I have a friend who writes books. One or two of them have had cover endorsement blurbs from William Bennett. My friend has just completed a new book on very similar themes to the previous books which Bennett had endorsed. However, when this new book was sent to Bennett, he declined to endorse it, and did not provide any sort of explanation. My friend was somewhat confused, wondering why he was suddenly on the outs with Bennett.

It would appear that he got his explanation the other day, however. The new book contains a particular chapter which unambiguously delineates the devastating effect that legalized gambling has had on the nation. It's no longer any suprise that Bennett would decline to endorse such a book. It's always possible that he declined for some other reason--perhaps he simply didn't think the book was any good. But it seemed a little odd, since normally this type of book would be right up his alley.

Still, I have to give him credit for not being a hypocrite. A lot of guys would have simply given the blurb anyway, or taken some hokey public stand against a behavior which they were practicing in private. Bennett did neither, for which I respect him.

However, while I'm no flaming liberal (as any regular visitor here knows), I have always wondered how people can look around them and then be able to sleep with themselves while gambling away more money in a few days than most people will make in a lifetime. Having lived in Las Vegas for a few years, I saw this happen more than a few times.

Now I think that when someone earns money, he ought to be able to do whatever legal with it that he wants to, and Bennett broke no laws. But man, wouldn't walking down the street just handing $1000 bills to strangers be more satisfying than forking it over to the Bellagio?