Saturday, 17 May 2003
Will the mystery blogger please stand up:
A hearty g'day to readers from Karmic Inquisition who found themselves sent here by the spinning MysteryBlog wheel. (The obligatory joke: "Nobody expects readers from the Karmic Inquisition!") Feel free to wander around and explore the blog; you'll find travelogues from Australia and other parts unknown, day-to-day adventures of an American expat Down Under, random thoughts about foreign policy and its effects on the foreigners, and other assorted essays, mumbles, and rants. Enjoy!
- Posted by Scott Forbes at 7:37 am. comments.
Saturday, 17 May 2003
Of Vice and Men:
There's been much ado in the blogosphere about ex-drug czar Bill Bennett and his $8 million gambling losses, but to me the real shocker is this part of the story (from msnbc.com):
Bennett has long been known to be part of a small-stakes poker game in
Washington with Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Associate Justice Antonin
Scalia and lawyer Robert Bork.
Get that? William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia are known criminals! I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on at the highest levels of the nation's judicial system! Has this influenced the Court's recent decisions? Were Scalia and Rehnquist blackmailed by Bush supporters who knew their secret vice? Why isn't the "liberal media" screaming and demanding a long drawn-out Kenneth Starr inquisition that destroys the lives of everyone it touches? Why isn't local DA following the "zero-tolerance" policies that Bill Bennett himself called for as drug czar? Somewhere in an alternate universe Bill Bennett is being hauled off to jail for possession of poker chips and playing cards, and the feds are seizing his house!
"The non-addicted or casual [gambler] is likely to have a still-intact family, social and work life. These are the users who should have their names published in local papers. They should be subject to drivers' license suspension, employer notification, overnight or weekend detention, eviction from public housing, or forfeiture of the cars they drive while [gambling]."
—Bill Bennett, give or take a few words
According to the MSNBC story, Bennett, Scalia and Rehnquist (oh my) were regular participants in illegal gambling—not a wholesome state-sanctioned casino or lottery, but a blatantly illegal backroom speak-easy "Richard Scaife sent me" den of iniquity and sin! Make your blood boil! Will Rehnquist and Scalia resign? Will they recuse themselves from cases involving gambling? If, say, Teddy Kennedy had let slip that he, Ginsberg, and Souter get together and smoke a joint every now and then, the conservative media would be baying like wolves to throw them out of office and spin conspiracy theories about perversions of justice. Where are the Morals Police when it's time to investigate one (no, wait, four) of their own? Where are the Clear Channel-sponsored events where liberals work themselves into a righteous lather and tear up their copies of Bennett's Book of Virtues?
Oh, but wait: This was a low-stakes poker game! Well that makes all the difference, doesn't it? It's a good thing we distinguish between "low-stakes" and "high-stakes" in Bennett's moral code, because otherwise we might be locking up marijuana users next to heroin dealers. We wouldn't want to overcrowd our prisons with harmless low-stakes gamblers, would we? Goodness, no. Besides, folks, gambling is a rich man's vice—as long as you can afford to spend $8 million on your depraved hobby, it's perfectly all right with Moral Crusader Bill. A bankrupt woman who's spent all her money on chemotherapy and needs marijuana to keep food down? Off to the gallows, you hellcat! But if Bennett's got the money to burn—if instead of, say, putting 100 children through college that paragon of "virture for thee" drops a few million tokens into the slot machines at Harrah's, well, heck, he's hurting no one but himself.
Our nation's drug laws are badly, badly in need of reform, and it's people like Bill Bennett who made them that way. If he spent just one lousy day behind bars for every life he's ruined with his draconian mandatory-sentencing zero tolerance drug policies, he'd have a life sentence. And yet that pretentious Puritan dares not only to walk among us preaching virtue, but to conceal his own vices when it furthers his interests. His belated "gosh, I'm not setting a good example—no more gambling for me!" is as hollow and self-serving as the rest of his morality, and the only example he sets is a demonstration that law enforcement and blue-nosed moral crusaders should not mix.
But, since the Vast Right-Wing ConspiracyTM controls all our media outlets, I'm sure this shocking story will be ignored while we focus on more pressing matters. I think Bennett should offer a refund to the gullible buyers of his book—if he has any money left over after his latest Vegas binge.
- Posted by Scott Forbes at 6:56 am. comments.
