Let's See: Should We Devote Energy to Al Qaeda? Or Should Be Stop Online Bingo Games!

Don't you love it when the idiots in Washington (both Senate and Reps) toss completely unrelated matters into the same bill?

For example, you probably don't know that the Patriot Act includes a provision to stop over the counter sale of the former effective ingredients in NyQuil and its generics. Yup, we're keeping the world safe for Ear, Nose, and Throat as well as Allergy doctors to maintain their happy income stream.

Today, Bush signed on a new port security (yeah, right, sure... only a teeny tiny fraction of port containers are ever checked) bill that also includes this cute little provision to shutdown Internet gambling. See a piece here at WaPo and another there at Pittsburgh News for details.

Now, mind you, I don't gamble but hey - if people want to lose their money, so what? This is also the height of double standards since so many states make themselves rich from gambling: not just lottery tickets but taking a hunk of offtrack betting and casions.

I guess this bill is supposed to protect stupid people from themselves while also protecting state revenues. And I suspect that part of the reason Washington rushed it through was to keep people going into casinos.