I don't expect this to be one of my more popular posts, and, possibly might lose me some respect within this circle of commentators. I've refrained here on many occasions to get into subjects that would draw attention to my political/philosophical views, trying instead to keep the discussion focused primarily on the Sabres in specific and the sport in general. If anyone wants to know my politics there's a slew of articles here that will elucidate them in painstaking detail.
So, that said, I find it really sad that Rick Tocchet, et. al. are facing all sorts of charges and, most probably, jail time because of placing bets on sporting events. Personally, I don't have a lot of respect for the law as a mechanism for dispensing justice. Hell, that statement alone would take weeks of writing extensively just to parse the words used to convey the depth of meaning that I'm implying. Defining the word justice alone, outside of the context of human-enforced law is worthy of multiple blog posts in and of itself.
Morality (defined as that which separates right from wrong) cannot be legislated. Gambling is no more wrong than obeying the speed limit is right. Both conditions are arbitrarily defined by those who have the privilege to enforce that definition. So, the fact that this has become an issue is nothing more than noise in the service of the state trying to justify it's own existence and a way for busy-body do-gooders to force their desires and worldview onto someone else. This is a process I despise, and yet, unfortunately it is de rigeur and becoming even more so everywhere I turn. The cops involved in this investigation will say that they are only enforcing 'the will of the people,' all of whom they were empowered to 'protect and serve.' It's disturbing that we no longer have 'peace officers' but 'law enforcement officers.' There are two fundamentally different functions at play there. The former are charged with keeping the peace via crime investigation and dispute resolution, while the latter are charged with enforcing the rules. The former truly serve the people while the latter only serve the rule makers.
In the same week where Britney Spears is hounded for the non-crime of not having her child in a car seat, we have another non-crime blazing across the headlines in the hockey world, namely a bunch of people getting together and betting with their own money on the outcome of sporting events they are not personally involved in.
Looking at this from an economic perspective, is placing a bet on the outcome of a football game really fundamentally different than choosing to start a business selling shoes? Both are educated guesses about the future events.. one the relative number of points scored by a football team, the other the amount of money people will spend buying particular shoes. All of human endeavor is a guess about future events. Again, why is there a distinction between these types of human behavior, where there is no theft of property (communists please stay quiet, property and profit are not theft no matter how many times you say it!!!!!).
Politically, I belong to a small group of people who consider themselves anarcho-capitalists, and who believe the absolute sovereignty of the individual forms the basis for all constructive and peaceful human endeavors. Spend some time at the Mises Institute for a primer.
The State of New Jersey is acting like the aggressive bunch of thugs and highwaymen it truly is here. One of the axioms I live my life by is "Don't Steal (or kill). The government hates competition." I find a tremendous amount of irony in the fact that state run lotteries have the worst odds of winning of any game I know of and yet those are legal, while playing roulette or blackjack at a casino is venal and wrong (even though the house odds in those games are 5.26% and ~0.5% respectively, depending on the rules). One of the bright spots about the rise of Poker as an acceptable activity is that some of the PR damage to the league might be mitigated.
So, these people will either go to jail or be made to prostrate themselves on the mercy of the public opinion court (doing community service or some other way of 'repaying society,' even though they probably didn't cheat anybody) all for engaging what is a perfectly normal and reasonable human behavior.
So, again, could someone please explain to me why we should give a rat's ass about this?
Ta,
p.s. I understand James Mirtle's issue with this. There will be a certain amount of righteous indignation thrown around and false virtuousness pandered to that will be wholly disgusting and nigh inappropriate... along with being highly effective propaganda for the Nanny State. It will suck for the game, the league, and the fans. ESPN will have a field day... that piece of leftist shite.
p.p.s. I'm sure that the police in question have some ulterior motives for leaking this to the public... look for some New Jersey DA to make a run towards a higher office based on this incident. It's commonplace for DA's to rise politically on the backs of people involved in this kind of 'criminal activity.' That fascist blowhard Guiliani did it, Eliot Spitzer is following in the sewer Rudy carved and I'm sure there's someone in Jersey wanting to emulate his heroes. After all, if Spitzer can get Martha Stewart, why can't some other tax-funded leech get The Great One?
p.p.p.s. If you can't tell, part of the reason I didn't want to comment on this is that it's really no good for my blood pressure. I stopped blogging about current events and politics because it was too painful and I found my days were ruined after I'd finished a post about some horrible thing done by some F$%ktwit government stooge. So, I really hope that this doesn't end too badly for those involved but my gut feeling is similar to Mr. Mirtle's, that this is going to be a horrible thing for everyone, including hockey fans.
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