Is it Gambling or Not?
You make your own decision but I would say so-called Internet Cafe Sweepstakes centers feature gambling as their only source of income. This interesting article from Bloomberg Businessweek describes a phenomena that is currently 5 to 6 years old: gambling centers that describe themselves as internet cafes and rip people off, mostly the poor and elderly, on a daily basis. States, like Florida, that prohibit gambling, have seen a proliferation of these shopping center casinos for years. The owners set up shop in strip shopping malls right next to dry cleaners, pizza joints and sports bars. They exist in mostly suburban neighborhoods. They are known as “pop-up” casinos.
Were you to visit one of these centers you would need to buy a certain amount of “internet time” and sign a waiver that states “I am not gambling”. You would sit down at a computer terminal and play games meant to mimic actual slot machines and video poker games. Most likely you would NOT surf the internet. In fact according to the industry, you’ve purchased sweepstakes entries not gambling tokens. This is how pop-up casinos get around anti-gambling laws.
James Mecham, the managing director of SweepsCoach, a Sacramento-based company that provides startup services to new sweepstakes cafes, says he has helped open some 200 around the country in recent years. Mecham says the number continues to grow and estimates that there are now somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 operating in the U.S.
Mecham apparently has little to no ethics according to another quote from the Bloomberg article:
Customers are easy to find. Mecham says sweepstakes cafes cater primarily to two demographics: the old and the poor. “Lower-income customers are coming in because they’re bad at math,” he says. “It’s like the lottery. The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. They’re coming in to try and catch a big break.”
Isn’t Meachem just so freaking sweet?
Question is does the public give a damn? The FBI recently shut down three popular online gambling sites. Glenn Greenwald of Salon has a civil liberties take on the shutdowns here (well worth reading).
The pertinent question is: what are America’s priorities? Our government seems to be heavily involved in legislating morals when it comes to adult porn and gambling yet we hear not a peep about so-called Big Government from the right. So, two-faced much right-wingers?
Then again, a product specially built to target the poor and the elderly seems ultra-slimy.
What do you think?
Health Care is a No Brainer
I’m totally amazed at the number of Americans who don’t seem to give a damn about the quality of health care in our country. I’m left to assume that many Americans are just plain non-empathetic assholes. Maybe you’ve never experienced anything in your life that impacted you negatively or your cadillac plan covers all probabilities.
If so, good for you. The majority of Americans would have a hard time surviving the events that have occurred in my family. At age 3 my only niece was diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer. Neuroblastoma is mostly a pediatric cancer and if not diagnosed extremely early (infancy) a death sentence. My niece was stage 4 when diagnosed and underwent heartbreaking treatment and medical trials. At one time she was considered radioactive. She died at age 7 in 2006. Had it not been for the Ronald McDonald House and the Children’s Cancer Society my brother and his wife would have been left with life-changing medical bills.
And so it was serendipity that allowed my brother and his wife to “survive” the death of their child. It’s ok, then right?
In February 2010 my brother suffered a massive stroke. He was left paralyzed on his left side and spends most of his time in a wheelchair. His employer terminated his employment within 2 weeks of his hospitalization. My brother was left with no health care until his wife was able to add him to her policy . She works part-time and was left with $75 a month after adding my brother to her health care.
They were told that they didn’t quality for Medicaid because they had 2 cars ( a 1998 Camry and a 2000 Ford Truck, both paid for). My brother eventually qualified for Social Security disability but he can’t be on Medicare until two years have passed since he was deemed disabled. Say what?
So they scrounge and are lucky that my father can supplement their limited income each month so they won’t lose they home (they have a 14-year-old son).
Less government or screw everyone that can’t afford adequate health care? Should be a no brainer but I’ve found that many of my fellow Americans consider government health care to be socialist or marxist in nature. Either these people have no worries or just don’t give a damn. Their minds are small and don’t allow them to think outside the status quo. Shame on them.
Raining and Storming
Temperature dropped 20 degrees. Outside talking to the neighbors when lightning flashed, rain fell and wind whipped. Everyone went home including me. My 14-year-old daughter wanted to go out cuz she loves the rain. Me too but not with lightning. So no she couldn’t go. Too bad; I love the extremes of weather. Beautiful and dangerous.
Last July: tornado which led to a new roof, etc. Neighborhood in total disarray. Led to neighborhood get togethers; led to friends that hold secrets. Wow, the power of weather!
Do You Know Your Mother?
I’m so happy for all of you that will experience a Hallmark Mother’s Day! You can just see the Getty image of a happy family gathering to celebrate this man-made holiday: the young couple with the infant or toddler visits the grandparents and grandma makes everyone’s fave meal. Perfect! Picture taken and preserved for prosperity.
Wish it was me. Yes I’m bitter. My mother died two years ago. Not that we ever had picture-perfect Mother’s Day celebrations. It wasn’t until my daughter was born 14 years ago that my mom and I decided the past had never occurred: the past between she and I. We concentrated on my daughter. My mom was a much better gramma than she was a mother.
Still she was one of my best friends for the last 12 years of her life. We talked every day, exchanged recipes, gossiped, discussed current events, vented about life and loved my daughter.
I miss her. I miss the discussions we might have had: the reality of our past.
How’s Your School District?
How’s your school district? Our district sucks. We live in the southland of a major metro area. While our district isn’t quite as substandard as the urban core district, we barely achieved accreditation in the past several years. The district was reconfigured last year: a high school was closed and converted to a middle school. One of the two middle schools was closed and converted to a “catch-all”: gifted education, alternative students and administrative offices.
My daughter attends the gifted program and the students were informed 2 weeks ago that the year would be cut short by 4 weeks because the middle school is closing again. The gifted program will return to housing in a small inadequate space they inhabited for years.
I’ve homeschooled my daughter for 4 years (expect for the gifted program; we’re still taxpayers after all). I read an article recently that stated that there were two main reasons parents *choose* to home school their children: 1) parents want their children taught from a Biblical perspective and 2) parents want to keep their children from mingling with minority kids.
What a load of bullshit! I’ve homeschooled my daughter because the level of education she can receive from our district is piss poor. The two or three secular private schools in our area want college tuition to attend and I don’t believe in religious education. (I sent my daughter for one year to a Catholic private school. The teacher in third grade was fantastic but overall the school was deficient). Plus I discovered I’m suspicious of religious education or maybe just Catholic instruction since I disagree with so much of their tenets.
My daughter will be entering the ninth grade next year. She and I are both weary of home school. I’d like her to attend the 4 years of high school at the same school. Don’t know at this point what we will do. Move you say? You must not be one of those Americans crushed by the Great Recession.
Mother’s Day
It’s kinda early this year. My mom died two years ago on April 28, 2009. So the month of April sucks for me. And here comes Mother’s Day. Were she alive we would be taking bagels and spicy cream cheese to visit; she would have fresh strawberries to dip in chocolate. But she’s not with us so I plant tulips for her and place solar butterflies in the flower pots (she loved butterflies).
My mom died when she did because she didn’t have a cancer screening for colon cancer: by the time she went to the doctor the cancer had spread to her liver. Too late. I didn’t know it though: the doctors performed unnecessary surgery. They robbed her family of proper goodbyes. Morbid maybe to have this in the front of my mind. I can’t forgive the doctors yet. My family misses her so much.
My mom would always bake lasagna for my husband’s birthday, his favorite dish. I haven’t been able to make it for him yet, maybe this year. My mom and daughter were extremely close: she spent every other weekend at Gramma’s house. My daughter cries in private.
How about your Mom?
Teenage Angst?
Planted flowers, read a lot. Going to Applebee’s tomorrow because I love their club sandwich. Last week gifted daughter caught shoplifting lip gloss at K-Mart. Grounded for 3 weeks but hasn’t had much of an effect: still doing whatever the hell she wants to do. Only child, 14 years old. Involved with a 17-year old guy from her gifted class that is a liar and a manipulator.
What to do? She thinks he is “effing amazing” according to Facebook. In reality he is a user and most likely a sociopath. According to his mother he went to court three days ago because he was “caught up” in a FBI surveillance for child porn and they even confiscated his computer. According to what the asshole told my daughter he went to court for sexting. This freaking predator is Nick Yamamoto of Kansas City, MO. Problem: the asshole is a predator yet my daughter defends him.
Tell Me What's Goin' On 