It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these articles. I had to take a much-needed vacation — a sabbatical if you will — to one of my favorite places on earth, Las Vegas.
While I had quite a debaucherous time hitting an inordinate amount of sports bets while winning two poker tournaments, I found my mind drifting between the many drunken sessions and club hitting to certain issues of the day.
I was in Vegas when George Steinbrenner died and as a Yankee fan and New Yorker at heart, it was a hell of a day to see “The Boss” had gone down. A tear did fall from my eye, indeed. So I put a $100 bill on the blackjack table for George and hit blackjack the first hand.
Another issue that occurred when I was in Vegas, between drinking martinis and doing shots of vodka off random girls’ bodies, was whether the new cap on the Gulf oil spill would work. My thought: Who knows? It doesn’t seem like anything can possibly stop the oil from poisoning the ocean. Resigned to my fate, I poured shots for me and my friends and drank to the ocean.
Oh, and about the time I put another crisp $100 bill on the blackjack table and let it ride on one hand before hitting blackjack again, I briefly wondered when Iran was going to stop calling the kettle black. I mean, does that country have absolutely any credibility left? According to a Wall Street Journal article, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has recently taken to accusing the United States and Pakistan of supporting terrorism.
No wonder Iran and the United States have such a poor relationship. When the leader of Iran isn’t damning Jews in another anti-Semitic rant, his foreign minister is busy towing the company line, ensuring that Iran will never be taken seriously as long as its current power structure is alive.
And while we’re on the subject of Islam, why is it that one of my favorite shows won’t cover Islam with a discerning eye? Showtime’s “Penn and Teller Bullshit” is a great documentary-style show where the Las Vegas magicians and hosts take aim at things they consider, well, bullshit.
Topics covered have ranged from Area 51 to christians to everything in between, but when recently asked in Las Vegas Weekly if there’s any group that the show won’t tackle, Penn Jillette said the show wouldn’t go after Scientology or Islam. Why not?
“We haven’t tacked Islam because we have families.”
Well, I guess that’s honest. It is what it is, I suppose. Fundamentalist Muslims have definitely succeeded in scaring certain individuals from talking about them.
“I think the worst thing you can say about a group in a free society,” Jillette continued, “is that you’re afraid to talk about it –- I can’t think of anything more horrific.”
Jillette is definitely right about that.
Las Vegas is truly a great place and I always get depressed when I leave. Who knows, maybe someday I might live there. Right now, I moonlight as a semi-professional poker player while working for the College of Liberal Arts here on campus, as well as writing articles for this newspaper.
While the party never stops in Vegas, the world does keep on turning. Legends die, oil continues to spill and Iranian leaders keep running their mouths. Sometimes a vacation is all you need to briefly escape the world’s plentiful amount of sorrow, disaster and hostility.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Summer 49er.
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