Times Like These Make Me Want to Become Libertarian

When I was a junior in high school, my Sunday School teacher took me and my best friend on a weekend hunting trip. I remember two things from that trip. I shot a rabbit while walking back to the farm house to use the bathroom and my Sunday School teacher taught us how to play poker. At that time I was a very good Baptist, so we used .22 and 12 guage shells for chips and didnt play for real money. I had fun and from time to time would play, usually for no money or  maybe penny stakes.

I was re-introduced to poker through my brother-in-law and ESPN a few years ago and the very popular version of No-limt Texas Hold'em. I fell in love with the game. I love the strategy, the math, and the psychology of the game. I love what the game teaches about life. I love the history of game. Pick any topic and I can probably come up with a poker analogy.

Unfortunately, I am man of modest means and limited free time. I hope one day to have a place where I can host a regular game with good friends, but for now, its not in the cards I can't make a time or money commitment. Fortunately, through the magic of the internet, for the past several years, I have been able to feed my semi-addiction by playing poker online an hour or two a week.  I'm basically good enough to not lose money, so for the last 3 years the game has cost me one $25 deposit, which has flucutated in value anywhere from $250 to $2 (currently it sits at about $10).  Probably the greatest lesson I have learned from poker is the effect a positive or negative attitude has on the outcome of my efforts.

Friday, this simple little distraction was taken away from me by my tyrannical, freedom hating, nanny-state, individual-crushing government. In their overwhelming concern for the dangers of gambling addiction, Congress banned online-gambling (apparently online betting on horse races is not gambling) a few years ago. Yesterday, the New York U.S. attorney general indicted the heads of three poker site companies and seized their websites.

As a citizen of a democratic society founded on the principles of limited government, I become more and more frustrated every day with its intrusion into my life. I can't even trust a republican congress with a republican president to stay out of my business. I have a strong feeling a lot more people joined the Tea Party this weekend. I don't know what it's going to take, but I'm just about fed up.

I guess the positive side of this is that I will take those few hours a week I spent chasing a flush and get my house sold and my new house built, and the car-hole converted into a man cave with my own hand-made  poker table so I can have a real game among friends.