maybe you think gambling is a sin. It doesn’t matter, this bill is ridiculous…and here is why.

When someone places a bet on the Internet nobody's rights are being violated. No one is being denied their right to life, liberty or property through the placement of that bet. There is no role for the government to play here. This really comes down to freedom. Either we are free, or we serve as subjects to the government.

This is where the libertarian in me really gets ticked off. We in this country at some point are going to have to make up our minds. Either we are going to move toward freedom, or we are going to continue moving toward a system where the particular group in power gets to force its moral code on all of us by using the power of government legislation with bills like this.

People who support this bill will tell you that families are hurt by their breadwinners loosing all of their money on Internet gambling…True…but people also loose money on investments and stocks. Should we make those activities illegal as well? Maybe we should sit down and make a list of all of the human activities that can end up hurting families?

What about eating fast food and fatty foods? It is proven that people with a high diet of this stuff are more likely to have health problems and, in many cases early death. My God, looks like we have a negative affect on the family here, don't we? Why we need a federal law banning fatty foods.

Let's see... how about drinking. How many families have been ruined by the bottle? How many drunks have spent half the rent or mortgage at the bar? Maybe, we should make alcohol illegal.

Oh wait they already tried that with alcohol it was called prohibition. We know how that worked out.

The same thing will happen with gambling. People who gamble will continue to gamble they will just have to go back to doing it the way they did it before, illegally. They will find bookies to bet on sports in the underground crime world that is ran by the mob and other gangsters.

At least when gambling was legal online there was a safe place to do it. Now, we will have increased crime. You think a bookie is just going to take an IOU??? Oh sure he will for a while, until you are so far in the hole. Then it is either time to pay up, do him a favor, or find your body in the back of a trunk.

So now not only is gambling be a potential burden on families, it is a potential burden on society through increased crime. Way to go republicans.