stevesbets

This is the first week of law school and I just read an assigned case for criminal law that I found disturbing. Lawrence v Texas is basically about a homosexual man challenging a texas statute that criminalized sodomy (and in essence criminalized being gay). The court thankfully found for Lawrence and declared the Texas statute unconstitutional for multiple reasons, but the main point was that it isn’t the states job to police (and selectively at that) the actions of consenting adults in the privacy of their home. The thing that shocked me was that 3 of the 9 justices dissented! I assumed this case must be from the 50s or earlier for this to be the case, but when I checked the date it was actually from 2003! Two of the dissenting justices, Scalia and Thomas are still on the court today. The entire argument of the dissent ignored the selective prosecution argument of the majority, and really the entire thrust of the argument of the majority and simply said, “This effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation. IF, as the court asserts, the promotion of majoritarian sexual morality is not even a legitimate state interest, none of the above-mentioned laws (laws against fornication, bigamy, adultery, obscenity etc) can survive rational-basis review. I fail to see how this is any argument at all. The response to it is simply “great, throw them all out”. I’m already dismayed in my brief career as a law student by the thoughts of 3 of the top judges of the land.

On to poker. I am a mere 2000 vpps away form being crowned a supernova elite on pokerstars. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it indicates that I have had the joy of paying $200,000 to pokerstars in rake this year. So brutal!!

The WCOOP $25,000 heads up tournament is coming up soon and I am going to do something rare for it. I am offering pieces to the public. You can buy a piece of me and have a rooting interest in the 64 player field! I am selling 5% for $2500. I am only selling 50% of me and I expect it to sell out at this price so if you want to buy a piece, send me the money on either pokerstars or full tilt along with an email with your name and username so I can mark you down as an investor. The pieces are being sold on a strictly first come first serve basis so get in now before they run out.

Tonight I attended a Billy Joel and Elton John concert at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Billy Joel has always been an absolute favorite of mine, and I think Elton John is pretty fun to listen to as well. I find it amazing that these two are still touring, as I remember attending a very similar concert at the Vet nearly 20 years ago with my parents. The crowd, like me, is always a bit more into Billy, who ignited things halfway in when he rose up on his piano playing the furious intro to Angry Young Man (more on this song later).  They did several songs together at the beginning and end of the show, and closed with Piano Man. Like at every Billy Joel concert I have ever attended, he lets the crowd sing the last chorus of piano man, it must feel pretty amazing to have 50,000 people singing your 30 something year old song back to you every night at the age of 60. Something about concerts always puts me very in the moment. I only go to ones where I love the performers so I think it’s that there is nowhere I would rather be than right then right there. Living totally in the present without a thought of the past or future (even what you will be doing immediately after the concert) comes easily to some lucky people, but for me it is much rarer. I simply have trouble turning off the faucet of constant thoughts when doing most things. This is why I love going to concerts, they put me in the “now” which is really the only good place to be.

I want to breifly interject here that I’ve had multiple requests recently to blog more about poker. I will try to oblige them, but I find it difficult as most poker discussion is incredibly boring. Combine that with me not wanting to reveal the way I think about specific hands, and it really does not make for good blogging material. With that said, I will do my best to at least comment on poker community related topics in the future, but the rest of this entry I will not.

Back to Angry Young Man, which Billy used as his opener for his personal “set” of the concert. This song has been a favorite of mine for the last year or so and not just for the incredible piano segment in the beginning and end. I find the lyrics moving (look them up if you don’t know them) and I often feel in some ways like the Angry Young Man (though getting to the point where I’m not so young anymore). I like one segment in particular where he sings:

“I believe I’ve passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
I once believed in causes too,
I had my pointless point of view,
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right.”

I truly am beginning to believe this on the religion subject. Most people have no interest in even discussing it with me regardless of their beliefs because they are past the point where they care. They accept that our society accepts crazy beliefs, or maybe they think that they are constructive, or maybe they even believe them themselves, but regardless, they are not interested in discussing it. I will forever be amazed and fascinated by the subject because I think it is the biggest mystery about humanity today (how so many people can believe things that are so obviously (and in many cases provably) untrue). Despite this, I accept that no one wants to hear it. Those who “believe” have no interest in questioning their beliefs, and those who don’t simply do not care or are “religious apologists” who feel like a good person should be tolerant of craziness regardless of if craziness is tolerant of them. Anyway, the lack of interest is why I just feel like the angry young man. I’m at the point where I’m ready to say: I once believed in causes too, I had my pointless point of view…

With that in mind, this will be my last comment on religion for quite some time, I promise, but I will make that comment here. A jury finally stood up to faith healers and convicted parents who denied their child medical care beacuse they believed that is putting a doctor before god and their prayers are sufficient for healing. The story is here:

http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=8232041

As a person I am quite happy that these morons were convicted but as a future lawyer I have to say, I’m not so sure they should have been. As far as I know (I haven’t started law school yet so I’m not sure), most crimes require a mens rea, or some sort of malicious intent. I don’t know if reckless homicide falls into this category, but if it does then I do not think the parents should be convicted. They simply TRULY BELIEVED that god is all mighty and that what NEARLY EVERY RELIGION PREACHES about an all powerful god is true. If you truly believed these things, you would prefer god on your side than a random doctor, and you SHOULD pray to him as opposed to putting a silly doctor first. This is why I believe most people don’t ACTUALLY believe religion, they like to pretend to, they pray for fun or self-fulfillment, but when push comes to shove, they take their children to the doctor. This man was simply a true believer, like the 9/11 terrorists truly believed the Kuran when it says to kill all infidels and nonbelievers. Rather than convict this man for a crime when he had no malicious intent, instead, the public should be EDUCATED about what a moron he and any other believer in faith healing over modern medicine is. (As a side note, I am sometimes called arrogant when I am criticizing religion, I just think this is a last resort for people with no argument. This is my blog, and I will call this guy a moron for causing the death of his child because quite simply he is one. If you believe that prayers will cure pneumonia instead of antibiotics, you are a moron too). This sort of education can never be achieved so long as society embraces those who embrace “faith”. So while this jury verdict does not get to the religious root of the problem, it may at least serve as a deterrent for future faith healers who may truly believe they should just pray, but may remember this conviction and say to themselves that they should visit a doctor to cover their bases. For that reason, it is a step in the right direction.

Anyway, I will stick to my promise now, no religion blogs for awhile (though I will happily respond to comments here), I have my pointless point of view and it is out there, I challenge you to have one too and if you state it with confidence I promise I won’t just call you arrogant and ignore your logic.

Billy Joel and Elton John were spectacular and I hope they keep touring through their 60s and 70s.