January, 2007

Ireland — 2 Comments
22
Jan 07

Snookered

blarney 22

There are plenty of things about Ireland that are the same as the States. There’s plenty of the same terrible restaurants here: McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, TGIFriday’s. I can watch a ton of bad U.S. television (this actually warrants its own post). People complain about the same things – politicians, weather, traffic, sports, cost of living.

Of course, much is also different. I bagged my own groceries today. I drove on the left side of the road. The barbers all seem to be young eastern european women. We use phrases such as “I’ll have chicken goujon”, which the boy likes to say, and “Yes, I’ll have another pint”, which I like to say.

So tonight we’re having dinner and there comes a knock on the door. I go to answer it and find a teen with a pen and paper in hand, clearly about to ask me to sign up for something. This happened all the times in the States, too. Usually a magazine subscription for the baseball team, or some chocolate to support the local school. In those cases, I normally try to save the kid his breath and tell him I’m not interested before he can get too far into his rehearsed speech.

Why didn’t I do that this time? I guess because it’s Ireland and I can’t be so sure this is the same. So I let the kid take his deep breath and launch into this pitch. And he tells me he is looking to raise money to fund a trip around the U.K. for his under-16 snooker team to compete against
other teams. And there was a raffle and prizes and …

Yes, he said snooker. I made him repeat that part.

Snooker. As in, that crazy billiards game with a few numbered balls and the 72 red balls racked up in some wacky configuration played on a table bigger than your swimming pool.

Well, that *is* different. An under-16 snooker team? For some reason all I could picture were 10 kids that look like Butch from the Little Rascals loitering in front of the pool hall trying to scare up a game. Are there snooker coaches? Are there overbearing snooker dads who make the kids practice drills for hours and yell at these hypothetical snooker coaches when they don’t put their kid in a match at the right time? Do they all get snooker trophies at the end of the year with their names engraved on them? Do they have “Most Improved” or “Best Sportsmanship” awards? I wonder if they wear the theatre usher outfits the pros wear.

Luckily for the kid, I’d been watching some snooker in the last month. Some U.K. Championship something-or-other. They showed it every night for at least a week on one of the BBC Channels. And i’ll admit, I got hooked. It was riveting. A bit slow. More strategy than our billiards.

I looked down at the kid signup sheet in his hand. He had a list of names, addresses, and amounts. Every amount was 10 euros.

I reached for my wallet. “You have change for a 20?”

The kid broke in to a smile. “Yeah, can I get your name….”

Politics — 2 Comments
20
Jan 07

Signing Statements and Boiling Frogs

So here I sit in Dublin, catching up on Christmas whiskey (thanks, hdouble) and Google reader after a long and trying week in the salt mines. and everything I read and hear from the states is upside-down, nonsensical. It snowed in Los Angeles this week while it was 70 degrees in New York last week. People are dying in attempts to win video game systems. Apple is making mobile phones. Doomsday clocks are getting moved. Democrats are daring to ask “omg!!!wtf?!?” and the feds appear to be starting after ewallet companies in an attempt to stop your evil poker habit, you evil sinner.

This government has been giving basic citizen rights the boiling frog treatment – eroding them bit by bit, piece by piece. A little warrentless wiretap here, a little mail opening there. Add a dash of intrusive but ineffective airport security, some cold war era “Do you have your papers?” questions at the border. Soon we’ll be making sure you speak the right language, transact in the correct currency with approved merchants using sanctioned methods, consume appropriate consumables in the correct quantities, and gamble, if you must, only on activities that have powerful political lobbies which have secured preferential moral and legislative consideration.

Americans have always believed we set the standard for human rights, liberty, freedom and opportunity in the world. but this is not the case. not anymore. we’ve allowed the current administration to lead us away from those concepts that we were always taught were so core as to be not up for debate. ingrained in our system. but here we are “debating” warrentless wiretapping, suspension of habeas corpus, judicial and congressional oversight. and you know about the signing statements, right?

Of course, those of us with an interest online poker have additional perspective on the issues of freedom and rights. as the ewallet companies react to the latest arrests, analysis of the future of the online business (and in many ways, the business of poker in general) is in full swing and reflects a variety of emotions – confusion, panic, dismissal, anger, defiance, resignation.

Me? I’m just tired. I’m tired of trying to make sense of a government policy that turns ordinary citizens enjoying a mentally stimulating and challenging game into potential criminals. I’m tired of the morality legislation game played by politicians trying to “resonate with the base”. I’m tired of those same politicians double-checking their lobbist scorecard to see who is paying what to get which bill passed or killed. I’m tired of an American public that is all too happy to choose policital sides and vilify the opposition at all costs, regardless of actual policy.

It’s strange to be here, in Ireland, as this Neteller situation unfolds. To be both outside the country and
somewhat disconnected from the U.S., while at the same time being right in the middle of the action in my everyday life. Trying to explain the government policy to my Irish colleagues can be a challenge. Why is the U.S. uptight about this? Why is the U.S. uptight about so many things the U.S. is uptight about? How can other forms of gambling have carve-outs, but not poker? Etc, etc, etc. How does one answer these questions repeatedly without getting cynical?

In the end, while we’re all closely watching the ewallet situation, don’t lose site of the bigger picture: the people and the system that brought it to you, you evil sinner.