Mississippi Legislature pisses off Religious Zealots

[BOSSHOG]

The Mississippi state house and senate voted to allow Casinos to be land based and not just on floating barges over water. There intent was to provide a safer environment for those working in and those visiting casinos instead of their current state, stuck on the water of the Gulf of Mexico in Biloxi and Gulfport. Katrina wiped out the casinos, pushing one across the highway. Of course, religious zealots opposed the move foaming at the mouth about their "moral" objections. I guess the need to get the state up and running as soon as possible trumps hate based religion in at least one red state. The casinos said they are ready to rebuild ASAP.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12810967.htm

I know you'll find this hard to believe but not one preacher in the state has stepped forward and offered to give up his churchs tax exempt status to help the cause.

[sasquatch]

1. Good. Fuck them snakehandlers

[NoPasaran]

2. I've never been able to understand

Why "immoral" gambling on dry land became "moral" when done on a barge floating on some water.

[MostlyLurks]

5. Because Jesus walked on water and boats float. Ergo...

Gambling that floats is like Jesus.

Mostly

[Dr.Phool]

6. Maybe it's holy water.

[TroglodyteScholar]

3. I don't know why the "on the water" technicality is acceptable..

...to people who have moral objections, anyway. The gambling is still there! I'm confused, also, because the biggest gamblers I've known have been fundies who live on the coast. Dunno...some weird form of denial?

[yellowcanine]

4. Good thing they can count on Haley Barbour to veto it since he isn't

in the pocket of the casino owners the way the legislators are.
:sarcasm:

[yellowcanine]

7. So where are the gamblers supposed to piss then?

[tompayne1]

8. Personally i don't believe in gambling

But let them build on land i mean that is 1000s of jobs, more money coming into the area etc. so although i don't believe in that i am not entirely against it.

[yellowcanine]

10. There is a lot of debate about whether gambling over the long term is

a plus or a minus for a state. Gambling has a lot of bad social side effects, such as increased crime, bankruptcies, gambling addiction, mortgage default rates, drunk driving, etc. The presence of casinos sometimes stifles other more positive (over the long term)forms of economic development. While it may provide a short term stimulus to a state's economy, it often triggers a "race to the bottom" with neighboring states as each tries to "one-up" the other to attract a fairly limited pool of gamblers. Furthermore, gambling is a financial "short-cut" that may allow a state to avoid making politically painful decisions, such as reforming tax structure or fiscal practices. The gambling revenues often fall short of predictions and also often do not get spent on the priorities that were touted as the reason for allowing gambling in the first place (such as education).

[ender]

17. but in extremely poor areas...

such as the poorest state in the country, mississippi, its a boon.

or like detroit: the casinos actually reduced crime et.al. there.

[Rowdyboy]

21. I live in the state, 45 minutes from the casinos in Vicksburg....

and an hour from others in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I've heard all the arguments but I have lived through this explosion of gambling we've experienced. It is 99.9% beneficial. My only complaint is that we tax the casinos at a lower rate than other states. Other than that, bring it on!

I don't gamble myself-cramming coins into a box is boring- though I do like a good poker game among friends. We do go to the Sunday champagne brunch occasionally and the parking lot is always filled with out of state tags. The locals have more sense than to waste their money. The casinos give poor Mississippians jobs, security, and a decent standard of living where people previously had none.

The preachers need to get back to caring for hurricane victims-the type of work God CALLED them to do.

[Selatius]

9. These religious fundamentalists need to stop imposing their morality

This is a free country, and no one should be given the power to impose his or her moral standards upon everybody else. In a country where people are free to decide what to do with their lives, to take away people's choices is authoritarian and against the original intent of the Founders of the US.

The government should be neutral as far as all religions are concerned. The Founders believed this would be best to serve the interests of everybody, not just Christians alone. This is why the federal government doesn't directly give money to the church, and this is why religious clerics don't have the power to write and pass laws themselves. The last time somebody tried to impose their morality upon everybody else, it became the debacle known as PROHIBITION.

[yellowcanine]

11. It is a bit more complicated than that. See my post # 10.

[Selatius]

12. True, I don't question any of that

But I've been living on the Mississippi coast since 1994. The coast got a real boost economically, and it has grown tremendously since that time. Without those casinos, none of that would have happened. It's not just gamblers who benefited but tourists as well who come not only to gamble but to enjoy themselves.

[yellowcanine]

14. But what might have happened had Mississippi promoted more sustainable

economic development by investing in infrastructure and education? If they would use the gambling revenues to do that they might have something but usually that doesn't happen. Also I didn't mention the almost irresistable tendancy for gambling enterprises to attract corruption. How many local officials have been corrupted directly or indirectly by gambling in Mississippi?

[ender]

18. MS is the poorest state in the country.

it needed any type of economic development that could come its way. casinos were a great idea.

you act like there was a good, moral industry just waiting to rehab MS. there wasnt, there isnt, and there wont be. the casinos bring in much needed revenue and employment for this area.

[SSX]

20. The actual amount of revenues is not that great.

Go to: http://www.mstc.state.ms.us/taxareas/misc/gaming/main.htm. There you will discover that the Gulf Coast casinos account for 44 percent of the $334.6 million of total gaming taxes. When compared to our most recent Mississippi state budget of $3.7 billion, the Gulf Coast casinos contribute a paltry 3.9 percent to our state's coffers.
Mississippi only taxes our casinos about 8 percent of their gross revenue. Missouri taxes its casinos at a rate of 20 percent, while Louisiana taxes its casinos at a rate of 21.5 percent. (http://www.americangaming.org/Industry/state/statistics.cfm)
Apparently, the legislators in Missouri and Louisiana are much wiser than the leadership in our state. It would seem to that Mississippi is leaving $500 million on the table by not taxing our casinos at an appropriate rate.
Either that or just get over this joke of a idea about how many feet from the water and navigable waterways and let's make Mississippi the Las Vegas of the South. Better do it soon cause don't believe for a minute that it's not on the drawing board for New Orleans.

[yellowcanine]

22. And why are they the poorest state in the country? Because they didn't

have casinos before? I don't think so. It might have something to do with the fact that they rank 50th in educational spending (I am guessing that is true or close to true). If you don't educate your people what happens? Guess what, industry wants no part of you because you have an uneducated workforce. If you do manage to land a few businesses, they bring in their own people for the good jobs and your people are left sweeping the floors. Casinos are not going to change that. Your people are still going to be sweeping the floors, except now some of them are going to be blowing their paychecks on the slot machines. The old folks on SS who used to play church and firehall bingo on Saturday night are going to be down there playing the slots now too so the few gambling dollars that were staying in the community before are going to leave as well. So who wins here? The casinos.

[SSX]

23. Exactly!

This a letter I sent to the Board of Education 2 weeks ago regarding our son's public education. I of course have received no reply.

My wife and I just returned from the hurricane- delayed first Parent -Teacher Conference for the 2005-2006 school year at Murrah High School.
One of our concerns as parents was one that is not uncommon among most parents. Each day upon our child s return from school, we inquire as to what homework they have this evening? We receive the standard teen-age answer, " None tonight. Did it at school." One of the things we we prepared to deal with with the teachers and then our child was the "homework situation".
After inquiring about it with every one of his 8 teachers we were astounded to find the reason that there was a complete lack of outside work away from the classroom was a complete lack of textbooks. Our child informed us that evening that he had only 2 textbooks to take home and one of them had just been given to him.Of the 2 textbooks that our child has, one of them is "Biology Principles & Explorations", an intro to biology text that is being used to teach an Advanced Placement class. The instructor of the class had informed his students to leave the book at home and use it look up vocabulary words.
One of the teachers we visited with sadly even gave us the order number for their textbook and a web site that we could use to purchase it on our own.
Many of the classes we visited had sign in their doorways printed with "Got Books?", playing off the advertising theme '' Got Milk?", which would appear to be a cute ploy to remind the students to bring their books to class. It is painfully obvious that this is more a plea from the teachers to JPS than a gentle reminder to students.
It is my understanding that Murrah has dropped from a level 5 to a level 4 school. With the concentration being exerted to keep up with required State and No Child Left Behind standardized testing being given, the lack of textbooks for our students would appear to be a mitigating factor.
We are sure a lack of funding will be an excuse used to try to explain this situation, however at the time we were visiting with the teachers, we observed 2 flatbed carts delivering approximately 30 Dell computers to various classes. Will the children be able to take them home to help study?
We patiently await a reasonable explanation to this apparent appalling lack of concern for the education of tomorrow's leaders of our society.

Sincerely,

[BOSSHOG]

19. Your arguments are outstanding,

logical and greatly appreciated. Bottom line your reasoning is based on data and factual evidence not religious "beliefs." Thanks for your input. I don't gamble but I am not going to make an effort to keep anyone from gambling.

[WildClarySage]

13. When it's Money versus Religion, put your money on Money, every time.

This is what the fundys who buy into the GOP fail to see. Then they get all bent out of shape if 'their' politicians fail to bend to their twisted 'christian' wills.

[SSX]

15. The location of the casinos was the real issue.

It was a given that the casinos were going to rebuild.The religious people were just trying to repose the same questions they had prior to gambling being accepted in Ms.
The casinos will now be able to rebuild 800 feet further from the coast. That will put most of them on the other side of Hwy 90, which pre-hurricane, was the site of many small businesses, homes and motel/hotels.
The rich are already lining up to lease their property. The poor are most likely to feel the full brunt of the new eminent domain laws.
According to a little research I did there is 746,000+ sq, feet of casino space (www.americancasinoguide.com/miss)used by the 13 casinos on the coast. The site did not give any figures on their hotels size or parking lots.I have a feeling that this is a lot of land that is going to be taken over by the casinos.
If the hurricane did not completely displace residents the casinos will take care of finishing them off.

[yellowcanine]

16. What we need is for some fundies to hole up in a house that is being

condemned to make way for a casino. Now THAT would be fun.