The Morning Journal has come out against Ohio Issue 3, which I discuss in detail below.

“Well, of course.” you may say.

“How could any self-respecting paper support this flawed attempt to permit casino-style gambling under the guise of education subsidies.”.

And you would be wrong.

Turns out, the Morning Journal’s only objection to Issue 3 is that it doesn’t permit gambling in Lorain county.

They don’t care about the social, criminal and interpersonal problems that the introduction of dedicated gambling venues may cause.

They aren’t concerned about the state’s sponsorship of special interests.

Nope. They just want Lorain to get a piece of the pie.

Driving to work today, I passed a heretofore unseen billboard, entreating me to vote ‘Yes’ on Issue 23.

I tried to look up Issue 23. The most verbose explanation I could dig up is “Shall Ordinance No. 202-05 proposing rezoning property at the corner of Jaeger and Leavitt Roads, be approved?”

Two things struck me about this. First, it is either missing a comma before ‘proposing’ or has an extra one after ‘Roads’.

Second, where is the text of ordinance no. 202-05 that is to be approved? Is the rezoning from commercial to residential, from light business to heavy? From end to demilitarized?

If, as I am to assume from the fact that the sign is directly in front of the land tagged ‘Lighthouse Village’, this is necessary to permit further development, then I am going to support it. Kohl’s if built and already open. Home Depot is coming along nicely. With the lights and traffic already in place from these two stores, additional stores are just going to justify the development of the land.

Besides, it’s right down the street from me, and I’ve been jonesing for Chipotle.

Jill over at WLST took some time today to focus her legal eye on Issue #3, and it reminded me that I have a pent-up rant that needs to be released.

Like most of you, I’ve been assaulted daily by mailings, posters, and TV ads encouraging me to vote ‘Yes’ for higher education. I read through the postcards carefully and I didn’t spot a single reference to ‘Slot Machine’ or ‘Gambling’. You would think that these people would be proud of their amendment and the business it will generate.

Some of the TV ads talk about the windfall that our college students-to-be will enjoy. A whopping 30% of the take. What isn’t mentioned is that 55% is left with the owners of the lucky establishments (mentioned by name. Sorry Uncle Bob). This amounts to (conservatively) a $900 Million/year ‘thank-you’ from the state of Ohio. For you math majors, 55%+30%=85%. That leave 15% left over. Where does that go?

Well, a ‘Gaming Integrity Commission’ gets 8%, presumably for a study to get a better name.

Ohio racetracks get 6% for purse money. That’s not a joke. Did I mention that 7 of the 9 listed slot locations are these same racetracks? It’s a 6% bonus on top of the 55% bonus!

And the state gets 1% for gambling addition services. Because when your get-rich-quick scheme creates a problem, you should toss a few pennies behind you so someone else can clean it up.

Will gamblers go somewhere else if Issue 3 fails? Maybe. Or maybe they’ll just stick to the horses.  Laying our children’s education on the backs of people with  gambling problems is a bad idea.

And Issue 3 is a bad idea.

I spent a portion of this day trolling other blog sites, picking fights and deciding who to plagiarize next, when I came upon a wondrous sight. It would appear that the servers that host RaB have collapsed under the weight of their own bullshit.
    

 

 

–UPDATE. The powers-that-be over at RaB have apparently found a goat (or virgin congressional page… oh, who am I kidding…) to sacrifice, and their site is back up. On behalf of the rest of the blog sites that didn’t go down, welcome back to the sandbox. Now play nice.

whole family is sick.

too sick to post now.

more later.

after asprin.