I've got to admit that I find the whole casino-gambling/slots business to be very messy. It challenges my libertarian instincts. I've managed largely to reconcile my libertarian positions on speech (I'm a near-absolutist) and in the realm of personal conduct (what J. S. Mill dubbed "self-regarding conduct") with my left-leaning positions on government's establishing a bottom floor beneath which no decent society allows any of its citizens to fall.

I nearly jumped out of my chair this past Saturday morning when, reading the morning's New York Times over espresso and trying to steel myself for the upcoming Glenn Beck speech on the anniversary of the Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech (which I witnessed in person and reported on for a New Jersey newspaper), I came across the following sentence on Page One in Eric Lichtblau's piece "Financier’s Largess Shows G.