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Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who much like the bullies we knew in grade school, loves enforcing the law on those below him, but complains night and day when he’s held to the same standard, has an apparent friend in District Attorney Andrew Peyton Thomas. Reason has unearthed a quote from him in 1996 wherein he blames the countries problems on, of all people, libertarians!
Writing in the August 26, 1996, Weekly Standard, Mr. Thomas referred to the above woes as “the libertarian-created problems of Southern California and elsewhere.” Readers who hadn’t known that libertarians got to run things in Los Angeles may rub their eyes, but Mr. Thomas isn’t kidding one bit. He blames crime, rudeness, and litigiousness on the “live-and-let-live urban lifestyle” as spawned by “the moral laissez-faire disorder of libertarianism.”
Fair enough, ok, he doesn’t like libertarians. What then, IS his world view? I can hear those smart-ass libertarians now, saying he probably supports brown-shirt style mandatory patrols, and forcing citizens who’ve done nothing wrong to report anything they see to the government.
Woops, those smart asses would be correct …
“All able-bodied men without a criminal record should once again be subject to obligatory service for community crime surveillance.”
Those men, he said, should patrol neighborhoods, armed with walkie-talkies. “Their sole duty would be to inform police of crimes in progress,” he went on. “Women should not be subject to such conscription for the same reasons that they have traditionally been spared combat duty.”
Then came the kicker: “Properly strong criminal penalties would deter those who might be tempted to dodge this draft [to patrol the neighborhoods] by committing a crime and acquiring a criminal record.”
So yeah, trashing another’s worldview is one thing, but what is yours? If you’re supporting mandatory police work for everyone, mandatory snitching, if you support the curtailing of pesky ‘individual liberties’, why should Americans support that? The good news, is that public opinion may be turning on both of these clowns. One thing I think voters always notice and dislike is hypocrisy, and what’s more hypocritical than loudly enforcing the law with an iron fist and then acting like a spoiled child when people work to ensure that you yourself follow those same laws?
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on Terrance Watanabe, a gambling addict who lost over 127 MILLION dollars! And who is now facing charges in Nevada over a $14 million line of credit extended to him by Harrah’s casino.
During a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007, Terrance Watanabe managed to lose nearly $127 million.
The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history. It devoured much of Mr. Watanabe’s personal fortune, he says, which he built up over more than two decades running his family’s party-favor import business in Omaha, Neb. It also benefitted the two casinos’ parent company, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which derived about 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from Mr. Watanabe that year.
Wow, 5.6% of the casino’s yearly profit due to one man’s losses! My libertarian leanings push me to say that it’s a cut and dry case, that Mr. Watanabe knew what he was getting into and now has to face the consequences of his action. However, it strikes me that Harrah’s clearly preyed on his weakness, even to the point of keeping him intoxicated to ensure the money kept flowing. And in a regulated environment such as gaming in Nevada, what to do when one casino acts responsibly while another doesn’t?
But, he says, his heavy betting drew the attention of Chief Executive Steve Wynn. After meeting with him in June 2007, Mr. Wynn concluded that he was a compulsive gambler and alcoholic, and barred him from the casino, according to a letter to the Nevada Gaming Control Board drafted by Mr. Watanabe’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell.
So Mr. Wynn bans Watanabe from his casino, knowing full well this man is loaded and apparently ready and willing to spend millions. Nonetheless he made the determination this man had a problem, and made a moral, and business, decision not to encourage or enable Mr. Watanabe. An act of a responsible man and member of society. Yet his monetary loss became Harrah’s gain. To say they rolled out the red carpet is a bit of an understatement. The article has many paragraphs detailing the perks Harrah’s bestowed upon Watanabe, here’s a snippet:
Mr. Watanabe resided for free in a three-bedroom suite at Caesars, had access to his favorite bartender, drank a special brand of vodka, Jewel of Russia, and was constantly surrounded by attendants to serve his every need, such as a seven-course meal from the casino’s Bradley Ogden restaurant delivered to him while he was gambling, according to the court filing and employee accounts.
This was more than the usual perks assigned to whales, in fact, he was a whale among whales.
Harrah’s Total Rewards Player’s Club system, a loyalty program similar to that of other big casinos, created a special rank for Mr. Watanabe, “chairman,” according to the filing and several employees. Before Mr. Watanabe, the most exclusive rank was “Seven Star.”
They also extended a nearly $14 million line of credit to the man, who eventually spent $112 million of his own money as well.
Gambling is a vice enjoyed by adults across the country, most of whom do it responsibly. And like almost all the other vices, be they drink, drugs, sex, what-have-you, the idea that government can somehow prevent adults from making these choices is unrealistic, foolhardy, and counterproductive. Yet, behind this backdrop, there are still choices to be made, actions to be taken that are both responsible and irresponsible. Enjoying vices legally brings a responsibility to do it responsibly. Certainly, Mr. Watanabe was most irresponsible. But the proprietors of this vice usually have a duty to social responsibility as well, and Steve Wynn appears to have made a responsible decision here, and Harrah’s an irresponsible one.
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