We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one.

There’s been “Hockey in the Desert” here in eastern Washington for over 20 years, now, with the Tri-City Americans WHL Team.

Yes, the story involves an (eventually) tax-subsidized facility. But they seem to be a better team than this one, even at the lower level.

This facility (Toyota Center, Kennewick, WA) was the site of the 1990 “Goodwill Games” (remember those?) preliminary hockey competition. Watched the USSR team totally pwn the US team one night – and the only conversations I could hear around us was “Where’s Jaaaaannnnneee? What’s Jaaaaannnnnneee wearing?” (Fonda and husband Turner came for part of the game – whoopee).

Moreover, the personal consequences that I described (e.g. poker account showing up in background or credit checks) would be a direct result of state intervention. Today, Pokerstars doesn’t have to disclose my personal information to the government to prove that I’m “qualified” to play, but under the proposed legislation, they would be required to do so.

Those are personal consequences you mentioned from a life choice that affect the chooser. So no, the state doesn’t need to be involved.

Or maybe we should lobby to get online poker playing labeled as a ‘clear threat to national security’ as well. =p

So flashbangs and smoke grenades probably aren’t considered weapons? I wondered how many times those were ‘deployed’.

And to put this report into perspective, how many search warrants for those crime categories were issued, period? I’m guessing that would be much harder to track, but it would add more perspective.

Still reading the report.

so… it’s really ‘they love us for our freedoms’?

“American Freedoms Facilitate Terrorist Recruitment and Operations”

http://mirror.wikileaks.info/leak/us-cia-redcell-exporter-of-terrorism-2010.pdf

Hey, that’s not new — We’ve been barraged with that on NYC buses & trains at least since I moved here five years ago. But apparently they’re now expanding that Bush-ism to the rest of the country via Wal-Mart.

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/dhs-expands-if-you-see-something-say-something-to-walmart-stores-video.php

So I suppose if this can get additional people pissed off about it, perhaps it’s somewhat to my benefit…

Is someone fucking around with your blog, Radley?

Beyond that, there is the issue of data collection on players in a regulated environment. If the fact that I play poker online could be discovered in a background check, it could affect job applications or credit decisions — these prospects are a far larger deterrent to me playing online than the current UIGEA.

My theory is that legalization really benefits just the poker industry (big name poker pros, poker authors, other poker media) rather than people who only earn money by playing poker. Professionals who make paid TV appearances or sell books definitely stand to do better if poker is “legitimized” in the eyes of the general public because they bear almost no cost of the legislation. On the other hand, the “pure” poker player may benefit from an influx of new players, but he/she will definitely assume an additional cost burden.

http://policelink.monster.com/news/articles/147900-man-killed-after-pointing-water-nozzle-at-police

http://forums.officer.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?10-General-Law-Enforcement-Topics

This is off topic, but there was an interesting discussion (now locked) about k9s and drug sweeps at one of these sites this week:

http://policelink.monster.com/topics/79271-high-school-drug-sweep-questions/posts

To paraphrase Sam Clemens: Cops are un-English. They are un-American. They are completely irregular. They are, in fact, French.

I am not kidding. When Bobby Peel first started up police forces in England, traditional conservatives were against it. One guy reputedly said that he would rather have a man’s throat cut in the road before his house, than suffer the all-pervading busybodyness of the police as the poor Frogs had to put up with.

Don’t forget that there was no such thing as uniformed police in any English-speaking country until about 1830.

One last remark, here; I betcha the person who called 911 was a woman.

Which boards – could you provide links?

How on earth did homeland security become the copyright police?

Corporations buy a politician and that’s a good thing?

The Walmart thing is just creepy

I got the same thing as well no matter how I tried to access the Agitator.
Obviously all is well – cuz here I am.

You’re likely correct that the commenter is confused about his friends politics, then again the word “Conservative” just like the word “Liberal” has been bastardized beyond recognition and therefore is essentially meaningless.

True anecdote, I was at a wedding over ten years ago. I, a fresh-faced, liberal, college graduate had a lively discussion with an animated econ professor from NCSU. Our town was floating hundreds of millions of dollars via bonds, to support NCSU’s basketball complex (which happened to be shared by the Carolina Hurricanes NHL franchise.)

I questioned the judgement; after all, my income taxes pay for his salary, as well as buttresses the NCSU A.D. If this was such a fantastic idea, why should my sales taxes do the same?

His response, “There there, my child, you are but a twenty something, I am an economics professor. Those hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds won’t have any direct impact on your life.”

I had no idea the dude was a rock-solid ‘conservative’ until I read an Op-Ed with his picture next to it, about 2 or 3 years ago in the local paper.

He decried- wait for it- frivolous government spending. Which in this case meant education and transportation. Curiously they did not publish my LTE asking them to ask the professor on what planet professional franchises (with essentially a foreign sport) and NCSU’s Dean-Dome-envy were any more practical than an educated populace with reasonable commutes?

But hey, we did win the Stanley Cup 4 years ago, I guess that takes the sting out of being stuck in a parking lot daily.

I’ll give you libertarians credit, y’all don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth. In the case of ‘conservatives,’ not so much. Don’t believe me? I’ve got a stadium in Pittsburg I’d like to sell you.