Casinos and Credit

The first casino, the Imperial Palace, in Biloxi, MS. is set to open its doors on Dec. 20, this year, followed by the Palace and Isle of Capri by the end of this month. Mississippi knows how much butter these places furnish for the state budget bread...It's a shame we Alabamians still haven't seen the light. The rant from the religious right is always the same and always far from the truth. For instance, they say the casinos cause a lot of bankruptcies. The truth is, bankruptcy (at an all time high last year, and probably this year too) is a product of the plastic card industry, making about 800 billion dollars a year off of...well, a piece of plastic, and casino folks bankruptcies are like a pea next to the proverbial elephant when it comes to bankruptcy. When you throw your money down the throat of a slot machine, you only walk out broke...Plastic, on the other hand, means you will be paying off forever, and that's why the banking industry is so hell bent on getting rid of greenbacks altogether. Merry Christmas, ya'll!

Strange Trial in Bagdad

I guess I'm past dumbfounded at the antics of Saddam Hussein and, at the same time, amazed at the judicial system of Irag. So far, Hussein has told the judge to go to hell, ranted that his trial was unjust and today, by God and Ali, he is boycotting his own trial! Iraqian spokesmen said they were afraid of the 'image' it would create in the middle east if they drug him in the court room in chains. So they just left him in his cell, I assume, as he didn't show up today. Unbelievable. If the Iraqian court can't control this man because they fear him so much, how in the world are the Iraqian police going to police that large faction of folks over there who still think he was railroaded? We just need to get the hell out of there. Even the president should admit that that little bit of oil Iraq sells to the world supply just ain't worth it...as a matter of fact, it wasn't worth it in the first place.