In President Obama’s weekly address, one of the solutions he proposes to lower gasoline prices is:

…to finally end the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies we give to the oil and gas companies each year.

If you take away the subsidies from oil and gas companies, then wouldn’t they respond by increasing prices to make up for the lost revenue? There’s good moral and pragmatic reasons to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, but lowering the price of gasoline in the short-term isn’t really one of them.  Am I missing something?

Here’s the video:

I’m starting law school this fall, and I’ve consistently been told that the best thing to do to prepare during the preceding summer is to do as much reading as possible.  There’s a few books on my list that I’ve been meaning to read for a while, and others that were recently suggested to me by friends.  I’ll post a review of each book when its completed.

“Plain, Honest Men” by Richard Beeman

“The Case for Israel” by Alan Dershowitz

“Moonwalking with Einstein” by Joshua Foer

“A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn

“Tear Down this Myth” by Will Bunch

“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller

“The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright

“Monsoon” by Robert D. Kaplan

“Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail” by Hunter S. Thompson

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Truman” by David McCullough

“Michael Walzer once wrote, ‘Wherever you live, it is probably Egypt.’ Those of us who aren’t oppressed live too close to oppression, or participate in oppression, or are otherwise indifferent to oppression. This Passover, when we tell the story of the Jewish people’s journey from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of Israel, pause for a moment to contemplate this miracle: This year, in Egypt, it isn’t even Egypt. Pharaoh is under arrest, his sons are in jail, and the Egyptian people are groping their way to freedom. Next year, at Passover, let us hope that the Egyptian people will have succeeded in their struggle to make the word “Egypt” a synonym for freedom, and not enslavement. Let us hope that in Libya, and Syria, and Iran, freedom is close at hand. Let us hope that the Palestinian people find their way to freedom, too, and let us hope that by next year, the people of the Jewish state of Israel will have completed their journey from slavery to true freedom, a freedom that will grant them a permanent place under the sun.”

- Jeffrey Goldberg

There’s lots of things in the budget, agreed upon by the White House and Congress, that I would change if I had my druthers, but the only part that I find patently objectionable is the ban on the District of Columbia’s ability to fund abortions with municipal money.  My views on abortion have nothing to do with why I think this is so wrong.  The residents of the District should be allowed to set public policy without gross interference from the federal government.

When the Constitution was written, Congress was given so much power over the District because it made sense to have the capital be independent from any of the states.  If the capital of the United States was in a state, say Maryland, then Maryland would be able to leverage a lot more power over Congress than every other state.  Maryland would potentially have the power to close the streets around the Capitol Building, making the lives of legislators very difficult, unless Congress agreed to pass a bill that would be favorable to the state of Maryland.

Congress’ authority over the District made sense at the founding of the country, when there were no permanent residents of the District.  When Congress wasn’t in session, most of the people working in the capital moved back to their home states.  Today, there are over 600,000 people who live in the District permanently.  They should have the ability to govern themselves locally like every other municipality in the United States, without having to answer to the authority of Congress.

I was browsing through my spam folder, and I noticed that about a week ago I received an e-mail from one of those classic scammers who try to get you to volunteer your personal information with a promise of delivering a large sum of money.  I decided to engage with the lady (or gentleman?) who contacted me, and it will hopefully lead to some comedy.  Click below to read the e-mail I received in full, as well as my response.  I’ll post an update when I hear back from the kind fellow who has my money.

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I don’t like that the USA is the lone liberal democracy that still uses the death penalty against our own citizens.  I’m personally pretty indifferent about the death penalty.  As long as there are stringent requirements that guarantee that no innocent person is put to death, I’m comfortable using the death penalty against the most heinous criminals.

But it’s clear that the free world is moving in the direction of abolishing the death penalty, and the death penalty is still utilized by the “un-free world”.  Aligning ourselves with our liberal allies on this issue would give the United States some more moral leverage as we continue to coax counties in the Middle East and North Africa to embrace liberal democracy.

Kudos to Gov. Quinn for banning the death penalty in Illinois earlier this month.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-bc-us—caesarsentertainment-onlinegambling,0,3521706.story

I’ve long told friends privately that the only way that the laws regarding online gambling would become more liberal is if significant lobbying was done by the major established casinos.  It’s very good news that both Caesar’s and Wynn are actively lobbying for laws that would legalize, regulate, and tax online gambling.

I also think it’s a great idea for this to happen at the state level instead of federally.  The amount of revenue generated by taxing online gambling would be relatively insignificant to the federal government, but immensely helpful for states looking to balance their budgets.

Ideally this would happen in a state that isn’t Nevada, as regulating the industry from there is more likely to add to the stigma of gambling rather than reduce it.  There are plenty of states with budgets that could use a new source of revenue (I’m looking at you, Illinois).  I don’t think the politics would be particularly difficult either; think about all the teachers and firefighters who won’t have to be laid off now that this billion dollar industry is relocating to our state!

(h/t: www.chisness.com)

On Wednesdays and Fridays, there is a $40-$80 HORSE (Holdem, Omaha hi/lo, Razz, Stud, Stud hi/lo) game at the Horseshoe Casino that I like to play.  I usually only go once per week, because it oftentimes ends up being close to a 20 hour session and it’s a little exhausting doing that twice per week.  I’ve been working hard on my mixed games for the past year, and HORSE is one of my favorite types of poker to play.

Today I lost a little bit, but I’m pretty happy with the result considering how few good hands I was dealt.  In games like no limit holdem, sometimes you’re able to manufacture wins even if you aren’t dealt good hands, but in limit games when you aren’t getting good hands you just have to control the damage as best you can.  I think I played well considering the circumstances.

Below is a write-up of one particularly interesting stud hi/lo hand that I played today that I’ve been thinking about a lot. (There is a fair amount of poker jargon in this post, so I apologize if it’s difficult to understand for non-poker players)

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James Fallows provides a skeptic’s perspective to the military engagement in Libya.  I agree with him that it would’ve been useful to have had a more thorough public debate.  But I disagree with him (and Dennis Kucinich) that it’s wrong that President Obama acted without explicit Congressional approval.  Per the War Powers Resolution, the President can commit troops for up to 60 days before he legally needs an Authorization of the Use of Military Force from Congress.

Also, in modern times Congress’ constitutional power to declare war is mostly a superficial power considering most of our military engagements are fought against non-state actors.  Congress’ real power stems from their ability to refuse to fund certain military actions.  They could do that today if they wanted to.  Congress’ non-action signals an implicit approval of the President’s actions.

I know that this is about a week old or so, but I can’t stop wondering what decision making process would result in the expanded NCAA men’s basketball tournament including play-in games for an 11th and 12th seed.  I get why it’s better to get as many schools as possible into the tourney.  More games on TV, more money, more exposure for more schools, etc.  But I’m completely lost why the play-in games wouldn’t be confined to the 16 seeds.

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