Too far to drive

I am in Washington for the weekend and wanted to play some poker.  Good God.  In Reno there are at least ten poker games going on at any minute.

Here in DC I have to drive three hours to Atlantic City to two-hours to West Virginia to play.

Certainly the free market would support a casino around a city of this size-- why do I have to drive so far to enjoy a good game of cards?

To be fair, I understand this is not a USG problem and under the theory of federalism, I support the rights of the people of Virginia, Maryland, and DC's to decide what sort of gaming laws are suitable for their government.

In election news I am pleased to see Obama is at least making theoretical gestures at cutting federal spending, in what is surely an attempt to bump up his numbers before November.  This can only be good news, even if it's only talk and no action.  The tone is changing in DC and much of that is due to Ron Paul and the work of small government advocates.  Paul's recent third place finish in Iowa can only help the effort.

I'm going to try and do an analysis of the NH primary this weekend, likely Sunday after the debate, and will post it up here when I have time.