February 1, 2010
Let us prey…
pred-a-to-ry: adj. 1) a: of, relating to, or practicing plunder, pillage, or rapine: using violence or robbery for aggrandizement; b: disposed or showing a disposition to injure or exploit others for one’s own gain; 2) DESTRUCTIVE, HARMFUL, INJURIOUS; 3) living by predation . . . .
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary
YOU GOTTA hand it to the Arkansas lottery’s director. The man can be honest. The question some of us have is whether he meant to be so honest or if the words just slipped out of his mouth. Here’s what happened:
Ernie Passailaigue met with the lottery’s commission a few days back to update his bosses on how the state’s numbers racket is coming along. It’s definitely making money. Even those of us who were agin the lottery assumed it would. Folks love to gamble. Ask the mob. The problem comes when those who can afford to gamble the least get so deep into the game they lose the grocery money. Or start thinking of the lottery as some kind of serious investment. That way lies Gamblers Anonymous.
But, the director reported, the cheapest lottery game isn’t doing as well as expected. And, according to the main pit boss at the Arkansas lottery, that’s a good thing. To quote the executive director of the Arkansas Lottery: “Anybody in this lottery industry will tell you [that] if a game is predatory, it’s a Cash 3 [or] Cash 4 game, it’s the daily draw games that can be viewed as predatory on low-income, under-highschool-educated folks, minorities.”
Now that’s honesty. The executive director at the Arkansas Lottery says one of the games he touts is predatory. Or, as he tactfully put it, can be viewed as predatory. Is there any other way to view this snare for the poor and gullible?
So, if the Cash 3 game—the twicedaily drawing in which you can bet as little as 50 cents—can be viewed as predatory because the poorest folks can afford it, then why does Arkansas offer it? Well, the excutive director explains again, “There is a demand out there for it; it’s just not a lot, which I think is good.”
Hold on. Give us a minute on this one. 1) Arkansas’ lottery has a game that can be viewed as predatory. Folks who play it are probably low-income and under-educated. 2) It’s a good thing that it’s not as successful as the bigs thought it would be. 3) But there’s a demand for it, so the state will continue to play predator. 4) Anyway, Ernie Passailaigue adds, the game is “doing enough contributing to scholarships.”
We get it now. This is sorta like selling and taxing cigarettes, right?
Cigarette smoking can be viewed as bad for your health. The poor and ill-informed smoke more than most other folks. It’s a good thing when cigarette sales drop. But there’s a demand for those coffin nails, so the state will continue to take its share of the profits.
There’s only one problem with that line of reasoning: Cigarettes were around long before the Arkansas state government. The state hasn’t just introduced cigarettes after they’d been banned for a century, only to unleash the addiction on a new generation. Nor does the state hire marketing people to figure out new and fun ways to get people hooked on tobacco.
Payday lending could also be viewed as predatory. Folks who used that “service” in Arkansas were usually lowerincome and under-educated. And there was a demand for it. And yet the state still put those predators out of business.
There’s a demand for prostitution, too, which can be viewed as predatory. Ditto, illegal drugs. And child labor. And any number of other practices and products that hurt the poor and undereducated more than the schooled and middle class.
What’s the difference? Pimps and drug dealers don’t give part of their take-home pay to the state to pay for scholarships. Hey, maybe if they did, some other Ernie Passailiague could be found to rationalize all that, too.
H/T Arkansas Dem/Gaz
January 27, 2010
Helping in Haiti
From: Walter Stephens, M.D.
Date: Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 6:55 PM
I cannot fight it any longer. I am going to Haiti.
I came up with a hundred practical and logical reasons that I shouldn’t and couldn’t go. However, there was one overwhelming reason I have to go … people are suffering.
When Matt Tincher and I started CMI Medical Missions it was to minister to the suffering in under resourced areas of the world. The amount of suffering and pain that is going on in Haiti right now is unimaginable to me. CMI Medical Missions will be partnering with Bethanie Ministries about 100 miles outside of Port-au-Prince.
Apparently there are thousands there that have fled from the city seeking food and shelter. There are over a thousand people living on a soccer field at the mission without tents or much food, much less medical care.
Matt and I will be leading a small group leaving Feb. 8th and returning the 14th. I would like to invite anyone that can go with us and help. We will be providing medical care, distributing food and helping out wherever it is needed.
The people of Haiti have got to be wondering, “Where is God and does He even care?” I want to show these people that God is right there and He loves them. I do not know a better way for me to show them this than to go there myself and use the skills that God has given me. I would also ask for your prayers and donations for medical supplies for us to take with us.
If you would like to make a donation you can give to:
CMI Medical Missions
Christopher Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 555
Mt. Juliet, TN 37121
