Weblog Entry - 02/19/2004: "...little Washington?"

[Previous entry: "Further to Tittygate..."] [Main Index] [Next entry: "The Newdow Case on the Pledge of Allegiance"]

02/19/2004 Entry: "...little Washington?"

...little Washington?

Or "...little Washington can do"?

From http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-19-04.html the following lines (Why prohibitions on Internet gambling won't work by Koleman Strumpf, Cato Institute):

"With the steady rise of commercial activity on the Internet, Congress has been moving toward a formal prohibition of online gambling. While such policies might spring from a moral viewpoint, they are unlikely to succeed in limiting online betting. Because Internet gaming operations are often located outside of the U.S., there is little Washington can do to restrict their actions."
Is there really little Washington can do? Then please explain me why since a couple of years countries even like Denmark and the Netherlands, not to speak of other European ones, suddenly pile up new laws and court decisions blueprinted by the Bush Administration. I do not believe in a coincidence.

And "Washington" could always invade us if we do not obey! :-)

PS: Otherwise the Cato Institute article is quite sound, though not of the most radical libertarian sort, which would be more weary of regulation by laws. Why not let full freedom, a real free market, just happen? Because that would preclude the chances of government to make a nice cut on gambling, horny as it is for tax money needed for invasions, oops, for defence. Against criminals. A matter of definition. Aren't there enough laws already to deal with true criminals (not those just acting "illegally", the perpetrators of victimless "crimes" and such)? Thieves, robbers, murderers! Etc. Then these laws should be applied!!! Oh, that would deprive us of our cherished gobierno (all three branches probably), that gubernaculum only needed by sheeple. Well, then of course, we will have to keep it. Who wants to be so mean as to deprive children of their nannies, in the absence of Mother Liberty?!

PPS: Hey, wouldn't the demise of that gobierno not also make disappear a few think tanks..., for lack of funding? But maybe we would not need those anymore? °/°