Over the weekend the FBI seized the domains of the largest internet poker sites. PokerStars and Full Tilt are no longer offfering play to U.S. based players. I work, I pay taxes, I have no other vices except for I enjoy to poker online at my convience from my laptop in my home. I do not need protected, if I don't like a site then I will stop playing there.
I understand the need for revenue but my gov't seems to be a contractor who overpays for materials, labor, and is slow to get anything done. They gladly pass the cost on to me and expect me to work harder to fund their irresponsibility.
It is just mind boggling that child molester's get probation, I can suck down alcohol til I croack, fire up a marlboro blacken my lungs and get cancer, but need protected from the evils of playing poker online, but can drive 15 minutes to casino.
I will sure be glad when I make my first BILLION and can hire lobbyist's to protect me from taxes.
Youll hear no complaints from me. I hate our Government. I do LOVE the few rights our Constitution grants us, but we dont follow that anymore, so for how long will we have those rights? It used to be that you couldnt tax income, but now they take 25% from me. I would love to be saving to my 30k without gettin taxes 25%, it would happen a whole lot faster!
I work at a prison as a nurse. Yesterday, on intake, a guy for 40 years for a Meth bust. Later that day, I intaked a Child Molester, he got 3 years. I also see MANY people get 5-6 years for pot.
5-6 years for pot
3 years for child molesting,
40 for meth.
Dont want to get into details here, but I see MANY MANY murders/child molesters get off easier than drug busts. Does anybody honestly feel that druggies are worse than child molesters/murders? Discusting.
Makes sense?
Execute the rapists/murders/sex offender for the love of God.
Druggies or Drug Lords? I always hear of pot and meth addicts getting off on a fine and probation. That’s a druggie. A 40 year sentence sounds like a Drug Lord. Drug lords put hits on people and get people executed. They push drugs on teenagers that end up becoming prostitutes to pay for their habit. I agree that sex offenders should get much longer sentences, but downplaying a 40 year sentence for a Drug Lord doesn’t sound right either IMO.
He got busted for cooking up a bunch of meth. They are dangerous because Meth labs can explode… but come on…Meth labs are pretty common in my area sadly, and some people get away with just a week in prison, and some people get really busted. But the way the system works is, it actually ends up being more like 20 years with good behavior. I talk to the guy sometimes because hes a offender worker, and he isnt violent at all, you can tell he just likes drugs.
Meanwhile, murders/child molesters are happy that they are getting out after serving less than 10 years. love the system, LOVE IT!!! Justice for all baby, JUSTICE FOR ALL!!!
I spent alot of years let's say partying. I haven't touched anything stronger than in aspirin in a long long time. Since I got married and had a family. In construction I deal with hopeless addicts and alcoholics. I watch them spend ALL their money on drugs and booze. Make $1k or more and be broke on Monday.
Addiction and alcoholism is a disease, we should treat them as such. We need long term drug and alcohol programs that are an alternative to prison. These programs need to be years long and help these individuals to slowly become productive. It cost's $30K plus per year to incarcerate someone. The program my wife and I are working on would be self supporting and provide an alternative to prison. We need to treat the underlying cause not just put fresh paint on it.
I'm no bleeding heart, I am all for locking up violent criminals and sex offenders. In fact I have a 256 grain solution for pedophiles but let's stay PC. We cannot continue to fill prisons full of men it is just not cost effective. As far as problems go I don't focus on the I focus on solutions. I will not say someone should unless I would. My wife is in school for this and soon we will open up our first facility. My County provides funding for these alternatives to incarceration at a rate of $69 per day, $2070 per month. You can see the profit potential and we will be helping to solve a community issue.
GRIDcorp,
Very interesting post. Tell us more about your $69/day/person incarceration solution when you can.
I know of people in Kansas City who have a thriving business housing mentally/emotionally handicapped in group homes. They put 2-3 in one bedroom, and have a housekeeper helper go to each home. A labor intensive and needed service. That is extremely profitable while providing absolutely essential housing.
Sadly, they are now gearing up and buying more homes to house the coming flood of BRAIN-INJURED MILITARY VETS COMING OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.
Please share your plan when you can.
And Josh, looks like you are moving up and getting lots of experience.
My wife is in school and working on a degree that is a combination of criminal justice and social work. Her desire is to work with addicts. I struggled with addiction for years and have been in recocery for almost 7 years. In construction I have a steady stream of people who become projects. It can be frustrating and tedious butit is rewarding to someone overcome such a huge obstacle.
I have an associalte the runs a recovery house in Pittsburgh. The County pays $69 per day, to house them. He also has a team of counselor's that meet with the residents in group and one on one settings. These services are billed to whatever medical coverage the person has. The rate for livivng here is roughly $750 per month non county funded. 5 people will be housed in a three bedroom unit.
This is a very labor intensive business venture. It is not passive income but the potential is huge. The govt is moving toward treatment and only long term options will be successful. As I stated we cannot continue to lock these individuals up and release them with no plan for reintegration. From an honest perspective you cannot release a guy after year or more in jail, with no clothes, no home, no job and expect him to get on his feet. Especially when they are not used to functioning in normal society. Spending time in jail may awaken the individual to the fact that their lifestyle is not working but releasing them to the same place in a worse state will only lead them back.
The plan in a nut shell is to take an individual put them in a supportive enviroment to help them stay clean and sober, get them to work and show them the value of leading a productive life. Over time a year or more the ups and downs will come and go but having a support system that leads to success is a benefit to society.
I forgot to mention that the residential facilities can be located in homes in areas that are considered less desirable for rentals because those you are serving are located in these communities.
GRIDcorp,
Your plan sounds great and hugely beneficial to society. We have a distant family member who just did 7 years of hard-time in a CA. Federal Penitentary FOR HAVING AN UNAUTHORIZED WEAPON. He had a record, and wasn’t supposed to have a weapon at all. But he lives in a cowboy culture where you gotta have your boots, your belt, your jeans, your gun. He got drunk and arrested. Because he had a gun. He had the gun because he was drunk. And stupid.
Six months of alcohol rehab would have done him a lot more good than trying to stay alive in the pen with murderers, gang members, and Neo-Nazis. For 7 years. He is traumatized, and back in society again, drinking. Trying to keep a job.
The system is fatally flawed.
You will be doing a huge public service if you create your half-way home. With drug/alcohol rehab. It is the way of the future. We can not afford the huge cost to our society to keep locking up substance abusers.
I agree 7 years in jail does nothing to fix the problem. Even if a guy has to do time lets say 5 years then 2 for a slow reintegration. It just doesn't make sense to me how the system works. So I will do what I can to affect a change.
Thanks for the support. We are going to getting up and running in the next year or so have some logistical concerns with regulations and staffing. All in due time.
No kdhastedt people lie everyday and don’t go to jail. He is not a druggie anymore than people taking Viagra are druggies. He is going to jail for playing baseball.
He is going to jail because he (1) Violated the league’s substance abuse policy (i.e., he’s a ‘druggie’), (2) lied about it to the league, (3) lied to Congress about it and got caught.
The US Courts are no longer about what’s right and wrong - they’re about who can get the best lawyer to bend the truth and obfuscate.
As for your assertions:
(1) Viagra is a legal drug (with a prescription), steroids are not. Viagra is not on the MLB banned substance lists, steroids are not
(2) He’s not actually going to jail because he lied - he’s going because he did so under oath - you know kinda like Bill Clinton who was impeached for it.
(3) He’s not going to jail BECAUSE he played baseball…he’s going because he chose a career path based on his extreme talent, he rose to the highest level, and signed a contract that includes articles about personal conduct which he did not live up to. Then lied and obfuscated in an attempt to be seen in a light different from the truth. Apparently, baseball is all that he did do correctly.
(4) With any luck, he’ll not go to Cooperstown because he played a kid’s game and cheated to get ahead of others even though he would have, in all likelihood, made the HOF on his talent, statistics, and complete body of work anyway.
Bill Cinton got impeached for having a girl friend. Viagra is a prescription drug just like steriods. People take Viagra everyday without a prescription but the game they play with that is not baseball. If there is a pill that makes you better take it. He is going to jail for playing baseball.
They were both being DBs and they both got caught doing it…“you do the crime”, you do the time. They both raised their right hand and swore to tell the truth and then did not. They both cheated and put themselves above everyone else - they were both ‘smarter’ than everyone else…they got what they deserved (not enough in either case).
I love your opinions that ‘it’s only a crime if you get caught’ and ‘if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying’.
We have differing opinions on this…Bonds is guilty and a proven criminal. Hopefully, he’ll be banned from baseball because he’s stupid and above the law.
I look at it like this. Do you ever get someone who has arrested and you ask them what they did and they say they violated their parole. This is the same thing. They didn’t get arrested because they violated their parole, they got arrested for what they were on parole for drugs, robbery, etc. In this case Clinton and Bonds did get impeached or sent to jail for whatever the conviction is, the underlying crime is Bonds played baseball too well and Clinton had a girlfriend.
Anybody that does steroids or has a girlfriend and is asked about it and tells the truth should go to jail for being stupid enough to say it. Just like anybody that has a girlfriend and does not lie about it should be taken out of the gene pool. Some things the normal response is to lie. Like did you just kill that woman, or was that you coming out of the bordello?
If you can't see the problem here then I can't argue it with you. Bonds is a great player with an asteriks next to his records, he has to live with and we will always wonder.