Afraid of the wrong things

Politicians control you by inventing things for you to be afraid of, then convincing you to give them power so they can protect you. That's why they invented God, the ultimate protection racket. Behave like they want you to or else you'll be tortured for all eternity. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain molesting the altar boy.

Second to God is the foreign enemy. This one's trickier because they really exist. But to put things in perspective:

Residents of USA who in the last 10 years:
Died of heart disease, cancer, and stroke: 12 million
Died in accidents: 1.2 million
Died of the flu or pneumonia: 560,000
Died at the hands of terrorists: 3000
Died because imaginary sky daddy decided to kill them and torture them for eternity: 0

So may I humbly suggest that there are a lot of people afraid of the wrong things?

Get your flu shot, put your phone in your pocket when you drive, and don't get fooled again.

No on Washington Income Tax Initiative I-1098

Every few years someone tries to slip an income-tax proposal into Washington State. We the voters have consistently told them that we don't want one. This particular proposal is worse than most, although cleverly designed to try to get it to pass:

• It gives a $4800 tax break to self-employed professionals making $200,000 a year while not lowering taxes significantly for most working people.
• It claims to reduce the "state portion of property tax" by 20%. Since most of the property tax is local, that translates into a reduction of only 4.2%!
• It unfairly targets people with income that varies widely from year to year. An author who works for 10 years on a book and then makes more than $200,000 would get socked with the tax even though he only made 10% of that per year.
• Likewise, if you retire and sell your home or liquidate your life savings from the stock market, you will have to pay 5-9% of any profit over $200,000.
• It allows no deductions for home mortgage interest, medical expenses, or charitable contributions.
• Worst of all, the legislature is free to change the rules two years after this would pass. They could add another bracket or extend the tax all the way down to your first dollar earned.

Washington is currently in the top ten states both for per-capita income and median income. We have a business tax based on the revenue of the business -- we don't subsidize unprofitable companies like many states. Time and time again our cities are listed as among the most desirable places to live -- and no state income tax is part of the reason.

Some people say that Washington's tax system is unfair and regressive. But the lion's share of taxes come from Federal Income Tax, and of course most of that money comes back to the state (one elected official I talked to estimated 75%). Make no mistake, the purpose of a state income tax is to make it easier for government to make itself bigger.

Vote no on 1098. Keep Washington government small and taxes low.

Those darned "new atheists"

This frustratingly shallow article in Slate by Ron Rosenbaum attempts to make the case for "new agnosticism" by casting atheists and theists as two sides of an arrogant, closed-minded, faith-based coin. It begins:

Let's get one thing straight: Agnosticism is not some kind of weak-tea atheism. Agnosticism is not atheism or theism. It is radical skepticism, doubt in the possibility of certainty, opposition to the unwarranted certainties that atheism and theism offer.

Well, no. That's not what those words mean. And no radical skeptic would consider for a moment the possibility that unseen, all-powerful being(s) are influencing our day-to-day lives despite the absence of a shred of evidence of it over the entire course of history. And it's not like nobody was looking.

The reason the "new atheists" as so shrill and strident about the fact that there are no gods (yes, we call conclusions reached after thorough study of overwhelming evidence "facts") is not that we hate religious people. It's not that we, as the author of this article believes, "display a credulous and childlike faith, worship a certainty as yet unsupported by evidence." In fact, every available bit of evidence points to no gods.

Before memetics, it was puzzling to see that so many people believed in something that wasn't real. But now we understand the dynamics of mind viruses and how certain ideas catch on regardless of how true they are. The god meme grew from below, out of people's desire to have a simple explanation of things they didn't understand, and from above, as priests and politicians found they could use it to control people. Which they still do. There's a reason churches are tax exempt.

No, the reason we are shouting so loud that there is no god is that we believe everything will work better if people think and act based on reality rather than on fantasy. It makes me nauseous when I see the President of the United States talk about his imaginary friend. What other ridiculous things does he believe and how do they factor into his decision making? How much did fairy stories influence Bush to get us into two wars? And we won't even talk about the beliefs of the kids who crashed five planes on Sept. 11.

The "new atheists" see the tipping point coming and we want to kill the god meme before it kills us. We have important decisions to make and I'd rather not have my elected officials making them based on chicken entrails.

As for the "new agnostic," let me offer Ron Rosenbaum a better definition: An atheist who's afraid to tell his mother. Ron, grow a pair.

$2500 Six-handed Limit Hold 'Em today

I wish all the events were six-handed. The more players at the table the more you have to fold and the more boring the game is. Six-handed events have more action and finish faster than nine- or ten-handed events. Now if we could only convince Harrah's...

The event starts at 5 p.m. and I will be tweeting my progress as quietlion.

WSOP event #5: $1500 NLHE

I strolled into this event just as level two was beginning. We started with 4500 chips (all the events start with three times the buy-in amount in tournament chips) and I began a steady climb to about 10k by the middle of level five, when I lost a series of small pots and had about 6500 when the following hand occurred:

100/200 blinds, 25 ante. Not particularly active player, actually I guy I know from gambling in the casino and who isn't a professional poker player, raises to 600 in the hijack (two to the right of the button). I call with A9h on the button and the blinds fold. The flop comes 952 with two clubs. He bets 1000 and I move in for 4900 more. He has me covered by a few hundred. He makes the call with A4 offsuit. Turn 4, river 4 and I Go Home Now.

Next event tonight at 5pm: 2-7 triple draw lowball.

More on the Washington State Supreme Court case

We had a great time down in Olympia. The State Supreme Court was just like the US one, with nine Justices firing questions at the attorneys for an hour. I think the State's case rests on the Court deciding that non-economic interests dominate the ban on Internet gambling. To do that, I think the legislators would have to have had a reasonable belief that Internet gambling could not be regulated in such a way as to make it as safe as the gambling allowed in the state, which is pretty much everything.

I can't see any reasonable way to believe that. All kinds of commerce takes place over the Internet and regulations are working fine. As Justice Johnson pointed out, his daughter could just as easily squander money buying shoes from Nordstrom.com as playing online poker. Washington could easily require gambling sites to require age and identity verification that would work better than brick-and-mortar casinos.

When I took a seat in the third row for the hearing, I accidentally took the seat of Attorney General  Rob McKenna, not realizing his notebook was leaning up against the armrest. He graciously sat next to me. After the hearing I said, "Pretty interesting case." He mulled it over. I said, "I am so sick of hearing 'crack cocaine of gambling.' " He smiled. His job is just to represent the law, but I can't think there's much political will behind keeping people from playing online poker.

If you'd like to follow the case, go here : http://templeofjustice.org/2010/rousso-v-state/

Rally to overturn Washington State's prohibition of online poker May 27

Come to the Poker Player Alliance’s Rally for Poker on May 27^th at 10:00 a.m. on the north steps of the Capitol Building in Olympia. We will be rallying to show our support for Lee Rousso as he challenges Washington’s anti-online poker law in front of the state Supreme Court. Phil Gordon and I plan to be there along with former Senator Alfonse D'Amato.

While not absolutely necessary, it is greatly helpful if you contact the PPA via email at WashRally2010@theppa.org to register your attendance. Please include your full name and a telephone number where you can be reached. Your information will be kept confidential and it will only be used to provide you with more details about the rally as the date approaches.

We look forward to seeing you as we join together to say that Poker Is Not A Crime! Thank you for your support.

Details:

• If you want to view the Supreme Court arguments you need to be at the Court House in Olympia by 9:00 AM on Thursday, May 27th to get a seat in the courtroom.
• The post-hearing rally will begin immediately following the Supreme Court arguments on the courthouse steps. Estimated time for the rally is 10:00 AM.
• PPA will supply custom made "Poker is NOT a Crime" T-Shirts to the first 100 members at the courthouse.
• Snacks and beverages will also be provided.

 Location:

Washington State Supreme Court Complex

415 13th Ave SE

Olympia, WA 98501