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‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,’
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| '... And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air ...' |
Have a happy holiday! And if you’re shooting off fireworks, please be careful. They are not toys.
JL
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Are
You Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?
The Supreme Court may have done the correct thing in regard to voters’ rights when it shot down ‘independent legislative theory’ in a decision last week, but there is no word to describe most of their other recent decisions other than saying they ‘suck.’
Their decisions on affirmative action, student loan forgiveness, a business’ right to decline to serve someone for gender or religious reasons, their expansion of First Amendment rights for those who use them to attack and harass others, and of course their ongoing opposition to abortion rights and gun control show how out of touch the SCOTUS is with the American people. It is as if they are wearing blinders to what is going on in society around them. Even when they shot down ‘independent legislative theory’ in regard to elections, they left the door open for future litigation of that theory in other areas, not clearly defining the limits of State court authority over legislatures.
A voter doesn’t have to disagree with all of the Supreme Court’s actions, but attentive citizens should recognize that most of them are offensive to the needs and wants of the American people. Reform of the SCOTUS, including term limits and the addition of more Justices as discussed earlier in Jackspotpourri are needed now more than ever.
You can … and should … help! Telling this to President Biden and to your Senators and Congressional Representatives can convince them to get moving on such reform without delay. Send them an email or leave a phone message. Just go to their websites to do this before you get up from your computer today! (I’ve just done that, but not to my two reactionary Republican Senators to whom writing is a waste of time.) Each Senator and Representative has their own site, and President Biden can be reached at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!
JL
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Gambling or Wagering or Betting (and a Couple of True Stories)
… have never been totally honorable pastimes. Still, some folks gather pleasure from competing with the odds of winning just as other enjoy playing tennis, chess, or numerous adult low stakes card games, where all they might risk losing is a few dollars. Others are content with merely being fans of sports teams and vicariously sharing in their victories or losses.
To get one’s kicks from gambling, however, one has to risk something meaningful. That’s where the thrill comes from. That’s what casinos, pari-mutual racetracks, and lotteries provide: a chance to win money but also to risk losing your money!
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| Florida Lottery Ticket |
Some fools purchase hundreds of dollars’ worth of State lottery tickets weekly hoping to win ‘big,’ where the odds of winning even anything at all, let alone the publicized million-dollar jackpots, are minimal. (Only about 50% of the money wagered in most State lotteries is returned as prizes and that includes prizes equal to the cost of the ticket!) Too often that means risking money needed to support other important family needs. Very, very, very, very few lottery players are winners, of even just a few bucks, over time.
(True Story #1) I once encountered a neighbor in the lottery line at a supermarket. I was cashing a $1 ticket which paid back $1 to me as a winner, what gamblers call a ‘push.’ He was checking on whether any of his whole pile of tickets were winners and purchasing $50 more of them. I knew this fellow worked part-time as a dealer in a nearby casino and knew the odds. 'How come you do this with such a small chance of winning when far more is paid out at the casinos, like where you work? You should know better,’ I asked. ‘If you’re gambler,’ he replied, ‘you can’t stay away from any chance to bet on something, regardless of the odds.’
Besides casinos, racetracks and lotteries, online sports betting sites are today’s greatest temptation. Their ready availability, heavily advertised on TV and the internet, gives them the aura of respectability. Sanitizing something that traditionally has been sleazy doesn’t change it. Does online sports betting deserve that sense of respectability, especially when those of any age actually have ready access to them?
(Besides sports betting sites, there are numerous sites providing online access to the non-sports ‘games’ available in ‘traditional’ casinos, but this article is limited to those devoted to sports betting.)
The gambling industry recognizes this and politely refers to what they offer as ‘gaming.’ This might even appeal to the generations that grew up with video ‘games’ at home and be taken by them to be the next step in a natural progression of playing 'games.'
Those who sponsor gambling opportunities always take their ‘cut’ or ‘vigorish’ as some professionals refer to it, so they are never losers. And all too often, those connected with providing opportunities to gamble have had shady backgrounds. Supposedly, that is no longer the case with casinos and online wagering sites, but who really knows that for sure?
Right now, anyone (who checks a box saying they are age 18 or older and has access to a credit or debit card) can wager on any professional or collegiate sport event online. Children growing up see that and accept gambling as normal. It isn’t, and it should not be. And it should be stopped. It will be, I am sure, but only after a major scandal takes place. Mark my words. That will happen.
In the 1919 World Series, the Chicago White Sox were bribed by the ‘mob’ to lose. No one expected that to happen. And the New York college basketball ‘fixes’ of the Sixties: How did they happen? Read in the newspapers today about the college and professional athletes getting suspended for wagering, not necessarily on their own games, but nevertheless trying to beat the odds on some other event. They have been infected with something that’s not healthy for sports nor for society in general. Children growing up see all of this going on and watch the commercials on TV seeking bettors for wagering sites, even during time-outs of athletic events. This is unhealthy and wrong!
(True Story #2) Many years ago, a neighbor’s thirteen-year old son, apparently provided with an overly excessive allowance, started wagering on New York Yankee baseball games. In those days, it meant doing so through a bookie, which was illegal, but not uncommon. He got in deeper than he expected to and ended up owing money to his bookie in an amount far in excess of what his allowance provided.
One morning I saw a lineup of cars in front of my neighbor’s house. The afternoon before, the son had walked to the Northern State Parkway (it was on Long Island where this took place), and strode out into traffic waiving a toy, but realistic appearing, pistol. A State trooper stopped him and the boy pointed his pistol directly at the officer who fired first. The boy’s gambling habit had led to his ‘death by police’ suicide.
This is a true story. I knew the family involved. No teenager should be lured into the habit of gambling, no matter how sanitized it might appear. And that’s what sports betting sites ads on TV, and elsewhere, do.
Think about this story the next time you see an advertisement on TV for FanDuel, BetMGM, WynnBet, or any of the others, and think of the children who are watching them.
JL
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Housekeeping on the Blog
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. (You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com .)
Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.
If you want to send someone the blog, exactly as you are now seeing it, with all of its bells and whistles, you can just tell folks to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or by providing a link to that address in your email to them. I think this is the best method of forwarding Jackspotpourri.
There’s
another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it
though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri
is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with
the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to
list up to ten email addresses to which the blog will be forwarded, along with
a comment from you. Each will receive a link to the textual
portion only of the blog that you now are reading, but without the
illustrations, colors, variations in typography, or the ‘sidebar’ features such
as access to the blog’s archives.
Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting, but I recommend sending them the link.
Again,
I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from
reading it.
Have a nice holiday!
JL
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