A few points

to ponder as we enter the weekend (which for me means hosting a birthday

party for my 3-year-old Yikes!):

I have yet

to hear anyone in authority, from Gov. Roy Barnes down, explain why video

poker is a "cancer" that must be eradicated in Georgia but the

state-run lottery is not. If anyone out there knows, please explain it

to me.

To take it

a step further, has any form of gambling been as destructive to families

as alcohol?

Which is worse,

losing the rent check to a slot machine or getting behind the wheel while

drunk and plowing into another car on the expressway? Oh, I forgot, alcohol

sales fatten state tax coffers. Video poker machines don't.

During the

entire Gary Condit-Chandra Levy episode, I've barely heard a mention of

the fact that Condit serves on one of the Congressional intelligence committees.

Am I the only

one who thinks this is important? Not to suggest that Levy is a spy for

the Chinese or anything, but what better way to put the United States

in a position for blackmail or steal vital secrets than to compromise

the personal life of one of its most powerful leaders?

This possibility

was also woefully underdiscussed during the Clinton-Lewisky scandal.

I didn't think

I'd ever agree with Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell on anything, but he has

a point on the University of Georgia admission requirements. Not the racial

quotas those are wrong, plain and simple. Admission should be based on

merit, but if you can't make exceptions based on race, as Campbell said,

you shouldn't be able to get in just because your mom and dad graduated

from there.

Finally, it

is being reported that former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds has been hired by

the Rev. Jesse Jackson and is now on his staff.

In case that

name sounds familiar but you can't quite place it, a federal jury convicted

Reynolds in 1997 on 15 charges of bank fraud, wire fraud and lying to

the Federal Election Commission. Reynolds had also been convicted in 1995

three counts of criminal sexual assault, three counts of aggravated criminal

sexual abuse, and four counts of obstruction of justice. His sentence

was cut short during Bill Clinton's last-minute pardoning spree.

So, with his

new position working for Jackson, we have a congressman who engaged in

an illicit relationship with a younger subordinate, who was pardoned by

a president who engaged in an illicit relationship with a younger subordinate,

now employed by a minister who engaged in an illicit relationship wtih

a younger subordinate.

His new job?

Youth counselor.

What a country.

[Monroe Roark

can be reached at [email protected] .]

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