[Good Links] Trip the Link Fantastic

Trip the Link Fantastic: Our usual odds and ends.

• This is the reason I never involve myself in what passes for political debate. The sad thing is, the people who are parodied by this will never see that it applies to them.
• If it seems like Bill Murray is a perfect fit for all those Wes Anderson films, it's because he lives a very Wes Anderson-y real life.
• I gave up playing table games in casinos, but maybe I should have held out for this. It seems at a baccarat table there was a deck shuffling snafu and deck after deck was coming through with the cards in the exact same order. Gamblers caught on and won huge, now the casino is suing them for their money back. Not sure why the gamblers should have to pay for the casino's screw up, but what's really amazing is that it took 41 consecutive winning hands for the dealer to catch on. I'm guessing that dealer is now bussing tables in the buffet.
• U.S. gambling laws make no sense whatsoever. The most pernicious form of gambling, playing the numbers, is legally sanctioned pretty much coast to coast and you can play it in any convenience store. We call it the lottery. Casino gambling with slots and table games are popping up everywhere, but table games and slots are mathematically certain to have the gambler at a disadvantage. Poker has finally gained legitimacy which makes it the only widely accessible casino game where you can have an theoretical advantage if you are better than the other players. Looks like courts are finally acknowledging this so in abackwards way, things are aligning with reality. Now if we could only get them to realize sports gambling is, if anything, the most gambler friendly form of wagering maybe I could place my bets at Walgreen's.