John Mullen, who calls himself “The Village Idiot” wrote a column in the Jan. 22, Port Arthur News. It was titled, “Life’s A Big Gamble.” He confesses to losing lots of money at Las Vegas by gambling.
At the risk of being accused of having a “Superior Twinge,” as Mullen puts it, I disagree that “Life Is A Big Gamble.”
The necessary things in this life are not a gamble. To explain the nuance, a gamble is an unnecessary risk. Life is a necessary risk. For example, we drive to work every day, traveling over the most dangerous places in our country (our streets and highways). This is necessary: “If any would not work, neither should he eat.”
Mullen then also seeks to justify gambling by reference to other foolish ways of spending money. That does not hold water.
Isaiah asks the rhetorical question, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfied not?” He then adds, “. . . Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good. And let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
Gambling has a cause. That cause is covetousness. A desire to take from another what belongs to him, but without working for it. And that is the definition of stealing.
Paul The Tentmaker wrote, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
Paul Burris
Groves
Letters to the Editor
Life not a gamble
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Should Obama get credit or blame?
In a long Saturday Nov. 12 feature column, the writer suggested that President Obama "could only take credit or blame for those things that are the result of his ideas." He then listed twelve items for consideration in making that assessment. An only slightly edited version of those twelve items will make them more useful for that purpose and that version follows. (1) President Obama inherited Bush's Great Recession....which had actually been created, not by Bush, but by a failed seventy year experiment in socialism. (2) He stabilized the banking system....using borrowed money. (3) He extended unemployment benefits....using borrowed money. (4) He reduced taxes....using borrowed money. (5) He signed a health-care law....funded by borrowed money. (6) A nuclear arms treaty was signed with the Soviet Union....which had been defeated by Ronald Reagan twenty years ago. (7) Job loss steadily decreased and eventually has resulted in job gains....among government workers and funded by borrowed money. (8) Obama saved the three American auto companies....using borrowed money. (9) He passed a stimulus plan....using borrowed money. (10) Several Al Qaeda leaders were killed....by our remarkable military teams trained during the Bush Administration. (11) The President is trying to solve the nation's short and long-term economic problems....using borrowed money. (12) President Obama has been willing to compromise....in order to raise taxes or borrow more money.
Based on the writer's list, does President Obama deserve credit or blame?
Ramon Hill
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