Lawmakers choose to love pork
It's 2008, an election year. We are likely in a recession. Some lawmakers want to get re-elected.
That means, it's time to file their "pork" projects, earmarks, projects designed to waste your taxpayers' dollars.
Sure, Clinton, Obama, McCain, and Paul have denounced earmarks, but the rest of Congress are not following suit.
After the Senate did a thumbs down on a ban of legislative earmarks in next year's budget, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi surrendered as well by shelving the idea of a one-year moratorium.
Of course, lawmakers insist that earmarks means jobs back in their home districts. As long it is sensible and justified.... of course we have seen examples of pet projects that border on the insane and idiotic.
In addition, I do have to rant on one thing that happened this past weekend. I took a few friends down to Atlantic City and we had a good time. I did pretty well at the blackjack tables and just before heading back home, I was at one table where everyone was doing great. Over half of the table decided to take their winnings and leave, and three russian players (all brothers) took the seats.
Then they decided to screw the usual rules and make lousy decisions. On most cases they follow the "book." In other cases, they started to make dumb choices and screw the rest of the table. In the end, I lost half of my winnings. They berated one player for splitting two 6's against a dealer showing a 2. Of course, if you have a 12 against a dealer showing a 2, you can choose to hit or stay. Some players would adopt a policy of staying or hitting on a 12 if a dealer is showing a 2. But if you have a split-combination, then you should split against a 2. The russians weren't happy, and they were being obnoxious and strong-headed.
I finally decided it was time to go when one of them decided to stay on 14 with the dealer showing a Queen. Of course, if he had hit, the next card was a 4 giving him an 18. The dealer would have later busted if he took that card. Instead, the dealer won against everyone except me (I had a higher number). If he took the card, then the dealer would have busted, so everyone would have won.
I think in the best interests of everyone playing blackjack, never have more than one russian playing at the table. If you have more than one, they're a dangerous factor.
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